In a major development, Apple has officially approved a third-party driver letting the artificial intelligence (AI) chip giant NVIDIA GPUs to integrate with Apple Silicon Macs.
The significant transition comes after years without such support.
The driver, developed by AI startup Tiny Corp, enables third-party NVIDIA GPUs (eGPUs) to work with Arm-based Macs.
The Cupertino-based tech giant’s approval lets users download the driver without disabling system security protections, a major hurdle in earlier attempts.
However, the setup remains complex. Users would still compile the driver using tools such as Docker, and the current implementation is focused primarily on AI and machine learning workloads instead of general graphics or gaming.
Apple has historically maintained stricter controls over GPU support in macOS, often incorporating drivers directly into the system and restricting compatibility to selected hardware, primarily AMD GPUs.
Support for external GPUs was dropped with the shift from Intel to Apple Silicon, leaving developers to only depend on unofficial workarounds.
Tiny Corp’s solution develops on earlier experiments that connected NVIDIA GPUs via USB4 and Thunderbolt, though those needed disabling protections and were restricted in scope.
While Apple’s approval removes a major barrier, the feature does not yet provide full plug-and-play functionality or display output for everyday users.
Still, the move signals a gradual shift, potentially opening new possibilities for developers depending on NVIDIA hardware for advanced computing tasks.
