Support Board
Date/Time: Tue, 24 Feb 2026 23:22:28 +0000
[User Discussion] - siera on Mac
View Count: 568
| [2026-01-08 13:34:40] |
| User30743 - Posts: 395 |
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What is the recommended (AKA proven) way to run SC on Mac? I have tried with WMvare but it is freezing up when switching chartbooks. I know official SC support cannot do much with this request, so it is rather for someone running SC on Mac. I have M2 silicon chip. Date Time Of Last Edit: 2026-01-08 13:37:45
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| [2026-01-08 14:59:27] |
| Chris32 - Posts: 78 |
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Try with Parallels, it works extremely well. Use the ARM64 version of SC
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| [2026-01-08 15:01:46] |
| Tony - Posts: 689 |
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I have a Mac Intel chip, so my experience is not relevant, but I vaguely recall a Mac Silicon user mentioned that Windows 11 ARM version needs to be installed (on Virtual Machine).
Date Time Of Last Edit: 2026-01-08 15:02:31
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| [2026-01-09 05:29:26] |
| seandunaway - Posts: 378 |
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simply not my experience at all extensive testing proves that windows 11 iot arm64 via parallels outperforms wine/crossover by a huge margin also, parallels makes utm feel unusable parallels does some apple silicon hypervisor tricks or something because sc running on my crusty mbp m1 pro feels completely native and is faster with 4x the battery life of my fully spec'd out thinkpad Date Time Of Last Edit: 2026-01-09 05:30:33
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| [2026-01-09 05:37:36] |
| seandunaway - Posts: 378 |
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also, last i checked wine does not support arm64 windows executables on macos.. the x64 binaries get translated
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| [2026-01-09 14:04:50] |
| Chris32 - Posts: 78 |
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This is correct. SC performance and battery life with parallels and M series chips are amazing, better than running SC natively on a PC with higher specs.
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| [2026-01-10 09:28:15] |
| User30743 - Posts: 395 |
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cool thanks for the tips. I have found Whiskey - https://getwhisky.app/ (free alternative to Crossover). It it working with regular SC version, but not with ARM. So far it seems fine, I will be testing it for a while to see how it goes. If all goes well I will probably stick with it, as it is free :) If not, I will try Crossover. Date Time Of Last Edit: 2026-01-10 09:36:10
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| [2026-02-14 06:25:27] |
| User30743 - Posts: 395 |
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so after some time i can see that https://getwhisky.app/ actually works pretty well for intraday trading. I am using fast 1 sec timeframes, tick by tick data, orderflow, market depth, etc.. on Denalli datafeed, and all works fine to me, no visible latency on MacAir M2 silicon chip. I haven't tried any trading systems or auto backtesting so far (there might be some dissadvnatage compared to native windows) but for manual trading, Whiskey is perfect solution becasue it is free, lightweight and stable Date Time Of Last Edit: 2026-02-14 06:28:41
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| [2026-02-14 16:50:38] |
| ForgivingComputers.com - Posts: 1197 |
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@Tony wrote: I have a Mac Intel chip, so my experience is not relevant, but I vaguely recall a Mac Silicon user mentioned that Windows 11 ARM version needs to be installed (on Virtual Machine).
On Apple Silicon, Windows 11 ARM running in the Parallels Desktop VM can use either the SierraChart_64.exe or the SierraChart_ARM64.exe. The x86 instructions get translated to ARM instructions by Windows when running the _64 version, so there is less overhead using the ARM version. However, you may may need the x64 version for custom studies that have not been built for the ARM chip.. I have tested Crossover, Fusion, and Parallels on my Mac M4 Mini. Parallels seems to be the most popular option based on other users' posts. |
| [2026-02-20 22:32:34] |
| grayfrog - Posts: 67 |
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Have you had success recently using the SierraChart_64.exe version on Parallels? This version has recently stopped working and I can only run the ARM version. I believe there was a thread a while back about this but I don't think there was ever any conclusion. I have some indicators built by Tradedevils that I have no access to anymore because they refuse to create an ARM version of their indicators and I can no longer run the SierraChart_64.exe version Date Time Of Last Edit: 2026-02-20 22:33:47
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| [2026-02-20 23:33:04] |
| seandunaway - Posts: 378 |
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i don't personally run it but from what i remember it was an update in windows 11 arm i think forgivingcomputers had a solution which involved setting a compatibility option in the executable's properties |
| [2026-02-21 06:25:29] |
| User30743 - Posts: 395 |
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One more update regarding ACSIL on mac as i promised. There is no problem at all. I am writing C++ in Clion on Mac, cross-compiling with Cmake to have windows DLL file. Then adding it to Sierra. The dll works perfectly both on the sierra running insinde Whiskey and on the sierra running nativelly on Windows.
Date Time Of Last Edit: 2026-02-21 06:25:47
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| [2026-02-21 09:54:57] |
| DFromeaux - Posts: 29 |
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hi, I use Sierra on Mac and i tested both Parallels and Crossover. Parallels works best, but you should expect it to consume roughly half of the machine’s total resources. I therefore recommend a system with at least 2TB of storage and 64GB of RAM, especially in anticipation of a future Sierra Chart update related to floating-point handling. The ARM version of Sierra Chart must be used. For ACSIL development, you will need to plan for dual compilation, targeting both ARM and x86/x64 architectures. On my setup, resource allocation becomes more complex because I also run multiple browser windows, Discord, WhatsApp, and several background tools simultaneously. CrossOver also performs extremely well. It is the solution I use daily, as I cannot afford to dedicate half of my system resources to Parallels. It is the option I recommend if you are working with an older machine or limited hardware resources. From an ACSIL perspective, the environment behaves essentially as if you were running native Windows. To avoid performance degradation, you still need to carefully manage the number of charts in use. For reference, here is my complete setup: MacBook Air M4, 32GB RAM and 2TB storage Latest version of macOS Tahoe Three external displays: one 32” 4K via dock, and two 27” 2K via a DisplayLink adapter UGREEN Revodok Pro 209 DisplayLink adapter UGREEN Revodok 1061 dock Latest version of Sierra Chart with charts distributed across all three monitors Parallel applications: Chrome, TradingView, FinancialJuice, Discord, WhatsApp, VSCode, Terminal, Notion, OBS. |
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