Mojave on 16" MBP?

[Macintosh101]

This may be a silly question, but will it be possible to download and run Mojave on the new 16" MBP? Its not that I don't want to use Catalina, but I have a music program I use and various plugins that won't be compatible with Catalina for a while. Thanks

 

[Falhófnir]

Looks like it ships with Catalina as it's first OS version, so not possible because as far as Mojave will be concerned this hardware configuration doesn't exist.

 

[Quaking Bog]

Looks like it ships with Catalina as it's first OS version, so not possible because as far as Mojave will be concerned this hardware configuration doesn't exist.

Like you said, in nearly all cases, new Macs won't run older versions of MacOS, but there have been a few rare exceptions. I remember downgrading a Mac Mini once when I needed to go to an older OS.

Is there somebody out there who could actually try this, perhaps seeing if a new MacBook Pro 16 will boot from an external drive with Mojave?

I'm in the same camp as the original person asking the question. I've got a number of 32-bit apps I'll need to run for at least another year or two, but would prefer the MacBook Pro 16 if it can run Mojave. I'm hoping that since the leap from Mojave to Catalina is the first upgrade in many years that has disabled a large number of apps, maybe, just maybe, Apple made it so this new machine will work with Mojave?

 

[Honza1]

I suspect it will not be possible.
There is one ugly work around which I plan to use when I finally have to upgrade to Catalina in the future. Use virtualization - Parallels (and may be other VM software) support macOS as guest so you can install older version of macOS in VM and run 32bit version software there. It is not straight forward procedure, but I have installed it some time ago. It is also bit limited in available resources and occupies more RAM, etc. Plenty of limitations, but works.

 

[mpainesyd]

I have saved a copy of the last Mojave installation app in case there is a workaround for this. The 16" MBP is tempting but not feasible if I can only run true* 64 bit apps.

I have used Parallels for running Windows but have dropped it as the (Increased) subscription was not worth it.

* Some 64 bit apps apparently still have 32 bit components that won't like Catalina (or should that be the other way around?)

 

[littlepud]

Very unlikely for this to be possible. Earlier versions if macOS won’t have the drivers for this model.

 

[bsbeamer]

Regardless of all other support, GPU drivers for 5500 series will not work in Mojave and were not even working in the first versions of Catalina. Even for eGPU usage, Radeon 5700 and 5700 XT require Catalina 10.15.1+.

See this chart from SonnetTech for their eGPU compatibility and the notes on page 6:

https://www.sonnettech.com/support/downloads/manuals/Compatibility_Graphics_Cards.pdf

 

[fithian]

I suspect it will not be possible.
There is one ugly work around which I plan to use when I finally have to upgrade to Catalina in the future. Use virtualization - Parallels (and may be other VM software) support macOS as guest so you can install older version of macOS in VM and run 32bit version software there. It is not straight forward procedure, but I have installed it some time ago. It is also bit limited in available resources and occupies more RAM, etc. Plenty of limitations, but works.

Good luck getting Parallels to run Mojave on a Catalina computer. I paid for the software, installed it and tried it with all of my 32-bit apps that don't run in Catalina. None of those 32-bit apps would run using Parallels. I spent months getting tech support and Parallels decided that it would not work with the hardware on my MBP 16. I requested a refund, but they said you only have 30 days to find that it doesn't work, no 6 months. Avoid Parallels like the COVID-19.