If you have an Intel Mac — your computer hasn't disappeared anywhere this year. But Apple has just launched a countdown with a clear ending.

At WWDC 2026, the company officially announced macOS 27 Golden Gate — the first version of the system that will not physically install on any Intel Mac. Four models were cut off last: MacBook Pro 16" (2019), MacBook Pro 13" (2020), iMac 27" (2020), and Mac Pro (2019). Owners of all previous Intel machines were cut off even earlier.

Why now — and why not earlier

The technical reason for abandoning Intel is not the architecture as such, but the Neural Engine — a hardware block for processing AI on Apple Silicon chips. The Apple Intelligence features in macOS 27 rely on it, and this gap cannot be closed with software. Intel machines simply don't have the required hardware.

The transition took exactly six years: the M1 appeared in November 2020, and since then Apple has systematically transitioned each Mac lineup to its own chips. macOS 26 Tahoe, announced back at WWDC 2025, was pre-announced as the last system with Intel support — so there's no surprise here.

Three deadlines you should know

The situation is not binary "works / doesn't work". There are three separate horizons:

• Now: Intel Mac is frozen on macOS 26 Tahoe. No new features, but the system functions.
• Approximately 2028: Apple has committed to providing security patches for Intel Mac for at least three years after Tahoe's release in September 2025. After that — complete lack of support.
• macOS 28 (approximately 2027): Rosetta 2 will disappear — a compatibility layer that allows running old Intel applications already on Apple Silicon Mac. According to gagadget, more than 18,800 programs are at risk, still compiled only for x86_64.

"If your Intel Mac is your main work machine, the window until 2028 gives you time to think, but not unlimited."

gagadget.com

Boot Camp — another silent casualty

Along with Intel, Boot Camp also disappeared: in Golden Gate it simply doesn't exist. For those who used Mac to run Windows natively, the only alternative now is Parallels or similar on Apple Silicon. This is not a catastrophe, but an additional expense when switching.

What this means in practice

For most home users, three years of frozen updates is not critical. It's harder for those who keep Intel Mac in a corporate or creative environment: old engineering software, industry utilities, plugins for audio/video that haven't been updated since 2019–2021. For them, Rosetta 2 was an invisible safety net — and it will disappear with macOS 28, even if you've already switched to the M-series.

Apple started showing warnings about the end of Rosetta 2 already in macOS Tahoe 26.4 — so there is time for a software audit, but it's running out.

If the developer of your critical corporate tool hasn't released a native version for Apple Silicon by the time macOS 28 launches — are you ready to change not just the hardware, but your entire work stack?