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Minimum Mac hardware requirements for OS X and its software

Eug

Eug

Lifer
After going through the process of buying a low end used MacBook, I thought it might be useful to try to catalogue the minimum hardware features in relation to OS X and its software, at least for Intel hardware.

10.6 Snow Leopard - Intel CPU
10.7 Lion - Core 2 Duo and 2 GB RAM
10.8 Mountain Lion - Core 2 Duo, 2 GB RAM, and GeForce 9400M*

Apple Video Decode Acceleration Framework - GeForce 9400M*, OS X 10.6.3.
OpenCL - GeForce 9400M*

Aperture 3 - Core 2 Duo with OS X 10.7.5 or 10.8.2, 2 GB RAM
Final Cut Pro X - Core 2 Duo with OS X 10.6.8 or 10.7.5 or 10.8.3, 2 GB RAM, GeForce 9400M*. (Note: Minimum 256 MB video RAM required, so GeForce 8600M GT 128MB not supported)
Logic Pro - OS X 10.6.8, 2 GB RAM
iLife '11 - OS X 10.6.3. (Core 2 Duo for GarageBand "Learn To Play" and iMovie AVCHD)
iTunes 10 - OS X 10.5
iTunes 11 - Intel CPU, OS X 10.6.8

iTunes 720p - 2 GHz Core 2 Duo**, iTunes 10, OS X 10.5
iTunes 1080p - 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo**, iTunes 6 (?), OS X 10.5, 2 GB RAM

* Recent Intel integrated graphics chips like Intel HD are supported. X3100 and below (eg. GMA 950) are not.
** Should be fine on slower CPUs if you have an Apple machine which has GeForce 9400M or better.
 
dave_the_nerd said:
I'm sorry to threadcrap, but everymac.com already lists most of this.

Not only can you, say, list Intel Macs by minimum or maximum OS version supported, but it even lets you sort by obscure stuff like HD interface or CPU socket type.
Click to expand...
I have used the everymac database, but you have to know what you're looking for. Otherwise there is actually too much information - gets overwhelming.

The above is more a quick-and-dirty guide as to what to look for in Macs of the last several years.
 
10.6 requires at least 1 Gb memory. 10.6 will allow installation on 2006-era 32-bit Intel Core Duo Macs only if memory is upgraded to at least 1 Gb.
10.7 requires a 64-bit Intel CPU.
 
vailr said:
10.6 requires at least 1 Gb memory. 10.6 will allow installation on 2006-era 32-bit Intel Core Duo Macs only if memory is upgraded to at least 1 Gb.
10.7 requires a 64-bit Intel CPU.
Click to expand...
Many of the Core Duo machines had socketed CPUs. If you can find a C2D pull from, say, a laptop (I think some Thinkpad T60s and T61s had socketed CPUs too) you can upgrade and install 10.7 just fine.

The only caveat then is that Intel made a couple different mobile sockets, and two of them are physically compatible but not electrically. They have a very, very similar name, too - like FPGA479 and FPGA479-B or something annoying like that.
 
dave_the_nerd said:
Many of the Core Duo machines had socketed CPUs. If you can find a C2D pull from, say, a laptop (I think some Thinkpad T60s and T61s had socketed CPUs too) you can upgrade and install 10.7 just fine.

The only caveat then is that Intel made a couple different mobile sockets, and two of them are physically compatible but not electrically. They have a very, very similar name, too - like FPGA479 and FPGA479-B or something annoying like that.
Click to expand...

I've taken apart plenty of Core Duo MacBooks, none of them had socketed CPUs. Unless you are talking about doing a hackintosh.
 
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