macOS Monterey: Here Are All the Features Your Intel Mac Won't Support

[Mainsail]

The FaceTime portrait mode is the only feature I might care about on my i3 2020 MBA. The others features don’t mean much to me. In fact, I find the spinning globe thing kind of annoying.

I probably won’t upgrade my MBA for a while. There are new models rumored for next year, and I generally prefer not to buy the first iteration.

 

[Shirasaki]

If you're dropping that kind of coin on hardware, the odds are great you can easily afford to transition to the all-new uber-performant Apple Silicon. Typically that total cost will be paid down within 1-3 production jobs/projects.

Heh!? Are you serious? Even for big production companies and gigantic projects, upgrading a $50k machine to apple silicon just because makes no sense from all levels. If you think it makes any sense, that’s good ONLY for you.

 

[Shirasaki]

Windows+Intel is a match made in hell. Good luck if you make the switch though.

Oh…ok so Wintel becomes cancer and Apple ecosystem is pristine and sacred. Can’t be better than that huh…

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

None of these are inherently only possible with 'Apple Silicone', except Apple making them so.

Dictatorial comes to mind. Orwellian? Stunning? Disappointing? Heavy handed? Wow...

It's easy for them to tell me I need to spend a lot more money to replace the notebook I was forced to buy earlier in the year because of their crappy treatment of me over their disastrous butterfly keyboard failure. EAT DIRT APPLE! (I have a feeling they won't miss me)

This does seem a little more dramatic than earlier times they have marooned users. But to be honest, I don't think I'd use many of those, but now I can't... The FaceTime feature would be usable, but not enough to be forced to buy a new MBP.

EDIT: OMG!!! There is another hurricane. Watching The Weather Channel switch back to weather porn! Funny...

 

[theluggage]

Aren’t officially supported.
Here. Fixed for you.

...and therefore unsuitable for serious/professional work, potentially unstable & likely to stop working overnight if MS blocks the work-arounds, turning every software update into a lottery.

So, yeah, it could be an entirely bogus ruse to make everybody buy new PCs, so go ahead if you feel lucky or if you're not doing anything important with your PC. (Or, in the case of Windows, stick with Windows 10 which is still going to be supported until 2024 or something, and possibly beyond that if uptake of 11 is low).

 

[bobcomer]

Windows+Intel is a match made in hell. Good luck if you make the switch though.

That's actually how I make my money, and am quite happy with it. I only use MacOS at home.

 

[saudor]

If I recall correctly .... didn't Timmy mention along with the start of the M revolution that they will support intel and actually have other intel machines in the pipline? If so, where are they and will they be gimped too?

As far as i can remember, only the imac 2020 came out in August after the m1 announcement.

 

[SueperDrive]

This is ridiculous. My 2020 iMac is more powerful than those M1 Macs. Not to mention the Mac Pro. But obviously the most powerful Workstation in the World is not capable of spinning the globe. You need a mobile processor for that which barely can run mobile games. ?‍♂️

 

[eno12]

How can someone actually disagree with this?

Except that with background blurring on in Google Meet my 16" MBP (top spec) gets blistering hot and sounds like it will take off. Leaving out background blurring may be about the quality of the feature more than anything. Sure, it would probably work on all the "pro" machines just fine but would be below Apple's expectations on a Core i5 or weak Core i7. Then there is the code needed to support the feature. On M1 they are likely using the neural engine but with an Intel it would have to be written to use the CPU and GPU.

Honestly, these are new features, not existing ones. If I were Apple I would not bother writing them for an obsolete setup but focus on keeping these machines running as well as they can until they are EoL. I, personally, have never liked Intel (hated is closer to the correct word-- I have lots of reasons) and am happy to say my house is now Intel-free (x86-free if not for a PS5).

 

[yegon]

Coming from a 2013 MBP running Mojave, there’s a whole lot more my incoming 14” will do what my Intel-don’t!

 

[eno12]

This is ridiculous. My 2020 iMac is more powerful than those M1 Macs. Not to mention the Mac Pro. But obviously the most powerful Workstation in the World is not capable of spinning the globe. You need a mobile processor for that which barely can run mobile games. ?‍♂️

Sort of. Yes, your Mac has higher GPU scores but this is about the other things on the chip. These features likely all use the neural engine. Apple wrote them for it and it is understandable they don't want to write new code specifically for Intel Macs to support these features using the CPU/GPU.

And, not sure what you are talking about with barely running mobile games. The M1 is a beast and easily beat my 16" 2019 MBP for my workflow by 2-3x. It plays WoW at maximum graphics with higher than 30 fps. It plays FF XIV (through Rosetta 2 no less) at mid graphics with 30+ fps. These are things my 16" could never do. *Edit* these are with a 5120x1440p display.

 

[Hillstones]

So Monterey offers 5 features that I would never use on any Mac.

 

[Hillstones]

And, not sure what you are talking about with barely running mobile games. The M1 is a beast and easily beat my 16" 2019 MBP for my workflow by 2-3x. It plays WoW at maximum graphics with higher than 30 fps. It plays FF XIV (through Rosetta 2 no less) at mid graphics with 30+ fps. These are things my 16" could never do. *Edit* these are with a 5120x1440p display.

Sorry, but your M1 Mac is NOT faster in graphics than your 16" MacBook Pro with a dedicated GPU.

 

[Black Magic]

Bruh 99% of people will never need these features that are apple M1 only.

Not true. A lot of those features are very helpful and would be used. College students would utilize the text to speech feature. Folks that travel would use the detailed maps feature.

I'm a huge fan of Apple, but this is just wrong. They need to do better for their consumers.

 

[eno12]

Sorry, but your M1 Mac is NOT faster in graphics than your 16" MacBook Pro with a dedicated GPU.

Yes. It is. My 16" with a 560X is ~ 2.5 TFlop on the GPU and the M1 is 2.6 TFlop. The M1 also does not get as hot and does not throttle as much.

Edit: Should say was not is. I got rid of that Intel rubbish yesterday since my M1 Max is shipping soon. The newer Intel 16" has a Radeon Pro which is faster than the M1 but less than half as fast as the M1 Max/32.

 

[Rychiar]

So Google earth has been around for decades yet 2019 macs can’t get a 3D globe for Apple Maps??‍♂️

 

[Rychiar]

Haven’t we always had text to speech?

 

[macintoshmac]

It’s called M1 Max. Not M1 Pro Max as mentioned here in this article. Lol ?

This is preemptive. Next chipsets, Tim is definitely calling them mini, M2, M2 Pro and Pro Max.

 

[mikethemartian]

2021 - new chip required in order to render a globe in 3D graphics 🤔

The Amiga could do that in 1985.

 

[Biro]

Count me among those who feel all of these new features are in the "nice to have but, really, who cares" category. I may not bother upgrading to Monterey for a while - just like I'm sticking to iOS 14.8 on my mobile devices.

 

[alchemistmuffin]

And all these features that are Apple Silicon only, has to do with hardware: Neural Engine, which is only on Apple Silicon.

Expect Intel Macs to be fully dropped from the macOS Updates within 2-3 years, and Rosetta to be gone within 5 years.

Like Steve Jobs said, “technology moves fast”. Start planning to replace your Intel Macs within 2-3 years, even if you just bought one about year ago. Because it’s over.

(I also expect lot of PC makers to move to ARM within next few years as Microsoft continues to make refinements on Windows on ARM, I would even see Microsoft encouraging PC makers to ditch Intel X86 and X64 architecture altogether)

 

[nathansz]

What is also mean is that they won’t update Boot camp to support Windows 11 to give Intel Macs a new lease of life as a windows PC.

you don’t need boot camp to instal windows on an intel computer

 

[MrGimper]

Except that with background blurring on in Google Meet my 16" MBP (top spec) gets blistering hot and sounds like it will take off. Leaving out background blurring may be about the quality of the feature more than anything. Sure, it would probably work on all the "pro" machines just fine but would be below Apple's expectations on a Core i5 or weak Core i7. Then there is the code needed to support the feature. On M1 they are likely using the neural engine but with an Intel it would have to be written to use the CPU and GPU.

Honestly, these are new features, not existing ones. If I were Apple I would not bother writing them for an obsolete setup but focus on keeping these machines running as well as they can until they are EoL. I, personally, have never liked Intel (hated is closer to the correct word-- I have lots of reasons) and am happy to say my house is now Intel-free (x86-free if not for a PS5).

It's blurring a background, not modelling some complex fluid dynamics or weather system.

And with the "awesomeness" of metal, there should already be some kind of hardware-agnostic API that allows such a functionality ..... cash grab or just poor coding.

 

[MrGimper]

The Amiga could do that in 1985.

They should look up Scoopex, Red Sector etc and grab some of their coders

#AmigaLove

 

[Somian]

But it is still ridiculous thad very recent and very expensive Apple Mac devices will not handle simple things like displaying a globe. It is just so lazy (or possibly just another small example of artificially created obsolescence).

My intel macs can display a 3D globe in Apple Maps just fine, on macOSS Big Sur. You just need to go to 3D view before you zoom out. Am I missing something?