Nvidia releases beta Mac graphics drivers for Pascal-based video cards
Roger Fingas
Less than a week after promising them, Nvidia on Tuesday released beta Mac drivers compatible with any of the company's Pascal-based cards, including the 10 series and the recently-launched Titan Xp.
The software (direct link) is useful to a relatively small segment of the Mac user base, namely people with an external Thunderbolt graphics enclosure or a pre-2013 Mac Pro with a free PCI-e slot. Nvidia's 10-series cards range from the GTX 1050 through to the GTX 1080 Ti.
The Titan Xp is a $1,200 card with 12 gigabytes of GDDR5X VRAM, and 3,840 CUDA cores clocked at 1.6 gigahertz. This translates into 12 teraflops of performance, above even the 11.3 teraflops on the 1080 Ti.
Nvidia's cards are typically aimed at Windows gamers and professionals, but the new drivers should allow users to boost Mac's limited 3D games library, and more likely graphics-intensive productivity apps.
The company could conceivably be laying groundwork for Apple's modular Mac Pros coming in 2018. It might also simply be catering to growing interest in eGPUs, which take advantage of the ports on Apple's latest Macs and make them more competitive, power-wise, with high-end PCs.
With the exception of the Mac Pro, all Macs — even 27-inch iMacs — rely on either mobile graphics processors or integrated Intel graphics.
Charles Martin
William Gallagher
Andrew Orr
Malcolm Owen
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Chip Loder
12 Comments
thank Nvidia, thank you.
Please Apple give us a Mac that can use these.
I think it's cool that Nvidia is making these for Macs, but is there really a market for this right now? If you have a pre-2013 Mac Pro, would you really spend $1200 on a state-of-the-art video card? Perhaps I am clueless, but are that many people out there using external Thunderbolt video card enclosures with more modern Mac Pros (or any other Mac)?
Great for brand new Mac Pro relaunch in 2018 8 (with brand new Apple Thunderbolt display). Looking forward to it...
I was wondering if anyone knows about Villagetronic.com so that I could use an Nvidia card on my MBP? They make (made) a ViDock that uses the Express Card slot on my MBP 17" late 2011. Unfortunately I only just discovered the company and now it looks like they are no longer actively around. Does anyone know if they are and/or if there is a was to still get an Express Card solution as I'd rather not have to sacrifice my one Thunderbolt v1 port for a device such as this. Any help would be appreciated. I really liked the ViDock as it was a more elegant solution and prettier too with three slots. thx.