64 bit Vista on a Mac Pro
by Gray Wilson
on
Apr 5, 2008 at 4:40:14 pm
Hi all,
I have a quad core 2.66 Macpro with 5 gigs of Ram and an ATI X1900. Has anyone installed 64 bit Vista on a similar setup and run say a 64 bit version of 3ds Max 2008+? Would really like to know if, through bootcamp, a 64 bit windows program will be able to take advantage of all the ram and scream.
Re: 64 bit Vista on a Mac Pro by Sam Alexander on Apr 15, 2008 at 12:08:18 pm
Hi,
I don't have the exact configuration you have, but my experience may be of use.
I have a newer 8-core Mac Pro with the NVidia 8800GT and 8Gb of RAM and I've got a bootcamp partition with Vista x64 and am running LightWave x64 (and Sonar x64) and it totally sees all the memory and screams. The Windows "performance indicator" in the control panel was off the chart practically and Vista with SP1 is fantastic on that machine and quite stable once I turned off the UAC.
What I have been told though, is that perhaps my memory confirguration might be faster than yours (well maybe for Final Cut Pro in OSX only or for everything- I'm not sure?) because apparently these Mac Pro's memory architecture likes 4 sticks of the same size to perform at the fastest. I was told that if I were to add the extra 4 x 2Gb memory sticks I got to the 2 x 1Gb sticks that shipped with it for a total of 10Gb RAM, that my systems access to memory would be noticably slower than removing the 2 x 1Gb sticks and just using the 8Gb in a 2-pair layout.
I'm sure you'll find 3DS works lovely on that system and notice the difference in rendering in 64bit (LW sure renders faster in 64bit), however, you may wish to drop to 4Gb RAM (assuming they are 4 x 1Gb) and see if that speeds anything up in renders... it would be interesting to see if what my vendors say is true really is - I don't know too much about the Mac hardware, I just moved to this platform for Final Cut, but still have alot of post workflow in Windows apps.
I really do love Fusion though - I'm running an additional XP virtual machine for when I'm in OSX and it too totally screams and is useful for when I don't feel like rebooting into Vista x64 and don't need that extra power for my win apps. Fusion supposedly gives me access to the Vista x64 bootcamp partition from within Mac OSX but I'm a bit paranoid about doing so - as it's alot easier to restore a simple XP VM than it would be to restore my Vista partition - I hear using a bootcamp partition in a VM can potentially corrupt it if you don't close it properly and then reboot into it natively.
anyway, hope some of this is useful. good luck :-)
Re: 64 bit Vista on a Mac Pro by Tim Wilson on Apr 15, 2008 at 1:26:39 pm
Wow, thanks! Great stuff!
The advice about same-sized RAM is rock-solid, no matter which OS you're running....all the way back. You'll definitely see a performance boost when you bring them all in line.
WinClone is a great app for backing up your Boot Camp partition. I wrote about it here, with a variety of backup tips.
Don't forget that in Vista, you've also got a fantastic built-in back-up tool. I've been fortunate enough not to have a disk failure so far, but this is how I'll recover.
Agreed that both XP and Vista virtual machines could cause a mess. I like the sound of your set-up.
Re: 64 bit Vista on a Mac Pro by Sam Alexander on Apr 15, 2008 at 7:27:05 pm
glad some of it was useful :)
But I just wanted to respond to your post and say that XP in a VM in Fusion (a separate VM install of XP - not my bootcamp partition which is Vista) works awesome too. I've been using my separate install of XP in Fusion for weeks now and it rocks and seems quite stable. Plus with snapshots in Fusion and backing up that xp VM file, there's no worries about restores or corruption. Never before have I had an XP that booted in under 8 seconds and shuts down in under 4 sec - it does in Fusion!! :D Plus there is USB, Network, Soundcard & DirectX support in the VM (no direct firewire devices yet) but firewire drives can be accessed through networking so it's all good.
I know I'm a bit O.T. of your original thread, but I just wanted to clear up my experiences with Windows on a Mac in case it was useful - I highly recommend Fusion for running XP inside of OSX and bootcamp Vista x64 for Win apps that need all the power of 64bit. :)
Re: 64 bit Vista on a Mac Pro by Sam Alexander on Apr 15, 2008 at 7:32:24 pm
oh & thanks for the WinClone tip - I was using Carbon Copy Cloner for my mac partition and was wondering what could successfully restore my bootcamp partition should the need arise.... Do you know if CCC is ok for making a full cloned image of the mac boot partition - I mean will I have restore issues should I have to go back to it?
I think I'd like to use TimeCapsule for daily backups of data and stuff but do these image clones in case of major emergencies... Does that seem like a good idea?
(sorry again for my lack of keeping to one topic in a thread)...
Re: 64 bit Vista on a Mac Pro by Rob Loney on Jul 15, 2008 at 3:51:00 am
Please Help,
Hi, I have a new Mac Pro running Vista Ultimate 64 bit in Bootcamp partition. I installed Sonar 7 Pro 64 bit and it is not getting along well with the Realtek audio card that comes with the Mac. (I get stuttering and timing problems). Cubase (32 bit) works fine and so does everything else. Anyone know of a fix?
I also have a Presonus Firestudio Tube. Wish they had a 64 bit driver for windows. I need to be able to use all of the tons of VST's that I already have for windows and yet still be able to multi-track, use all 4 gigs of Ram and all 8 cores. Suggestions????
Rob Loney
Production Engineer
Level 10 Productions
