The latest RhinoWIP for Mac (V9) no longer supports Intel-based Macs. We understand this is disappointing for users on Intel hardware, and we want to explain why we made this difficult decision.
Why the Change?
Apple recently announced that macOS Tahoe (26) will be the last version supporting Intel Macs. Starting with macOS 27 (expected Fall 2026), Apple Silicon will be required. This shift affects our development in two key ways:
Future macOS & Xcode Compatibility: Next year, Apple’s developer tools (Xcode) will only run on Apple Silicon. If we were to continue Intel support, we’d be locked into macOS Tahoe for Rhino 9’s entire lifecycle, dramatically limiting future improvements.
User Impact: Currently, only ~15% of Rhino for Mac users are on Intel, and that number is shrinking. To ensure the best experience for the majority, we’re aligning with Apple’s plans.
What Are Your Options?
Continue Using the Previous WIP (Intel-Compatible)
The last Intel-supported build (9.0.25196.12306, released July 15, 2025) will work until August 30, 2025.
Officially, Rhino 9 should be sold as Mac Silicon-only — I can accept this administrative decision. I understand the issue that a Rhino 9 customer who purchases a license can not be intel-supported until maybe 2031.
It would be really helpful to have an Intel-compatible installer available until Rhino 9 is released, and until major bugs causing crashes in the new app are fixed.
Balancing backward and forward compatibility is what I expect. Unofficially, Intel support should last at least as long as Xcode supports Intel, and maybe even a bit longer. It’s not essential to support the latest OS features or immediately use the latest Xcode version. I believe the percentage of users with the latest hardware and OS is much smaller than the 15% still using older Intel hardware.
In all of my courses and teaching, I give a sneak peek of what the next version will bring — or, if you prefer, some free advertising. But by cutting off 15% of Mac-hardware-based teachers, you’re losing valuable feedback from people like me who could contribute to the WIP.
We are essentially being pushed out …forced to leave and banned out of serengeti.
I hate to repeat myself, but I am incredibly frustrated and disappointed. I’ll have to buy new hardware to offer a up to date teaching experience, even though my current computer still works fine. You’re supporting Apple’s planned obsolescence, and this is far from ecological.
I think the issue lies here, annual OS releases are really tiring to keep up-to-date, but my data on my machine is far more valuable than not having them updated and running OS with years of open potential vulnerabilities.
While I made the switch long ago to Apple Silicon (M1 Max) and the difference was immense, I get that last Intel machines are working OK for you. I guess you should stay on Rhino 8 on that machine and start locking in your workflow with the last compatible releases. I went through the same thing with Archicad, to make matters worse they also release annually and compatibility is only upheld with the latest and latest-1 version, no bugs fixed for older releases – which you can imagine is really maddening if you consider the pace of architectural projects vs. software development.
I believe the percentage of users with the latest hardware and OS is much smaller than the 15% still using older Intel hardware.
It’s not about using the latest hardware, Apple Silicon is using a different architecture than Intel (ARM vs x86) – it is already a huge incompatibility source, making it impossible to run virtual machines properly (absolutely no Bootcamp and half-working Parallels). The last Intel machine is 6 years old now (Rhino 9 still being WIP now), it very well could be 7 or 8 years – I don’t know when Rhino 9 would be released.
I would have that version playing 100% well with current hardware (current as of at the time of release of Rhino 9), as my M1 Max ran circles around my previous Macs, and M4 is already beating my M1 pretty heavily in all benchmarks, and the availability of memory continues to grow (128GB on Macbook Pros and 512GB of unified memory for the Studio).
I’m also teaching and I am working freelance – so I’m not talking from the perspective of large corporations with endless money. Does it suck? Yes it does – I hate the need of keeping a Windows rig next to my MBP, but you can’t swim against Apple.
Weighing the options available to McNeel, my use case of Rhino welcomes this decision.
I feel you, as I went through weeding out incompatible software and the switch and trying to make Parallels work many years ago. I ended up keeping a Windows machine alive to make my life easier.