PSA: If on Intel mac, stay off Sequoia (or have rollback plan)

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As what happened with macOS 14 with it breaking drivers for non intel macs, macOS 15 FURTHER breaks drivers for intel macs

Thread confirms nothing but problems. Apple has ABANDONED all but apple silicon and that’s all they’re testing on their new OS, period. a LOT of players lost access to wow by upgrading to macOS 14 (and wrongfully blamed blizzard for it)

Prediction, even more users will install macOS 15 and do the same (blame blizzard for the broken drivers in macOS 15). Don’t get caught in that. the best version of macOS for an intel mac remains macOS 13.x for most macs (and macOS 14 only for a handful of metal 3 compatible AMD cards)

When I say intel, i don’t just mean intel GPUS but AMD GPUs as well (and intel CPUs).

The OPPOSITE is true for apple silicon. For Apple silicon, it’s most stable version yet. They’ve optimized drivers fixed bugs and even added new features like AVX/AVX2 emulation to rosetta. if you are on M1 or higher you should install sequoia 100% (provided you updated all your 3rd party apps first such as little snitch and what not).

So just TL/DR

  • Intel Macs: Don’t just install macOS 15 day one only to find out it’s broken (because it is based on people who already did it for you during beta).
  • Apple Silicon macs: DO install macOS 15 once you’ve ensured your apps are compatible.
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Thanks for posting this. I have an Intel Mac and updated to Sonoma when it came out. I downgraded to Ventura as I wanted to continue to play WoW, but was wondering if Sequoia would fix this problem. Unfortunately, it looks like they won’t, unless I buy a new computer.

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I don’t know if they fix that problem or not but i highly doubt it based on posters on that thread saying it only introduced even more issues. Apples dev time truly is only on newest hardware and not the rest.

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Came here for this info… many thanks. I’m one of the annoyed running 10.14 (was unable to downgrade reliably) and biding my time for the M4 Pro Mini release next month.

You did say there are some AMD GPUs that are Metal 3 compatible… do you have a recommendation for one? I have a Vega64 in my eGPU but I could swap that out if something else will be more stable.

Incidentally, for about the last two weeks I’ve been experiencing the red glitches and some other artifact issues while running WoW on 10.14, so it’s not limited to Sequoia. I’m wondering if Apple released a stealth driver update in one of the recent security fixes.

Incidentally, my 2019 MBP with a Vega20 is perfectly happy on 10.14… not sure what the difference is between that machine and my Mini.

Thanks.

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I just updated from Ventura to Sequoia (2020 Intel iMac) with no apparent graphics or performance regressions in WoW.

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please keep us informed. that mac has AMD gpu right?

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Thanks for this update. I’m still on Ventura but considering upgrading to Sequoia. I might wait a bit longer to upgrade just to make sure. Please let us know if it still works or crashes at log-in screen.

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Absolutely no issues here with Sequoia with my intel MacBook Pro (both 5500 and 6600xt eGPU). Running a little smoother than macOS 14.

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My problem was that I couldn’t get it to run on Sonoma whatsoever. I’m now using Ventura, but don’t want to upgrade until I’m certain WoW will run on Sequoia as rolling back to previous macOs versions is a time-consuming nightmare.

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Running on M2 Max, running smoothly in Sonoma only last weekend heroic raid was disaster… But the other people in the raid on Windows had similar fps issues and with high end AMD cpu’s and high end nVidia cards so seems more server related peak time raid.

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So running M1 & M1pro chips, I need to hear from someone else who has updated & has no issues, I know this is for intel & AMD chips but just want to hear from more people.

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Metal 3 capable gpus are probably the only exception, which is pretty much only possible with egpu at this point

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It looks like I’m stuck with Ventura then until I buy a new MacBook.

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This is what Apple says is Metal 3 compatible:
“Metal 3 is supported on the following hardware: iPhone and iPad: Apple A13 Bionic or later Mac: Apple silicon (M1 or later), AMD Radeon Pro Vega series, AMD Radeon Pro 5000/6000 series, Intel Iris Plus Graphics series, Intel UHD Graphics 630. [1]”

That sounds like most recent Intel hardware is supported. In fact, my system report says that both my eGPU’s Vega 64 and the Mini’s internal UHD 630 are running Metal 3 in Sonoma. It doesn’t seem to help much…

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even though intel gpu metal 3 supported, taht driver is broken, and has been since macOS 14, i doubt they fixed it in 15. you can experiment if you want but have a backup plan

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Or if you’re on a 2019 Mac Pro. Had no issues with Sonoma. Debating Sequoia – not sure if there’s anything on it I care about. I will probably install it on my M1 machine though.