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Why is my late-2012 Intel Core i7 (64-Bit) iMac considered obsolete?

Why is my late-2012 Intel Core i7 (64-Bit) iMac considered obsolete and no longer upgradeable beyond macOS Catalina? 32-Bit app support was dropped a couple years ago, and all new Macs now only support 64-Bit apps, which is what my iMac is. Any clarification would be greatly appreciated.

iMac 27″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Aug 1, 2021 2:37 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Aug 1, 2021 10:06 PM

Because your iMac is already nine years old and Apple prefers not to continue allocating resources to support software on such old machines.


It does not mean your iMac will suddenly stop working. It will continue to work as you have always used it. You simply will not be able to use some modern features, especially when you consider the age of your machine.


macOS Catalina is still a very current release of MacOS and Catalina is when 64-bit support was made mandatory so you're good to go.

2 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Aug 1, 2021 10:06 PM in response to OMMBoy

Because your iMac is already nine years old and Apple prefers not to continue allocating resources to support software on such old machines.


It does not mean your iMac will suddenly stop working. It will continue to work as you have always used it. You simply will not be able to use some modern features, especially when you consider the age of your machine.


macOS Catalina is still a very current release of MacOS and Catalina is when 64-bit support was made mandatory so you're good to go.

Why is my late-2012 Intel Core i7 (64-Bit) iMac considered obsolete?

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