Prediction on macOS 10.15 Supported Devices

[macrumor2018]

I've been wondering which macs will be supported by macOS 10.15 (the next major macOS release), since Mojave (10.14) only supports 2012 or later macs. I bought a late 2011 15" MacBook Pro in May 2012 and was so frustrated that I hadn't waited an extra month. Given that my 2011 MBP was no longer supported with MacOS updates, I bought a brand new 15" one last month.

My family also has a late 2012 iMac.

It seems easy enough to predict with iOS devices, as each generation seems to get dropped one at a time. But with Macs it seems a bit more hit and miss.

So a couple of questions...

How was I supposed to know that the 2011 macs lacked metal capable GPUs? Was this known by anyone other than Apple?

Is there a way that you guys know of to predict which macs will be the next to lose support?

Which macs do you think will be dropped next? And do you think macOS 10.15 will have identical system requirements to 10.14?

 

[theapplehead]

I've been wondering which macs will be supported by macOS 10.15 (the next major macOS release), since Mojave (10.14) only supports 2012 or later macs. I bought a late 2011 15" MacBook Pro in May 2012 and was so frustrated that I hadn't waited an extra month. Given that my 2011 MBP was no longer supported with MacOS updates, I bought a brand new 15" one last month.

My family also has a late 2012 iMac.

It seems easy enough to predict with iOS devices, as each generation seems to get dropped one at a time. But with Macs it seems a bit more hit and miss.

So a couple of questions...

How was I supposed to know that the 2011 macs lacked metal capable GPUs? Was this known by anyone other than Apple?

Is there a way that you guys know of to predict which macs will be the next to lose support?

Which macs do you think will be dropped next? And do you think macOS 10.15 will have identical system requirements to 10.14?

Honestly I don’t think anyone knew that Apple would drop support for 2011 MBP’s. I definitely didn’t know. I bough a late 2011 MBP about 5 months prior to the release of Mojave. I did hear a rumor that Apple might drop support for these older devices since they didn’t have Metal, but it was all speculation and almost everyone agreed that that would never happen. Yet here we are. To answer your next question, I’d say that it is highly unlikely that Apple would drop support for yet another series of Macs with 10.15, though it is possible. All we can do now is guess. But at least you have about 6-7 months with your iMac being supported for sure. Even if it isn’t, you can use dosdude’s tool to update unsupported macs. From personal experience I can tell you he did an excellent job on it, and it works very well. Hope this helps you out. Cheers!

 

[macrumor2018]

It seems like the non-retina 2017 imacs aren’t a whole lot different to the 2012 iMacs when you look at the specs. Other than being a bit faster and having thunderbolt 3 along with 802.11ac wifi they haven’t actually come that far in almost 5 years, at least as far as specs go...

 

[macrumor2018]

I just thought of something else.

It seems that the Ivy Bridge Macs should be supported at least until 2019, due to the mid 2012 MacBook Pro being taken off the market in late 2016. Haswell Macs should be supported until 2021, given that the 2014 Mac mini was only taken off the market a month or so a go.

Does this sound logical?

 

[ASentientBot]

Apple tends to have a two year cycle of OS releases recently. One version adds many features and drops support for some Macs, while the next is mostly bug fixes and small improvements. For example, Yosemite to El Capitan, and Sierra to High Sierra. (Though there are many exceptions to this rule.)

I would guess that the next release will be to Mojave what High Sierra was to Sierra: stability improvements in place of actual new features. I doubt any hardware will lose support.

However, with that said... with the likely complete removal of OpenGL, all our unsupported Macs may suffer greatly. A fully Metal-based WindowServer will likely spell the end for macOS on non-Metal GPUs (like the nVidia Tesla chip in my MacBook ).

 

[subjonas]

What is the expected cut off? I have a 2012 rmbp. Will Mojave be the last os for this laptop? Thanks.

 

[rosegoldoli]

most likely tbh. some 2012 macs can barely handle mojave. might be time to get a new laptop considering its 7 years old

 

[subjonas]

most likely tbh. some 2012 macs can barely handle mojave. might be time to get a new laptop considering its 7 years old

Thanks. Yeah it’s amazing how this laptop has held up. Besides decreased battery life, it runs as well as the day I bought it brand new. I should mention though, it’s still on Mavericks so that might be why. I’ve been missing out on new features over the years, which I’ve mostly been fine with, but it’s starting to add up and some of the rumored features on 10.15 are too tempting. I’ll probably upgrade when the new MacOS comes out.

 

[rosegoldoli]

Thanks. Yeah it’s amazing how this laptop has held up. Besides decreased battery life, it runs as well as the day I bought it brand new. I should mention though, it’s still on Mavericks so that might be why. I’ve been missing out on new features over the years, which I’ve mostly been fine with, but it’s starting to add up and some of the rumored features on 10.15 are too tempting. I’ll probably upgrade when the new MacOS comes out.

yes macs are machines built to last! technology just keeps improving so even 5 years behind would be risky especially if you want to get more updates down the line

 

[dogslobber]

I think the same list of Macs for Mojave will support Sequoia too. Some 2012 machines were still being sold in 2016.

 

[subjonas]

I think the same list of Macs for Mojave will support Sequoia too. Some 2012 machines were still being sold in 2016.

Why do you think that? Does macOS drop support for devices only every other year or something?

 

[dogslobber]

Why do you think that? Does macOS drop support for devices only every other year or something?

This -> Some 2012 machines were still being sold in 2016.

 

[subjonas]

This -> Some 2012 machines were still being sold in 2016.

Forgive my ignorance, but I don’t understand the connection. What does it being sold 3 years ago have to do with the next OS update supporting it?

 

[dogslobber]

Forgive my ignorance, but I don’t understand the connection. What does it being sold 3 years ago have to do with the next OS update supporting it?

Apple computers usually get a minimum of five to six years support before the hardware stops working.

 

[subjonas]

Apple computers usually get a minimum of five to six years support before the hardware stops working.

Gotcha, thanks.

 

[vaugha]

I have a 2012 rmbp 15" that is 7 years old. It runs 10.14.4 w/o a single issue or performance degradation. After 7 years of using macos, I haven't experienced a single slowdown or have I ever reinstalled the os once due to problems. I see a lot of disk swapping due to the limitation on the ram size (8gb), which is expected given its age, but that's about it. This kind of experience is unheard of with windows. I did a w10 reinstall 5 months ago on my gaming machine and I get bsods every 10 days or so. Ughhh. I would not use w10 if I wasn't a gamer.

Anyways, I wouldn't be surprised if my 2012 mbp will not get official support for 10.15 due to its age.

 

[mikzn]

I have a 2012 rmbp 15" It runs 10.14.4 w/o a single issue or performance degradation. After 7 years of using macos, I haven't experienced a single slowdown or have I ever reinstalled the os once due to problems.
Anyways, I wouldn't be surprised if my 2012 mbp will not get official support for 10.15 due to its age.

I have a 2012 MBP non retina and agree - it runs great on Mojave! I also have a new rMBP 2015 i7 Quad Core - I can't tell the difference between them performance wise for normal use on Mojave.

That said, I won't be shocked if they move the bar up for iOS 10.15 and exclude any pre 2015 / 2016 models and create more hardware sales - the 2012 - 2016 models were awesome

 

[smokesletsgo]

Very unlikely that 2012 machines will be dropped. The only reason 2011 were out of Mojave is because 2011 machines' GPUs didn't have Metal support, 2012 do. Can't see any reason, too soon.

 

[lec0rsaire]

Thanks. Yeah it’s amazing how this laptop has held up. Besides decreased battery life, it runs as well as the day I bought it brand new. I should mention though, it’s still on Mavericks so that might be why. I’ve been missing out on new features over the years, which I’ve mostly been fine with, but it’s starting to add up and some of the rumored features on 10.15 are too tempting. I’ll probably upgrade when the new MacOS comes out.

I would stay on Mojave as the last OS if you have a lot of 32-bit software that you want to be able to keep using. I highly recommend getting a fresh battery for that machine and keeping it as your backup whenever you buy a new MBP. Since it has an SSD it will always be good. While Apple may consider them obsolete next year, the reality is that computers have reached a point where it takes much longer for them to be truly obsolete than they did in the past.

For example a 2002 computer in 2009 would've been nearly useless for Web 2.0, flash video and 720p/1080p Youtube even with a full sized mid-tier GPU. I remember trying to play the 1080p Terminator 2 copy provided with one of the DVD era home releases (I believe Extreme DVD) and even with a 2.4 GHz Pentium 4 and an ATI Radeon 9500 Pro which could run Half Life 2 and Doom 3 flawlessly, it was a stuttering mess!

Today there's nothing a 2018 machine than a 2012 can't do. The 2018s just do them faster. Kaby Lake and newer have hardware HEVC encoding/decoding. So even a weak 2018 MBA will playback 4K video faster than a 2012 MBP that can still outperform the Air in many areas!

 

[subjonas]

I would stay on Mojave as the last OS if you have a lot of 32-bit software that you want to be able to keep using. I highly recommend getting a fresh battery for that machine and keeping it as your backup whenever you buy a new MBP. Since it has an SSD it will always be good. While Apple may consider them obsolete next year, the reality is that computers have reached a point where it takes much longer for them to be truly obsolete than they did in the past.

For example a 2002 computer in 2009 would've been nearly useless for Web 2.0, flash video and 720p/1080p Youtube even with a full sized mid-tier GPU. I remember trying to play the 1080p Terminator 2 copy provided with one of the DVD era home releases (I believe Extreme DVD) and even with a 2.4 GHz Pentium 4 and an ATI Radeon 9500 Pro which could run Half Life 2 and Doom 3 flawlessly, it was a stuttering mess!

Today there's nothing a 2018 machine than a 2012 can't do. The 2018s just do them faster. Kaby Lake and newer have hardware HEVC encoding/decoding. So even a weak 2018 MBA will playback 4K video faster than a 2012 MBP that can still outperform the Air in many areas!

Thanks for the advice. I have some older software I may need to keep running, but none are 32-bit.
Yeah, my 2012 has been a workhorse. I almost don’t want to upgrade because of how well it still performs, but even if the next macOS supports it, I might still upgrade in order to get other features like 5k monitor support. I could keep the 2012 as a backup, but if my next mbp performs nearly as dependably as this one, it will just sit around for many years which will be a waste. I’d rather sell it or give it to someone I know who needs it, and just buy a replacement for the new mbp if it ever comes down to that.

 

[lec0rsaire]

Thanks for the advice. I have some older software I may need to keep running, but none are 32-bit.
Yeah, my 2012 has been a workhorse. I almost don’t want to upgrade because of how well it still performs, but even if the next macOS supports it, I might still upgrade in order to get other features like 5k monitor support. I could keep the 2012 as a backup, but if my next mbp performs nearly as dependably as this one, it will just sit around for many years which will be a waste. I’d rather sell it or give it to someone I know who needs it, and just buy a replacement for the new mbp if it ever comes down to that.

Yeah in that regard the new machines are superior. The I/O is just much faster. Double the speed per port in fact. Thunderbolt 3 with USB-C is a game changer. It offers a lot of versatility and allows you to buy USB 3.1 gen2 10 SSDs like the Samsung T5 with speeds over 500 MB/s. $100 for 500 GB & $180 for 1 TB. You can also buy Thunderbolt 3 SSDs like the Samsung X5 which is nearly as fast as the internal NVMe in the 2016 & newer MBPs. Those cost a couple hundred but if you need the speed they’re worth it and cheaper than buying a huge internal NVMe that still costs a fortune from Apple.

5K displays will also keep coming down in price and they are a dream to work with.

 

[norda72]

What do you think? How many older Macs will have support for the upcoming system? Will Mac Pro 5.1 from 2012 be dropped? I may have asked this before, but this computer is driving me almost nuts with all compatibility problems with everything from Bluetooth to bad videocards and old technique from 2010. I have now bought a new keyboard and it works but I can’t start up in recovery-mode with it (I have Apple Magic Keyboard with Numeric keypad).

 

[Jyby]

Science Rules!

 

[Dave245]

I still have a late 2012 iMac (the first one they designed with the thinner edge) I’m hoping it will still be supported with the latest MacOS this year! I’m trying to hold off on buying a new iMac until Apple redesign them, but I do love having the latest MacOS

 

[subjonas]

I hope any device made in 2012 is unsupported... Time to buy a new computer OP xD

Hope or think? Why would you hope that?