In January 2006, Apple released the first generation of Macs which used Intel processors in place of the previous line of Power PC processors. These Macs, running a special Intel-only build of Mac OS X Tiger 10.4.4, marked the second time Apple had switched processor architectures.

In 2020, Apple announced a similar third transition from Intel processors to Apple-designed Apple Silicon processors. Beginning in November 2020, Apple has steadily released new Mac models which used Apple Silicon processors and phased out Mac models which used Intel processors. The final Mac model to transition to Apple Silicon was the Mac Pro in 2023.

With Apple no longer selling any Mac models which use Intel processors, it was just a matter of time before Apple announced that, like it had done for previous processor transitions, that a particular macOS release would be the final one to support Macs using Intel processors. Apple made that announcement today at WWDC 2025, as part of the Platform State of the Union session video.

For macOS Tahoe, the following Intel Mac models are supported:

• 2019 16-inch MacBook Pro
• 2020 13-inch MacBook Pro with four Thunderbolt 3 ports
• 2020 iMac
• 2019 Mac Pro