Is Metal 2 only supported on A11 devices?

[Gyroworld]

I can't seem to find a definitive answer online

 

[iSayBoourns]

It might include A10/A10X as well. Since it was announced at the iOS 11 keynote and not the iPhone 8/10 keynote.

At least that’s how I would assume. Because it’s an iOS 11 (and macOS High Sierra) feature and wasn’t touted as a iPhone 8/10 feature.

 

[dreadlord]

I don't think it is hardware dependent since they didn't mention any restrictions for feature. But at least it must support A10 as told in the comment #2.

 

[Sharkoneau]

I can't seem to find a definitive answer online

Seems to be optimized and engineered primarily for the A11 chip, per Apple's developer documentation. You'll be hard pressed to find any references to earlier chipsets. Most improvements appear to designed for the new architecture (memory handling, rendering, GPU interactions).

Here is a small excerpt of what I read. While I can't entirely decipher it, maybe you can:
https://developer.apple.com/documentation/metal/about_gpu_family_4

To be fair on @iSayBoourns post, my machine (a 2011 MBP) currently runs High Sierra, but lacks the hardware support for even Metal - let alone Metal 2. Perhaps they didn't expand upon chip compatibility because that compatibility is so limited.

 

[GreyOS]

No, based on it being announced at WWDC as the above poster mentioned, but also because it's supported on macOS and macs don't have A11s. The A11 does have additional Metal 2 APIs though.

 

[Gmouse]

Is there a way to tell or test (I have the 7+)?

On my late 2014 iMac 5K with High Sierra, while I read that model wouldn't support Metal 2, in the MacOS software report I see:

Metal: Supported, feature set OSX_GPUFamily1 v2

Assume that means the Metal 2 features are fully working with my graphics card (AMD Radeon R9 M295X)?

Thanks.