Hello
I’m aware that an iMac isn’t ideal for running Flame reliably, but I need to finish an old school project and can’t afford a more powerful Mac right now. 
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But does this mean that Flame 2026.2 does run on an iMac 27” Retina i7 64GB with a Radeon Pro 5700 XT 16Gb under macOS Sequioa 15.6 (System Settings → General → Software Update = upgradeable to macOS Tahoe 26.1 
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Thank you in advance for any feedback!
PS
Maybe without advanced features like “Automatte”
Well, per system specs it should still run on Intel Macs, and your memory is sufficient. Of course the AMD GPU will be ignored, so you’re running CPU only when it comes to ML tools. And as Randy pointed, out prolonged maximum CPU loads have not been kind to older Intel Macs (iMac or other). Apple never designed with a thermal load of long duration max load video processing (which is a story into itself).
So proceed at your own risk. If that is the only system you have, and you can’t afford to replace it, you can use Flame, just be judicious with your workflow, or you end up with less than you started with.
With multiple ways of performing same/similar tasks, and with the different-nodes-for-same-end result redundancy aspect of flame, as alklier points out, being judicious/economical with the workflows/setups can get lots done very quickly in the slower or older machines.
Early/mid covid times I ended up setting up a cheaper “interim” box to get going with the incoming work asap. This interim box was a sub $3k, refurbished 2013, 8-core trashcan (dual 6GB gfx). The decision was primarily to do some real life testing on real jobs as to how flame used up the hardware resources (using iStats, etc) so I could spec up the main box appropriately before investing a decent amount on purchasing it.
The trashcan exceeded the expectations to the point where after arrival my new box sat in the living room for a few weeks before I could unpack and set it up while I continued to churn out the jobs on the trashcan. I threw all sorts of stuff/aces managed workflows/4k to 4.6k/CG etc etc at this little black cylinder that could, and it surprised me
Later when I got some time, I ran some comparison tests running the same setups on both machines and the trashcan held its own in terms of competing with its replacement.
Side note, to my surprise both gfx cards on the trashcan were being used by flame while performing some tasks. And at times one card’memory would be maxed out while the other card’ memory would show part usage while no other apps were running except flame. Could be the OS optimizing tasks allocation.
The above observation led me to config the next purchase with dual gfx cards, and it turned out to be a sound decision as I found the same flame/OS behavior on my new box. I may have some iStats screenshots somewhere if anyone interested.
what did I say…. a Guy in Undies on iMac.
The corner cases are just that, they don’t reflect the averages nor the medians.