My 2011 mac mini doesn't support metal for el capitan apparantly. Any how even after googling I still don't understand. What is metal? What exactly does it do?
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Metal?
- Thread starter ivnj
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Bending Pixels
macrumors 65816
It's an Apple programming API used to help speed up graphics in games, imaging, drawing, video software.
So basically I don't really need it if I am not doing any games (just internet and offline programs word, etc.)? My 2011 mini is good enough?
Assuming your needs stay the same Mini should be good enough for several years.
If your sig is correct and your Mini only has 2 Gb of RAM I suggest upgrading it to at least 4 Gb. While it will work with 2 it is the bare minimum required for OS and it would work faster with more RAM. RAM is very cheap and single stick of 4 Gb will only cost about 30€.
If your sig is correct and your Mini only has 2 Gb of RAM I suggest upgrading it to at least 4 Gb. While it will work with 2 it is the bare minimum required for OS and it would work faster with more RAM. RAM is very cheap and single stick of 4 Gb will only cost about 30€.
kwokaaron
macrumors 6502a
Yes it does. Core Graphics and Core Animations (aka. 2D rendering and most of the OS X animations) now utilize Metal on supported Macs.
SoyCapitanSoyCapitan
Suspended
But this has nothing to do with the performance improvements. If anything, Metal acceleration in Core frameworks will improve efficiency, but not performance. Improvements in Metal come from more efficient batching and render command dispatch, and there are not many of those in UI to begin with.
Ya sorry forgot to update but have now. 2gb was not cutting it shortly after I got her. So I baught an 8gb stick of ram for the mini and have been using 8gb for years now.