Mac 32 or 64 bit?

[jjlphoto]

I ran Diglloyds terminal window check to see if my machine has 32 or 64bit firmware as follows:

http://macperformanceguide.com/SnowLeopard-64bit.html

My report read <EFI32>

What's the deal here? The box my MacPro Dual 2.66 Xeon came is has "64 bit Workstation" written all over it.

[jerryrock]

I'm in the same boat. My late 2007 MacPro 2.66 Quad will not boot in Snow Leopard 64 bit. It will boot into Vista 64bit using bootcamp.
My early 2008 MacBook Pro does boot in Snow Leopard 64bit.

[vjbelle]

I ran Diglloyds terminal window check to see if my machine has 32 or 64bit firmware as follows:

http://macperformanceguide.com/SnowLeopard-64bit.html

My report read <EFI32>

What's the deal here? The box my MacPro Dual 2.66 Xeon came is has "64 bit Workstation" written all over it.

I wouldn't trust that as being accurate.  Open up System Profiler and see under [Software] whether or not you are running 64 bit extensions.  Also you may want to open up activity monitor and choose 'Active Processes' and see if the intel64 for 'kind' is active.  I believe, but am not sure, that this is an indication that you are running that application in 64 bit mode.  

Added Information:
Sorry..... you won't see any of that unless you have programed your computer for 64 bit.  Use one of the methods for starting up in 64 bit that Diglloyds suggests and you should see the results above.....

Victor

[Jack Flesher]

You guys know that Snow is set up to boot default in 32 bit, right?  You have to actually hold the 6 and 4 keys together during boot to get Snow to boot in 64 bit mode.

You can tell if you're in 32 or 64 bit by looking at "About this Mac"  > click "More Info" > Click on Software and view 64-bit Kernel and Extensions -- it will say "Yes" or "No" and no means you are in 32 bit mode.

Cheers,

[jerryrock]

All of that information is listed in the linked article. The point is that the MacPro andMacBook Pros produced prior to 2008 do not have the EFI Firmware to boot into 64 bit Mac OS. My observation was that they can boot into a 64 bit Windows Vista OS.

[NikosR]

All of that information is listed in the linked article. The point is that the MacPro andMacBook Pros produced prior to 2008 do not have the EFI Firmware to boot into 64 bit Mac OS. My observation was that they can boot into a 64 bit Windows Vista OS.

This is correct. However keep in mind that 32 bit kernel Snow Leopard is much much more '64 bit' than a 32 bit Windows OS. In other words, you're not missing much by not booting 64 bit kernel Snow Leopard. For example, your 64 bits apps can still address a large (>4GB) space.

Good source of information: http://arstechnica.com/apple/reviews/2009/...os-x-10-6.ars/5
look at page 5.

[jjlphoto]

All of that information is listed in the linked article. The point is that the MacPro andMacBook Pros produced prior to 2008 do not have the EFI Firmware to boot into 64 bit Mac OS. My observation was that they can boot into a 64 bit Windows Vista OS.

So there's no firmware update available from Apple to make my machine truly 64bit bootable in OSX?

[jerryrock]

So there's no firmware update available from Apple to make my machine truly 64bit bootable in OSX?

No, there is not.