Apple GPU Hardware

Together, the A7, A8, A9, A10, and A11 GPUs create a new generation of graphics hardware that support both Metal and OpenGL ES 3.0. To get the most out of a 3D, graphics-dominated app running on the these GPUs, use Metal. Metal provides extremely low-overhead access to these GPUs, enabling incredibly high performance for your sophisticated graphics rendering and computational tasks. Metal eliminates many performance bottlenecks—such as costly state validation—that are found in traditional graphics APIs. Both Metal and OpenGL ES 3.0 incorporate many new features, such as multiple render targets and transform feedback, that have not been available on mobile processors before. This means that advanced rendering techniques that have previously been available only on desktop machines, such as deferred rendering, can now be used in iOS apps. Refer to the Metal Programming Guide for more information about what features are visible to Metal apps.