Using Fusion to run current Mac OS

[ronmacstein]

I have an older Mac Pro 3,1 which still has a lot of life in it.

However, Apple will no longer allow me to upgrade to the current Mac OS.

I have VMware Fusion 8 installed and currently run only Windows 10 in it.

Could I create a virtual machine in VMware Fusion and install the current Mac OS in that virtual machine?

[haralds]

You should be able to run higher version guests than what you are using.

Note that folks have run higher versions than El Capitan natively by having an updated WiFi/BTLE card and modifying the installer. Check here: macOS Sierra Patch Tool  You might also have to upgrade the graphics card to get full Metal support.

Mac Pro 1,1 and 2,1 can also boot all the way to El Capitan by using a custom boot.efi, but are limited from going higher due to Xeon instruction set limitations on those machines. They also do not support higher versions as VMware guest, since VMware does not emulate processors.

[ColoradoMarmot]

You'll run into some issues - there's no 3d acceleration in OSX guests for example.  So things like iMessages, iTunes, Photoshop, and Quicktime are going to have limitations.  When Apple forces everything to 64-bit code, I'm not sure Fusion will be able to have a guest on a 32 bit system, so you may only be buying a year or so.

That machine's 9 years old, it's probably time to start planning for a replacement.

[wila]

dlhotka agreed on the 3D issues, but I think you're confusing a MacPro1,1 with a MacPro3,1 on the 32 bit issue.

The MacPro3,1 comes with E5462 processors which are 64 bits and not too bad in performance I would say.

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Wil

[ColoradoMarmot]

Hmmmm, good point.

Does it have full 64-bit support?  I know some of the windows world was a strange hybrid.

[wila]

Hi,

Sure that processor isn't "state of the art" anymore, but it should run most workloads, certainly the ones that just depend on a 64 bit instruction set.

Intel® Xeon® Processor E5462 (12M Cache, 2.80 GHz, 1600 MHz FSB) Product Specifications

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Wil