I am amazed Steam for macOS is not complaint yet. Overall I was surprised how few of my applications were not Catalina ready including some quite old ones. I'll miss TextWrangler although BareBones already have BBEdit I know.
The Steam client was 64-bit for a while, until it got rolled back in November or so. We keep asking why, and they keep not responding.
I am amazed Steam for macOS is not complaint yet. Overall I was surprised how few of my applications were not Catalina ready including some quite old ones. I'll miss TextWrangler although BareBones already have BBEdit I know.
The Steam client was 64-bit for a while, until it got rolled back in November or so. We keep asking why, and they keep not responding.
I hate the new Steam Client for Mac. Looks like they basically just took the Windows interface and made it compatible for macOS. It doesn't use the native macOS interface and for me, it runs like shit.
The listed models have one feature in common: all have a Skylake or newer processor.
Skylake adds hardware encode/decode support for HEVC, so this might just be a case of the Sidecar feature being implemented with HEVC rather than H.264 to reduce bandwidth requirements or allow a higher frame rate. Older Mac models would have to do HEVC encode in software, so enabling the workaround might impose a significant CPU performance load when the display is rapidly changing.
If I'm right, this could impose a similar requirement on the receiving iPad: basic HEVC hardware decode is a feature of the A9 and later processors, so A8 models that can run iOS 13 (iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 4) may be unable to act as a sidecar receiver as they would have to decode the video stream in software.
There was a similar cutoff with the introduction of AirPlay video support: it required a Sandy Bridge or later processor to get H.264 hardware encode support. Third party software (AirParrot) implemented that feature on older Macs by doing the H.264 encode in software, but it caused a fair amount of CPU overhead.
You are correct, it always has a reason, Apple is not a mean company trying to make you buy new stuff, if the performance is not going to be ideal, they won't support it.
A lot of windows features are available to older machines, but run so badly, they become unusable.
The listed models have one feature in common: all have a Skylake or newer processor.
Skylake adds hardware encode/decode support for HEVC, so this might just be a case of the Sidecar feature being implemented with HEVC rather than H.264 to reduce bandwidth requirements or allow a higher frame rate. Older Mac models would have to do HEVC encode in software, so enabling the workaround might impose a significant CPU performance load when the display is rapidly changing.
If I'm right, this could impose a similar requirement on the receiving iPad: basic HEVC hardware decode is a feature of the A9 and later processors, so A8 models that can run iOS 13 (iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 4) may be unable to act as a sidecar receiver as they would have to decode the video stream in software.
There was a similar cutoff with the introduction of AirPlay video support: it required a Sandy Bridge or later processor to get H.264 hardware encode support. Third party software (AirParrot) implemented that feature on older Macs by doing the H.264 encode in software, but it caused a fair amount of CPU overhead.
You are correct, it always has a reason, Apple is not a mean company trying to make you buy new stuff, if the performance is not going to be ideal, they won't support it.
A lot of windows features are available to older machines, but run so badly, they become unusable.
nguyenhm16 said: According to everymac, 2015 iMacs use 5th (21.5") or 6th (27") gen CPUs, which do have Quick Sync:
The first version of Quick Sync was introduced in Sandy Bridge (2nd gen Core i3/i5/i7), initially supporting H.264, so some variant of Quick Sync exists in almost all 2011-2012 Macs (apart from the 2012 Mac Pro) and all 2013 and later Macs.
Later processor generations improved Quick Sync and added more video formats. 5th gen (Broadwell) added some VP8 support. 6th gen (Skylake) added 8-bit HEVC encode/decode. The 2015 21.5-inch iMac (5th gen) is excluded from the list of supported models, but the 2015 27-inch iMac (6th gen) is included so Quick Sync in Broadwell does not suffice, implying 8-bit HEVC encode/decode is the required feature.
Well, here is to hoping that during the beta process and/or at final release they expand the availability of sidecar some. I have the 21.5" 2015 iMac which falls right on the wrong side of the cut off. I have been thinking that by the time that my iMac needs to be replaced the iOS (now iPadOS) feature set for iPad will have advanced enough that I won't replace it with a traditional computer but maybe an iPad Pro. I only use the iMac once or twice a month now as more and more things can be done on the iPad. It just sits in my home office (I do not use it for work). One of the few tasks I do on it though is photo/video editing and management. This new sidecar feature would seem like the ideal marriage of the feature sets of both devices for this task. Apple may have sucked me in for one last purchase of iMac now.
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I have been thinking that by the time that my iMac needs to be replaced the iOS (now iPadOS) feature set for iPad will have advanced enough that I won't replace it with a traditional computer but maybe an iPad Pro. I only use the iMac once or twice a month now as more and more things can be done on the iPad. It just sits in my home office (I do not use it for work). One of the few tasks I do on it though is photo/video editing and management. This new sidecar feature would seem like the ideal marriage of the feature sets of both devices for this task. Apple may have sucked me in for one last purchase of iMac now.
(Courtesy of u/cbaitson)