Possible incorrect CPU codename. MBP C2D 2.2

[paul.b.davis]

So recently I have noticed that my computer seems to be a bit lacking in performance. Today I noticed while using Logic Express 8 that only one of the cores was being used. I was running some plugins, but not more than I have before when things were working fine, and it kept stopping with a system
overload message.

Determined to figure it out, I installed the processor preference pane from the developer tools and when I opened it up, it said that I have an "Intel Core 2 (Merom) Processor. It also says 32 bit in the title bar. I have thought that my model has a 64 bit Santa Rosa processor.

Here are the details on my machine:

MacBook Pro from Sept 07 (bought new low end model)
Model number A1226
2.2 ghz prosessor
GeForce 8600M GT gpu 128 mb

Any help with this would be great. Thanks in advance. Just let me know if you need more information.

 

[spinnerlys]

http://www.everymac.com/ultimate-mac-lookup/?search_keywords=A1226

What OS is running on that Mac? Mac OS X 10.6?

Logic Express gained 64-bit support with the LE version 9.1.1.

 

[J the Ninja]

Santa Rosa refers to the platform, it used the "Merom" C2Ds. If you want to know exactly, run this command, it will output the "brand string" from your CPU:

sysctl -a | grep brand_string

32bit could refer to a lot of things. In any case, all the Core 2 Duos are 64bit, so that isn't it. But Logic Express 8 is a 32bit app anyway. For the cores, just check Activity Monitor, or look in System Profiler under "total number of cores" to check how many logical processors OS X can see.

 

[paul.b.davis]

Since Logic Express 8 is 32 bit does that mean it can only use one core? If that is the case I can eliminate that as the cause.

Why would the prefernce pane (in system preferences) title bar display as a 32 bit processor if the Meron is 64 bit?

The other possible cause of the error message and the crash is that my hard drive disk is not fast enough to load the audio. Is there any way to test my hard drive speed? It is a 500 gb hard drive I put in. I recall that the speed is 5400 but this was the speed of my old one too and it never had this problem.

I am running 10.6

 

[spinnerlys]

Since Logic Express 8 is 32 bit does that mean it can only use one core? If that is the case I can eliminate that as the cause.

Why would the prefernce pane (in system preferences) title bar display as a 32 bit processor if the Meron is 64 bit?

The other possible cause of the error message and the crash is that my hard drive disk is not fast enough to load the audio. Is there any way to test my hard drive speed? It is a 500 gb hard drive I put in. I recall that the speed is 5400 but this was the speed of my old one too and it never had this problem.

I am running 10.6

32-bit has nothing to do with using only one core, the application should be able to access two cores.

System Preferences has 32-bit in its title bar either because you run a preference pane, that requires to be run in 32-bit mode or you selected to run System Preferences in 32-bit mode via right clicking on System Preferences in Finder and selecting GET INFO and checking the OPEN IN 32-BIT MODE checkbox.

To benchmark your HDD write and read speed use Aja System Test or XBench.

AJA System Test

 

[paul.b.davis]

Ok, here is some more information

Screenshots of SysPref info and the Processor pane.



As you can see, it is set to open in 64 bit mode, but the title bar says it is 32 bit.

Here are my xbench scores, if that helps at all.

Results	126.90	
	System Info		
		Xbench Version		1.3
		System Version		10.6.3 (10D578)
		Physical RAM		4096 MB
		Model		MacBookPro3,1
		Drive Type		WDC WD6400BEVT-00A0RT0
	CPU Test	153.01	
		GCD Loop	259.41	13.67 Mops/sec
		Floating Point Basic	123.27	2.93 Gflop/sec
		vecLib FFT	99.03	3.27 Gflop/sec
		Floating Point Library	245.23	42.70 Mops/sec
	Thread Test	156.98	
		Computation	160.26	3.25 Mops/sec, 4 threads
		Lock Contention	153.83	6.62 Mlocks/sec, 4 threads
	Memory Test	162.17	
		System	173.29	
			Allocate	337.79	1.24 Malloc/sec
			Fill	135.80	6602.72 MB/sec
			Copy	143.12	2955.99 MB/sec
		Stream	152.39	
			Copy	142.39	2940.92 MB/sec
			Scale	142.59	2945.83 MB/sec
			Add	163.35	3479.79 MB/sec
			Triad	164.19	3512.39 MB/sec
	Quartz Graphics Test	165.05	
		Line	144.82	9.64 Klines/sec [50% alpha]
		Rectangle	182.67	54.54 Krects/sec [50% alpha]
		Circle	158.67	12.93 Kcircles/sec [50% alpha]
		Bezier	168.46	4.25 Kbeziers/sec [50% alpha]
		Text	176.21	11.02 Kchars/sec
	OpenGL Graphics Test	136.71	
		Spinning Squares	136.71	173.43 frames/sec
	User Interface Test	235.52	
		Elements	235.52	1.08 Krefresh/sec
	Disk Test	54.15	
		Sequential	97.92	
			Uncached Write	129.14	79.29 MB/sec [4K blocks]
			Uncached Write	118.84	67.24 MB/sec [256K blocks]
			Uncached Read	55.95	16.37 MB/sec [4K blocks]
			Uncached Read	146.67	73.72 MB/sec [256K blocks]
		Random	37.42	
			Uncached Write	13.43	1.42 MB/sec [4K blocks]
			Uncached Write	112.12	35.89 MB/sec [256K blocks]
			Uncached Read	66.20	0.47 MB/sec [4K blocks]
			Uncached Read	118.85	22.05 MB/sec [256K blocks]