For the first time, they were able to run an RTX 5090 graphics card on macOS without making any changes.
For a long time, it was almost impossible to use Nvidia graphics cards in Apple computers running macOS. Developers have been unable to use technologies like CUDA since 2018, when the company stopped officially supporting them. Instead, they have had to use impractical workarounds like virtual machines or complicated configurations. Now, that's starting to change.
Tiny Corp has developed an entirely new driver for Nvidia graphics processing units (GPUs) on macOS. This software, called TinyGPU, is open source and, importantly, Apple-certified. This means you don't need to disable system protection or use any workarounds; simply connect an external GPU via Thunderbolt or USB 4, activate the plugin, and start using it.
The most compelling evidence comes from content creator Alex Ziskind, who managed to run a 32GB RTX 5090 graphics card on a Mac Mini equipped with an M4 Pro chip. The mere fact that this was achieved is remarkable, especially considering it relies on a Blackwell architecture connected to an Apple Silicon processor via a single cable.
However, the performance is still far from impressive. In tests conducted on the Llama 3.1 AI model, the RTX 5090 graphics processor achieved approximately 7.48 symbols per second, a rather modest figure for this type of hardware.
However, a real improvement was observed in chat tasks. Initial response times were three to four times faster compared to using the original Metal.
The main problem currently lies in the efficiency of the driver. Although the RTX 5090 card has a memory capacity of 1.8 terabytes/second, the driver only utilizes about 33 gigabytes/second.
However, this development is not aimed at competing in performance, but rather at laying the foundation. With the driver, compiler, and memory management now operational, Tiny Corp can focus on improving performance.