Hello...
I'd like to know the latest Mac OS version I can install on a 2010 aluminum tower Mac. My Macbook Pro of the same year is on Yosemite, but I've been warned to go no higher.
Does the same apply to the towers? I'd like to go to El Capitan or even High Sierra, if possible, but whatever the highest compatible version # is.
Thanks.
Mac Pro, Windows 10, It's either Win 8, 9 or 10
Also check what release year that will tell you for sure. According to Mac Tracker app 2009 and 2008 will only go to El Capitan (10.11). The 2010 and 2012 will go to Mojave (10.14) provided the video card supports metal. Metal is like DirectX it's a video technology. To make your Mac Pro metal capable you will need to change the video card. There are lots of threads on this.
Also check what release year that will tell you for sure. According to Mac Tracker app 2009 and 2008 will only go to El Capitan (10.11). The 2010 and 2012 will go to Mojave (10.14) provided the video card supports metal. Metal is like DirectX it's a video technology. To make your Mac Pro metal capable you will need to change the video card. There are lots of threads on this.
If your identifier is MacPro5,1 then according to Wikipedia 'macOS 10.14 "Mojave" if equipped with a Metal-capable GPU, otherwise macOS 10.13 "High Sierra" '. (You would have had to retro-fit Metal, it was first available in 2014).
If it’s a silver tower, it’s not the 2013 model. That’s the goofy round black thing.
You can still get Sierra, which is pretty stable on my 2010 Mac Pro. I’d recommend that over Hign Sierra.
Every Mac Pro can run OS X Lion, the next OS released after Snow Leopard, so I question the expertise of your Mac techie. Take a look at About this Mac, click on system report, to see what model you have and what’s installed.
It would help if you posted the model identifier. Open Applications/Utilities/System Information. It should open to the 'Hardware Overview'. The second line shows the model identifier, the model type and two numbers separated by a comma.
Yours appears not to be 'Metal-capable', according to a list posted in another thread it would apply to Mac Pros on and after 2013.
Thank you Roger. I think this tower is from before 2013. It's not recent, though it's still a fairly powerful machine.
This is a loaner, but there's a possibility to owner may be willing to part with it. If that happens, I'll look into getting High Sierra on this thing.
Thanks again.
~ K
kahjot, verdejt, thank you for the responses.
I appreciate all the time you guys took to share your knowledge with me. I seldom need to get this geeky, so I am a tad out of the loop compared to folks like you.
I may need to come back to this thread for reference, but I'm assuming these hang out on Apple's servers for a while.
Thanks again.
anything marked "solved" (as this thread is) will be here for a good long time. Google crawls this site from time to time so a google search with the right terms will find this thread (after maybe a week has gone by).
I do not know what a "metal-capable" GPU is, but if I could get High Sierra onto it, that would probably be satisfactory for my needs.
Thanks!
Thanks for the response.
What makes Sierra preferable to High Sierra?
Thanks.
Oh... Mac techie told me that the machine would not support anything past Snow Leopard.
Running Windows 10 on it now. Started this thread for the possibility of establishing a dual-boot setup. So... not sure if I could get that info to you??
Keithiepoo can also sign in and then click on the “Content” link at the upper right. Within Content, he can click on Authored or Participated, either of which should show this thread.
The Latest Possible Version of OS X on a 2010 Aluminum Tower?
