I can only speculate as to why OpenGL is rendered in software, I assume it has to do with the fact that the graphics capabilities are different on iOS versus Ma

I can only speculate as to why OpenGL is rendered in software, I assume it has to do with the fact that the graphics capabilities are different on iOS versus Macs, and perhaps software rendering is needed to ensure consistent behavior or implementation of OpenGL extensions (though I'm not positive that the simulator offers the same OpenGL extensions anyway; I'm not a graphics programmer so I haven't really explored this). As for it being a simulator, it's because your app actually compiles to x86_64 code when you're targeting the simulator. When you switch between targeting the simulator and targeting a device, your app is recompiled for the new architecture. And the simulator includes a complete copy of iOS and all its frameworks (but without most of the built-in apps) that were compiled for x86_64 in order to run in the simulator.