Official List of Apple Macs that can run macOS Monterey

[scottkendall]

If upgrading OS or installing a new OS is just a "30 minute job" to you in your narrative, then I congratulate you. Good for you.

I would say, even installing Windows 7 from a DVD would take more than 30 minutes even if you do nothing after installation, especially on older hardware without SSDs. I say this from previous experience.

For me, upgrading to a new OS or installing a new OS is a time-consuming job, as it is not just the OS installation itself. Even if the OS installation goes without incident (and that's a big if, particularly on older hardware), I have to make sure the OS itself runs correctly, try to adapt to any changes the OS presents, and that every application I use will work correctly on the new system.

In the case of VMware Fusion, for example, I will have to remove the older version, install the new version, configure it to my liking, and then make sure every one of the virtual machines (Windows 98 / XP / Vista / 7 / 8.1 / 10 in multiple language versions) still work correctly. It can't be done in "30 minutes", more like days.

Unlike you, I cannot act like I am not concerned with whether something will break after an OS upgrade, and since it will take a long time for me to install and configure a new OS and the corresponding applications to my liking (and may have to wait for an application to be compatible), I am now very reluctant to do them, after Sierra / High Sierra / Mojave / Catalina. In the case of Big Sur and Monterey I have decided that I won't do it at all.

To each their own, I guess. I would like to be in a position similar to you where I can do a quick OS upgrade and do not need to worry if "something is going to break", but I am not, and I don't use any of your applications (which may require OS upgrade to continue to work like the Adobe subscription apps), so my OS strategy has to be different from yours.

Older windows OS I used to keep the cab files on a hard drive and install that way so it never took very long. Newer OS like windows 7 or newer I downloaded from Microsoft directly and installed from USB. I typically install without incident because I do not keep older hardware around. But you also do not have to upgrade the older hardware, you do not have to be on the same OS on every system do you?

Not sure about your VM issues if every time you update you got to reconfigure your VM's then maybe you should be using a different VM software. I do not have to reconfigure anything in my VM's with Parallels after I update parallels or after I update the OS.

At first glance it looks like you are a Horder of OS's maybe you should get some streamlining going. MS hasn't supported vista (worst windows ever) in almost a decade. And windows 8.1 support ended before windows 7.

 

[TurbineSeaplane]

The still supported iMac 17,1 has Broadcom Wifi/BT. It's a BCM943602CDP card. Super expensive though. I'd guess that the drivers for the related BCM94360CD will remain in Monterey, we'll have to wait and see once the public beta lands in July.

See: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08428ZJV9/?tag=tonymacx86com-20

View attachment 521127

I hadn't even thought about my Broadcom WiFi/BT Card when considering the upcoming release.
I really hope they don't remove support or make anything an issue there.

 

[andrelabbe]

Well, as the Apple Silicon transition is proceeding, I am actually a bit surprised (the Intel version of) MacOS Monterey still retains support for Mac mini 2014 and iMacs from 2015. My Mac mini 2018 is eligible, although I will keep it on Mojave as I see no reason to move.

As for the OS itself, as far as I can see there is nothing to interest me or can entice me to upgrade. My main application on my main machine is VMware Fusion 11, which runs superbly on MacOS Sierra 10.12.6 (11.0.3) and High Sierra 10.13.6 (11.5.3). If I want it to run on Mojave or Catalina I can use version 11.5.7. I have no need to upgrade to Big Sur, and I certainly don't want to be forced to upgrade VMware Fusion because of a useless OS upgrade (to me). Not to say that Apple's refusal to release standalone updates for Big Sur has greatly soured my impression of Big Sur.

I am sure that if I were to adopt MacOS Monterey in the future I would be forced to upgrade VMware Fusion as well, but with Fusion 11 working fine for me, I don't want or need to upgrade. Therefore, like Big Sur, Monterey is already out of consideration for me.

I am tired of this yearly upgrade of operating systems for my computers. Upgrading the computer OS is a time-consuming and massive undertaking, and I shall skip as many OS versions as necessary if I find no compelling reason to move.

Hi
I do agree with you.

You only need to upgrade the OS if you want/need to run the latest version of your preferred Apps.
I still have my old Hackintosh running High Sierra since I can run all my Steam games which is not the case on later MacOS.
Also I have various Applications which works perfectly for what I do. Upgrading the OS would mean pay for the newer version of the Application which I do not need.
And yes I do use Big Sur on my other 'Mac' since I wanted to run the latest version of Xcode

 

[johnnytucats]

I just recently changed my system definition from iMac 14,2 to 15,1 on my Haswell build so that I could update to Big Sur. I wonder if it would run well on iMac 17,1 or if I'd need to stick with Big Sur.

The cut line seems to be anything prior to Broadwell so it seems to me that Haswell users (like me) wouldn't be able to upgrade to Monterrey.

 

[macnb]

Even if you can run macOS 12 on your Intel hack, some new features may not work. according to this:

• Portrait Mode blurred backgrounds in FaceTime videos
• Live Text for copying and pasting, looking up, or translating text within photos
• An interactive 3D globe of Earth in the Maps app
• More detailed maps in cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, and London in the Maps app
• Text-to-speech in more languages, including Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, and Finnish
• On-device keyboard dictation that performs all processing completely offline
• Unlimited keyboard dictation (previously limited to 60 seconds per instance)

The screws are being tightened on the old Intel Mac coffin.

 

[TurbineSeaplane]

Even if you can run macOS 12 on your Intel hack, some new features may not work. according to this:

• Portrait Mode blurred backgrounds in FaceTime videos
• Live Text for copying and pasting, looking up, or translating text within photos
• An interactive 3D globe of Earth in the Maps app
• More detailed maps in cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, and London in the Maps app
• Text-to-speech in more languages, including Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, and Finnish
• On-device keyboard dictation that performs all processing completely offline
• Unlimited keyboard dictation (previously limited to 60 seconds per instance)

The screws are being tightened on the old Intel Mac coffin.

Not great to see some things go ASi exclusive.

That said, I don't honestly care a single iota about any of those bullet points so I personally am all good for another year.

 

[Gogeta-Blue]

while intel macs will be able to run mac os monterey, some features will not be available, we are not talking about t2 chips features, my best guess is that the m1 chip has some intructions or features that intel cpu doesn’t have, either that or simply apple is doing it on purpose to force users to get rid of intel macs and buy new macs with the m1 chip that has full support for all the new features, option 2 sounds more like apple to me

i don’t know how apple can not make those features work on intel mac unless there is a limitation on the hardware meaning the cpu or apple simply doesn’t want to do it and use their software to make intel look bad and obsolete, i know many will say that intel is doing a fine job doing that themselves but remember

apple is facing out intel and also intel has been releasing ads against apple
so most likely apple is doing this by revenge just like what happened between apple and nvidia, the user is the one that it always come at the losing end

my point is that apple should fully support their device with the hardware they sold at that time, instead they reduce functionality simply because they have a grudge against that company, not really because is a hardware limitation

 

[sha1062]

I just recently changed my system definition from iMac 14,2 to 15,1 on my Haswell build so that I could update to Big Sur. I wonder if it would run well on iMac 17,1 or if I'd need to stick with Big Sur.

Since you seem to have a Polaris GPU, I'd switch to iMacPro1,1.

 

[andrelabbe]

my point is that apple should fully support their device with the hardware they sold at that time

Hi
No they do not have to. It is their OS they can do what they want. If we are happy or not that another matter.
I cannot speculate the why not or why yes!
On the coding side why spending time to make everything work on an 'old system'?
Yes you can run it but with limitation which for me is good enough.

Take IOS 15... It will still be running on SE1/6S but do not expect all the features as if you were running it on a 12.
I do own a SE1 and I am glad I can still use it. Now I do enough coding and know enough about HW to realise not to expect everything to be 'present' or 'running'.

If Apple were doing so people might be carrying on buying Intel Mac when we all know it will be a dead end sometime in the future.
Apple does not want (or have) to be in M$ position where they have to have their OS running on old platform.

 

[jbreef]

I'm confused. The announcement states Monterey compatible hardware as MacBook Pro (Early 2015 and later) Model Identifier: MacBookPro12,1. However, when I check on my MacBook Pro I get "MacBook Pro (retina 15-inch Mid 2015) and the model Identifier: MacBookPro11,4 in the System Report. How does a Early 2015 MacBook Pro have a higher Model Identifier value greater than the Mid 2015 MacBook Pro.