Apple announced its first Apple Silicon chip, the M1 chip, in November 2020. Between now and then, the Cupertino-based tech giant has continued to expand its silicon lineup with faster, more efficient chips.

Though this does mean better performance and battery life for newer Macs, one thing has always been obvious: Intel Macs were living on borrowed time. Apple announced macOS Tahoe during the WWDC 2025 keynote today, and it's the final major macOS release for Intel-based Macs.

The writing has been on the wall for Intel Macs

Though Apple didn’t mention anything during the WWDC 2025 keynote, Matthew Firlik, Apple’s senior director of developer relations, confirmed during the WWDC Platforms State of the Union that macOS Tahoe will be the final release for Intel Macs.

After going over the benefits of Apple Silicon and how the company has managed to add “incredible features” like Apple Intelligence and Game Mode since beginning the transition from Intel to Apple Silicon, Apple urged developers to help users migrate to the Apple Silicon versions of their apps.

Though they didn’t expand much on it, it’s been confirmed that Intel-based Macs still supported in macOS Tahoe will continue to receive security updates for three more years. This includes the following models:

• MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2019)
• MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2020, Four Thunderbolt 3 ports)
• iMac (27-inch, 2020)
• Mac Pro (2019)

You’ll still get a lot of the exciting upgrades coming with macOS Tahoe, like the design refresh with the new Liquid Glass material, the Continuity features, Spotlight upgrades, and essentially all features, excluding the ones that rely on Apple Intelligence. This is because Apple Intelligence only works on Macs equipped with Apple Silicon chips.

When Apple first announced the transition to Apple Silicon, it mentioned that it would continue to “support and release new versions of macOS for Intel-based Macs for years to come.” Though the company has been slowly dropping software support for Intel-based Macs, it’s now official that the last models still hanging on will get their final major update with macOS Tahoe.

So if you’ve been holding onto your Intel-based Mac and aren’t ready to bid farewell to it just yet, it might be time. Apple’s said its goodbyes, so now might be a good time to consider finally upgrading to one with an M-chip.