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Mac Pro Classic, Snow Leopard, and 64 bit kernel

Hello, and thanks in advance for your thoughts and your help. A question was brought up on the macrumors forums about the shortcomings of the 2006 mac pro. Basically someone said that he would not get a used 2006 mac pro because "it can't boot into Leopard in 64-bit." I asked him what he meant and he said that he didn't think it was "true" 64 bit because in his system info it says "64 bit kernel and extensions - no". I poked around a little bit and found a good article:

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/10/28/roadto_mac_os_x_snow_leopard_64_bit_to_thekernel.html

detailing that Leopard runs on a 32 bit kernel, mainly because every extension must be 64 bit in order to run on a 64 bit kernel, and that Leopard can run 64 bit applications even though it runs on a 32 bit kernel. The article states that Snow Leopard will be the first operating system on a 64 bit kernel.

Now, my question. Since my Mac Pro runs on 32 bit EFI instead of the new EFI 64, will I be able to have a similar 64 bit Snow Leopard experience? Will my EFI on my antique mac pro really limit the 64 bit Snow Leopard experience? Will my aluminum macbook be able to "do" more with snow leopard than my mac pro? and lastly, I am currently running the Radeon 4870 in my mac pro, since the guys at ATI snuck the 32 bit EFI onto the card as well as the 64 bit EFI, somehow. I wonder what's going to happen with all this when Snow Leopard drops.

Mac Pro 2.66GHz, Alu Macbook 2.0 GHz, Mac OS X (10.5.7)

Posted on Jul 11, 2009 3:30 PM

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27 replies

Aug 27, 2009 5:03 AM in response to necronym

The fact that Flash doesn't work in IE8 64-bit is a feature and one reason many of us prefer to use the 64-bit version - no need to worry about flash and security issues around it.

Looking forward but right now I have to say I love how Windows 7 runs and the latest drivers from Nvidia are top notch.

Windows 7 has made a lot of converts, and all those building PCs around Nehalem Bloomfield and Xeon.

Aug 28, 2009 5:35 PM in response to The hatter

Read this article. I think it may answer your question.

http://www.macworld.com/article/142379/2009/08/snowleopard_64bit.html

From Article
"So, bottom line: If you’ve got a Core 2 Duo or Xeon based Mac — any Intel Mac not running a Core Duo or Core Solo processor — you’ll be able to run applications in 64-bit mode, which will in turn be able to take advantage of faster 64-bit registers and math routines as well as access massive amounts of memory."

Message was edited by: Grayhulk

Message was edited by: Grayhulk

Aug 31, 2009 2:09 PM in response to RomMan

My letdown is Apple EFI firmware update from Sept '07 made booting Windows x64 Vista slower; still isn't officially supported; can't use GTX 285.

But the whole 64-bit kernel is a non-issue. Seriously.

And when there is a firmware update, you can't undo, there could be a firmware update required before install, and there could be video card firmware - but even those aren't always well received or have the desired effect.

Sep 8, 2009 9:44 PM in response to Bozz_2006

This is interesting and confusing. I am in this position as well.

Here is my info from System Profiler:

System Version: Mac OS X 10.6 (10A432)
Kernel Version: Darwin 10.0.0
Boot Volume: Macintosh HD
Boot Mode: Normal
(Edited)
64-bit Kernel and Extensions: No

The terminal has:

hw.cpu64bit_capable: 1

Doesn't 64-bit Kernal and Extension=No mean that the kernel is 32bit?

I am running snow leopard in 32 bit?

More questions:

Can the Mac Pro Classic utilize over 4gb of memory?

Can it use a 64 bit video card since it does not have PCIE 2?

Mac Pro Classic, Snow Leopard, and 64 bit kernel

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