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Will Unibody MacBook run Snow Leo 64 bit?

G

germinator

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 22, 2009
294
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Title says it all.
I cannot find any confirmation on whether the MacBooks will run Snow Leopard in full 64 bit mode.

Anyone?
 
Isn't the whole point of 64-bit accessing larger amounts of RAM? So, with most macbooks shipping with 2GB and all maxing out at 4GB, isn't a 64 bit macbook not worthwhile, even if the processor is capable? Would there be any benefit to macbook owners?
 
walnuts said:
Isn't the whole point of 64-bit accessing larger amounts of RAM? So, with most macbooks shipping with 2GB and all maxing out at 4GB, isn't a 64 bit macbook not worthwhile, even if the processor is capable? Would there be any benefit to macbook owners?
Click to expand...

64 bit doesn't mean more RAM, it means more address space for each individual process. You can have 32 GB of RAM and use ten 32-bit applications using 3 GB each and have some spare RAM. With 64 bit, a video editing application running on a machine with 1 GB of RAM can map a 2 hour video in MiniDV format = about 21 GB completely into virtual memory and let you edit it.

In addition, 64 bit means sixteen 64-bit integer registers instead of eight 32-bit integer registers, which makes some applications a lot faster, even when they don't use much memory at all.
 
gnasher729 said:
64 bit doesn't mean more RAM, it means more address space for each individual process. You can have 32 GB of RAM and use ten 32-bit applications using 3 GB each and have some spare RAM. With 64 bit, a video editing application running on a machine with 1 GB of RAM can map a 2 hour video in MiniDV format = about 21 GB completely into virtual memory and let you edit it.

In addition, 64 bit means sixteen 64-bit integer registers instead of eight 32-bit integer registers, which makes some applications a lot faster, even when they don't use much memory at all.
Click to expand...

+1. It opens up the world of 64-bit arithmetic. Question is, which apps will use it?
 
Its the graphics chip....

I know that the C2D processor is 64 bit. But at the time the newest MacBook was released, there were some news about the NVIDIA graphics chip not being "64 bit". That and the fact that no Snow Leopard build supports the MacBook in 64 bit mode yet looks suspicious to me.

Could it be possible that Apple will support the MacBook in 32 bit mode and the MacBook Pro in 64 bit mode in SL? As a way to differentiate the pro from the consumer machines (same as omitting the FireWire port)?
 
the macbooks use the same chipset as the macbook pros dont they? its just that the macbook pro has an extra graphics processor. Apple wouldnt disable 64bit on a machine so new, that would make many people angry. Very angry.

Lets hope that Rambo doenst have a macbook, cause we dont want him angry do we?
 
germinator said:
I know that the C2D processor is 64 bit. But at the time the newest MacBook was released, there were some news about the NVIDIA graphics chip not being "64 bit". That and the fact that no Snow Leopard build supports the MacBook in 64 bit mode yet looks suspicious to me.

Could it be possible that Apple will support the MacBook in 32 bit mode and the MacBook Pro in 64 bit mode in SL? As a way to differentiate the pro from the consumer machines (same as omitting the FireWire port)?
Click to expand...

Our graphics cards are not "64-bit" or "32-bit" items. Besides, we have a 128-bit bandwidth (excluding 9400M).
 
Precisely...

viperguy said:
The OS isn`t even released yet.....
Click to expand...

But I want to know whether it is safe to buy a MacBook today. I would be pissed if it were not supported in 64 bit mode in SL.

That's what this forum is about, otherwise I would have asked this question on Apple Discussions.
 
germinator said:
But I want to know whether it is safe to buy a MacBook today. I would be pissed if it were not supported in 64 bit mode in SL.

That's what this forum is about, otherwise I would have asked this question on Apple Discussions.
Click to expand...

Don't get us wrong, we're not being rude.
We just don't know that answer since no one has info on that as of right now.
But personally I don't see why a MB wouldn't run it ok, especially if we consider that Apple is making an OS that's supposed to be more responsive and take advantage of multi core processors instead of adding lots of new features.
I'd say it will run even smother than Leopard is running right now, but take that just as a personal guess
 
New Unibody MacBooks and older ones too...

will support up to 6 Gigs of ram by using one 2 gig stick and one 4 gig stick with using Leopard. I imagine when using SL 8 gigs will work fine though.
 
althage said:
will support up to 6 Gigs of ram by using one 2 gig stick and one 4 gig stick with using Leopard. I imagine when using SL 8 gigs will work fine though.
Click to expand...

I think it's been figured out that the RAM limitation is not in software, but in firmware/hardware with the MB vs MBP--> artificial differentiation between "consumer" and "pro" lines.
 
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