OpenGL ES vs Metal

Developers should learn OpenGL ES when building graphics-intensive applications for mobile or embedded platforms, such as Android, iOS, or embedded Linux systems, where hardware acceleration is crucial for performance meets developers should learn metal when building high-performance graphics or compute-intensive applications for apple devices, such as games, ar/vr experiences, or real-time video processing, where maximizing gpu efficiency is critical. Here's our take.

OpenGL ES

Nice Pick

Developers should learn OpenGL ES when building graphics-intensive applications for mobile or embedded platforms, such as Android, iOS, or embedded Linux systems, where hardware acceleration is crucial for performance

Pros

• It is essential for game development, real-time rendering, and applications requiring custom graphics pipelines, as it offers low-level control over GPU operations
• Related to: opengl, vulkan

Cons

• Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case

Metal

Developers should learn Metal when building high-performance graphics or compute-intensive applications for Apple devices, such as games, AR/VR experiences, or real-time video processing, where maximizing GPU efficiency is critical

Pros

• It is essential for applications that require fine-grained control over rendering pipelines or need to leverage GPU acceleration for tasks like machine learning inference, as it offers lower latency and better performance than higher-level APIs like OpenGL ES on these platforms
• Related to: swift, objective-c

Cons

• Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case

The Verdict

These tools serve different purposes. OpenGL ES is a library while Metal is a framework. We picked OpenGL ES based on overall popularity, but your choice depends on what you're building.

The Bottom Line

OpenGL ES wins

Based on overall popularity. OpenGL ES is more widely used, but Metal excels in its own space.