See if your Mac can handle the next-generation Mac OS

Oct 8, 2013 14:29 GMT  ·  By

Apple will release OS X Mavericks any day now, so it’s probably a good idea to see if your Mac will be able to run it. Outlined below are the requirements dished out by Apple so far.

The Cupertino giant hasn’t made it a priority of informing the customer base about the hardware and software requirements of OS X Mavericks, but some details are available scattered around the Apple developer site (including the release notes for Mavericks betas).

What we’ve been able to gather so far is that Mavericks requires: a 64-bit, Intel-based Mac running either Mac OS X v10.6.7 Snow Leopard or later and at least 8GB of free disk space to install the software.

As far as the RAM is concerned, Apple is mum, but it’s reasonable to assume you’ll be needing 2GB of memory to ensure smooth sailing (both for installing, and for using the software).

The actual Macintosh computers that are capable of running Mavericks (according to the various Mavericks changelogs dished out by Apple during the beta phase) are outlined below.

iMac (Mid 2007 or newer) MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or Early 2009 or newer) MacBook Air (Late 2008 or newer) MacBook Pro 13-inch (Mid 2009 or newer) MacBook Pro 15-inch (Mid/Late 2007 or newer) MacBook Pro 17-inch (Late 2007 or newer) Mac mini (Early 2009 or newer) Mac Pro (Early 2008 or newer) Xserve (Early 2009)



To cut a long story short, basically all you need is a Mac that is less then five years old.

Certain features in OS X Mavericks require certain types of hardware, such as Power Nap, AirPlay mirroring, and using multiple displays.

Mavericks is the first version of Apple’s desktop OS to include iBooks and Maps, and delivers all new features for Finder, Safari, Calendar, and Notification Center. iCloud Keychain keeps all your passwords in one place and doubles as a form filler when necessary.