Question about Metal 2

[Sdtrent]

So Metal 2 is supposed to be up to 10x faster than Metal. With games like Starcraft 2 and Hitman that already support Metal will we automatically see a performance boost when we update, or do the developers need to do some additional coding to get the preformance gains of Metal 2?

Just curious

 

[T-Bob]

Misread, nm. What other games support metal?

 

[imacken]

Misread, nm. What other games support metal?

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/list-of-mac-metal-games.2045606/

 

[MrNomNoms]

So Metal 2 is supposed to be up to 10x faster than Metal. With games like Starcraft 2 and Hitman that already support Metal will we automatically see a performance boost when we update, or do the developers need to do some additional coding to get the preformance gains of Metal 2?

Just curious

I think there will be a modest improvement but the really big improvements that I saw during the WWDC session videos are those which require the developer to update their code base.

 

[iMacDragon]

It'll only be 10x for some very specific usage cases, not as a whole, and those cases will almost certainly need recoding.

 

[SoyCapitanSoyCapitan]

Maybe 30% faster in reality, if old titles get patched which is unlikely in many cases.

 

[iMacDragon]

Maybe 30% faster in reality, if old titles get patched which is unlikely in many cases.

Indeed, it's unlikely to be worth the cost for the developer for updating many older titles.

 

[macbookguy]

Misread, nm. What other games support metal?

Not enough for being out two years

 

[PeterHolbrook]

Can anyone clarify which, if any, modern GPUs can provide Metal 2 to a Mac Pro 5,1 that is supposed to run both Snow Leopard and (High) Sierra? Naturally, it should display the relevant disk boot options if Alt is pressed when the chime is heard. In case such a GPU doesn't exist, which is the best next thing (just for High Sierra)?

 

[redheeler]

Can anyone clarify which, if any, modern GPUs can provide Metal 2 to a Mac Pro 5,1 that is supposed to run both Snow Leopard and (High) Sierra? Naturally, it should display the relevant disk boot options if Alt is pressed when the chime is heard. In case such a GPU doesn't exist, which is the best next thing (just for High Sierra)?

It would probably be better to search or ask in the Mac Pro area if you want specific GPUs named. But, as far as I am aware, a GPU which can provide acceleration in Snow Leopard and Metal in High Sierra doesn't exist. As the Mac Pro has multiple PCIe slots, a solution would be to keep your current GPU installed and use for it for boot screens / Snow Leopard.

 

[SoyCapitanSoyCapitan]

Can anyone clarify which, if any, modern GPUs can provide Metal 2 to a Mac Pro 5,1 that is supposed to run both Snow Leopard and (High) Sierra? Naturally, it should display the relevant disk boot options if Alt is pressed when the chime is heard. In case such a GPU doesn't exist, which is the best next thing (just for High Sierra)?

Just about any GPU that supports Direct X 12 and Vulkan on Windows has the same or similar features to Metal 2.

That means

AMD R9 200 series and above
GeForce 9 series and above

Older cards could work but without supporting every feature.

 

[Superhai]

Metal 2 is an API and thus the developers need to re-program to use the new features. Metal 2 on High Sierra is supported on all devices that can run previous Metal (GPU Family 1), however certain features must be queried beforehand to check if available (There is a Tier 2 level support which is the very newest GPUs).

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/metal/mtlfeatureset
https://developer.apple.com/metal/availability/