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beamer732

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 22, 2020
3
0
Hi All,
I am considering buying a refurbished 2017 iMac Pro, but need to know the highest/latest IOS that will run on this hardware.
Anyone know, or can anyone point me to a source to search?
Thanks,
Bill
 

theMarble

macrumors 65816
Sep 27, 2020
1,023
1,509
Earth, Sol System, Alpha Quadrant
The iMac Pro can run macOS 13 Ventura, which is the latest release of macOS.

Given that Apple is switching away from Intel, it is highly likely that this year's release of macOS, macOS 14, will not support the iMac Pro, so if you want to install it you will have to use OpenCore Legacy Patcher.
 
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Yebubbleman

macrumors 603
May 20, 2010
6,024
2,617
Los Angeles, CA
Hi All,
I am considering buying a refurbished 2017 iMac Pro, but need to know the highest/latest IOS that will run on this hardware.
Anyone know, or can anyone point me to a source to search?
Thanks,
Bill
Macs, such as the iPad Pro, run macOS, not iOS. iOS is only for iPhones at this point.

The iMac Pro (the 2017 model is the only one) currently runs the latest macOS release. There's no word on whether it will run the next release. But, given that it has an Intel Xeon and the Apple T2 Security Chip, I'd guess that it will be supported to run the next one too.
 

Yebubbleman

macrumors 603
May 20, 2010
6,024
2,617
Los Angeles, CA
iPad Pros, in fact all iPads run iOS. Macs, the computers, run Mac OS. Everything else; iPads (all types), iPhones, iPods, even AppleTV run a version of iOS. (iPad OS & TVOS).
All Apple OSes are derivatives of macOS (Mac OS X) at the end of the day.

I'll grant you that iPadOS is still mostly a fork of iOS. But the two are going to diverge more over the course of time. Hell, it wouldn't surprise me if the iPad mini diverged from the rest of iPadOS over time given how many elements from larger iPads just aren't a thing on the iPad mini.

The Studio Display absolutely runs iOS. No question. Same with (at least) the (first generation) HomePod (if not the HomePod mini and second generation HomePod).

tvOS has definitely diverged more substantially. It's true that the pre-tvOS second and third generation models ran iOS. The fourth generation Apple TV (aka Apple TV HD) and all three generations of Apple TV 4K decidedly run tvOS which is different enough from iOS to not be iOS anymore.

embeddedOS, the OS that runs the Touch Bar on 2016 and 2017 Touch Bar MacBook Pros shares its roots with watchOS. bridgeOS, the OS that the T2 Security Chip runs on T2-equipped Intel Macs shares its roots with watchOS mostly (pretty sure there's some iOS in there too, seeing as the T2 is effectively an A10 Fusion).

But, at the end of the day, watchOS, bridgeOS, embeddedOS, tvOS, iOS, and iPadOS are all macOS (Mac OS X).
 
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Silencio

macrumors 68040
Jul 18, 2002
3,530
1,662
NYC
The iMac Pros were pretty nice machines, but I would not buy one in the year 2023 unless I absolutely needed an Intel processor for whatever reason. A Mac Studio + external display will have much better performance today and greater longevity.
 

Yebubbleman

macrumors 603
May 20, 2010
6,024
2,617
Los Angeles, CA
The iMac Pros were pretty nice machines, but I would not buy one in the year 2023 unless I absolutely needed an Intel processor for whatever reason. A Mac Studio + external display will have much better performance today and greater longevity.
I'm not even sure that'd be the Mac I'd buy even if I needed an Intel Mac. They're not too far off from the cost of a Mac Pro, which has substantially better upgradeability and a faster set of processors. If a Mac Studio or any other Apple Silicon Mac can't do it for you, your best bets are:

1) MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2019)
2) iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2020)
3) Mac Pro (2019)

If you need portability, 1). If you don't, 2). If you need something that 2) can't do and, again, can't be done on an Apple Silicon Mac, then 3).

The iMac Pro (2017) on the higher-end configurations and for SOME workflows will absolutely destroy the iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2020). But the value proposition there is poor compared to the others.
 
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DarkPremiumCho

macrumors 6502
Mar 2, 2023
276
177
You are referring to the Mac operating system? That would be macOS.

iOS is the operating system running on iPhones and iPod touches.

I remember Apple provides 7 years OS updates in average. So it's likely that the macOS released in 2024 could be the last macOS that supports iMac Pro 2017.

After that, Apple would still release security updates for a few years, but no more feature updates.
 

Arctic Moose

macrumors 68000
Jun 22, 2017
1,599
2,133
Gothenburg, Sweden
I remember Apple provides 7 years OS updates in average. So it's likely that the macOS released in 2024 could be the last macOS that supports iMac Pro 2017.

The first Intel Macs shipped with 10.4 Tiger, and support for PPC was dropped entirely in 10.6 Snow Leopard, just two years later, which means the last PPC Macs got nowhere near seven years.

The 2016 MacBooks were dropped already last year, so I think it is safe to assume the 2017 MacBooks will be axed this year. The iMac Pro may make it another year, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Ventura is the last supported version of macOS.
 
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