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Startup the 13inch MBP in 64 bit?
- Thread starter gregrose
- Start date
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http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/32252/32--or-64-bit-kernel-startup-mode-selector
I doubt you will notice any difference though
I doubt you will notice any difference though
i can imagine that for someone to notice this that they will have to use a 64-bit program with more than 4GB of RAM in their computer and then be working with large files within that program.
Let's see. There are three possibilities: (1) Apple intentionally boots the MBP in 32 bit mode to keep it slow. (2) Apple intentionally boots the MBP in 32 bit mode because it works better. (3) Apple boots the MBP in 32 bit mode, knowing that it makes no practical difference either way. Which one do you think is most likely?
In practice, when you have a Macintosh with 64 GB of RAM, then 64 bit kernel mode will make a difference. If someone told you that starting your MBP in 64 bit mode would give you a performance boost, they have no clue.
Completely different thing. You are talking about 64 bit apps, the OP is talking about 64 bit kernel. Both 32 and 64 bit apps run just fine both in 32 and 64 bit kernel. (And 64 bit apps can use 16 integers and 16 FP registers instead of 8, so they tend to run more efficient anyway). Completely unrelated to the kernel.
I read this and downloaded the app. Here's what I found so far.
Before setting the mac to 64 bit.
I would stream a movie using netflix with the intel chip only.
And it would play slow and choppy at full screen.
I had to always manually switch to nvidia for it to play smooth on full screen.
I re-started the mac to use the 64 bit and now I can stream in full screen with smooth video!
Will the 64 bit mode waste more battery power?
Will it also make the mac run HOTTER?
Before setting the mac to 64 bit.
I would stream a movie using netflix with the intel chip only.
And it would play slow and choppy at full screen.
I had to always manually switch to nvidia for it to play smooth on full screen.
I re-started the mac to use the 64 bit and now I can stream in full screen with smooth video!
Will the 64 bit mode waste more battery power?
Will it also make the mac run HOTTER?
"Completely different thing. You are talking about 64 bit apps, the OP is talking about 64 bit kernel. Both 32 and 64 bit apps run just fine both in 32 and 64 bit kernel. (And 64 bit apps can use 16 integers and 16 FP registers instead of 8, so they tend to run more efficient anyway). Completely unrelated to the kernel."
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so what is the advantage, if there is any, of running in 64-bit kernel?
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so what is the advantage, if there is any, of running in 64-bit kernel?
am i correct to assume that apple defaulted my MBP to 32-bit kernel for compatibility issues and that running fully in 64-bit kernel at this time will conflict with third-party softwares not made for 64-bit kernel? not really sure of the difference between 64-bit kernels and 64-bit apps and 32-bit kernel and 32-bit apps.....
Why 64-bit means more with Intel chips...
On PowerPC processors, and in fact almost all other processors, the main advantage of 64-bit mode is to address single data objects larger than 4GB in size. However, use of 64-bit pointers can slow some code down because the pointers become larger and take up more memory.
But on Intel processors, 64-bit mode also adds more features - most importantly, more registers to a severely register starved architecture. On PCs, we typically saw about a 3x increase in code performance with compute intensive code when in 64-bit mode by leveraging the additional registers, and so used 64-bit mode for that reason only. So if your code is compute bound and not memory bound, his could really help performance.
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On PowerPC processors, and in fact almost all other processors, the main advantage of 64-bit mode is to address single data objects larger than 4GB in size. However, use of 64-bit pointers can slow some code down because the pointers become larger and take up more memory.
But on Intel processors, 64-bit mode also adds more features - most importantly, more registers to a severely register starved architecture. On PCs, we typically saw about a 3x increase in code performance with compute intensive code when in 64-bit mode by leveraging the additional registers, and so used 64-bit mode for that reason only. So if your code is compute bound and not memory bound, his could really help performance.
I just tried booting into 64-bit kernel mode on my 2009 MBP.
In 64-bit mode it took 3x as long to get to the login during boot, roughly 2x as long for all the display and startup apps to get set, and the machine ran hotter and slower than normal.
It's not a magic, free speed-booster. If you don't understand why you would need 64-bit, you probably don't need it.
In 64-bit mode it took 3x as long to get to the login during boot, roughly 2x as long for all the display and startup apps to get set, and the machine ran hotter and slower than normal.
It's not a magic, free speed-booster. If you don't understand why you would need 64-bit, you probably don't need it.
i just restarted my mid-2010 MBP, too, in 64-bit kernel by holding the "6" & "4" key on startup and i didn't notice any noticeable difference. the boot up did take longer, but once i got on my desktop and launched a few apps (iphoto, safari, itunes and gimp)--the MBP performed the same way as before.