Report: Apple’s Mac OS X Leopard minimum requirement: 867 MHz G4

“Just weeks ahead of its public launch, Apple Inc. has updated the minimum system requirements for its next-generation Leopard operating system to exclude 800MHz PowerPC-based Macs,” Prince McLean reports for AppleInsider.

Apple “had long stated in developer documentation that the software would require ‘an Intel processor or a PowerPC G4 (800MHz or faster) or G5 processor,'” McLean reports.

But, “engineers for the company recently determined that Leopard installs on 800MHz PowerPC G4 systems ran ‘too slow,'” McLean reports. “Leopard will now require Macs with ‘an Intel processor or a PowerPC G4 (867 MHz or faster) or G5 processor.'”

Full article here.

MacDailyNews Note: It’s not that Leopard won’t run on lower-spec’ed Macs, just that Apple won’t be recommending it (based on the fact that our still-working iMac DV 400 MHZ G3 with 192MB of RAM is currently sitting in a corner happily running Mac OS X 10.4.10 Tiger).

59 Comments

  1. >>“Maybe we can cut out some core services (like frontrow, Crash report, Apache, etc) and you can run it fine even on 700 Mhz iMacs.”
    Front Row is no longer a core service in Leopard. Actually, it’s now just an app. I’m serious.

  2. I’m not sure about this. I had a 867mhz powerbook, and I had a heck of a time getting it to update to 10.4. 10.5, I’m even less sure about.

    It’s nice how the latest OS can at least theoretically be installed on a laptop that I bought used three years ago.

  3. Thanks to an earlier poster who brought up the point about the graphics card. If 10.5 makes my dual 2ghz g5 with a stock radeon 9600 sound like a wind tunnel all day, I may have to pass.

    Probably should hold off for a month or two anyway, just to make sure.

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