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Cult of Mac points to a report from French site MacGeneration highlighting the system requirements for OS X Mountain Lion. Among those Macs currently compatible with OS X Lion, those with lower-end Intel GMA X3100 or GMA 950 integrated graphics will not be able to upgrade to Mountain Lion:
- Any Intel Core 2 Duo MacBook from late 2007 - late 2008 (Model Numbers: MB061*/B, MB062*/B, MB063*/B, MB402*/A MB403*/A MB404*/A, MB402*/B)

- The Mid-2007 Mac mini (Model Numbers: MB138*/A, MB139*/A)

- Late 2006 polycarbonate iMac (Model Number: MA710xx/A)

- The original early 2008 MacBook Air (Model Number: MB003LL/A)
Users of those older systems may still receive a few of Mountain Lion's enhancements such as with Apple's Safari 5.2 for Lion, but the vast majority of improvements will require a new machine with higher specs.

Update: At least one developer tells us he has been able to install Mountain Lion on a Late 2006 iMac and MacBook Pro without problems. So, the developer builds do not seem to enforce these restrictions.

Update 2: Systems using ATI's Radeon X1600 graphics will also be incompatible with OS X Mountain Lion.

Article Link: OS X Mountain Lion Drops Support for Many 2006-2008 Macs with Integrated Graphics
 

wikus

macrumors 68000
Jun 1, 2011
1,795
2
Planet earth.
Thats ok, Snow Leopard is still superior (faster, less bloated, more stable and has expose).

No thanks, I'll pass on Lion and Mountain Lion.
 

utwarreng

macrumors 6502
Aug 8, 2009
393
129
Well that's a bummer, considering I just put an SSD into my early-2008 MacBook last night to try and squeeze another year or so out of it before updating.
 

ghostlines

macrumors regular
Feb 3, 2010
154
13
Amsterdam
What's graphic intensive?

If you don't play games you should be still able to install Mountain Lion imo.

I mean c'mon if it can run Lion why not Mountain Lion? Isn't this just the Snow Leopard style incremental? But at least they didn't drop support for the discrete graphics card models.
 

nicklad

macrumors 6502
Jun 13, 2007
258
3
Nottingham, UK
If you don't play games you should be still able to install Mountain Lion imo.

I mean c'mon if it can run Lion why not Mountain Lion? Isn't this just the Snow Leopard style incremental? But at least they didn't drop support for the discrete graphics card models.

Not when you're lacking the 64-bit KEXTs and there's no 32-bit kernel...

It's dead hardware that the OEMs don't support either...
 

macbookairman

macrumors 6502a
Jan 15, 2008
900
9
Nebraska
Not surprising. I put Lion on my late '07 MacBook, and while the OS works fine and the speed is decent, the lack of multitouch really kills the experience. Its just kind of awkward since features like Launchpad and Mission Control are really multitouch focused. It still works great as an email and web browsing machine though, and it doesn't really need big OS updates if that's all it does.
 

DJHonda84

macrumors member
Jun 11, 2009
36
0
Having flashback to when I bought my early 2009 Mac mini. Thankfully I held out for that update before buying. Patience back then == OS upgrade this summer! :D

I'm guessing that this will be the last upgrade on my current hardware though.
 

Yamcha

macrumors 68000
Mar 6, 2008
1,825
158
At least one developer tells us he has been able to install Mountain Lion on a Late 2006 iMac and MacBook Pro without problems. So, the developer builds do not seem to enforce these restrictions.

Thats a relief for some people with older machines.. I'm guessing once Mountain Lion is released you could get it to work with some modifications..

The same was true with Lion, even though Core Duo's were not natively supported people have found a work around..
 

bse3

macrumors member
Dec 27, 2011
55
0
Holy ****. Now I'm really happy that I wasn't cheap, and picked the 13" unibody macbook (not pro) late 2008 version. Apparently that one is supported, but the white one is not.
 

nicklad

macrumors 6502
Jun 13, 2007
258
3
Nottingham, UK
Thats a relief for some people with older machines.. I'm guessing once Mountain Lion is released you could get it to work with some modifications..

The same was true with Lion, even though Core Duo's were not natively supported people have found a work around..

The 'work around' was changing the processor or running a developer preview...

I'm assuming there is still a 32-bit kernel in this preview...
 

dwman

macrumors 6502
Nov 15, 2007
359
153
San Francisco
Fine by me. I have a late 2007 MPB and it's slow as molasses with Lion. I plan putting in a SSD to speed things up a bit. No killer features in ML that can't wait until my next Mac purchase.
 

Magnum Opus

macrumors regular
Apr 28, 2011
142
0
Holy ****. Now I'm really happy that I wasn't cheap, and picked the 13" unibody macbook (not pro) late 2008 version. Apparently that one is supported, but the white one is not.

I have this mac and I'm running 10.8 no problem :)
 

Hardtimes

macrumors regular
Mar 9, 2011
114
2
Girlfriends running lion on her 2006 iMac with 3gb ram. Runs perfectly.

However she isn't allergic to change.
 

jdguggs10

macrumors member
Aug 7, 2011
49
0
Boston
NERDS ANGRY BECAUSE THEY ARE FORCED TO CHANGE!!!

Go use Linux then. It's a business, Apple makes paper. It's their way or the highway.
 

Anonymous Freak

macrumors 603
Dec 12, 2002
5,559
1,245
Cascadia
I hope they don't drop support for all of the late 2006 iMacs, just because the lowest-end, education-only model doesn't have the right graphics...

(It's also odd, because the GMA 950 systems still support Boot Camp, while the Radeon X1600 systems don't!)
 

SkippyThorson

macrumors 68000
Jul 22, 2007
1,662
917
Utica, NY
Holy ****. Now I'm really happy that I wasn't cheap, and picked the 13" unibody macbook (not pro) late 2008 version. Apparently that one is supported, but the white one is not.

I have this mac and I'm running 10.8 no problem :)

The both of you just made my day a whole lot better. I saw Late-2008 up there and got worried for a minute. I'm extremely happy with my decision now. Still rocking the removable battery and the latest OS. It's a good day. :)

Are there any odds is decision could be reversed, or are we (the Unibody Aluminum MacBook users) pretty safely locked in to getting Mountain Lion? I'm happy with Lion, but I would like to know I'm still thought about in Apple's world.

Great, great news. Can't wait to update. Even though it feels like Lion just came out. :p
 

Magnum Opus

macrumors regular
Apr 28, 2011
142
0
The both of you just made my day a whole lot better. I saw Late-2008 up there and got worried for a minute. I'm extremely happy with my decision now. Still rocking the removable battery and the latest OS. It's a good day. :)

Are there any odds is decision could be reversed, or are we (the Unibody Aluminum MacBook users) pretty safely locked in to getting Mountain Lion? I'm happy with Lion, but I would like to know I'm still thought about in Apple's world.

Great, great news. Can't wait to update. Even though it feels like Lion just came out. :p

Mountain Lion is running much smoother for me in this first preview than any build of 5, 6 or 7. I can't see any reason why they'd reverse that!
 
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