Metal

Apple's low-overhead API for graphics, compute and machine learning on the GPU.

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Introduced

2014

WWDC14

Kind

Framework

Runs on

Get it from

iOS

8.0+

iPadOS

8.0+

Mac Catalyst

13.0+

macOS

10.11+

tvOS

9.0+

visionOS

1.0+

watchOS

Works in Swift Playground ›

Overview

Metal gives games and pro apps direct, efficient control of Apple GPUs, with a C++-based shading language and tight integration between graphics and compute. It's the foundation under SwiftUI, Core Animation, RealityKit and Core ML.

Metal 4 adds machine learning right inside shaders and command buffers, while MetalFX upscales, interpolates frames and denoises to keep frame rates high.

Metal 4

Machine learning inside shaders and command buffers.

MetalFX

Upscaling, frame interpolation and denoising.

Ray tracing

Hardware-accelerated on the latest Apple GPUs.

Developer tools

Metal debugger, performance HUD and Instruments.

Renderer.swift

import Metal

guard let device = MTLCreateSystemDefaultDevice(),
      let queue = device.makeCommandQueue(),
      let library = device.makeDefaultLibrary()
else { fatalError("Metal is not supported") }

let function = library.makeFunction(name: "brighten")!
let pipeline = try device.makeComputePipelineState(function: function)

let commands = queue.makeCommandBuffer()!
let encoder = commands.makeComputeCommandEncoder()!
encoder.setComputePipelineState(pipeline)
// set textures, then dispatch threads
encoder.endEncoding()
commands.commit()

History

How it grew up.

2014

Introduced

Metal debuts on iOS 8.

2015

Mac

Metal comes to OS X El Capitan.

2017

Metal 2

Faster and more GPU-driven.

2018

OpenGL deprecated

OpenGL is deprecated in favor of Metal in iOS 12 and macOS Mojave.

2022

Metal 3

MetalFX upscaling and mesh shaders.

2025

Metal 4

Machine learning and a new command model.

Watch and learn

Find and fix performance issues in your Metal games

Build real-time neural rendering pipelines with Metal

Speedrun your game port with agentic coding

Bringing Cyberpunk 2077 to Mac

Optimize custom machine learning operations with Metal tensors

Boost your graphics performance with the M5 and A19 GPUs

Accelerate your machine learning workloads with the M5 and A19 GPUs

Discover Metal 4

Explore Metal 4 games

Go further with Metal 4 games

Combine Metal 4 machine learning and graphics

What's new in Metal rendering for immersive apps

Port advanced games to Apple platforms

Render Metal with passthrough in visionOS

Accelerate machine learning with Metal

Train your machine learning and AI models on Apple GPUs

Bring your high-end game to iPhone 15 Pro

Discover new Metal profiling tools for M3 and A17 Pro

Explore GPU advancements in M3 and A17 Pro

Learn performance best practices for Metal shaders

Discover Metal Performance HUD

Bring your game to Mac, Part 1: Make a game plan

Bring your game to Mac, Part 2: Compile your shaders

Bring your game to Mac, Part 3: Render with Metal

Optimize GPU renderers with Metal

Your guide to Metal ray tracing

Discover Metal for immersive apps

Optimize machine learning for Metal apps

Discover Metal 3

Go bindless with Metal 3

Target and optimize GPU binaries with Metal 3

Load resources faster with Metal 3

Boost performance with MetalFX Upscaling

Maximize your Metal ray tracing performance

Transform your geometry with Metal mesh shaders

Program Metal in C++ with metal-cpp

Scale compute workloads across Apple GPUs

Accelerate machine learning with Metal

Profile and optimize your game's memory

Metal Compute on MacBook Pro

Discover advances in Metal for A15 Bionic

Explore bindless rendering in Metal

Enhance your app with Metal ray tracing

Explore hybrid rendering with Metal ray tracing

Discover compilation workflows in Metal

Discover Metal debugging, profiling, and asset creation tools

Optimize high-end games for Apple GPUs

Accelerate machine learning with Metal Performance Shaders Graph

Discover Metal enhancements for A14 Bionic

Explore Live GPU Profiling with Metal Counters

Harness Apple GPUs with Metal

Bring your Metal app to Apple silicon Macs

Optimize Metal Performance for Apple silicon Macs

Discover ray tracing with Metal

Get to know Metal function pointers

Build GPU binaries with Metal

Debug GPU-side errors in Metal

Optimize Metal apps and games with GPU counters

Gain insights into your Metal app with Xcode 12

Build customized ML models with the Metal Performance Shaders Graph

Metal Enhancements for A13 Bionic

Modern Rendering with Metal

Delivering Optimized Metal Apps and Games

Metal for Pro Apps

Bringing OpenGL Apps to Metal

Ray Tracing with Metal

Metal for Machine Learning

Metal Shader Debugging and Profiling

Metal Game Performance Optimization

Metal 2 on A11 - Overview

Metal 2 on A11 - Imageblocks

Metal 2 on A11 - Tile Shading

Metal 2 on A11 - Raster Order Groups

Metal 2 on A11 - Imageblock Sample Coverage Control

Advanced Metal Shader Optimization

Working with Metal: Overview

Working with Metal: Fundamentals

Working with Metal: Advanced