Administrators Hervé Posted September 25, 2013 Administrators Share Posted September 25, 2013 Last update: 14 Nov 2020 Questions keep resurfacing, so let's try to clarify things again: minimum requirements for Snow Leopard: https://support.apple.com/kb/sp575?locale=en_US minimum requirements for Lion: https://support.apple.com/kb/sp629?locale=en_US minimum requirements for Mountain Lion: https://support.apple.com/kb/sp654?locale=en_US minimum requirements for Mavericks: https://support.apple.com/kb/sp702?locale=en_US minimum requirements for Yosemite: https://support.apple.com/kb/SP711?locale=en_US minimum requirements for El Capitan: https://support.apple.com/kb/sp728?locale=en_US minimum requirements for Sierra: https://support.apple.com/kb/sp742?locale=en_US minimum requirements for High Sierra: https://support.apple.com/kb/SP765?locale=en_US minimum requirements for Mojave: https://support.apple.com/kb/SP777?locale=en_US minimum requirements for Catalina: https://support.apple.com/kb/SP803?locale=en_GB minimum requirements for Big Sur: https://support.apple.com/kb/sp833?locale=en_US Essential basics: Lion requires a 64bit Core2Duo minimum even though it may have to run in 32bit kernel mode (eg: for Intel GMA platforms). From Mountain Lion, OS X runs a 64bit kernel only. 32bit kernel mode is abandoned, hence the drop of support for older GPUs for which only 32bit fully functional drivers are available (e.g.: Intel GMA 950/GMA X3100, nVidia GeForce 7xxx and derivatives). Sierra and later require SSE4-capable CPUs (SSE4 instructions set introduced in Penryn family C2D/C2Q/Xeon CPUs). Mojave and later dropped support for non SSE4.2-capable C2D/C2Q platforms (workaround exists). Mojave and later requires a Metal-compatible card (Kepler-only for nVidia (lack of Web Driver oblige), GCN1.0 and later for AMD). Mojave is last macOS version to support 32bit apps. Catalina and later support 64bit apps only. For Hackintoshing purposes: Netburst/revived P6/original Core 32bit platforms (Pentium 4/D/M, Yonah, etc.) are natively supported from Tiger 10.4.4/10.4.5 to Snow Leopard 10.6.8. Netburst and Core2 64bit platforms (Pentium 4/D, Conroe/Merom, Penryn/Wolfdale, etc.) are natively supported from Tiger 10.4.7/10.4.8. 1st gen Nehalem platforms (Lynnfield, Clarkdale/Arrandale, etc.) are natively supported from Snow Leopard 10.6.2/10.6.3. 2nd gen Sandy Bridge platforms are natively supported from Snow Leopard 10.6.6. 3rd gen Ivy Bridge platforms are natively supported from Lion 10.7.5. 4th gen Haswell platforms are natively supported from Mountain Lion 10.8.5. 5th gen Broadwell platforms are natively supported from Yosemite 10.10.2/10.10.3. 6th gen Skylake platforms are natively supported from El Capitan 10.11.4. 7th gen Kaby Lake platforms are natively supported from Sierra 10.12.6. 8th gen Kaby Lake Refresh & Coffee Lake platforms are natively supported from High Sierra 10.13/10.13.1. Fully supported in 10.13.6. 8th gen Amber Lake Y (UHD617) platforms are supported from 10.14.1. 9th gen Coffee Lake Refresh and Whiskey Lake platforms are natively supported from Mojave 10.14.4/10.14.5. 10th gen Ice Lake & Comet Lake platforms are natively supported from Catalina 10.15.3. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Hervé Posted November 14, 2020 Author Administrators Share Posted November 14, 2020 Updated for macOS Big Sur and replaced dead links. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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