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Amd Graphics For Mac

© Photo: Brittany Hosea-Small/AFP (Getty Images) Apple CEO Tim Cook on-stage at last year's Worldwide Developers Conference. Apple's transition to its own Mac silicon has brought up a slew of questions, and now it seems like the future of the company's third-party graphics card support in Macs is up for debate.
AMD has detailed the Radeon Pro Vega II, the graphics processing unit included in the new Mac Pro in standard single and 'Duo' configurations, with the 14.2-teraflop 7-nanometer chip providing. References to upcoming AMD processors, graphics cards and APUs (chips that combine CPUs and GPUs) have been spotted in code for MacOS 10.15.4 beta 1.

According to Apple Insider, the company made it clear during a WWDC 2020 developer session—and in a developer support document—that its home-brewed CPUs will support its own GPUs, too. The company already uses its own GPUs in its other devices with ARM-based processors, like iPads and iPhones. If Apple is parting ways with Intel, who's to say they won't also with AMD, who makes the GPUs that power the Mac? There's no indication one way or another, and Apple is staying silent on the matter, so all that's left to do is speculate.
'Apple Silicon Mac contains an Apple-designed GPU, whereas Intel-based Macs contain GPUs from Intel, AMD and Nvidia,' Gokhan Avkarogullari, Apple's director of GPU software, said during the WWDC session. 
It's not surprising that that's the case. Apple confirmed during its WWDC keynote that the company is making its long-rumored move away from Intel processors to its own system-on-chip (SoC) with Apple Silicon, which includes a move to its own integrated GPUs. What's unclear is what that means for future discrete GPU support. Apple officially stopped supporting Nvidia GPUs when it released macOS Mojave in 2018, but has continued to offer a range of Macs with AMD graphics.
In the near future, AMD discrete GPUs aren't going anywhere. Apple recently added a new GPU configuration option to its Mac Pro desktop tower, AMD's Radeon Pro 5500X, and the company said during WWDC that it would be releasing new Intel configurations as well. But one of the things the company pointed out during its developer session is the difference between Apple GPUs and third-party GPUs. Apple GPU architecture is a tile-based deferred renderer (TBDR), and Intel, Nvidia, and AMD are immediate mode renderer GPUs (IMR).
© Screenshot: Apple TBDR captures the entire scene before it starts to render it, splitting it up into multiple small regions, or tiles, that get processed separately, so it processes information pretty fast and doesn't require a lot of memory bandwidth. From there, the architecture won't actually render the scene until it rejects any and all occluded pixels.
On the other hand, IMR does things the opposite way, rendering the entire scene before it decides what pixels need to be thrown out. As you probably guessed, this method is inefficient, yet it's how modern discrete GPUs operate, and they need a lot of bandwidth to do so. 
For Apple Silicon ARM architecture, TBDR is a much better match because its focus is on speed and lower power consumption—not to mention the GPU is on the same chip as the CPU, hence the term SoC. This is probably why Apple wrote, 'Don't assume a discrete GPU means better performance,' in its developer support document. It's all that dang bandwidth it doesn't need.
It could also be a reason why that the Shadow of the Tomb Raider demo (running on Rosetta 2) Apple showed off during its keynote looked so good. I'm no game designer, but if Apple if helping developers port their games to not only its ARM architecture, but its GPU architecture, it just might grow some more teeth in the gaming sphere. And if that happens, Macs might actually become competitive gaming machines once you start to compare benchmarks.
I'd still be highly skeptical of the cost of Apple's future machines, though, especially since you can currently build or buy a PC with better specs for much less than a Mac. There's also something to be said about the DIY culture baked into the Windows-based PC market. Apple has generally made its customers rely totally on the company to fix hardware-related issued or upgrade, and if it wants to attract more developers to code their games for its hardware and macOS, understanding the PC gaming culture would go a long way. For some, it might not matter if Apple's GPUs are technically better.

Like Intel, AMD will stick it out with Apple for as long as it can, until Apple is positive it can survive without any third-party hardware components. Then the walled garden will be fully grown.

We reached out to Apple for comment on its future AMD GPU plans, but have yet to receive a response. We will update if/when we hear back.
An eGPU can give your Mac additional graphics performance for professional apps, 3D gaming, VR content creation, and more.
eGPUs are supported by any Thunderbolt 3-equipped Mac1 running macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 or later. Learn how to update the software on your Mac.
An eGPU lets you do all this on your Mac:

Accelerate apps that use Metal, OpenGL, and OpenCL
Connect additional external monitors and displays
Use virtual reality headsets plugged into the eGPU
Charge your MacBook Pro while using the eGPU
Use an eGPU with your MacBook Pro while its built-in display is closed 
Connect an eGPU while a user is logged in
Connect more than one eGPU using the multiple Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) ports on your Mac2
Use the menu bar item to safely disconnect the eGPU
View the activity levels of built-in and external GPUs (Open Activity Monitor, then choose Window > GPU History.)
eGPU support in appseGPU support in macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 and later is designed to accelerate Metal, OpenGL, and OpenCL apps that benefit from a powerful eGPU. Not all apps support eGPU acceleration; check with the app's developer to learn more.3
In general, an eGPU can accelerate performance in these types of apps:
Pro apps designed to utilize multiple GPUs
3D games, when an external monitor is attached directly to the eGPU
VR apps, when the VR headset is attached directly to the eGPU
Pro apps and 3D games that accelerate the built-in display of iMac, iMac Pro, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro (This capability must be enabled by the app's developer.)
You can configure applications to use an eGPU with one of the following methods.
Use the Prefer External GPU optionStarting with macOS Mojave 10.14, you can turn on Prefer External GPU in a specific app's Get Info panel in the Finder. This option lets the eGPU accelerate apps on any display connected to the Mac—including displays built in to iMac, iMac Pro, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro:
Quit the app if it's open.
Select the app in the Finder. Most apps are in your Applications folder. If you open the app from an alias or launcher, Control-click the app's icon and choose Show Original from the pop-up menu. Then select the original app.
Press Command-I to show the app's info window.
Select the checkbox next to Prefer External GPU.
Open the app to use it with the eGPU.
You won't see this option if an eGPU isn't connected, if your Mac isn't running macOS Mojave or later, or if the app self-manages its GPU selection. Some apps, such as Final Cut Pro, directly choose which graphics processors are used and will ignore the Prefer External GPU checkbox.
Set an external eGPU-connected display as the primary displayIf you have an external display connected to your eGPU, you can choose it as the primary display for all apps. Since apps default to the GPU associated with the primary display, this option works with a variety of apps:
Quit any open apps that you want the eGPU to accelerate on the primary display.
Choose Apple menu  > System Preferences. Select Displays, then select the Arrangement tab.
Drag the white menu bar to the box that represents the display that's attached to the eGPU. 
Open the apps that you want to use with the eGPU.
If you disconnect the eGPU, your Mac defaults back to the internal graphics processors that drives the built-in display. When the eGPU is re-attached, it automatically sets the external display as the primary display.
About macOS GPU driversMac hardware and GPU software drivers have always been deeply integrated into the system. This design fuels the visually rich and graphical macOS experience as well as many deeper platform compute and graphics features. These include accelerating the user interface, providing support for advanced display features, rendering 3D graphics for pro software and games, processing photos and videos, driving powerful GPU compute features, and accelerating machine learning tasks. This deep integration also enables optimal battery life while providing for greater system performance and stability.
Apple develops, integrates, and supports macOS GPU drivers to ensure there are consistent GPU capabilities across all Mac products, including rich APIs like Metal, Core Animation, Core Image, and Core ML. In order to deliver the best possible customer experience, GPU drivers need to be engineered, integrated, tested, and delivered with each version of macOS. Aftermarket GPU drivers delivered by third parties are not compatible with macOS.
The GPU drivers delivered with macOS are also designed to enable a high quality, high performance experience when using an eGPU, as described in the list of recommended eGPU chassis and graphics card configurations below. Because of this deep system integration, only graphics cards that use the same GPU architecture as those built into Mac products are supported in macOS.
Supported eGPU configurationsIt's important to use an eGPU with a recommended graphics card and Thunderbolt 3 chassis. If you use an eGPU to also charge your MacBook Pro, the eGPU's chassis needs to provide enough power to run the graphics card and charge the computer. Check with the manufacturer of the chassis to find out if it provides enough power for your MacBook Pro.
Recommended graphics cards, along with chassis that can power them sufficiently, are listed below.
Thunderbolt 3 all-in-one eGPU productsThese products contain a powerful built-in GPU and supply sufficient power to charge your MacBook Pro.
Recommended Thunderbolt 3 all-in-one eGPUs:
Blackmagic eGPU and Blackmagic eGPU Pro4
Gigabyte RX 580 Gaming Box4
Sonnet Radeon RX 570 eGFX Breakaway Puck
Sonnet Radeon RX 560 eGFX Breakaway Puck5
AMD Radeon RX 470, RX 480, RX 570, RX 580, and Radeon Pro WX 7100These graphics cards are based on the AMD Polaris architecture. Recommended graphics cards include the Sapphire Pulse series and the AMD WX series.
Recommended Thunderbolt 3 chassis for these graphics cards:
OWC Mercury Helios FX4
PowerColor Devil Box
Sapphire Gear Box
Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box 350W
Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box 550W4
Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box 650W4
Razer Core X4
PowerColor Game Station4
HP Omen4
Akitio Node6
AMD Radeon RX Vega 56These graphics cards are based on the AMD Vega 56 architecture. Recommended graphics cards include the Sapphire Vega 56.
Recommended Thunderbolt 3 chassis for these graphics cards:
OWC Mercury Helios FX4
PowerColor Devil Box
Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box 550W4
Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box 650W4
Razer Core X4
PowerColor Game Station4
AMD Radeon RX Vega 64, Vega Frontier Edition Air, and Radeon Pro WX 9100These graphics cards are based on the AMD Vega 64 architecture. Recommended graphics cards include the Sapphire Vega 64, AMD Frontier Edition air-cooled, and AMD Radeon Pro WX 9100.
Recommended Thunderbolt 3 chassis for these graphics cards:
Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box 650W4
Razer Core X4
AMD Radeon RX 5700, 5700 XT, and 5700 XT 50th AnniversaryIf you've installed macOS Catalina 10.15.1 or later, you can use these graphics cards that are based on the AMD Navi RDNA architecture. Recommended graphics cards include the AMD Radeon RX 5700, AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT, and AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT 50th Anniversary.
Recommended Thunderbolt 3 chassis for these graphics cards:
Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box 650W4
Razer Core X4
Learn moreLearn how to choose your GPU in Final Cut Pro X 10.4.7 or later.
To ensure the best eGPU performance, use the Thunderbolt 3 cable that came with your eGPU or an Apple Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) cable. Also make sure that the cable is connected directly to a Thunderbolt 3 port on your Mac, not daisy-chained through another Thunderbolt device or hub.
If you have questions about Thunderbolt 3 chassis or graphics cards, or about third-party app support and compatibility, contact the hardware or software provider.
Software developers can learn more about programming their apps to take advantage of macOS eGPU support.
1. If you have a Mac mini (2018) with FileVault turned on, make sure to connect your primary display directly to Mac mini during startup. After you log in and see the macOS Desktop, you can unplug the display from Mac mini and connect it to your eGPU.
Instant messenger for mac. 2. If you're using a 13-inch MacBook Pro from 2016 or 2017, always plug eGPUs and other high-performance devices into the left-hand ports for maximum data throughput.
3. macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 and later don't support eGPUs in Windows using Boot Camp or when your Mac is in macOS Recovery or installing system updates.

© Photo: Brittany Hosea-Small/AFP (Getty Images) Apple CEO Tim Cook on-stage at last year's Worldwide Developers Conference. Apple's transition to its own Mac silicon has brought up a slew of questions, and now it seems like the future of the company's third-party graphics card support in Macs is up for debate.
AMD has detailed the Radeon Pro Vega II, the graphics processing unit included in the new Mac Pro in standard single and 'Duo' configurations, with the 14.2-teraflop 7-nanometer chip providing. References to upcoming AMD processors, graphics cards and APUs (chips that combine CPUs and GPUs) have been spotted in code for MacOS 10.15.4 beta 1.
According to Apple Insider, the company made it clear during a WWDC 2020 developer session—and in a developer support document—that its home-brewed CPUs will support its own GPUs, too. The company already uses its own GPUs in its other devices with ARM-based processors, like iPads and iPhones. If Apple is parting ways with Intel, who's to say they won't also with AMD, who makes the GPUs that power the Mac? There's no indication one way or another, and Apple is staying silent on the matter, so all that's left to do is speculate.
'Apple Silicon Mac contains an Apple-designed GPU, whereas Intel-based Macs contain GPUs from Intel, AMD and Nvidia,' Gokhan Avkarogullari, Apple's director of GPU software, said during the WWDC session. 
It's not surprising that that's the case. Apple confirmed during its WWDC keynote that the company is making its long-rumored move away from Intel processors to its own system-on-chip (SoC) with Apple Silicon, which includes a move to its own integrated GPUs. What's unclear is what that means for future discrete GPU support. Apple officially stopped supporting Nvidia GPUs when it released macOS Mojave in 2018, but has continued to offer a range of Macs with AMD graphics.
In the near future, AMD discrete GPUs aren't going anywhere. Apple recently added a new GPU configuration option to its Mac Pro desktop tower, AMD's Radeon Pro 5500X, and the company said during WWDC that it would be releasing new Intel configurations as well. But one of the things the company pointed out during its developer session is the difference between Apple GPUs and third-party GPUs. Apple GPU architecture is a tile-based deferred renderer (TBDR), and Intel, Nvidia, and AMD are immediate mode renderer GPUs (IMR).
© Screenshot: Apple TBDR captures the entire scene before it starts to render it, splitting it up into multiple small regions, or tiles, that get processed separately, so it processes information pretty fast and doesn't require a lot of memory bandwidth. From there, the architecture won't actually render the scene until it rejects any and all occluded pixels.
On the other hand, IMR does things the opposite way, rendering the entire scene before it decides what pixels need to be thrown out. As you probably guessed, this method is inefficient, yet it's how modern discrete GPUs operate, and they need a lot of bandwidth to do so. 
For Apple Silicon ARM architecture, TBDR is a much better match because its focus is on speed and lower power consumption—not to mention the GPU is on the same chip as the CPU, hence the term SoC. This is probably why Apple wrote, 'Don't assume a discrete GPU means better performance,' in its developer support document. It's all that dang bandwidth it doesn't need.
It could also be a reason why that the Shadow of the Tomb Raider demo (running on Rosetta 2) Apple showed off during its keynote looked so good. I'm no game designer, but if Apple if helping developers port their games to not only its ARM architecture, but its GPU architecture, it just might grow some more teeth in the gaming sphere. And if that happens, Macs might actually become competitive gaming machines once you start to compare benchmarks.
I'd still be highly skeptical of the cost of Apple's future machines, though, especially since you can currently build or buy a PC with better specs for much less than a Mac. There's also something to be said about the DIY culture baked into the Windows-based PC market. Apple has generally made its customers rely totally on the company to fix hardware-related issued or upgrade, and if it wants to attract more developers to code their games for its hardware and macOS, understanding the PC gaming culture would go a long way. For some, it might not matter if Apple's GPUs are technically better.
Like Intel, AMD will stick it out with Apple for as long as it can, until Apple is positive it can survive without any third-party hardware components. Then the walled garden will be fully grown.
We reached out to Apple for comment on its future AMD GPU plans, but have yet to receive a response. We will update if/when we hear back.
An eGPU can give your Mac additional graphics performance for professional apps, 3D gaming, VR content creation, and more.
eGPUs are supported by any Thunderbolt 3-equipped Mac1 running macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 or later. Learn how to update the software on your Mac.
An eGPU lets you do all this on your Mac:
Accelerate apps that use Metal, OpenGL, and OpenCL
Connect additional external monitors and displays
Use virtual reality headsets plugged into the eGPU
Charge your MacBook Pro while using the eGPU
Use an eGPU with your MacBook Pro while its built-in display is closed 
Connect an eGPU while a user is logged in
Connect more than one eGPU using the multiple Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) ports on your Mac2
Use the menu bar item to safely disconnect the eGPU
View the activity levels of built-in and external GPUs (Open Activity Monitor, then choose Window > GPU History.)
eGPU support in appseGPU support in macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 and later is designed to accelerate Metal, OpenGL, and OpenCL apps that benefit from a powerful eGPU. Not all apps support eGPU acceleration; check with the app's developer to learn more.3
In general, an eGPU can accelerate performance in these types of apps:
Pro apps designed to utilize multiple GPUs
3D games, when an external monitor is attached directly to the eGPU
VR apps, when the VR headset is attached directly to the eGPU
Pro apps and 3D games that accelerate the built-in display of iMac, iMac Pro, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro (This capability must be enabled by the app's developer.)
You can configure applications to use an eGPU with one of the following methods.
Use the Prefer External GPU optionStarting with macOS Mojave 10.14, you can turn on Prefer External GPU in a specific app's Get Info panel in the Finder. This option lets the eGPU accelerate apps on any display connected to the Mac—including displays built in to iMac, iMac Pro, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro:
Quit the app if it's open.
Select the app in the Finder. Most apps are in your Applications folder. If you open the app from an alias or launcher, Control-click the app's icon and choose Show Original from the pop-up menu. Then select the original app.
Press Command-I to show the app's info window.
Select the checkbox next to Prefer External GPU.
Open the app to use it with the eGPU.
You won't see this option if an eGPU isn't connected, if your Mac isn't running macOS Mojave or later, or if the app self-manages its GPU selection. Some apps, such as Final Cut Pro, directly choose which graphics processors are used and will ignore the Prefer External GPU checkbox.
Set an external eGPU-connected display as the primary displayIf you have an external display connected to your eGPU, you can choose it as the primary display for all apps. Since apps default to the GPU associated with the primary display, this option works with a variety of apps:
Quit any open apps that you want the eGPU to accelerate on the primary display.
Choose Apple menu  > System Preferences. Select Displays, then select the Arrangement tab.
Drag the white menu bar to the box that represents the display that's attached to the eGPU. 
Open the apps that you want to use with the eGPU.
If you disconnect the eGPU, your Mac defaults back to the internal graphics processors that drives the built-in display. When the eGPU is re-attached, it automatically sets the external display as the primary display.
About macOS GPU driversMac hardware and GPU software drivers have always been deeply integrated into the system. This design fuels the visually rich and graphical macOS experience as well as many deeper platform compute and graphics features. These include accelerating the user interface, providing support for advanced display features, rendering 3D graphics for pro software and games, processing photos and videos, driving powerful GPU compute features, and accelerating machine learning tasks. This deep integration also enables optimal battery life while providing for greater system performance and stability.
Apple develops, integrates, and supports macOS GPU drivers to ensure there are consistent GPU capabilities across all Mac products, including rich APIs like Metal, Core Animation, Core Image, and Core ML. In order to deliver the best possible customer experience, GPU drivers need to be engineered, integrated, tested, and delivered with each version of macOS. Aftermarket GPU drivers delivered by third parties are not compatible with macOS.
The GPU drivers delivered with macOS are also designed to enable a high quality, high performance experience when using an eGPU, as described in the list of recommended eGPU chassis and graphics card configurations below. Because of this deep system integration, only graphics cards that use the same GPU architecture as those built into Mac products are supported in macOS.
Supported eGPU configurationsIt's important to use an eGPU with a recommended graphics card and Thunderbolt 3 chassis. If you use an eGPU to also charge your MacBook Pro, the eGPU's chassis needs to provide enough power to run the graphics card and charge the computer. Check with the manufacturer of the chassis to find out if it provides enough power for your MacBook Pro.
Recommended graphics cards, along with chassis that can power them sufficiently, are listed below.
Thunderbolt 3 all-in-one eGPU productsThese products contain a powerful built-in GPU and supply sufficient power to charge your MacBook Pro.
Recommended Thunderbolt 3 all-in-one eGPUs:
Blackmagic eGPU and Blackmagic eGPU Pro4
Gigabyte RX 580 Gaming Box4
Sonnet Radeon RX 570 eGFX Breakaway Puck
Sonnet Radeon RX 560 eGFX Breakaway Puck5
AMD Radeon RX 470, RX 480, RX 570, RX 580, and Radeon Pro WX 7100These graphics cards are based on the AMD Polaris architecture. Recommended graphics cards include the Sapphire Pulse series and the AMD WX series.
Recommended Thunderbolt 3 chassis for these graphics cards:
OWC Mercury Helios FX4
PowerColor Devil Box
Sapphire Gear Box
Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box 350W
Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box 550W4
Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box 650W4
Razer Core X4
PowerColor Game Station4
HP Omen4
Akitio Node6
AMD Radeon RX Vega 56These graphics cards are based on the AMD Vega 56 architecture. Recommended graphics cards include the Sapphire Vega 56.
Recommended Thunderbolt 3 chassis for these graphics cards:
OWC Mercury Helios FX4
PowerColor Devil Box
Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box 550W4
Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box 650W4
Razer Core X4
PowerColor Game Station4
AMD Radeon RX Vega 64, Vega Frontier Edition Air, and Radeon Pro WX 9100These graphics cards are based on the AMD Vega 64 architecture. Recommended graphics cards include the Sapphire Vega 64, AMD Frontier Edition air-cooled, and AMD Radeon Pro WX 9100.
Recommended Thunderbolt 3 chassis for these graphics cards:
Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box 650W4
Razer Core X4
AMD Radeon RX 5700, 5700 XT, and 5700 XT 50th AnniversaryIf you've installed macOS Catalina 10.15.1 or later, you can use these graphics cards that are based on the AMD Navi RDNA architecture. Recommended graphics cards include the AMD Radeon RX 5700, AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT, and AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT 50th Anniversary.
Recommended Thunderbolt 3 chassis for these graphics cards:
Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box 650W4
Razer Core X4
Learn moreLearn how to choose your GPU in Final Cut Pro X 10.4.7 or later.
To ensure the best eGPU performance, use the Thunderbolt 3 cable that came with your eGPU or an Apple Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) cable. Also make sure that the cable is connected directly to a Thunderbolt 3 port on your Mac, not daisy-chained through another Thunderbolt device or hub.
If you have questions about Thunderbolt 3 chassis or graphics cards, or about third-party app support and compatibility, contact the hardware or software provider.
Software developers can learn more about programming their apps to take advantage of macOS eGPU support.
1. If you have a Mac mini (2018) with FileVault turned on, make sure to connect your primary display directly to Mac mini during startup. After you log in and see the macOS Desktop, you can unplug the display from Mac mini and connect it to your eGPU.
Instant messenger for mac. 2. If you're using a 13-inch MacBook Pro from 2016 or 2017, always plug eGPUs and other high-performance devices into the left-hand ports for maximum data throughput.
3. macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 and later don't support eGPUs in Windows using Boot Camp or when your Mac is in macOS Recovery or installing system updates.
4. These chassis provide at least 85 watts of charging power, making them ideal for use with 15-inch MacBook Pro models.
Amd Graphics Drivers5. Playback of HDCP-protected content from iTunes and some streaming services is not supported on displays attached to Radeon 560-based eGPUs. You can play this content on the built-in display on MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and iMac.
Amd Graphics For Machine Learning6. If you use Akitio Node with a Mac notebook, you might need to connect your Mac to its power adapter to ensure proper charging.