Apple is quietly ending support for Intel Macs and MacBooks

If you’re using an older Mac or MacBook with an Intel chip, then we’ve got bad news, as Apple has quietly dropped support for any device sold before 2020 that doesn’t have an Arm-based Apple silicon chip (that is, Macs with M1 chips or later, or the A18 Pro, in the case of the MacBook Neo).

Apple announced macOS 27 Golden Gate at WWDC 2026, highlighting new features and performance improvements. However, it didn’t reveal which Macs would get the upcoming operating system, which is set to be released ‘this autumn’, so expect it around October.

Instead, we found a confirmation tucked away at the bottom of the macOS news page. This is a bit cheeky as it’s a big change that will affect a lot of people, although it’s also not that surprising as it was only a matter of time before Apple dropped support for older Macs.

Goodbye Intel

Here is the list of Macs and MacBooks that will be able to run macOS 27 Golden Gate:

MacBook Air M1 or later
MacBook Pro M1 or later
MacBook Pro 13-inch M1 2020 or later
MacBook Pro 14-inch M1 Pro 2021 or newer
MacBook Pro 16-inch M1 Pro 2021 or later
MacBook Neo
iMac M1 2020 or later
Mac mini M1 2020 or later
Mac Studio 2022 and later

By concentrating on its own chips, which use Arm architecture, Apple will also no longer have to worry about Macs running on Intel’s x86 chip technology, which will hopefully mean the macOS team has more opportunity to improve software performance and add features in the future.

If you have an Intel Mac, you can continue to use it with macOS 26, although running an older operating system that may not receive security updates in the future is not recommended. So it might be time to consider a new Mac – see below for some top deals.

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