diff --git a/.github/workflows/test_pr.yml b/.github/workflows/test_pr.yml
index 499b90be..cc8874ab 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/test_pr.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/test_pr.yml
@@ -63,14 +63,12 @@ jobs:
           python -m pip install -U pip
           pip install -r prereq.txt
           pip install pytest-timeout
-          pip install xgboost==1.7.6
       - name: Set environment variables for MNIST
         run: echo "MNIST_DATA_DIR=${{ github.workspace }}/mnist_data" >> $GITHUB_ENV
       - name: Dump GitHub Action environment
         run: |
           echo "OS: $(uname -a)"
           python --version
-          pip freeze
       - name: Test Core
         run: |
           pip install .[testing]
diff --git a/setup.cfg b/setup.cfg
index 31342ca4..eef6d848 100644
--- a/setup.cfg
+++ b/setup.cfg
@@ -50,8 +50,7 @@ install_requires =
     pydantic<2.0
     cloudpickle
     scipy
-    xgboost<3.0.0; platform_system != "Darwin"
-    xgboost==1.7.6; platform_system == "Darwin"
+    xgboost<3.0.0
     geomloss
     pgmpy
     redis
diff --git a/src/synthcity/metrics/eval_performance.py b/src/synthcity/metrics/eval_performance.py
index 8fd2ef50..47320066 100644
--- a/src/synthcity/metrics/eval_performance.py
+++ b/src/synthcity/metrics/eval_performance.py
@@ -1064,8 +1064,9 @@ def evaluate(
 
         elif self._task_type == "classification":
             model = XGBClassifier(
+                tree_method="approx",
                 n_jobs=2,
-                verbosity=0,
+                verbosity=2,
                 depth=3,
                 random_state=self._random_state,
             )
diff --git a/src/synthcity/plugins/survival_analysis/_survival_pipeline.py b/src/synthcity/plugins/survival_analysis/_survival_pipeline.py
index a8d649cc..3203e00d 100644
--- a/src/synthcity/plugins/survival_analysis/_survival_pipeline.py
+++ b/src/synthcity/plugins/survival_analysis/_survival_pipeline.py
@@ -153,6 +153,7 @@ def _fit(
             raise ValueError(f"unsupported strategy {self.strategy}")
 
         xgb_params = {
+            "tree_method": "approx",
             "n_jobs": 2,
             "verbosity": 0,
             "depth": 3,
diff --git a/src/synthcity/utils/compression.py b/src/synthcity/utils/compression.py
index 8befae54..fabca8fd 100644
--- a/src/synthcity/utils/compression.py
+++ b/src/synthcity/utils/compression.py
@@ -45,7 +45,12 @@ def compress_dataset(
         y = df[column]
 
         if len(df[column].unique()) < cat_limit:
-            model = XGBClassifier()
+            model = model = XGBClassifier(
+                tree_method="approx",
+                n_jobs=2,
+                verbosity=2,
+                depth=3,
+            )
             try:
                 score = evaluate_classifier(model, X, y)["clf"]["aucroc"][0]
             except BaseException: