Lion System Requirements
- Mac computer with an Intel Core 2 Duo, Core i3, Core i5, Core i7, or Xeon processor
- At least 2GB of memory
- OS X v10.6.6 or later (v10.6.8 recommended)
- 7GB of available space on hard drive
- Some features require an Apple ID; terms apply.
Open System Profiler in Utilities folder. Note the Model Identifier in the display on the right.
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Macs that will support OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion
As usual, the newer the Mac the better:
- MacBook Pro – 13″ from mid 2009 or later, 15″ from late 2007 and newer, 17″ from late 2007 and newer
- MacBook Air – late 2008 and newer
- iMac – models from mid 2007 and newer
- MacBook – 13″ aluminum from 2008, 13″ from 2009 and newer
- Mac Mini – early 2009 and newer
- Mac Pro – early 2008 models and newer
- XServe – early 2009 models and newer
Macs that are NOT expected to support OS X Mountain Lion
Older Macs and those with weaker GPU’s will likely be left behind:
- Anything with an Intel GMA 950 or x3100 integrated graphics card
- Anything with an ATI Radeon X1600
- MacBook models released prior to 2008
- Mac Mini released prior to 2007
- iMac models released prior to 2007
- Original MacBook Air
Your model must have a 64-bit EFI boot ROM. See OS X v10.6- Macs that use the 64-bit kernel
An easy way to tell if you are running a K64 kernel is to use the
uname
command-line program. The "x86_64" in the excerpt below means that we are running a 64-bit kernel. If the output showed "i386" instead, that would mean a 32-bit kernel.
$ uname -a Darwin... root:xnu-1456.1.25~1/RELEASE_X86_64 x86_64
If your computer does not boot into the 64-bit kernel automatically you can force it to by restarting and holding down the "6" and "4" keys after the chime. Re-run the above command in Terminal. If you don't see "x86_64" then your model does not have a 64-bit EFI boot ROM and cannot boot Mountain Lion.
