SixtyFour for Mac

1.7.4

1.7.4

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I downloaded this from the email I received from MacUpdate, but when I opened it, I was told it won't work with Snow Leopard, despite the email telling me it would! Then I went to the 64 website, and it also said it will work with Snow Leopard, on the FAQ page! "SixtyFour is compatible with any G5-based PowerPC or 64-bit-capable Intel hardware running OS X Leopard, Snow Leopard, Lion, Mountain Lion or Mavericks." But on this page on MacUpdate, it now says the current version needs 10.7, however it said see links for earlier versions. that would work with Snow Leopard. Well the version shown is the same one it says only works with 10.7, 1.7.3, which does NOT work with Snow Leopard! So come on, can you not keep your versions straight? If there is a version for Snow Leopard where is it???

Initially I was interested in giving this a look until on first launch it tried to connect to download.trusteer.com. What is that about? Trying to go to the Developer's website presents one of my serious peeves - blocking viewing the website unless you click through something else to get there. Disappointing tactics in my mind and enough for me to simply trash this.

A good way to selectively enable 32bit mode for apps w/out using the Info pane. The developer helped me work out an issue when I encountered an Apple bug by setting the MAS in 32bit mode. Very responsive and thorough communication.

You are better off to max the RAM of any computer rather then waste money on some nonsense software trickery. Some programmes simply do not work well in 32 bit only because they were not programmed to run in 32 bit.

$5 for something that’s already built into OS X?

You don’t need this to switch 32-bit-capable apps from 64- to 32-bit mode — just open each app’s Get Info dialog and click the “Open in 32-bit mode” checkbox, and voilà.

I got SixtyFour when it first came out over two years ago. It really helped my 2006 iMac have a second life. What I thought was a failing computer, was just one that couldn't handle as much memory as some of the 64 bit programs were taking up. Many of those programs were able to drop to 32 bit and left the system with a lot more working memory. Recommend!

Great simple UI, easy to use, save more ram on my old mac. Good value. Fast support for my question.

Not the best UI, but does what it says. Saves memory on older devices.

I was trying the demo today and don't find Mail, Safari, or other such programs that I seem to have open all the time, thus being great candidates for 32 bit operation. Is it possible that Mt Lion doesn't have a 32 bit version of these programs available to run?

I recently had trouble with v 1.1.0 on my G5. It bounced in the dock & crashed. The developer found the problem & advised me on what to do. Problem gone!!!

I now have a G5 with a 64 bit dual processor. I tried to launch SixtyFour v1.1.0, it bounced in the dock then disappeared. I made a copy of the Problem Report to send the developer. Clicked on the 'contact us' on their home page but nothing happened. HELP!

If you need 32-bit kernel mode because of lack of driver support, as I did, then the sixtyfourswitcher preference panel is very simple to handle this and lock the Mac to 32bit: http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/32299/sixtyfourswitcher Of course you can also just hold down "2" and "3" when booting too. Otherwise SixtyFour may have its uses too. For some Macs it's simply not cost effective to upgrade RAM. I maxed out to 6gb on my old Macbook Pro and recently downgraded to SL because of stability issues. My machine does support ML so that is on the horizon when I have updated the well sounding hardware that needs 32bit kernel mode. :-)

works great for me.

If you're such a smart developer, can you explain why do you compile your own app also as a ppc64 executable? There is/was no PowerPC 64-bit capable mac ever!

Although focused on working with audio, some people may find this interesting as it addressees many of the questions that have been posted regarding speed, memory usage, and performance. http://www.meldaproduction.com/audiotutorials/32vs64.php

I guess there's nothing wrong with running 64 bit apps in 32 bit mode but if they don't have enough RAM that just means more pageins & pageouts which adds additional wear to your HDD or SSD. Better really to have enough RAM to meet your needs.

Is it really pay-what-you-want-ware if you're broke and therefore want to pay $0.00 for it, but you must pay at least $0.01 and use a credit card or PayPal (which is also by credit card)?

Memory is king. By forcing some apps into 32-bit mode does save me more RAM for running memory-hungry applications. It's true that one can do the same by opening the info box of any app to find out whether it can be run in 32-bit mode. And then select the box to force the app to run in 32-bit. That's no doubt about it. But this little app collects all the information and gives you a nice and user-friendly interface. The new version even remembers which apps have been selected to run in 32-bit mode. Just for that reason, I am willing to pay for it. Moreover, I am impressed by the quick response from the developer regarding suggestions and questions. Edgarcabrera. I did my payment via Paypal. I didn't find any problem with it.

It's a very good little application, quite helpful to run those applications everyday use in 32bits mode in Lion, i.e. Safari, Mail, Webprocess, etc. to reduce memory usage. For more demanding applications, 64 bits is good. But I'd like to recommend to the developer to have another payment gateway apart from Paypal, I've tried to pay for this but I can't via Paypal, perhaps google checkout?...

I read through much of the feedback on this app with interest, and then did a bit of research. That tended to back up the developer's suggestions that running apps in 64-bit mode did use extra memory. I then went and changed those of my most frequently used apps to 32-bit mode, just to see what happened. Memory usage has been lowered significantly. Other than that, not much to report about performance, one way or the other, except … Photoshop CS5 is much snappier on the startup in 32-bit mode. Why? Who knows? Who cares? It now uses less memory and starts faster. Downside for this developer is that I did this using Get Info and clicking "Run in 32-bit mode" for those apps that offered the option – took me all of a few minutes – so I'm not going to part with my cash. That's not to say, however, that others might well find this app beneficial, in terms of time savings, or just because they're not 100% sure of what they're doing otherwise. I'm not saying to buy it or not. What I am saying is that the process it is designed to carry out has been of benefit to me, even if I didn't use this app to carry out that process. [MacBook Pro 2.53 Intel Core Duo, 4 GB RAM, OS X 10.7.2]

Wow, a new SixtyFour version number and MacUpdate post only 4½ days after the last version's release and just for having been "Tested on Mac OS X 10.6" (and BTW, that 'X' is superfluous)? Since no changes were made since the previous version, that's an ethically extreme justification for a new MU post, and therefore not deserving of the free advertising obtained.

What are the disadvantages of using this? Or is this the best way to run all your apps, period? Is there any catch whatsoever? In other words, if it's better to run apps in 32-bit mode, then why doesn't Apple do this by default?

Why is this commercial software listed here as "free?"

"An application opened in 64-bit mode uses approximately 2x the memory that the same application uses when opened in 32-bit mode." This claim seems exaggerated and probably untrue. Is there any real evidence to support it? It just doesn't make sense. There may be some additional overhead for longer memory address strings, but that doesn't increase the size of the actual information and resources stored in memory.

Still testing though I paid already. It would be better to show the current bit status next to each application.

Inaccurate. Doesn't list all 64-bit apps. List is missing at least 5 major 64bit aware apps on my system.

What is the point?! System Profile does this and is already on EVERY Mac... Just look under the Software section under Applications, look for the "64-Bit" column.