
Metal is up to 40 percent more efficient when it comes to rendering than OpenGL, according to Apple. Some of the key benefits of using Metal over OpenGL include precompiled shaders and deep support for efficient multi-threading, making your Mac’s CPU and GPU work in concert to enhance performance without one of them sitting idle while the other is under strain crunching numbers. As for the consumer edition of El Capitan, Apple hasn’t publicized official system requirements on its website yet and likely won’t until the free software update makes its debut this fall. OS X El Capitan Developer Preview runs on every Mac capable of supporting OS X Mavericks. Step 2: A window will pop up with basic information about your system, including a version of the operating system installed and its model year.Īs the screenshot attests, my daily driver is a mid-2013 13-inch MacBook Air so I’ll be enjoying the benefits of Metal when El Capitan arrives.

Step 1: Choose About This Mac in the Apple menu. Tell us in comments! How to determine if OS X El Capitan’s Metal supports your Mac Mid-2012 and later 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display.


Like on iOS, El Capitan’s Metal significantly reduces the overhead of graphics frameworks such as OpenGL by enabling low-level access to your Mac’s graphics subsystem. In addition to making El Capitan’s user interface and apps perform smoother than before, Metal for Mac is absolutely huge news for game developers and makers of graphics-intensive apps. When OS X 10.11 El Capitan launches this fall, it will feature Metal, a graphics framework Apple originally introduced for iPhones, iPads and iPods following the release of iOS 8 last fall.
