Find your CPU model on macOS

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When you go to Apple’s website to buy a new Mac, most promotional materials say something along the lines of “featuring Intel’s 10th-generation processors with eight-cores that turbo-boost up to 3.2 GHz”. OK, but what is the CPU’s model name?! Even if you dig into Apple’s detailed spec sheets, the model number is strangely missing. Almost like they don’t want you to find what it is.

However, you can find the Intel CPU model in your Mac by running this command:

sysctl -n machdep.cpu.brand_string

This usually prints something like:

Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8750H CPU @ 2.20GHz

Why can’t Apple tell me this on the spec sheet?!

Update (2020): Obviously this post is no longer relevant as Apple now lists the Apple Silicon revision on their website. I guess it’d still help if you have an old Intel Mac.

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