Nvidia reveals Mac Pro-compatible Titan Xp PCI-e GPU, macOS drivers for Pascal-based video cards

The new PCI-E based Nvidia Titan Xp has 12GB of GDDR5X memory running at 11.4 gigabits per second, 3840 CUDA cores running at 1.6 GHz. Nvidia claims that the card allows for 12 TFLOP performance. The Titan Xp is available now for $1200 from Nvidia.

Also announced is the April release of a new version of the beta drivers for Nvidia cards, commonly used in the PCI-e Mac Pro and external GPU solutions. For the first time, Pascal-based cards will be able to be used, opening up the Titan Xp and Nvidia series 10 cards including the previously released Nvidia 1080ti for Macs with PCI-e slots.

The current Nvidia beta drivers require macOS 10.11 El Capitan or 10.12 Sierra, and were released on March 28. Assuming that the OS requirements aren't limited to macOS 10.12 Sierra, the drivers should function on the Mac Pro 3,1; 4,1; and 5,1 from 2008, 2009, and 2010 respectively.

Should the drivers be restricted to macOS 10.12 Sierra, then compatibility is limited to the 5,1 Mac Pro, or the 4,1 Mac Pro with a firmware flashed with a third party utility so it identifies itself as a 5,1 Mac Pro, as Sierra is incompatible with older hardware.

Without some form of external GPU solution, the new Titan Xp isn't compatible with the 2013 cylindrical Mac Pro.

On Tuesday, Apple lowered the pricing on higher-end Mac Pro cylinders, and noted that it had a complete modular redesign of the Mac Pro in progress for release at some point in 2018.

Nvidia was seeking engineers in September for the company's Mac graphics drivers team. The job postings were seeking experience with Apple's Metal cross-platform application programming interface.