Apple unveiled Ventura, the next major release of macOS, at the Worldwide Developers Conference this afternoon. Like most macOS releases, its changes are mostly incremental, but it includes a new multitasking user interface called Stage Manager, new Continuity features to help your Mac interact with your iPhone and iPad, and several redesigned and updated apps..
The bad news is that Ventura is dropping support for a wide range of Intel Mac computers. The full compatibility list is below:
- iMac/iMac Pro 2017 and up
- MacBook Air 2018 and up
- MacBook Pro 2017 and newer
- Mac Pro 2019 and up
- Mac mini 2018 and up
- MacBook 2017 and later
- Mac Studio 2022 and later
Compared to the compatibility list for Monterey, Apple has thrown out all Macs released before 2017, including the 2013 Mac Pro (which was sold through December 2019) and the 2016 MacBook Pro models that introduced the Touch Bar. If your Mac uses an Apple T2 or Apple Silicon chip, you’re safe. If you’re running an older Intel Mac, it’s clear that Apple is aggressively phasing out support for these systems.
If you look at the macOS system requirements before the Apple Silicon transition began, it’s clear that Apple has accelerated the pace of phasing out older Macs. Both macOS 11 and macOS 12 dropped support for batches of older Macs, but prior to that, Apple only made big changes to the support list once every two years or so (10.12 and 10.13 supported almost all of the same Macs as did 10.14 and 10.15).
However, Apple has also removed many models prior to 2017 from support for iOS 16 and iPadOS 16, after three years that Apple hasn’t dropped support for any iPhone or iPad. It’s entirely possible that Apple provides fewer updates for older devices across the board, which is unrelated to Intel’s switch to Apple-Silicon that’s happening on the Mac side.
Older Macs that don’t run Ventura should be supported for about two more years with security updates and new versions of Safari. Apple typically provides updates for the three most recent versions of macOS at any given time, so Big Sur and Monterey will continue to update after Ventura releases in the fall. But these updates don’t always fix every known macOS security flaw—for the best protection, you should still use the latest version of macOS whenever possible.