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Tahoebob
Contributor
Contributor

2012 Mac Pro running Mac OSX Mojave

I have a Quad Core Mac Pro 5,1 with a metal GPU. Why is Fusion 11 not compatible with this? Do I have to jump ship to Parallels?

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dempson
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

VMware Fusion 10 and later require host CPU features that only exist on newer generations of Intel processors. As listed in the system requirements in most cases you need a 2011 or later Mac, but there is a special case for the 2010/2012 Mac Pro, which needs to be a 6-core or better model.

The Xeon processor used in 4-core 2010/2012 Mac Pro models is an older generation (W35xx instead of W36xx/E56xx/X56xx) which is missing the required features, so VMware Fusion 10 and later won't work unless the processor is replaced with a 6-core or 8-core variant.

Referring to earlier discussions, the specific features needed are "Extended Page Tables" and "VMX Unrestricted Guest", both of which make it easier to run virtualisation software. VMware Fusion 10 and later require those features.

As far as I know, competing products don't yet require those features so they should still work on a 2010/2012 4-core Mac Pro.

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ColoradoMarmot
Champion
Champion

For now....

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