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Metal hardware acceleration hardware requirements


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Can anyone tell me what the exact hardware/GPU requirements for Metal hardware acceleration are? I have a 2015 15" MacBook Pro with dedicated AMD R9 GPU currently running macOS Sierra. I understand that on the software side, High Sierra is required but what about hardware? Will my R9 be supported? Will the integrated Iris Pro Graphics 5200 be supported?

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As of the most recent App Store version, Iris Pro integrated GPUs should be supported for Metal compute. No discrete GPUs are supported yet, but you can still run your R9 for canvas presentation whilst the Iris Pro is used for Metal compute. Go to Preferences>Performance and you should be able to check "Enable Metal compute acceleration".

 

Hope that helps. Just be mindful that the brush-based tools seem to have some speed issues with Metal compute. It would be interesting to see if this is your experience too..

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Thanks, James. I cannot enable Metal compute acceleration just yet because I am still running 10.12.6 and that checkbox is greyed out in Sierra saying "No compatible GPU". That's why I was wondering what the exact hardware requirements were.

 

 

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I think I'm too stupid for this... I've installed High Sierra on an external hard drive just to test this and still, there is no way for me to enable Metal computer acceleration. Whatever I select (Display: OpenGL or Metal; Use only integrated GPU: disabled or enabled; external display: connected or disconnected; active GPU: AMD R9 or Iris Pro 5200) doesn't change anything - the "Enable Metal compute acceleration" checkbox remains greyed out and there is no way to enable it.

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