Here Are All the macOS Ventura Features Your Intel Mac Won't Support

Apple's public release of macOS Ventura is expected sometime in October, but given the number of features in macOS Monterey that were limited to Apple silicon Macs, will Intel Mac owners again feel left out in the cold this fall?

m1 v intel thumb
Fortunately, it doesn't look like that will be the case this time round, with many of the major features in macOS 13 offering full functionality on both Intel and Apple silicon machines.

In fact, as long as your model of Intel Mac matches the minimum requirements for macOS Ventura, there's relatively little in terms of new features that will be off-limits to you. That said, here are three exceptions that we've been able to identify as being exclusive to Apple silicon.

Live Captions

live captions ventura
macOS Ventura includes support for Live Captions across all audio content, and that includes FaceTime, allowing you to see automatically transcribed dialogue during calls. Live captions will be available in English and are limited to the iPhone 11 and later, ‌iPad‌ with A12 Bionic and later, and of course Macs with Apple silicon.

Reference Mode with Sidecar

reference mode
Reference Mode with Sidecar lets you use a 12.9-inch iPad Pro with Liquid Retina XDR display as a secondary display with your Mac. "Reference" refers to the accurate and consistent representation of colors in professional workflows that involve review and approval, color grading, and compositing.

In Apple's example, the primary interface from Da Vinci Resolve is shown on a connected Studio Display, with color grading scopes on a MacBook Pro screen, and the fullscreen output image on an M1 ‌iPad Pro‌ in ‌Sidecar‌ mode.

Emoji Support in Dictation Mode

2021 most popular emoji
In macOS Ventura, Dictation automatically punctuates text with commas, full stops and question marks as you speak. You can also insert emoji with just your voice, although Apple says this particular feature only works on Macs with ‌M1‌ and later processors.

Dictation is available in Cantonese (Hong Kong), English (Australia, Canada, India, UK, US), French (France), German (Germany), Japanese (Japan), Mandarin Chinese (China mainland, Taiwan) and Spanish (Mexico, Spain, US).

Summing Up

As this short list demonstrates, there are far fewer restrictions in macOS Ventura for Intel users to contend with than there are in macOS Monterey. That said, macOS 13 does drop support for some Intel Macs sold between 2013 and 2016, so you may find that your model simply didn't make the cut for official compatibility.

ventura macs supported
Apple has almost finalized its two-year transition from Intel processors to its custom Apple silicon chips in Macs, with the changeover to be completed when the Mac Pro gets the Apple silicon treatment sometime this year. Expect Apple to reduce software support for Intel machines at a faster rate from 2023 and beyond.

macOS 13 Ventura is available to developers from this week, with Apple planning to provide a public beta in July.

Related Forum: macOS Ventura

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Top Rated Comments

djeeyore25 Avatar
39 months ago
Me: Now my Intel Mac is nothing but a paperweight.
Apple: Paperweight feature is only available on silicon Macs.
Score: 39 Votes (Like | Disagree)
tothemoonsands Avatar
39 months ago
I'm sure that as time goes on, there will be some compelling features that Intel users are missing out on. Despite this, I'm committed to my Intel iMac + Macbook Pro for at least several more years, until third party software catches up. The list continues to dwindle, but there are still some apps that I cannot run on the M-Series yet. For me, that is more important than these nifty features.

From a value perspective, I'd also like to see an advancement of the M-Series to the point where I can feel confident that my purchase will last 3-5 years without becoming effectively obsolete. I paid the price with a first gen Apple Watch, and despite being an early adopter, I'm more cautious these days.
Score: 28 Votes (Like | Disagree)
InuNacho Avatar
39 months ago

Reference Mode with Sidecar



Cool, the entire setup probably costs as much as the VideoToaster when it came out.



Attachment Image
Score: 20 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jonnysods Avatar
39 months ago
Well, running a Windows VM isn't on the list of AS features really either. Not a solid x86 one anyways.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ThunderSkunk Avatar
39 months ago
Couldn't care less. I'm staying on Mojave until the last transistor on this i9 blinks out.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Glenny2lappies Avatar
39 months ago

Well, running a Windows VM isn't on the list of AS features really either. Not a solid x86 one anyways.
That's the deal-breaker for Apple. There's a lot of Win-DOS developers using Macs with Win-DOS running in VMs.

That's what earns us money to pay for the premium kit.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)