Is the new 17" Unibody MBP 32 or 64-bit hardware?

[amitdoc2b]

Hi.

Just wanted to know if the 17" Unibody MBP is 32 or 64-bit hardware? What about the 13" and 15" Unibody?

I heard that Snow Leopard will be 64-bit so was curious..

Thanks.

 

[TuffLuffJimmy]

What does that even mean? There are a whole mess of different parts that can be 64 bit, or whatevs.

Anyway to answer your question: Yeah. All Macs are.

 

[Quu]

Short Answer: Yes

Long Answer: All Macs sold currently have 64-bit compatible Processors and Chipsets. That includes the 17" MacBook Pro.

 

[amitdoc2b]

My roommate says intel core 2 duo are 32 bit chips and not 64 bit.. the 64 bit version by Apple is the xeon processor. Thats why im not sure if they are 32 or 64 bit?

Short Answer: Yes

Long Answer: All Macs sold currently have 64-bit compatible Processors and Chipsets. That includes the 17" MacBook Pro.

 

[TuffLuffJimmy]

My roommate says intel core 2 duo are 32 bit chips and not 64 bit.. the 64 bit version by Apple is the xeon processor. Thats why im not sure if they are 32 or 64 bit?

you're friend is wrong. xenon and core2duo are 64bit. coreduo is 32bit.

 

[Quu]

My roommate says intel core 2 duo are 32 bit chips and not 64 bit.. the 64 bit version by Apple is the xeon processor. Thats why im not sure if they are 32 or 64 bit?

Your room mate doesn't know what he is talking about.

All currently sold Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Quad, Xeon and Core i7 processors from Intel are 32-bit AND 64-bit compatible. They use an extension known as x86_64 to be compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit.

 

[amitdoc2b]

I hope you're right! He still doesnt believe me.. he wants to see a link stating that the MBP is 64 bit.. I asked him to create an account and post in this thread himself but for now a link will suffice..

Your room mate doesn't know what he is talking about.

All currently sold Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Quad, Xeon and Core i7 processors from Intel are 32-bit AND 64-bit compatible. They use an extension known as x86_64 to be compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit.

 

[lazydesi]

All C2D are 64 bit capable chips

 

[eddietr]

I hope you're right! He still doesnt believe me.. he wants to see a link stating that the MBP is 64 bit.. I asked him to create an account and post in this thread himself but for now a link will suffice..

Perhaps your friend will believe Intel. I'm thinking they may know a thing or two about the chips and chipsets they make:

http://download.intel.com/design/mobile/datashts/32012001.pdf

 

[GGJstudios]

My roommate says intel core 2 duo are 32 bit chips and not 64 bit.. the 64 bit version by Apple is the xeon processor. Thats why im not sure if they are 32 or 64 bit?

64-bit Xeon MPs were introduced in April 2005. Your roommate was right..... many years ago! Today, your roommate has no idea what they're talking about.

Macs that work with 64-bit editions of Microsoft Windows Vista

Here's the link you're probably looking for:
Current 64-bit microprocessor architectures:



And directly from Intel:

Intel® Core™2 Duo Mobile Processor

Intel® 64 Architecture

 

[dannomac]

I hope you're right! He still doesnt believe me.. he wants to see a link stating that the MBP is 64 bit.. I asked him to create an account and post in this thread himself but for now a link will suffice..

It's pretty easy to prove without links. The 17" MacBook Pro can come with 8GB RAM. The maximum possible amount of RAM for a 32 bit machine is 4GB. Ergo, the 17" MBP is a > 32 bit machine.

 

[amitdoc2b]

He knows much more about computers than me so its nice to see your support in this. Thank you, I think he has seen the light and both he (and me) know that the 17 unibody is 64 bit. But does this mean the 15 and 13 inch unibodies are 32-bit since they dont run 8gb of ddr3 ram?

It's pretty easy to prove without links. The 17" MacBook Pro can come with 8GB RAM. The maximum possible amount of RAM for a 32 bit machine is 4GB. Ergo, the 17" MBP is a > 32 bit machine.

 

[GGJstudios]

He knows much more about computers than me so its nice to see your support in this. Thank you, I think he has seen the light and both he (and me) know that the 17 unibody is 64 bit. But does this mean the 15 and 13 inch unibodies are 32-bit since they dont run 8gb of ddr3 ram?

Look at the links I posted. If they're running Core2Duo, they're 64-bit. ALL Core2Duo are 64-bit. Because they don't have 8GB of RAM installed doesn't mean the processor isn't capable of addressing it. How much RAM you have installed is completely irrelevant.

 

[damesJ]

again its easier to go by the chip and not the memory because there are other factors to consider with memory. anything that has a core2duo processor is capable of 64bit. so yes every model of the unibody and even previous models of macbooks and macbooks pros are capable of 64bit.

 

[alphaod]

But does this mean the 15 and 13 inch unibodies are 32-bit since they dont run 8gb of ddr3 ram?

Supporting 8GB of RAM has nothing to do with 64-bit or not. It's probably more to do with whether or not PAE is enabled.

 

[amitdoc2b]

Thank you everyone for the clarification. Reading this certainly makes me happy!

Supporting 8GB of RAM has nothing to do with 64-bit or not. It's probably more to do with whether or not PAE is enabled.

 

[Quu]

He knows much more about computers than me so its nice to see your support in this. Thank you, I think he has seen the light and both he (and me) know that the 17 unibody is 64 bit. But does this mean the 15 and 13 inch unibodies are 32-bit since they dont run 8gb of ddr3 ram?

I already answered this in the first reply. All Macintosh Computers that Apple sell currently are 64-bit compatible.

It has been like this since Late 2006 / Early 2007 when they began using Core 2 Duos across there entire range. As I made clear in my first reply.