m4 Can "older" MacOSes work on the new M4 chip?

[vanpuffelen]

Question is relatively self-explainatory, but not quite. I'm asking whether or not "older" macOSes like Ventura or Sonoma work on the new M4 chip. I'm asking for an acquantance, who has a bunch of ProTools plugins that don't like cooperating with brand new versions of MacOS, which in this case is Seqouia.

 

Note: I am not asking whether or not the M4 can run ancient versions of MacOS like Leopard.

[Eigenvektor]

Pretty sure any macOS versions that were released with/after the M1 will work, since older builds are for x86 CPUs, not ARM, but newer ones are compatible with both. I don't see them purposely changing their hardware or software in a way that breaks backwards compatibility

[vanpuffelen]

1 minute ago, Eigenvektor said:

Pretty sure any macOS versions that were released with/after the M1 will work, since older builds are for x86 CPUs, not ARM, but newer ones are compatible to both

Fair enough. Has anyone tried it, though?

[Eigenvektor]

7 minutes ago, vanpuffelen said:

Fair enough. Has anyone tried it, though?

Apple has https://support.apple.com/en-us/102861 (and Sonoma: https://support.apple.com/en-us/105113)

 

Though the M4s are not on there (yet?)

 

~edit: I would assume they'll update the list once the M4 models are officially available (8th Nov). It's not listed for macOS 15/Sequoia either: https://support.apple.com/en-us/120282

[vanpuffelen]

7 minutes ago, Eigenvektor said:

Apple has https://support.apple.com/en-us/102861 (and Sonoma: https://support.apple.com/en-us/105113)

 

Though the M4s are not on there (yet?)

 

~edit: I would assume they'll update the list once the M4 models are officially available (8th Nov). It's not listed for macOS 15/Sequoia either: https://support.apple.com/en-us/120282

I guess it's a matter of time. Thanks a lot!

[Electronics Wizardy]

40 minutes ago, Eigenvektor said:

Pretty sure any macOS versions that were released with/after the M1 will work, since older builds are for x86 CPUs, not ARM, but newer ones are compatible with both. I don't see them purposely changing their hardware or software in a way that breaks backwards compatibility

I think they often won't have the drives and software needed for the newer functions on the laptops. I haven't tried that many systems with older macOS but I think its generally not supported, atleast by a release or two.

 

Can you use a VM? That might be a good 

[vanpuffelen]

14 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

I think they often won't have the drives and software needed for the newer functions on the laptops. I haven't tried that many systems with older macOS but I think its generally not supported, atleast by a release or two.

 

Can you use a VM? That might be a good 

My acquantance doesn't have it yet, because they don't know if older MacOS versions will work on it, which is why I'm asking.

[Electronics Wizardy]

4 minutes ago, vanpuffelen said:

My acquantance doesn't have it yet, because they don't know if older MacOS versions will work on it, which is why I'm asking.

I'd get a older macbook then, typically macs don't support older oses.

[vanpuffelen]

6 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

I'd get a older macbook then, typically macs don't support older oses.

They are looking for a desktop Mac. They would've liked to get the M3 Mac Studio, but that doesn't exist. M2 isn't really preferred, either. The M4 Mac Mini will probably stay their best bet, unless Apple will explicitly mention that the M4 Macs won't support Pre-Seqouia macOSes in their supported hardware pages.

[Eigenvektor]

11 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

I'd get a older macbook then, typically macs don't support older oses.

Ventura and Sonoma are not that old though. Ventura was updated to 13.7.1 only 1.5 weeks ago and if you check Apple's compatibility list, it supports the M3 M2 MacBooks Airs (sorry, got confused Sonoma has the M3s on its list)

[vanpuffelen]

1 minute ago, Eigenvektor said:

Ventura and Sonoma are not that old though. Ventura was updated to 13.7.1 only 1.5 weeks ago and if you check Apple's compatibility list, it supports the M3 M2 MacBooks Airs (sorry, got confused Sonoma has the M3s on its list)

I find Monterey to be on that line between old and new. It's basically EoL, and is the last officially supported macOS on my now-dead Early 2015 13" MBP. 

[Electronics Wizardy]

3 minutes ago, vanpuffelen said:

They are looking for a desktop Mac. They would've liked to get the M3 Mac Studio, but that doesn't exist. M2 isn't really preferred, either. The M4 Mac Mini will probably stay their best bet, unless Apple will explicitly mention that the M4 Macs won't support Pre-Seqouia macOSes in their supported hardware pages.

m1/m2 mac studio then? Pretty fast still and supports the older oses. 

 

2 minutes ago, Eigenvektor said:

Ventura and Sonoma are not that old though. Ventura was updated to 13.7.1 only 1.5 weeks ago and if you check Apple's compatibility list, it supports the M3 M2 MacBooks Airs (sorry, got confused Sonoma has the M3s on its list)

Yea there doing small dot releases, but I really doubt there adding newer hardware support to older releases.

[Eigenvektor]

7 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Yea there doing small dot releases, but I really doubt there adding newer hardware support to older releases.

Yeah, you're right. Likely bug fixes releases more than anything. Depends on how much new hardware there is (other than the CPU) that actually requires updated drivers

[vanpuffelen]

8 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

m1/m2 mac studio then? Pretty fast still and supports the older oses. 

 

I have no idea. I'd have to ask them, but I can't until next Wednesday. I'll keep looking into it.

 

8 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Yea there doing small dot releases, but I really doubt there adding newer hardware support to older releases.

With Apple being Apple, I wouldn't be surprised if they wouldn't.

 

2 minutes ago, Eigenvektor said:

Yeah, you're right. Likely bug fixes releases more than anything. Depends on how much new hardware there is (other than the CPU) that actually requires updated drivers

I tried to see how they did it with other models, which in this case was the Early 2015 13" MBP, and that had Yosemite as the oldest supported OS. Yosemite was released in October of 2014, whereas El Capitan was released in September 2015.

[Eigenvektor]

1 hour ago, vanpuffelen said:

I tried to see how they did it with other models, which in this case was the Early 2015 13" MBP, and that had Yosemite as the oldest supported OS. Yosemite was released in October of 2014, whereas El Capitan was released in September 2015.

Hm… seeing how macOS 14 (Sonoma) supports M3s, but macOS 13 (Ventura) apparently does not, I guess it's possibly only macOS 15 (Sequoia) will get support for M4s

[vanpuffelen]

1 minute ago, Eigenvektor said:

Hm… seeing how macOS 14 (Sonoma) supports M3s, but macOS 13 (Ventura) apparently does not, I guess it's possibly only macOS 15 (Sequoia) will get support for M4s

Most likely. That's quite sad.

[monopoly_hater]

Yeah, unlike with iDevice you can downgrade, but only up until the earliest version that model shipped with.