Native Nvidia drivers in OSX vs Apple Default OSX Drivers

Nintonito · (This post was last modified: 09-12-2015, 03:57 PM by Nintonito.)

Apparently Nvidia offers a separate driver for OSX that is apparently quite different from the Apple driver. Can anyone run me through the differences? Are these drivers windows or even Linux levels of speed?

**Anti-Ultimate** · 09-12-2015, 03:27 PM #2

Chances are that their drivers for Unix based kernels share the same code, so that might be possible.

Then again, I have no idea what is different on OSX.

DrHouse64 · 09-12-2015, 07:11 PM #3

Seriously? Where? On the NVidia download page, I only see CUDA drivers for mac.

Nintonito · 09-13-2015, 04:31 AM #4

It's hidden but this is a link to a relatively recent build. Not the latest though.

http://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/78853/en-us

These are proper drivers and include a driver panel as well. The CUDA drivers are updated and provided separately for whatever reason

**KHg8m3r** · 09-13-2015, 06:11 AM #5

I have them installed on my hackintosh cause OSX doesn't like my card natively. As for performance vs Windows, I'll let you know once I get Windows reinstalled.

DrHouse64 · 09-13-2015, 06:32 AM #6

Actually I think I already knew that this driver existed, it's odd because it seems to be compatible only on certain macs. If remember well it refuses to install on my old Geforce 9400M MacBook.
My hackintosh seems to be okey with my GTX 770 natively so I never thought about installing this driver.

Nintonito · (This post was last modified: 09-13-2015, 06:57 AM by Nintonito.)

The only other unknown is whether these drivers are limited to OpenGL 4.1 like the Apple drivers, and whether they interfere with the Metal API in El Capitan

**degasus** · 09-14-2015, 11:01 PM #8

If you manage to get the nvidia userspace, then you should be able to get the same performance as on windows. But I doubt this as Apple tries very hard to only expose their user space GL frontend.

09-19-2015, 08:44 PM #9

Those drivers are for Mac Pros and specific desktop/workstation GPUs. They are not for Mac laptops or iMacs with mobile class GPUs. They include CUDA drivers. For most users, these drivers are of no use. For gaming, they are completely irrelevant.

CUDA drivers are also available separately because such capabilities are not supported by default from Apple but can be used on all recent NVIDIA GPUs available on Macs. I personally used CUDA for certain apps that can use it as well as donate GPU cycles for cloud computing.

Nintonito · 09-20-2015, 03:41 AM **#10**

(09-19-2015, 08:44 PM)Jija Yanin Wrote: Those drivers are for Mac Pros and specific desktop/workstation GPUs. They are not for Mac laptops or iMacs with mobile class GPUs. They include CUDA drivers. For most users, these drivers are of no use. For gaming, they are completely irrelevant.

CUDA drivers are also available separately because such capabilities are not supported by default from Apple but can be used on all recent NVIDIA GPUs available on Macs. I personally used CUDA for certain apps that can use it as well as donate GPU cycles for cloud computing.

Actually iMac and MacBook Pro users are supported now. And how would they be irrelevant for gaming, if they are true nvidia drivers? That alone would imply substantially better performance