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OS X 10.9.1 Compatibility Report: Socket 2011

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tonymacx86

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With the availability of Apple's new Mac Pro tomorrow, we thought it would be best to review general compatibility status of Intel's Socket 2011 motherboards and CPUs. The new Mac Pro will use Ivy Bridge - EP Xeon CPUs with 4, 6, 8 or 12 cores.

Sandy Bridge - E/EP
These CPUs have been natively recognized by the OS X kernel since 10.7.3. However CPU power management may not work with certain setups and operating system versions. This means no speedstep, sleep, etc... 4 core Socket 2011 CPUs like the i7-3820 have sleep/wake functionality in 10.9+

Here is a list of the Sandy Bridge - E/EP CPUs from the Buyer's Guide.

Intel Xeon E5 2609 (4 core)
Intel Xeon E5 2630 (6 core)
Intel Xeon E5 2640 (6 core)
Intel Xeon E5 2650 (8 core)
Intel Xeon E5 2690 (8 core)

Intel Core i7-3820 (4 core)
Intel Core i7-3930K (6 core)
Intel Core i7-3960X (6 core)​

For specific installation and post-installation tips, check out the following guide:
http://www.tonymacx86.com/mavericks-desktop-guides/118831-gigabyte-ga-x79s-up5-mavericks-guide.html

Ivy Bridge - E/EP
Launched in September 2013, these CPUs are not working natively with OS X as of 10.9.1. Kernel support is expected to be added after launch of Mac Pro. General OS X support likely in early 2014.

NOTE: This info is subject to change. Special thanks to MacMan and eelhead for their X79 testing, and the enthusiastic Socket 2011 users on this forum. If you have anything to add regarding Socket 2011 CPUs, add it here!
 
Ivy Bridge - E/EP
Launched in September 2013, these CPUs are not working natively with OS X as of 10.9.1. Kernel support is expected to be added after launch of Mac Pro. General OS X support likely in early 2014.

...but are they working natively under Mountain Lion? Or am I mis-interpreting the above?

--B
 
...but are they working natively under Mountain Lion? Or am I mis-interpreting the above?

--B

NO native support for Ivy Bridge E/EP yet in any OS X.
 
Great News :thumbup: Also extremely happy to see that Apple is producing these
in the States with American workers. Time to celebrate this (long awaited) arrival :D
 
I have a question. Why doesn't 10.9.1 not support the Ivy Bridge E/EP chips, if the Mac Pro launches tomorrow, and it does support these chips? Does the Mac Pro come with 10.9.2 or something?
 
I have a question. Why doesn't 10.9.1 not support the Ivy Bridge E/EP chips, if the Mac Pro launches tomorrow, and it does support these chips? Does the Mac Pro come with 10.9.2 or something?

Was just wondering the same thing, is it shipping with a special build of Mavericks
that will get specific updates that other Macs won't? Would we then have to fake
a Mac Pro Sys Def of 6,1 to get the same updates ? Some questions to ponder. :think:
 
Was just wondering the same thing, is it shipping with a special build of Mavericks
that will get specific updates that other Macs won't? Would we then have to fake
a Mac Pro Sys Def of 6,1 to get the same updates ? Some questions to ponder. :think:

They have done something like this in the past. A 'special build' is pre-installed on the machine and the next point update of OSX incorporates those changes.

In the meantime, if you re-install from said machine, it downloads the special build too. How effective this is on a hack though Im not sure about.

I wouldn't personally want to run with it until its been fully incorporated into the latest update anyway. Too many unknowns for me I think. I can see how some folks might want to give it a try though.

Exciting times ahead for sure!

Im quietly hoping there may be a new Mac mini soon too. A website I use regular that sells Mac minis and other Apple stuff has had 4 placeholders for Mac minis in place for a couple of weeks, which suggests to me they are expecting new ones. They are in addition to the existing models.
 
They have done something like this in the past. A 'special build' is pre-installed on the machine and the next point update of OSX incorporates those changes.
.

Makes sense. Hopefully they do incorporate the new socket support into the next Mavericks update. I don't get why they would incorporate it though, since it's not like you can switch sockets on a real Mac; maybe so they don't have to maintain 2 versions of the OS/kernel? But I hope they do like you said they've done in the past.
 
Makes sense. Hopefully they do incorporate the new socket support into the next Mavericks update. I don't get why they would incorporate it though, since it's not like you can switch sockets on a real Mac; maybe so they don't have to maintain 2 versions of the OS/kernel? But I hope they do like you said they've done in the past.

It has to be incorporated, otherwise they would have to manage several builds of OSX; that number could theoretically grow every time a new Mac of any dsecription was released. It makes far more sense having a single build that incorporates support for all hardware they use, and then add new stuff to the next planned update. I *think* they have been doing this for a while now.

I'm interested to see what chipset is reported on the new Mac Pro, and what that brings to the table for both socket 2011 users and any potential future build considerations.
 
Exciting times ahead for sure!

Im quietly hoping there may be a new Mac mini soon too. A website I use regular that sells Mac minis and other Apple stuff has had 4 placeholders for Mac minis in place for a couple of weeks, which suggests to me they are expecting new ones. They are in addition to the existing models.

I really like the Minis too. First Mac I ever bought was a 2005 G4 Mac Mini. It still runs Tiger perfectly
today, all original hardware is the same except for Ram maxed out to 1 GB. Apple does build their stuff
to last if properly cared for. Gotta believe that Apple will stay with the same build for all Macs. They
usually tend to keep doing what they've always done in the past. :beachball:
 
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