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OS X El Capitan Metal: Is My Mac Compatible?

OS X El Capitan Metal

Apple’s latest Back to Mac technology repatriation is the transition of the iOS Metal graphics abstraction layer to OS X El Capitan. Metal for Mac is here, promising faster development, more power from the same hardware and, we’re all hoping, even more better Mac games.

But which Macs are OS X El Capitan Metal compatible. Netkas.org has the inside and to date still unofficial minimum GPU requirements for El Capitan Metal support:

Nvidia – GeForce GTX 4xx and newer

Intel – HD Graphics 4000 and newer

AMD – Radeon HD 7000 and newer

Can’t make heads or tails of that list? Then download and run the Test for Metal support, which my 2011 iMac with Radeon HD 6750 graphics couldn’t run.

That said, 2012 and newer iMacs are Metal compatible, as are the 2012 Mac mini, 2013 Mac Pro, 2012 MacBook Air, 2014 MacBook and 2012 MacBook Pro models and newer.

I think sad that Intel HD Graphics 4000 gets one past the bar, but the eminently more capable Radeon HD 6750 doesn’t…