Archive notice: This article was originally published on 26 November 2019. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
From the next release, Nvidia is dropping macOS support from its GPU-computing platform CUDA. In the release notes for CUDA Toolkit 10.2, the company announced that this release would be the final version able to develop and run CUDA applications for macOS. Apple has been using AMD or Intel graphics cards for some time. Because of the lack of drivers, even the use of Nvidia graphics cards as eGPUs is currently problematic. Mac users, particularly in GPU rendering, are unlikely to be especially pleased by the announcement.
Render Engines with and without CUDA?
Although Apple offers alternatives with the Metal 2 API, many of the major GPU renderers currently require CUDA. Alongside Redshift, these include Octane Renderer and V-Ray GPU. There have already been some announcements and promises for Mac/AMD support, but it is unknown when these will be implemented. AMD Radeon ProRender (GPU & CPU), by contrast, uses both OpenCL and Apple Metal.
Further information: Nvidia CUDA release notes
