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It's more nuanced than that. Nvidia can write the drivers but releasing them without the blessing of Apple blows away any chance of them getting that sweet GPU

It's more nuanced than that. Nvidia can write the drivers but releasing them without the blessing of Apple blows away any chance of them getting that sweet GPU contract back. Nvidia doesn't have much of a real world application outside of GPUs in enclosures to keep the drivers alive. The reason to keep drivers ready is the potential for a very large contract from Apple.

saagarjha 8y ago
Does NVIDIA actually have a contract with Apple? I was under the impression that Apple silently tolerated them, and that they just released drivers on their website for eGPUs.
etaioinshrdlu 8y ago
Word on the street is that Nvidia didn't get much value ($) out of working with Apple, so perhaps both parties aren't super interested. Same story with Nvidia and gaming consoles - last few gens of consoles have not used Nvidia chips and Nvidia doesn't see it as a big loss. The margins must be too low. Nvidia seems to aim for higher margin products these days with scientific computing/data center/deep learning/hardcore gaming.
- ksec 8y ago
  >Nvidia seems to aim for higher margin products these days with scientific computing/data center/deep learning/hardcore gaming. Which is a problem. No (Real) Games on Mac, No Deep Learning/ Scientific Computing on Mac. Mac is now left with Programming, and Video / Graphics Editing. May be Apple's strategy for Mac is to milk it for as long as possible. They don't see it as a platform for growth ( Despite having plenty of room ).
  - mcv 8y ago
    It seems to me like Apple has been on the road to slowly abandoning the Mac for quite some time. Newer Macbooks are unpopular, updates to OS X have problems, and on the whole, the platform just doesn't get much love from Apple. They want us all on iOS. I'll be moving to Linux instead.
    - omnimus 8y ago
      I think only apple ally is Adobe. If you want to do pro design or video you need adobe. Adobe will never release on Linux so if you dont want to use privacy killing cloud os like windows 10 then you are left with mac. Hackintosh is way many people are taking for those reasons.
    - scarface74 8y ago
      The “newer MacBooks” are unpopular is just a meme in the tech bubble. While Apple will stop reporting unit sells next quarter, they just posted last quarters numbers. There is no indication that they are “unpopular”.
      - mcv 8y ago
        Maybe they still sell, but I know of nobody who is enthusiastic about them. People used to love them.
        scarface74 8y ago
        Why should we pay more credence to the anecdotal “people you know” instead of the reported sales volumes?
        ksec 8y ago
        That is Sales Volume, but its 100M Active Devices, is way slower than what most predicted. Apple took more than 2 years to add 10M Active Devices, on a ~40+M Unit sold during that time, that means 30M are either replacement or, there are quite a high churn rate to Mac. It is possibly the only reason why Apple suddenly come up with iMac Pro, new MacBook Retina etc. It wasn't the sales that matters, it was user leaving its platform. By previous trend and growth at a nearly consistent 20M unit per year, Mac should have at least 120M Active Devices by now, if not more.
        scarface74 8y ago
        Why does Apple care about active users for the Mac and not sales volume? Active users for iOS devices makes sense. Apple gets recurring revenue from iOS users. Hardly anyone uses the Mac App Store or buys iCloud storage just for the Mac and OS upgrades are free.
  - etaioinshrdlu 8y ago
    It's a little funny how stable the desktop ecosystem has been for 10 (or maybe 30?) years. Mac gaming still sucks, EE/ME/Enterprise engineers use windows. Web devs and Artists use macs. Academics and scientists use Linux. These ecosystems are so stable now that I don't see it changing. Granted, it could change, but they would have to really try... And Apple has shown decreasing vision for the Mac platform over time.
  - cronix 8y ago
    > Mac is now left with Programming, and Video / Graphics Editing. You forgot Audio, which is HUGE on the Mac.
- supertrope 8y ago
  Is Apple still pissed about defective Nvidia 8600M GT laptop GPUs?
- javagram 8y ago
  “Same story with Nvidia and gaming consoles - last few gens of consoles have not used Nvidia chips and Nvidia doesn't see it as a big loss. The margins must be too low.“ The Nintendo Switch uses a NVIDIA Tegra, and NVIDIA put a decent amount of work into selling it - the NVIDIA Shield TV console is basically a tech demo for the thing after all.
AckSyn 8y ago
There is no nuance. You can write drivers and get certificates for them with a developers license. The user can also disable the driver signing "Security" just like they can on windows, which isn't an issue anyways.
scarface74 8y ago
I find that to be an unsubstantiated excuse. There is nothing stopping Nvidia from writing its own driver for macOS.

saagarjha 8y ago

Does NVIDIA actually have a contract with Apple? I was under the impression that Apple silently tolerated them, and that they just released drivers on their website for eGPUs.

etaioinshrdlu 8y ago

Word on the street is that Nvidia didn't get much value ($) out of working with Apple, so perhaps both parties aren't super interested. Same story with Nvidia and gaming consoles - last few gens of consoles have not used Nvidia chips and Nvidia doesn't see it as a big loss. The margins must be too low. Nvidia seems to aim for higher margin products these days with scientific computing/data center/deep learning/hardcore gaming.

ksec 8y ago
>Nvidia seems to aim for higher margin products these days with scientific computing/data center/deep learning/hardcore gaming. Which is a problem. No (Real) Games on Mac, No Deep Learning/ Scientific Computing on Mac. Mac is now left with Programming, and Video / Graphics Editing. May be Apple's strategy for Mac is to milk it for as long as possible. They don't see it as a platform for growth ( Despite having plenty of room ).
- mcv 8y ago
  It seems to me like Apple has been on the road to slowly abandoning the Mac for quite some time. Newer Macbooks are unpopular, updates to OS X have problems, and on the whole, the platform just doesn't get much love from Apple. They want us all on iOS. I'll be moving to Linux instead.
  - omnimus 8y ago
    I think only apple ally is Adobe. If you want to do pro design or video you need adobe. Adobe will never release on Linux so if you dont want to use privacy killing cloud os like windows 10 then you are left with mac. Hackintosh is way many people are taking for those reasons.
  - scarface74 8y ago
    The “newer MacBooks” are unpopular is just a meme in the tech bubble. While Apple will stop reporting unit sells next quarter, they just posted last quarters numbers. There is no indication that they are “unpopular”.
    - mcv 8y ago
      Maybe they still sell, but I know of nobody who is enthusiastic about them. People used to love them.
      - scarface74 8y ago
        Why should we pay more credence to the anecdotal “people you know” instead of the reported sales volumes?
        ksec 8y ago
        That is Sales Volume, but its 100M Active Devices, is way slower than what most predicted. Apple took more than 2 years to add 10M Active Devices, on a ~40+M Unit sold during that time, that means 30M are either replacement or, there are quite a high churn rate to Mac. It is possibly the only reason why Apple suddenly come up with iMac Pro, new MacBook Retina etc. It wasn't the sales that matters, it was user leaving its platform. By previous trend and growth at a nearly consistent 20M unit per year, Mac should have at least 120M Active Devices by now, if not more.
        scarface74 8y ago
        Why does Apple care about active users for the Mac and not sales volume? Active users for iOS devices makes sense. Apple gets recurring revenue from iOS users. Hardly anyone uses the Mac App Store or buys iCloud storage just for the Mac and OS upgrades are free.
- etaioinshrdlu 8y ago
  It's a little funny how stable the desktop ecosystem has been for 10 (or maybe 30?) years. Mac gaming still sucks, EE/ME/Enterprise engineers use windows. Web devs and Artists use macs. Academics and scientists use Linux. These ecosystems are so stable now that I don't see it changing. Granted, it could change, but they would have to really try... And Apple has shown decreasing vision for the Mac platform over time.
- cronix 8y ago
  > Mac is now left with Programming, and Video / Graphics Editing. You forgot Audio, which is HUGE on the Mac.
supertrope 8y ago
Is Apple still pissed about defective Nvidia 8600M GT laptop GPUs?
javagram 8y ago
“Same story with Nvidia and gaming consoles - last few gens of consoles have not used Nvidia chips and Nvidia doesn't see it as a big loss. The margins must be too low.“ The Nintendo Switch uses a NVIDIA Tegra, and NVIDIA put a decent amount of work into selling it - the NVIDIA Shield TV console is basically a tech demo for the thing after all.

AckSyn 8y ago

There is no nuance. You can write drivers and get certificates for them with a developers license. The user can also disable the driver signing "Security" just like they can on windows, which isn't an issue anyways.

scarface74 8y ago

I find that to be an unsubstantiated excuse. There is nothing stopping Nvidia from writing its own driver for macOS.