Mac OS X 10.7 support stopping in patch 7.15

Riot·Jun 1, 2017·2 votes·40,700 views

We’re going to be deprecating support for Mac OS X 10.7.5 (Lion) during patch 7.15, and updating our minimum system specs for League from 10.7 to 10.8 (Mountain Lion). If you need the upgrade from 10.7 to 10.8, you can purchase the OS from Apple’s website.

The current version of macOS, 10.12 Sierra (released last year), is also available. You can read about League’s overall minspec requirements for Mac and Windows on Riot’s support page.

It’s been three years since we made a change to OSX minspec requirements, and we want to move ahead with it now for a couple of reasons:

Continuing to support OS X 10.7 is becoming increasingly difficult as more third party systems and products are dropping support for Lion
We’re unable to update our C++ compiler – the next update to the software will no longer allow targeting for Lion, and we will have to continue to maintain janky development workarounds to ensure stable Mac builds

We'll let you know if there are any updates or changes to this plan.

As a side note, we know that some Mac users have reported stability issues with the updated League client, and we hope that taking dev time from much older versions of macOS will improve our ability to raise performance benchmarks for Mac players overall.

70 Comments

RenzîxJun 2, 201739 votes

For those who are reading this they are still supporting mac they are just raising the minimum update requirment. OS lion was released in 2011 so unless u havent updated in 5 years your fine

ICPJun 3, 20174 votes

Windows 7 came out in 2009. That's still supported.

DustyBroncoJun 3, 201729 votes

3 versions of Windows vs. 6 versions of OS X. Mac upgrades are generally smaller improvements and are free. Windows upgrades change a lot more and cost money (recent exception for Win 10, which the free aspect is now over). They'll probably support Windows 7 as long as Microsoft does. Supporting the smaller OSX releases for 6+ years doesn't make business sense.

MahaJun 3, 201720 votes

Windows 7 is the most used OS, age isn't why it's being phased out. It's just low return for the amount of effort to keep up an ancient Mac OS.

CyklownJun 3, 201711 votes

Microsoft's update cycle != Apple's. The do not conflate the two.

Modern builds of OSX are free and compatible with anything not past the point of obsolescence, give or take the need to upgrade to 2gb of RAM.

Any computer that cannot run OSX Mavericks (after an upgrade to 2gb of RAM, which is an entirely reasonable thing to do) has not been for sale for so long that Apple's charming and award winning support staff will instruct you to step right off if you try to pay them for a repair for any amount of money whatsoever.

I loved Lion in it's time, but don't try to pretend anyone should be expected to support it.

MattheliusJun 2, 20179 votes

Rengar item 3070

FaeiryJun 2, 20176 votes

Nice! Maybe next step is to fix the League dock icons.

Spartan DMG 02Jun 3, 20174 votes

YES!!!!!

ItsbeghdevJun 3, 20172 votes

rito plz

Having been an alpha tester for client update, I'd also like to add that the dock icons weren't broken until at least beta release xD

YascobMay 25, 20181 votes

It could be likely if they can update their C++ compiler that might open up new libraries they can use to improve mac compatibility. The dock icons could be one of the things that enables them to fix.

DragoniteDDJun 3, 20175 votes

Cant believe there are still mac users using 10.7 to play LOL..... There is fewer than 1% of Mac users using 10.7 or below I guess

doobi1Jun 3, 20175 votes

trashOS lul.

DragoniteDDJun 4, 20172 votes

I thought there would only be similar thinkings for Mac users towards Windows, especially after they transferred to macOS from Windows.

I forgot there would always be kids talking nonsense even if they had never really played around macOS XD

doobi1Jun 4, 20172 votes

[deleted]

SoryInAdvanceJun 7, 20174 votes

Nah. As a programmer, literally the only thing keeping me on windows is gaming and the absurd price of Macbooks. MacOS is definitely clean and smooth and the fact that it's linux makes it that much better.

Boolean the TrueJun 5, 20175 votes

When is that Linux support?!?

SoryInAdvanceJun 7, 20172 votes

Mac is linux technically. Close enough. lol

YascobMay 25, 20181 votes

Probably not likely for a while. In the meantime it looks like you can get it to run via Wine (https://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=version&iId=36323).

If you end up having problems getting it to play nicely reply and I'll do my best to help you getting it to work!

LightningShadoJun 2, 20174 votes

Wow there sure are a lot of people here with a Mac.

CyklownJun 3, 20178 votes

Survivorship bias.

QuindecJun 3, 20175 votes

i mean league is one of the few good games that people with macs can play on

LightningShadoJun 4, 20173 votes

From the other comments it sounds like you guys have it pretty bad and also your statement is true.

MagicFlyingLlamaJun 5, 20172 votes

Bootcamp all the things. ..Except you still have those shitty 6-watt 2Ghz dualcore excuses for CPUs.. That cost 1200$, no less.

Valor BotJun 2, 20174 votes

Does this mean we can finally play the Ascension and Nexus Siege game modes on our Macs without immediately dropping to 10 FPS once the game starts?

[zombie-nunu-tears]

Dr GuardianJun 3, 20177 votes

why would it mean that? And not all macs drop to 10 fps... ur is just old or bad

IpressbuttonJun 2, 20173 votes

PC bias!!

DrCyanideJun 2, 201717 votes

Apple stopped supporting Lion, why would Riot keep supporting it?

ICPJun 3, 20171 votes

Microsoft stopped supporting Windows 7 in 2015. Half of users still use it. Riot still supports it. 1/5 of Mac users are still on Lion. 1/5 of Windows users are still on Windows 8.

DustyBroncoJun 3, 201726 votes

Incorrect. Windows 7 will still be supported by Microsoft for another 2 1/2 years. Support is "stopped" when Microsoft stops giving security updates and ends extended support.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/13853/windows-lifecycle-fact-sheet

Dawn CourtJun 2, 20172 votes

So we can't use the game on Mac anymore?

Toxic and SaltyJun 2, 20177 votes

If you're using an OS THAT dated, you should probably be thinking of an upgrade. Plus, if you want to play computer games, you should be looking into a Windows platform.

ICPJun 3, 20171 votes

Windows 7 came out in 2009. That's still supported.

CyklownJun 3, 20175 votes

Service pack 1 cane out in 2011 and Mac updates are free. If you aren't running sub-2gb RAM builds then only outright obsolete computers are effected.

HonestJohnTheConJun 2, 201715 votes

We can still play the game on a Mac, just not Lion. If you have Mountain Lion, Mavericks, Yosemite, El Capitan, or Sierra, then you're fine.

jacky estacadoJun 4, 20173 votes

ok thats good im using sierra

lolpoo6567Jun 3, 20172 votes

at least Mac OS lion isn't the mac system I use

CyklownJun 3, 20171 votes

Good grief, man, why would you? The MobileMe lillswitch went live and iCloud support has only gotten better.

ÇhåryzårdJun 3, 20172 votes

All I know is my Mac says it's running OS X El Capitan version 10.11.16 so if that's supported I am happy

HonestJohnTheConJun 3, 20174 votes

El Capitan is 10.11. 10.7 (Lion) is the one getting dropped. In other words, you're fine.

breakordoom444Jun 4, 20172 votes

why do i still use a mac?. I don't know how to hand build a PC and i don't want to buy a pre build.

SakaruJun 4, 20174 votes

And yet you either bought your Mac prebuilt, or built it yourself Hackintosh style.

If you wanna use a Mac, go ahead. But that is the single worst logic I've ever heard, since you're doing that EXACT thing by using either a PC or a Mac.

FirIxanderJun 5, 20171 votes

if i have to buy a preguild window vs a prebuild mac... id go with the mac. [slayer-jinx-wink]

8rRa2h0505Jun 6, 20171 votes

Only if you have subzero tech savviness.

SoryInAdvanceJun 7, 20173 votes

Lol have you ever compared the specs on a macbook pro to any lenovo/asus laptop? The difference in specs is embarrassing. My lenovo has a significantly better graphics card, 8 more gigs of ram, 1 TB HDD / 128 GB SSD (Mac only has a ~256 GB SSD), etc. And it is something like $800 cheaper just because of the difference in OS and the fact that the other one has a light up apple on the back.

SameerKhannaJun 12, 20171 votes

I have a beast gaming pc and a 2015 MBP.

Macs are very well optimized for apps you can get on it. For example, the Macbook is the smallest laptop than one can do 4k video rendering on and having it complete fairly rapidly as talked about on Jonathan's YT channel. As one can see on LinusTechTips, a similarly priced Windows laptop (which as you point out has better specs) cannot do this at all.

Also, it is much easier to setup programming languages and rapidly start coding. In fact, everyone at my college (UC Berkeley) and where I work (UCSF) use Macs. Those that tried to use a Windows laptop to code quickly switched to Macs.

Macs focus on optimization rather than on specs. If the end result is similar, who cares? You buy a Mac to work/study not to game, and if it does that as well as the equivalently priced Windows, why does it matter? Apple gets a wider margin? That has no affect on you though, so more power to them!

Also, the Windows equivalent to Macs is the Surface lineup, which is just as specced per price, but is less optimized.

Macs are very useful for certain work cases, and Windows are good for others.

SoryInAdvanceJun 13, 20171 votes

Macs are very well optimized for apps you can get on it. For example, the Macbook is the smallest laptop than one can do 4k video rendering on and having it complete fairly rapidly as talked about on Jonathan's YT channel. As one can see on LinusTechTips, a similarly priced Windows laptop (which as you point out has better specs) cannot do this at all.

eh really don't care that much about rendering.

Also, it is much easier to setup programming languages and rapidly start coding. In fact, everyone at my college (UC Berkeley) and where I work (UCSF) use Macs. Those that tried to use a Windows laptop to code quickly switched to Macs.

This I agree with 100%. I'm a computer science major and I am actually considering getting a mac for this reason alone. The only thing holding me back is the price, inability to game, and the fact that I can just use a virtual machine on my windows computer to do the same thing.

Macs focus on optimization rather than on specs. If the end result is similar, who cares? You buy a Mac to work/study not to game, and if it does that as well as the equivalently priced Windows, why does it matter? Apple gets a wider margin? That has no affect on you though, so more power to them!

Then they should work on optimizing the ability to play games because they're lacking a bit.

Also, the Windows equivalent to Macs is the Surface lineup, which is just as specced per price, but is less optimized.

The surface is touch screen and half tablet? Not comparable really other than that the company that made the software also made the hardware. The surface is more of a notebook than a laptop.

Macs are very useful for certain work cases, and Windows are good for others.

SameerKhannaJun 14, 20171 votes

I was more referring to the new Surface laptop, which is comparable to the Macs. Though it uses a weaker CPU and 10 S, which is a crappy version of windows 10.

In regards to gaming, you are forgetting that gamers are not their primary audience by any stretch. The fact that you can play league is icing imo.

SoryInAdvanceJun 15, 20171 votes

Oh, didn't know about the new surface. Would never buy one of those things anyway. I honestly would love to be able to just build a gaming pc and buy a Macbook Pro at the same time but at the price that Macs are, that's just not feasible on a college student's budget. Idk.

HyperiönJun 12, 20171 votes

Go to youtube and learn. Thats what I did when I was younger.

There are hundreds of step by step videos on how to do it.

There are also channels that do like a "build of the month". Where they pick a price range, and build a gaming pc with the allotted money. Find something in your budget, and go from there!