Intel Macs Don’t Support These macOS Sonoma Features

Apple on Monday previewed macOS Sonoma, the upcoming update to its Mac operating system. The new desktop operating system will be available to the public this fall. While there are several new features coming in the new version, not all of the new features will be available on Intel-based Macs.

As first noted by MacRumors, the macOS Sonoma features page has fine print explaining that the following features require a Mac powered by an Apple silicon chip:

• Presenter Overlay, a feature that displays the user on top of the content they are sharing in any video conferencing app.
• Game Mode, which prioritizes CPU and GPU performance while gaming by limiting the performance of background tasks.
• A new high-performance mode in the Screen Sharing app.
• The ability to pair Made for iPhone hearing devices directly with a Mac.
• The ability to invoke Siri by saying “Siri” instead of “Hey Siri.”

While Apple does not indicate why the features are not available on Intel Macs, it is likely related to performance considerations, the fact that only Apple silicon includes a Neural Engine capable of machine learning tasks.

macOS Sonoma will likely be released to the public in October and is compatible with the following Macs:

• MacBook Pro: 2018 and later
• MacBook Air: 2018 and later
• Mac mini: 2018 and later
• iMac: 2019 and later
• iMac Pro: 2017
• Mac Studio: 2022 and later
• Mac Pro: 2019 and later