MacBook M5 Pro macOS migration compatibility

What version a particular Mac arrives running for one customer today has no bearing on what you will receive tomorrow.

Apple expects to phase in the current shipping version of MacOS for new device shipments, but they are not obligated to do so on any particular schedule, EXCEPT:

Newly-announced devices always ship with the latest MacOS version, because they simply won't run on older versions. Newest device drivers are part of the newest MacOS.

everymac.com says that the latest MacBook Pro M5 PRO requires minimum MacOS 26.3.1 (25D2128).

That means no older version can be installed and run properly.

https://everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook_pro/specs/macbook-pro-m5-pro-18-core-cpu-20-core-gpu-14-2026-specs.html

brcemknze wrote:

If someone has recently bought a mac, I’d appreciate if they could share whether or not it came with Golden Gate installed.

You should assume that all new Macs at this point will come with Golden Gate preinstalled. You "might get lucky" and receive a new Mac that still has Tahoe and was in the unsold pipeline, but that would only be the luck of the draw.

Regarding your original question, using Migration Assistant to migrate backwards from a Mac running Golden Gate to a Mac running Tahoe or earlier would be problematic for a variety of reasons. If you were to receive a Mac with Tahoe preinstalled, just update it to Golden Gate first, then do the migration.

Does a new custom built Macbook M5 pro come with macOS 27 Golden Gate installed?

Yes.

... I ordered a new M5 MBP with more memory.

Implying you purchased a BTO model directly from Apple? If yes the answer is that it will have the latest macOS build installed.

If you purchased it from anywhere other than Apple then you will get whatever happens to be on the shelf at the time.

What I'm wondering is if the new mac arrives with 26.X installed, will it be safe to migrate from the old mac (currently on Golden Gate) over to the new one?

That's the normal way of doing things.

Or do I need to create a 'setup' account without transferring files, update the mac, then start the migration?

That would be going about it the hard way. I don't know of any reason to do that.

Nobody on these boards can say for certain. If you find that it comes with Tahoe, create a new account and then upgrade the OS, or restart into Recovery Mode and upgrade from there.

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brcemknze wrote:

The plan is to migrate absolutely all of my files over to the new one without issues.

Good luck with that plan.

What I'm wondering is if the new mac arrives with 26.X installed, will it be safe to migrate from the old mac (currently on Golden Gate) over to the new one? Or do I need to create a 'setup' account without transferring files, update the mac, then start the migration?

I always suggest setting up new devices using iCloud. That way it will transfer all of your settings in a way to ensure that both devices are unique and can work together. That way, you can continue using the old computer until you're satisfied with the behaviour of the new one. I'm a developer and that's what I do. Of course, I'm also still running Sequoia on the production machine.

Thanks Niel. If someone has recently bought a mac, I’d appreciate if they could share whether or not it came with Golden Gate installed. That’d be helpful 👍🏻