An Update on Apple M1/M2 GPU Drivers (lwn.net)

Article summary

Alyssa Rosenzweig gave an update on the status of the kernel graphics driver for Apple M1 and M2 GPUs, which is written in Rust and has achieved conformance with various graphics standards. The driver has become OpenGL 4.6 conformant and supports tessellation shaders, but the hardware tessellator is limited and cannot be used. Instead, the driver uses a software tessellator, which is based on a reference tessellator released by Microsoft. The driver also supports Vulkan 1.3 conformance and can run games like Portal and Control.

Main themes

• GPU drivers
• Apple M1/M2 GPUs
• Rust programming language
• Graphics standards conformance
• Tessellation shaders
• Software tessellator

What commenters say

• The work on the Apple M1/M2 GPU drivers is impressive and demonstrates significant progress in achieving graphics standards conformance.
• The use of a software tessellator is a necessary workaround due to the limitations of the hardware tessellator, but it may have performance implications.
• The driver's ability to run games like Portal and Control is a notable achievement, but it may not be suitable for all games or systems, particularly those with limited resources.
• The presenter's approach to the project, including their willingness to commit 'coding atrocities', is seen as a key factor in its success, but may not be suitable for all development environments.
• The lack of support for certain features, such as ray tracing, is a limitation of the current driver, but may be addressed in future updates.
• The use of virtualization to run x86 games on Arm64 systems is a complex solution that may have performance overhead, but can provide a viable workaround for running certain games.