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How can I find out if my iMac is 32 or 64 bit? The "About this Mac" screen tells ms:

Model Name:       iMac
Model Identifier: iMac11,2
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  • Related (as for the software): Mac OS X: How can I tell if I'm in 64-bit mode?
    – Arjan
    Jan 24, 2011 at 14:15
  • @Arjan The answer to that question is always "if you have to ask, you're not".
    – Daniel Beck
    Jan 24, 2011 at 14:38
  • @Daniel is right. All Macs made after 2007 or so have been 64-bit, AFAIK Apple has never used the low-end Intel Core2Duo chips that don’t support 64-bit. Whether or not you run in 64-bit is completely dependent on the user, all Macs except Xservers default to 32-bit mode.
    – peelman
    Jan 24, 2011 at 16:16
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    @peelman They used the Core Duo and Core Solo for the earliest lower-end Intel models back in 2006. But you're right, it's always the 32 bit kernel by default (except Mac OS X server -- any word on the "server" Mac minis?), that's what I meant with my previous comment.
    – Daniel Beck
    Jan 24, 2011 at 16:25
  • @Daniel 10.6 has a 64-Bit Kernel, does it? I think that was one of the Major Changes, the system is now 64-Bit bottom to top. On a related note: Early Mac Minis, the first MacBook and MacBook Pro, iMac used the Core Duo which is 32-Bit. Jan 25, 2011 at 6:41

4 Answers 4

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Mactracker is an incredibly useful database of all Macintosh computers, and includes information about 64-bit support as well.

You can even search by model identifier (imac11,2). enter image description here

(64-bit support is first tab, second section, second line, second column)

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Here's the command-line way to check on 64-bit capability, thanks to osxdaily.

$ sysctl hw | grep 64bit
hw.cpu64bit_capable: 1
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First google result for imac11 was this, which says it's 2010 (only the first gen of intel were 32bit), says its i3 (all iN are 64bit), and the more detailed page of the main link says the architecture is 64bit.

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If you take your processor (which you can find on the spec page for your iMac) over to Intel's site, you can look up whether it is 64-bit or not. The added bonus is that it's authoritative.

http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=46473

All recent Macs are 64-bit but since you wanted to prove it.

Note that to exploit all those bits, your OS and applications should also be 64-bit. There are many depends to that statement but I didn't want to write more than a sentence since it wasn't your question.

p.s. I don't have enough points to also post the link to apples spec page but according to it, you have one of these processors.

3.06GHz Intel Core i3 3.2GHz Intel Core i3 2.8GHz Intel Core i5 (quad core)

If you look under Specifications under Getting Answers in your User Guide, you'll get the link.

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