One of the points I dislike most from OpenGL for Mac is the limited system memory allocation on integrated GPUs. I find it absurd that you get a 16GB system with integrated GPU and that you cannot use 10GB for textures on massive imaging apps, for example. The OpenGL for Mac implementation neglects that you might wish to use just 4GB RAM for OS X, and the rest 12 GB for graphics (call it unbalanced, but some applications like medical visualization or geography data need such "unbalancing").
Many years ago, Silicon Graphics released the O2, introducing UMA ("Unified Memory Architecture"), which allowed you to use the whole system RAM for either the CPU or graphics. It's similar to the integrated GPU concept, and in fact I was able to allocate almost 90% of the system RAM for textures on one app I wrote.
I'm wondering how memory management will be on Metal for Mac, on integrated GPUs. One of the shiny points in Metal is that both the CPU and the GPU can access the same memory buffers (on iOS there's no discrete GPU, so memory is always shared, and it's straightforward to share memory objects between the CPU and the GPU).
Is Apple saying any details about this on this WWDC?
Do you know if Metal will be able to use most of the system RAM for graphics, without the current limitation of integrated GPUs on OpenGL?
Thanks!
Many years ago, Silicon Graphics released the O2, introducing UMA ("Unified Memory Architecture"), which allowed you to use the whole system RAM for either the CPU or graphics. It's similar to the integrated GPU concept, and in fact I was able to allocate almost 90% of the system RAM for textures on one app I wrote.
I'm wondering how memory management will be on Metal for Mac, on integrated GPUs. One of the shiny points in Metal is that both the CPU and the GPU can access the same memory buffers (on iOS there's no discrete GPU, so memory is always shared, and it's straightforward to share memory objects between the CPU and the GPU).
Is Apple saying any details about this on this WWDC?
Do you know if Metal will be able to use most of the system RAM for graphics, without the current limitation of integrated GPUs on OpenGL?
Thanks!