“During yesterday’s keynote talk at the Worldwide Developers Conference in San Jose, Apple announced macOS High Sierra, the next major version of the desktop operating system powering Mac desktops and notebooks,” Christian Zibreg writes for iDownload Blog. “It packs in a number of new and updated core technologies to help apps get the most out of your Mac’s CPU and GPU.”
Zibreg wonders, “But is your rusty old Mac able to run macOS High Sierra?”
“According to Apple itself,” Zibreg writes, “the supported configurations for macOS High Sierra are the same as those for its predecessor, macOS Sierra.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: System requirements for macOS High Sierra:
• iMac: Late 2009 or newer
• MacBook and MacBook Retina: Late 2009 or newer
• MacBook Pro: Mid 2010 or newer
• MacBook Air: Late 2010 or newer
• Mac Mini: Mid 2010 or newer
• Mac Pro: Mid 2010 or newer
I think the only minor worry is H265 (High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC)) playback as only 6th generation Intel CPUs are qualified. Maybe 2015-2016 Intel CPUs and newer. However I am not sure if H265 could not be played at all, will be choppy or if CPU utilization will be excessive. Another disadvantage on soldered GPUs as I am sure newer generations support the H265 format.
HEVC works fine on older machines, it just does it in software, so it taxes your CPU harder. I play back HEVC stuff via plex on an old mac mini all the time, it transcodes it into whatever the appletv wants… i have an old core2duo mac mini..
So, hitting the CPU means the older Macs can play it fine, but with somewhat reduced battery life. Got it.
Infuse plays 1080p HEVC files with no problems on an Apple TV, and that’s an A8. I don’t think older Intel CPUs are going to have a problem.
Phew that new MacOS still works on my lovely (real) Mac Pro boxes.
My Mac Minis are covered. Will be interesting to see what doesn’t work.
My venerable Mac mini (2009) was just retired. Replaced with my old retina mbp (2012). This will be good for another 2 years plus of media serving.
The only problem I have is the name. They should have picked Everest.
I think this is kind of a nod to what Snow Leopard was to Leopard.
Mac Pro 2009 will work with firmware update.