Metal
Metal is a low-level, high-performance graphics and compute API developed by Apple for its platforms, including iOS, macOS, tvOS, and visionOS. It provides direct access to the GPU for rendering 2D and 3D graphics, parallel data processing, and machine learning acceleration. Unlike higher-level APIs like OpenGL, Metal offers fine-grained control over hardware resources to optimize performance in demanding applications such as games, AR/VR, and professional media software.
Developers should learn Metal when building graphics-intensive or compute-heavy applications for Apple devices, as it is the primary API for achieving maximum performance and efficiency on these platforms. It is essential for game development, real-time rendering, augmented reality apps, and machine learning inference tasks where low-latency GPU access is critical. Using Metal ensures compatibility with Apple's latest hardware features and integration with frameworks like MetalKit and Core ML.