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deyno1903

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 2, 2011
12
0
Hi Guys,

I'm new to the Mac and would like to know if it will run in 64 bit mode?? I don't want to try and boot in 64 bitr mode incase I mess something up?? How do I check to see if it will and have the right drivers, etc?? Below is a shot of my system.

AboutThisMac.png
 

omvs

macrumors 6502
May 15, 2011
495
20
Short answer: Yes for any modern mac (Core 2 Duo, i3, i5, i7) - you don't need to do anything.

There might be confusion because it used to be that OSX was running a 32bit kernel by default on most machines -- might even still be the case. However, you can still run 64bit programs and use >32GB of ram with the 32bit kernel (unlike linux or windows). I know because my old hackintosh was using the 32bit kernel, but the system addressed 8GB and ran 64bit binaries just fine.

If you're doing a lot of big memory work though, I'd buy more RAM. I'm using 12GB in my rig, which allows me to have a 4GB virtual windows machine and plenty of other stuff open without issues.
 

Nermal

Moderator
Staff member
Dec 7, 2002
20,644
4,044
New Zealand
Run Activity Monitor, choose All Processes in the top-right and look for kernel_task. If it says "Intel (64 bit)" in the Kind column then you're running in 64-bit. This is the default on new systems.
 
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