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Leopard system requirements

by Scott McNulty Oct 16th 2007 at 11:00AM

If you're reading TUAW (which you're doing right now!) then I suspect there are one or two things amongst the 300+ new features in Leopard that have whetted your appetite. Don't pre-order just yet though, because you have to make sure that your Mac can handle all that Leopardy goodness.

Here are the minimum specs your Mac will need to run Leopard, according to Apple:
  • Intel, G5, or 867MHz+ G4 processor
  • 512 megs of RAM (though if you only have 512 megs of RAM you should get some more. Trust me, I'm a pundit)
  • DVD drive (Leopard is shipping on a DVD, and your Mac needs to read it to be able to install it)
  • 9GB of free disk space (though I bet if you customize the install and leave out all those printer drivers and extra languages you can save lots of space)
In addition some features have further requirements:
  • Time Machine requires a hard drive in addition to your boot disk (external or internal is fine, I would imagine)
  • Photo Booth requires a camera of some kind (shocking!) and a processor better than a G4. If you want to do those wacky backdrop effects you'll need an Intel Core Duo or faster
  • Screensharing requires a speeding net connection (300 Kbps is Apple's recommendation)
  • DVD player requires a 1.6GHz or better proc for super cool de-interlacing (I hate interlacing!)
As you might expect, Leopard will work better on newer Macs, but older Macs aren't left out in the cold. A shiny nickel to the first person who gets Leopard to boot on a G3 iMac!


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If you're reading TUAW (which you're doing right now!) then I suspect there are one or two things amongst the 300+ new features in Leopard...
 

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Nadav Ben-Ami

Hello.. To the person who mentioned that PHOTO BOOTH will run on his G4, will it run on a dual processor 1.25 which really is not that much difference in performance to the 1.5.

Thanks,

Also, has someone figured out what would happen if fancy de-interlacing were enabled on a G4 dual system?

October 28 2007 at 2:14 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
SUJIR

Hi
can i install leopard in any laptop i.e a sony or a Hp which has about 2 gb ram and core2duo processor.

October 22 2007 at 10:51 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Mike

So is my dual 800MHz G4 out of luck with Leopard then?

That would make me a sad panda.

October 17 2007 at 10:17 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Blair Thiessen

All of you freaking out if front row is included with every Leapord... it is, at least in every developer build it was right in the application folder and I could launch it even on machines without a remote.

So you with old Mac Minis that don't know what to do with them. It's time to make them into a media hub.

October 17 2007 at 10:03 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
James Dooley

I've been waiting since before Tiger to upgrade (still running 10.3.9).

Using a 1.5 GHz PowerBook G4 with 1 GB RAM - can I handle Leopard??

Please say yes, please say yes, please say yes...

October 17 2007 at 7:50 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Josh

To run Front Row just fine on a Mac without built in bluetooth, use a wireless keyboard that comes with a USB dongle and type cmd-esc.

October 17 2007 at 12:28 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
aph3x

Will Apple be able to tell and/or disable a Mac running a second copy of Leopard? I figure I'd buy one for my MBP and install it on my g/fs MBP. I know its morally wrong but can it technically be done?

October 16 2007 at 11:45 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Michael K

I have a iMac G3 snow 700 mhz and would also give a nickel to any one who can get Leopard to run on a G3. I personally would not put it on mine, but just want to see how well it would work. If they make super drives and G4 upgrades for G3's, then os 10.5 in a striped down capacity should work. Mac geeks you have 10 days to get ready for the challenge.

October 16 2007 at 8:59 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Philometalist

@Sabon

Ever heard of XPostFacto?

It's an open-source piece of software that allows unsupported macs to run the latest Operating systems. They have conquered every version of OS X (up to Tiger so far) so far and I'm sure a version for Leopard will be on it's way soon. In the mean time, keep this link in your bookmarks.

http://eshop.macsales.com/OSXCenter/XPostFacto/Framework.cfm?page=XPostFacto3.html

October 16 2007 at 8:08 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Philometalist

For everyone who thinks they need a remote for Front Row, you don't, I'm not sure how Leopard will be but I have a Mac Pro 2.66ghz Quad and it runs Front Row just fine in Tiger 10.4* without a Remote via a simple system hack-

Found Here
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=2006110314322775

I can't be sure of course but I'll bet this hack will work in Leopard too, if necessary.

October 16 2007 at 8:01 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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