iMac (late 2011) - Can it Run Fusion 10?

[jkatzman]

Got a mid-2011 iMac running OS X 10.12.6 Sierra. Would like to upgrade WMWare so it can run on the computer.

Problem: the Tech Requirements say 2 different things for Fusion and for Metal Rendering Engine. And I mostly use Fusion for graphics programs. For Fusion 10, the iMac is supported. For MRE, it requires late-2012 iMac - vid:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205073/

But if Metal isn't supported by my machine, and it's key to how Fusion handles graphics, and I'm using the Mac for graphics, what kind of problems am I getting myself into?

Am I better off going with Fusion 9? I can't find a requirements page for it to check, and don't know where to buy it.

Any assistance appreciated.

[RickShu · Accepted solution]

Hi jkatzman,

Would  you please inform about the hardware specification of your iMac especially the graphics device?

In case the Metal is not supported by your host, it will fall back to GL Renderer to run D3D/OpenGL applications in your guest VM, and you don't need to switch it manually.

There is no Fusion 9, we jumped from Fusion 8 to Fusion 10.

Regards,

-Rick

[jkatzman]

iMac is Model 12,2, Quad-core i7 3.4 GHz.

Graphics is AMD Radeon HD 6970M, 1 GB VRAM, EFI Driver Version: 01.00.544.

If the machine will default to its own capabilities under Fusion VM and just not use Metal's capabilities, I have no issue. Those capabilities serve me well, which is why I haven't seen any need to upgrade.

  Typ1

[Mikero]

This Mac is supported, but it won't be able to run the Metal rendering engine.

https://kb.vmware.com/kb/2005196

[FredBaltus]

Hi,

Can I upgrade on my late 2009 iMac, VMWare Fusion 8.5 to 10?

Are the Hardware requirements only for use of "Metal Host Graphics Rendering Engine"?

Or must I stay on 8.5 and is High Sierra still Supported?

Thnx,

Fred

[Mikero]

The short answer is no, unfortunately.

From our System Requirements:v Fusion & Fusion Pro FAQs - VMware Products

The minimum system requirements for installing and using VMware Fusion 10 are:

Apple Mac launched in 2011 or later*:

Also supports the 2010 Mac Pro “Six Core”, “Eight Core” and “Twelve Core” models.*

Minimum 4GB of RAM

750MB free disk space for VMware Fusion and at least 5GB for each virtual machine

Mac OS X 10.11.0 or later

Operating system installation media (disk or disk image) for virtual machines.

Microsoft Windows is not included with VMware Fusion.

Recommended graphics hardware for Windows DirectX 10 or OpenGL 3.3 support:

NVIDIA 8600M or better

ATI 2600 or better

Minimum requirements for Metal support:

See Apple's documentation regarding Metal supported Macs: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205073

*Support excludes the 2012 Mac Pro “Quad Core” using the Intel® Xeon® W3565 Processor due to CPU architecture incompatibility.

In more technical terms, what's going on is that we require an Intel Virtualization feature called 'Extended Page Tables' (among others) and this feature was only made available on Nehalem 'Bloomfield' generation of CPU. The Intel Nehalem 'Westmere' does not have this feature and so CPU's of this generation and older are not supported.

[FredBaltus]

So, in short.. I have used Fusion now since 2010..... When i want to use my 2 VM's I must use 8.5., but then High Sierra is not supported....

So I have three options : 1) Stay on Sierra and Fusion 8.5 ; 2) Going for i new iMac; or 3) Go to High Sierra and migrate Fusion to Parallels......

I think the last one is the only option for me....

Thnx, but not a happy VMware Fusion user