Apple Announces Metal for OS X El Capitan

[Anim]

Some ramblings....

Programmers currently have to write rather complex code to utilise OpenCL (and a second GPU) which is why software that uses OpenCL / CUDA are often for the realm of high end packages. If Metal can bring OpenCL and OpenGL together and the need to write code that taps into a second GPU is handled automatically by the Metal SDK then that is win win for Mac Pro users. We currently have to hope/pray that our software suppliers support it.

In other news, Nvidia are working on improving multi GPU drivers so that SLI works natively and that memory on the 2nd or 3rd GPU cards are pooled into one lot. No doubt AMD are working on their version too.

Also, the fact that Oculus recently dropped support for the Mac platform is bad news for us Apple users. I know this is infant technology but VR is picking up momentum and modern Mac's just don't have the GPU power to drive it, maybe this SDK improvement will help solve that? In a nutshell, VR gaming roughly requires 3K res to run at 90FPS to avoid simulation sickness. I hope that Metal is the answer to that for those of us that bought a beefy Mac Pro.

 

[bumblebritches5]

I hate the name El Capitan. It's too cumbersome to say and I think the name annoys me so much because in my photography days thats all people would ever take a picture of.

I agree that the name sucks, but I think they're going for a Lion / Mountain Lion type thing, because El Capitan is apparently a mountain inside Yosemite.

 

[bumblebritches5]

However, they need things like AutoCAD, Autodesk, and others.

Autodesk was on the Metal for OS X slide that showed companies supporting it...

 

[Ferazel]

Autodesk was on the Metal for OS X slide that showed companies supporting it...

Whoops, I didn't see that. Well, if they have pro support like that. I think Metal is in a pretty good spot. Hopefully, Apple can maintain feature parity with OpenGL and Direct3D for cutting edge games.

 

[MandiMac]

I can't find it yet though I clearly remember some nice detailed stuff saying it's full 150w. It's easy to believe in since its Tonga desktop counterpart (285) has not that higher frequencies and a 225w TDP.

VSync itself makes most of action games unplayable even at casual level. The only game that doesn't hurt because of it that I can remember is Diablo 3.

Hm, I searched around for a bit and found these as well on notebookcheck and wikipedia.

Regarding VSync I really can't get your point, calling it unplayable is reaching imho. Why should devs even include that option then? This is coming from someone having played D3, Starcraft II, WoW, LoL, HotS, Dota 2, Child of Light, Grid, Brutal Legend, Mass Effect 1-3, Neverwinter, Watch Dogs, Tomb Raider and more all with VSync on. But hey, to each his own - and it doesn't negate the fact that VSync really helps the GPU. Still waiting for someone with an "overheating" riMac to confirm if they use VSync or not

 

[Ferazel]

Hm, I searched around for a bit and found these as well on notebookcheck and wikipedia.

Regarding VSync I really can't get your point, calling it unplayable is reaching imho. Why should devs even include that option then? This is coming from someone having played D3, Starcraft II, WoW, LoL, HotS, Dota 2, Child of Light, Grid, Brutal Legend, Mass Effect 1-3, Neverwinter, Watch Dogs, Tomb Raider and more all with VSync on. But hey, to each his own - and it doesn't negate the fact that VSync really helps the GPU. Still waiting for someone with an "overheating" riMac to confirm if they use VSync or not

Agreed, but VSync on apps that run less than 60 fps really can really be obnoxious. If your frame takes 17ms instead of 16.5ms you could be cutting your frame rate in half from 60 fps to 30 fps. Definitely not always ideal. That said, screen tearing can be awful and I'd prefer to play with VSync in most situations.

 

[dusk007]

So now we're gonna need rendering engines for OpenGL, DirectX 12, Vulkan, Mantle, and Metal to best support all recent systems

As far as Mantle is concerned that is out of the picture. AMD already said they put all their resources toward Vulkan. You can't blame AMD they clearly back the Vulkan horse and have accepted that Mantle was just a push for the industry but will never be a standard.

I think Metal will help push iOS apps to Mac. I don't see it being used on many games that are to graphically demanding to run on tablets. I don't think having Metal on Mac will help it seeing more use on iOS. It will be the other way around I think.
Basically we got now the Windows eco system (windows phone, desktop, xbox), the Apple eco system (iOS, OSX) and everything else on OpenGL which will transistion to Vulkan (Android, PS4, Steamboxes, cross plattform Linux/Windows[maybe OSX], Nintendo Android). That third camp isn't all that small either.
It really wouldn't have hurt if Apple didn't do their own thing. But it is Apple so who is really surprised. They are all about platform lock in. If they are serious with Metal on iOS it absolutely makes sense to support it on Macs.
Nvidia with their Cuda will eventually see the light too, I suspect.

 

[macmarathon]

I edit and render videos using the Screenflow video editing software... Will Metal make this faster for me period or does Screenflow have to be one of the signed up applications using Metal for me to enjoy any performance boost?

 

[Ferazel]

I edit and render videos using the Screenflow video editing software... Will Metal make this faster for me period or does Screenflow have to be one of the signed up applications using Metal for me to enjoy any performance boost?

Metal is both a rendering API and a compute platform. So if it was rewritten to offload the compute operations to the GPU you could see some benefits for sure. I'm thinking a majority of the performance gains that they quoted from Adobe products was them rewriting some of their CUDA using Metal's compute API.

Software that uses system level libraries like Core Animation and Core Image will basically get performance improvements for "free" as Apple has already converted the rendering APIs from OpenGL to Metal. Most video encoding though is done as a unique process and would most likely need to have portions of it rewritten to offload some of the computation to the GPU in your case.

 

[iFitzgerald]

Wow! This is my personal highlight this year! Did Apple just kill DirectX?

Unreal Engine (Epic Games), Modo (The Foundry) and Adobe CC will be running on Metal, and that's just the beginning! Last year I posted a question what if Metal ran on OS X... and got mixed negative replies. This year it's real.

Think about it again: for some gamers like me, the only reason we still keep a Windows PC alive is because of games. Now, with the native Metal support and major game engine developers like Epic Games on board, Macs will soon turn into serious gaming machines, running beautiful games natively on the best OS, OS X!

Gamers won't be exclusively tied to Windows anymore! That's truly epic.

Apple didn't kill Direct X. Metal doesn't even exist for Windows which holds more than 90% of the Computer Gaming Market and has DirectX as it's king, and it will remain that way especially with the new version of DirectX coming out soon.
And even though big names are associated, I wouldn't get very high hopes on Macs becoming great gaming machines. They still represent a very small market share to be worth the effort of porting...

 

[aaronvan]

I hate the name El Capitan. It's too cumbersome to say and I think the name annoys me so much because in my photography days thats all people would ever take a picture of.

Damn that Ansel Adams.

 

[MandiMac]

Agreed, but VSync on apps that run less than 60 fps really can really be obnoxious. If your frame takes 17ms instead of 16.5ms you could be cutting your frame rate in half from 60 fps to 30 fps. Definitely not always ideal. That said, screen tearing can be awful and I'd prefer to play with VSync in most situations.

It can be quite a PITA, I get you - but I like my full resolution and I lower things like shadows and reflections to let things stay smooth. But it's still more ideal than having an overheating riMac like most of MacRumors' Forums members fear I think the matter is way overblown here.

 

[J4allTs]

Apple didn't kill Direct X. Metal doesn't even exist for Windows which holds more than 90% of the Computer Gaming Market and has DirectX as it's king, and it will remain that way especially with the new version of DirectX coming out soon.
And even though big names are associated, I wouldn't get very high hopes on Macs becoming great gaming machines. They still represent a very small market share to be worth the effort of porting...

Damn... Why couldn't you just let the Mac faithful (myself included) have their fun? BAM! Slapped in the face with reality. Thanks iFitzgerald.

 

[Dargoth]

I hate the name El Capitan. It's too cumbersome to say and I think the name annoys me so much because in my photography days thats all people would ever take a picture of.

Kind of like OS X ML (there is a point in this). I look forward to OS X EC.

Apple didn't kill Direct X. Metal doesn't even exist for Windows which holds more than 90% of the Computer Gaming Market and has DirectX as it's king, and it will remain that way especially with the new version of DirectX coming out soon.
And even though big names are associated, I wouldn't get very high hopes on Macs becoming great gaming machines. They still represent a very small market share to be worth the effort of porting...

Certainly Apple didn't kill DirectX, but it looks like Metal is going to give DirectX-like performance on OS X. At the very least, it'll remove the need to boot into Windows for many games once enough titles support it. I look forward to the improvement.

 

[shawnforever]

I hate the name El Capitan. It's too cumbersome

"El Cap" itself is actually 2 syllables fewer than "Yosemite." It pops. (Emoji bang, emoji gun)

Yeah, "Yosemite" does roll off the tongue better. Mellifluous, gorgeous word.

In the grand scheme of things, it's the whole OS naming scheme that's too cumbersome. Why is it important to still explicitly reference "El Capitan" as the 11th (12th?) iteration of a version of the Mac operating system labeled both Roman Numeral "X" and Arabic numeral "10?" Yes, OS X was a huge moment in the company's history, but naming that legacy has grown cumbersome.

Mac OS X v.10.11 "El Capitan"

vs

Mac OS 22 "El Capitan"

 

[mrxak]

Oh for the love of...

So now we're gonna need rendering engines for OpenGL, DirectX 12, Vulkan, Mantle, and Metal to best support all recent systems, and don't even get me started on GLES and all the stuff NVIDIA's got flying out their backside now as well.

I think Metal is a good idea, fundamentally, but this kind of fragmentation could turn into a huge problem. Apple, what is wrong with Vulkan? No, really? What's wrong with it? Same question could go to Microsoft and AMD as well, but at least both of them announced their plans BEFORE Vulkan, so they couldn't know. Apple has no excuse.

First of all, Apple hasn't said they aren't supporting Vulkan yet. If it really is the OpenGL successor, then I'm sure OS X and iOS will get Vulkan support eventually. Those that want to just write Vulkan code and ignore all the other APIs can do so. By the way, looking at a slide from GDC when Vulkan was announced, it looks like Apple is even listed as a participant. So yeah, Vulkan on OS X and iOS. Done deal. Having additional options for developers on top of that, such as Metal, is not a bad thing. Not everyone wants to write a cross-platform app. Some people will want to optimize for multiple platforms using different APIs.

The problem with Vulkan is that it doesn't exist yet. Apple doesn't want to wait around for some future standard to work its way through the Khronos Group which will release who knows when. They want to have performance gains now. Well actually, last year when they brought Metal out for iOS. You have the timing wrong. Metal was announced a year ago, Vulkan was only announced earlier this year. So Apple has a pretty good excuse. Bringing it to OS X this year doesn't count as a separate new thing, it's the natural progression of Metal.

Apple has already ported Core Graphics and Core Animation to work on Metal, so anyone using those foundations just got a free performance boost. Regardless of future Vulkan support, or a lack of interest by developers outside of Apple in Metal, this is unquestionably a good thing for Apple to have done. It's likely a lot of the performance gains Apple is saying is in El Cap is due to Metal. You really going to complain about that?

 

[shaocaholica]

This really should have come years ago when steam came to OS X. It's a great idea but really years late.

 

[iFitzgerald]

Certainly Apple didn't kill DirectX, but it looks like Metal is going to give DirectX-like performance on OS X. At the very least, it'll remove the need to boot into Windows for many games once enough titles support it. I look forward to the improvement.

I do hope that I'm wrong on the second part and developers start porting more games for the Mac, but imo Apple has to help a little bit and start inserting some graphic cards a bit more powerful than those Intel Integrated ones...they're ok...kinda...but they tend to get old too fast!

 

[jblagden]

I do hope that I'm wrong on the second part and developers start porting more games for the Mac, but imo Apple has to help a little bit and start inserting some graphic cards a bit more powerful than those Intel Integrated ones...they're ok...kinda...but they tend to get old too fast!

Fortunately, Thunderbolt can be used for external graphics cards. Though, I admit it isn't as simple as just plugging one in, and they're not hot-pluggable.

 

[Dargoth]

I do hope that I'm wrong on the second part and developers start porting more games for the Mac, but imo Apple has to help a little bit and start inserting some graphic cards a bit more powerful than those Intel Integrated ones...they're ok...kinda...but they tend to get old too fast!

No doubt. Although, even on integrated GPUs, the performance is noticeably better in Windows. You can't make a turtle into a race horse, but at least you can give the turtle a little boost.

Fortunately, Thunderbolt can be used for external graphics cards. Though, I admit it isn't as simple as just plugging one in, and they're not hot-pluggable.

I find that the only viable setup involving Thunderbolt, is to boot into Windows with the external GPU, and attach an external monitor. OS X's drivers don't deal well with unusual setups like this. Plus, there's the slim choice of GPUs that'll work in the first place.

Oh for the love of...

So now we're gonna need rendering engines for OpenGL, DirectX 12, Vulkan, Mantle, and Metal to best support all recent systems, and don't even get me started on GLES and all the stuff NVIDIA's got flying out their backside now as well.

I think Metal is a good idea, fundamentally, but this kind of fragmentation could turn into a huge problem. Apple, what is wrong with Vulkan? No, really? What's wrong with it? Same question could go to Microsoft and AMD as well, but at least both of them announced their plans BEFORE Vulkan, so they couldn't know. Apple has no excuse.

In addition, Apple's graphics hardware is so monumentally terrible that few people will actually benefit much from this anyway. Believe me, the overhead on the drawcalls is NEVER the overhead on a Mac. Not even the Mac Pro. Their CPU's are much more powerful than their GPU's across the board unless you go all out and buy their top-specced machines, which will run you $4000+, and almost nobody does that.

I'll just leave this here...

 

[jblagden]

No doubt. Although, even on integrated GPUs, the performance is noticeably better in Windows. You can't make a turtle into a race horse, but at least you can give the turtle a little boost.

I find that the only viable setup involving Thunderbolt, is to boot into Windows with the external GPU, and attach an external monitor. OS X's drivers don't deal well with unusual setups like this. Plus, there's the slim choice of GPUs that'll work in the first place.


I'll just leave this here...

Windows is just the easiest way to use an eGPU. OS X requires more setup at first, but it actually requires less setup afterwards. Here are a couple of links about that:
http://forum.techinferno.com/mac-os...ng]-osx-egpu-os-x-releases-10-9-5-update.html

https://xellers.wordpress.com/articles/how-to-install-osx-drivers-on-unsupported-systems/

Also, here's a list of GPUs which will work in OS X: http://www.tonymacx86.com/building-customac-buyers-guide-april-2015.html#Graphics_Cards

Admittedly, the web drivers have to be modified to remove the hardware check which checks to see if you're using a Mac Pro, but it's easier to use an eGPU in OS X once the initial setup is completed.

 

[PsykX]

By bringing Metal on all their platforms and a little bit everywhere in their frameworks, Apple is slowly paving the way to their upcoming AppleTV.

Sony and Microsoft, get ready for some serious ass-kickin' in the butt...

 

[vista980622]

I doubt Adobe would be in on it if it were useless

There's now a demo of Metal with Adobe Illustrator and After Effects by David McGavran. (Hint: It's not useless.)