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Apple brings 64-bit Windows support to Boot Camp

Colonel

By Colonel

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As if it hadn't taken them long enough, Apple finally is slowly bringing 64-bit Windows support over to Boot Camp, starting with the Mac Pros. The new Win64 Boot camp support currently is only on the restore disks that come with the Mac Pros that were just announced a few weeks ago. The 64-bit Windows drivers currently only support Vista x64, but could possibly bring support for WinXP x64 in future updates. Will these x64 drivers be coming to all 64-bit capable Macs in 10.5.2? Only time will tell.

 

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Envying

Envying 0

Posted

Just wondering if VMWARE can run Winxp or vista 64 bit natively. I got 32bit XP running natively through VMWare though.

macgirl

macgirl 42

Posted

AFAIK it does.

 

Not on my AMD but I'll try on my Dell Lappy and on the Mac Pro later

mifki

mifki 0

Posted

Bah, and i just installed server 2003 on the mac pro :(

Guilherme

Guilherme 0

Posted

I wonder when will Apple release the 10.5.2 update! I just can't wait for it!

blackturtleneck

blackturtleneck 0

Posted

Was 64-bit really necessary for a gaming OS? :)

cmdshft

cmdshft 0

Posted

I really think this is fantastic. Even though Apple and Microsoft are essentially "rivals", I just love how Apple is supporting the use of Windows on their products. It really goes to show that even though they undermine Windows and Microsoft in their commercials and what have you, they are at least doing their part to keep people productive, even if it means having to switch into or use Windows full time.

 

Bravo on Apple's part for this update.

muitommy

muitommy 1

Posted

Was 64-bit really necessary for a gaming OS? ;)

 

not really. it's just meaning more than necessity ..

i don't see any performance improvement when i play crysis in vista 64bit,

which is claimed to be x64 optimised..

 

well, i will still take this as a good news, make full use of your cpu ;)

Falcon351

Falcon351 0

Posted

not really. it's just meaning more than necessity ..

i don't see any performance improvement when i play crysis in vista 64bit,

which is claimed to be x64 optimised..

 

well, i will still take this as a good news, make full use of your cpu :angel:

One thing to keep in mind - 32-bit apps can experience performance gains with an x64 recompile. This is because x86 has 8 (sort of) general purpose registers. x64 adds another 8 to the set, which is still smallish for this day and age, but an improvement nonetheless. Of course, running the same code on both nullifies this point.

 

This may not apply to more modern instruction sets, such as PowerPC, since they'd already have a decent number, however x86's popularity wins over anyway. Price/performance ratio probably helps it as well.


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