Windows 8 and Mac OS X Mountain Lion Requirements

Being mid June, we’re already half way through the year. For many tech gurus and everyday consumers alike, the next half of the year will be a time of operating system updates. With Mac OS X Mountain Lion due in July and Windows 8 due by Q4 of this year, PC and Mac users have some exciting things to look forward to. However, will your current computer meet the requirements to run the next gen operating systems from Microsoft and Apple?

Normally when a new operating system is released, it offers a significant redesign and several new features. This is definitely the case with Windows 8, but Apple’s OS X Mountain Lion won’t feature as many drastic changes.
Windows 8 Requirements
Microsoft, being mainly a software company (as far as Windows is concerned), has made significant efforts to keep the requirements for running Windows 8 low. This way, the company will simply be able to sell more copies of Windows 8 to more customers, without customers having to purchase new computers in order to run the operating system. The Windows team’s optimization efforts have been able to keep Windows 8 system requirements to a quite similar recommendation of Windows 7.
Microsoft recommended system requirements for running Windows 8 are as follows:

• Processor (CPU) – 1GHz processor or faster
• Graphics (Video) – DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 drive or greater
• RAM memory – 1GB (32-bit), 2GB (64-bit)
• Hard drive – 16GB (32-bit), 20GB (64-bit)

Keep under consideration that those are the minimum requirements that are recommended for a Windows 8 based computer. A machine with the above specs is capable of using Windows 8 as an operating system, but it may not be the smoothest experience.
I tried running Windows 7 on a computer with a > 1GHz processor (Pentium 4), a decent graphics card, 1GB of RAM and a hard drive beyond 20GB. It worked, but it was incredibly slow.
As mentioned above, Microsoft’s requirements seem a bit low, but if they market Windows 8 with those requirements, it will help sales. For a more optimal Windows 8 environment, you may want to consider…
Recommended specs:

• Processor (CPU) – Core Duo, Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Quad, i3, i5, i7
• Graphics (Video) – Dedicated Graphics or newer model Integrated graphics. 128 MB of video RAM and up.
• RAM memory – 2GB (32-bit), 4GB (64-bit)
• Hard drive – 64GB or higher (32-bit), 64GB or higher (64-bit)

Mac OS X Mountain Lion
Mac OS X operating system releases can be a bit different than Windows, as far as system requirements. For Mac OS X Mountain Lion, Apple recommends the following system requirements:

• OS X 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard) or later (upgrade from…)
• 2GB of RAM memory
• 8GB of available hard drive space
• Some features require an Apple ID
• Some features require an internet connection

Apple specifically lists compatible Mac computers that can run Mountain Lion. Because OS X is made specifically for Mac computers only, Apple has provided the following…
Mac OS X Mountain Lion is compatible with the following Mac products:

• iMac – mid 2007 models and newer.
• MacBook – late 2008 aluminum, early 2009 and newer.
• MacBook Pro – mid/late 2007 and newer.
• MacBook Air – late 2008 or newer.
• Mac mini – early 2009 or newer.
• Mac pro – early 2008 or newer.
• Xserve – early 2009.

These supported Mac OS X Mountain Lion compatible models are likely specified due to tech specs; and as you can tell from the above list, each particular Mac has different compatibilities with Apple’s next gen OS.
Additionally, specific features that will be offered by Mountain Lion will only be supported by newer Mac computers also:


Thank you for stopping by the site for today’s post. If you plan on installing Windows 8 on your PC, you very likely won’t have to purchase a new PC; and if you want to install Mac OS X Mountain Lion on your Mac, it will have to be a 2007 or newer model (depending on specific Mac).