buying a Mac Pro

[Gary Askham]

I’d hold off right now. A new Mac Pro is imminent.

————————
FCP and Avid Technical Support
Air Post Production
Shoreditch – London

[Mark Palmos]

Hi guys,
On the topic, I believe the pre-Nehalem mac pros like mine, with 2 Quad core Intel Xeons running at 3ghz will not operate at 64 bit… a “bit” of a surprise to me as the sales schpiel had 64 bit all over it back in 2007 when I bought it.

Is that correct? To make full use of FCPX 64 bit abilities, one should have a newer mac pro?

tx
Mark.

[Michael Gissing]

A bit of a google on this issue shows that only the very earliest of MacPros dated 2006 may have issues with booting a 64 bit OS. Certainly no indication that your model will have any issues. That said, you may have to upgrade your graphics card as it may not have 64 bit drivers written for it if it is too old.

[Mark Palmos]

Hi Michael,
My bit of googling tells me that you are OK if in system profiler there is mention of 64 bit kernel, which in my machine there is NOT…

The processor may be a 64 bit processor, but it seems the computer cannot run in 64 but unless the kernel is set to 64 bit. The 2008 models do not run 64 bit by default and have to be set (every boot up?) to use 64 bit. Mid 2010 models can boot up 64bit by default.

But I don’t know if that means I will not be able to run FCPX. Perhaps just not using all the ram?

Mark.

[Michael Gissing]

Search this forum. The way to make a macpro default boot to 64 bit has already been outlined. It is not a problem that it doesn’t boot 64bit by default as you can easily change the default or manually do it by holding 6+4 when booting.

The issue you talk about is whether older bios and chipsets can boot the 64 bit operating system and my quick google indicates very few macpros cannot be made to successfully boot the full 64 bit kernel and use all RAM.

[David Roth weiss]

Mark,

I have a 2008 MacPro myself, and I discussed this exact issue with Phil Hodgetts the other night after the LAFCPUG meeting. Later, I exchanged emails with Torrey Loomis of Silverado Systems (system integrators) on the very same subject. Here’s the deal: my machine will run everything, and will run it in 64-bit, but it will probably not run hyper-threaded (multithreaded). That means, all eight procs will run, but each core will only run as a single core, not as two virtual cores, which is what the later machines, 2009 models and up will do.

No multi-threading means slower processing than an identical later machine with hyper-threading, but it will still run, and still run 64-bit, at least according to those who know about these things.

BTW, the 32-bit, 64-bit boot thing, apparently has no impact on running 64-bit software. I’m pretty sure, if I heard him correctly, Phil said there was no need to switch that.

So, there you go… Hope this helps.

Now, where’s our software??? I woke up for this?

BTW, maybe this info from the Apple site about upgrading to Lion will give you clues to FCP X:

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles
https://www.drwfilms.com

Don’t miss my new tutorial: Prepare for a seamless transition to FCP X and OS X Lion
https://library.creativecow.net/weiss_roth_david/FCP-10-MAC-Lion/1

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

Creative COW contributing editor and a forum host of the Business & Marketing and Apple Final Cut Pro forums.

[Mark Palmos]

Hey buddy, yeah, what the hell are you doing up at this time of the morning!!!???

Thanks for that info… I suppose in real terms it means not taking full advantage (or perhaps NO advantage) for background rendering and RT effects.

I will probably look for a used 8 core with the 64 bit kernel once the new mac pros come out.

Cheers,
Mark.

[David Roth weiss]

[Mark Palmos] “what the hell are you doing up at this time of the morning!!!???”

I thought Apple might drop an egg for us this morning, so I set my iPhone to wake my iBody, to get out of my iBed, to turn on my MacPro, to check out the App Store, but there’s no FCP X, only iPalmos from iLondon.

Oh well, back to iSleep in my iBed, curled up next to my iDog.

Goodnight Mark.

BTW, I suspect we’ll only lose some processing speed by losing multi-threading, not the background rendering and realtime effects you suggest. A 4-core MacPro doesn’t stop doing things, it just does everything a bit slower. Right? So, a machine with 8-cores rather than 16 virtual cores should just be a tad slower, or at least one would think. Right?

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles
https://www.drwfilms.com

Don’t miss my new tutorial: Prepare for a seamless transition to FCP X and OS X Lion
https://library.creativecow.net/weiss_roth_david/FCP-10-MAC-Lion/1

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

Creative COW contributing editor and a forum host of the Business & Marketing and Apple Final Cut Pro forums.

[Ron Priest]

Hi David

For the longest time I’ve been concerned that my 2006 Mac Pro wouldn’t run 64 bit applications. I was concerned that it wouldn’t run OSX Lion, and or FCPX when it came out. So I bought one of the new 2011 MacBook Pros to make sure I had a system that would.

I kept seeing everywhere the computer requirements to upgrade to Lion/FCPX: “Your Mac must have an Intel Core 2 Duo, Core i3, Core i5 or i7 or Xeon processor to run Lion.”

My late 2006 Mac Pro has a 2 x 2.66 Dual-Core processor, not a Core 2 Duo so that had me worried. But, I kept overlooking the last part of those specs where it says “OR Xeon processor” Actually it didn’t hit me that I’ve been overlooking that last part of the specs until just now when I read your post. So, anyway, thanks for helping clear that up for me.

Now I’m trying to figure out how to take advantage of 64 bit apps on my Macs. So to do that, I need to boot up holding 2 keys, the 6 and the 4 Key? Or is it 3 keys 6 + 4 keys. I guess I can google that, or read the manual…. what a concept, “read the manual” How do you know if your machine is running in 64 bit… awe… another google action required huh? LOL

Okay, the following link just answered both of my questions.

https://osxdaily.com/2009/09/07/how-to-tell-if-youre-running-the-32-bit-or-64-bit-kernel-in-mac-os-x-snow-leopard/

Thanks David for your help. 🙂

P.S. For anyone else out there that is/was as confused as I, here is a nice little app to tell you what mode you are running in. Now I’m wondering if I need to always boot my older Mac Pro in 64 bit versus 32 bit, would I see benefits or do I have applications that won’t run if I boot in 64 bit?

https://www.ahatfullofsky.comuv.com/English/Programs/SMS/SMS.html

Ron Priest
Videographer
Louisville, KY

[David Roth weiss]

[Ron Priest] “Thanks David for your help. 🙂
“

Glad to help…

Stay thirsty my friend…

David

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles
https://www.drwfilms.com

Don’t miss my new tutorial: Prepare for a seamless transition to FCP X and OS X Lion
https://library.creativecow.net/weiss_roth_david/FCP-10-MAC-Lion/1

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

Creative COW contributing editor and a forum host of the Business & Marketing and Apple Final Cut Pro forums.