Skipper ✪ Posted May 10, 2019 Posted May 10, 2019 Now that macOS Mojave has taken the crown from MacOS High Sierra, you would be forgiven for thinking that no one cares about that old mountain-themed OS anymore. But, if you think about the fact that MacOS Mojave requires more recent hardware, you will realize that a lot of users will be using MacOS 10.13 High Sierra for a long time. And while MacOS High Sierra may have faced its own problems, such as password vulnerabilities and other security issues, back at launch - those days are over. Apple has effectively fixed all those lingering problems, and MacOS High Sierra has grown into a fairly respectable macOS release. Plus, Apple has made up for any launch issues with that new file system - not to mention those built-in photo-editing tools. When all was said and done, MacOS High Sierra faced - and still faces, to some extent - the same problems that Mountain Lion did, following Lion. It brings some interesting changes, but does not make anything that new and exciting. So, without further delay, let's dive into everything there is to know about macOS High Sierra. macOS 10.13 High Sierra release date Apple revealed macOS 10.13 High Sierra at the WWDC 2017 keynote, which is no surprise given Apple's tradition of announcing the latest version of its Mac software at its annual developer event. However, it was not until September 12 that Apple revealed that the full release of High Sierra would be launching a little more than a week later on September 25. There was a developer version of the operating system you could enroll in leading to the final release , but luckily that's no longer required to take advantage of the latest features found in macOS 10.13. VR finally comes to the Mac One of the biggest bits of news around MacOS High Sierra is that it will finally bring support for virtual reality headsets officially. Namely, the HTC Vive and Steam VR will work with Macs running the new OS this autumn. However, using this device, you will need at least a 5K iMac or MacBook Pro - or any Mac that can run the new OS with an external GPU solution. Support for such devices is part and parcel with MacOS High Sierra, but will not be an active feature until later this year. The good news is that MacOS High Sierra comes with a helping of refinements to its graphics APIs that make up for the scarce GPU support. Metal was a step forward for hardware-accelerated 3D graphics, but with Metal 2, Apple promises less strain on the CPU as well as proper machine learning and better Xcode profiling / debugging in MacOS High Sierra. Perhaps more important, however, is the fact that MoltenVK was recently brought to Mac by Khronos Group. An implementation of the open-source Vulkan API, it's said to bring frame rate gains of up to 50% in Dota 2. As it's cross-platform, too - being supported by Windows and Linux as well as Apple's devices - MoltenVK is likely to be more widely adopted by creators. The final build of macOS High Sierra, 10.13.6 is available right now. Besides a few bug fixes, it integrates Airplay 2 into iTunes - though you will need to update iTunes to take advantage of it. You can download the update from the Mac App Store. More importantly, this update contains the bug fix that stops the Core i9 MacBook Pro from thermal throttling
Recommended Posts