Maxon's Redshift Now Available for macOS With Support for Metal and M1 Macs

Maxon is bringing its GPU-accelerated renderer Redshift to macOS, with support for Apple's line of M1 Macs and Apple's Metal Graphics API for speedy performance on Apple's machines.

redshift for mac
Lunar Animation director James Rodgers says his company is seeing "crazy results" rendering with Redshift on a Mac Pro with Metal support. "A typical frame from the very effects heavy game cinematic we created for Mythic Legends, an action-packed strategy mobile game by Outfit7, previously took 26 minutes to render per frame," he said. "Now it's rendering in only 58 seconds!"

Redshift provides a wide range of features that include ray switches, flexible shading networks, motion blur, AOVs, deep output, and more. It is a biased renderer that allows artists to adjust each individual technique for the best performance and quality blend for production purposes.

Redshift is optimized for high-end performance on both Intel and ‌M1‌ Macs. Maxon says that Redshift for Intel-based Macs will be available this week, while Redshift for ‌M1‌ Macs will launch with the release of macOS Big Sur 11.3.

Top Rated Comments

vinegarshots Avatar
40 months ago

I find that rendering claim really suspect and misleading. What is he comparing it to? Redshift is a GPU renderer and the 3090 card is the most powerful GPU and the change from the 20 series to the 3090 didn't see that sort of improvement. Octane on macOS has been pretty sluggish and, although Redshift is faster, it's not THAT much faster.
Yeah, seems like there is some important information missing there. What hardware were they using for the previous 26 minutes per frame render? Were they even using Redshift at all for the 26 minute version, or a different renderer altogether with CPU instead of GPU rendering? Something is very fishy with that...
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Alan Wynn Avatar
40 months ago

I find that rendering claim really suspect and misleading. What is he comparing it to?
Before they got Redshift on the Mac, they were rendering their frames by hand. They shipped the data files to rural China and a 100 women and children would render them on abacuses (keeping them carbon neutral) and send back the data. These people are super fast and can render a frame in 3 minutes, the rest of the time was sending the frames back and forth over the net. :-)
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ChrisMoBro Avatar
40 months ago
I find that rendering claim really suspect and misleading. What is he comparing it to? Redshift is a GPU renderer and the 3090 card is the most powerful GPU and the change from the 20 series to the 3090 didn't see that sort of improvement. Octane on macOS has been pretty sluggish and, although Redshift is faster, it's not THAT much faster.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
portland-dude Avatar
40 months ago

That's a crazy improvement!
It's not apple's "amazing" hardware at work, it's code optimization. People here think the M1's have some legit graphics chips, lmao, it's about as good as the old as heck GTX 1050, which is pathetic in 2021.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Mike_Trivisonno Avatar
40 months ago
It's crazy to think that this is just the beginning of the Apple Silicon program. Soon, renderings will be pre-rendered and completed before you even know you want them. Apple Silicon will just know.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
richinaus Avatar
40 months ago

It's not apple's "amazing" hardware at work, it's code optimization. People here think the M1's have some legit graphics chips, lmao, it's about as good as the old as heck GTX 1050, which is pathetic in 2021.
Yeah, but M only seen on the lowest end macs to date.
I am giving Apple a chance with their more pro machines, but I still dont believe they will deliver anything like a 3080/90 level. Then I will happily bag them :).

In reality though I expect an above average gpu only, and nothing special in the forthcoming pro machines, with maybe the MacPro having some super expensive card thats good. The computers will most likely be great for FCP but not in 3D rendering like Octane and redshift. Alway love being proved wrong though.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

Apple Silicon AI Optimized Feature Siri

Apple Releases Open Source AI Models That Run On-Device

Wednesday April 24, 2024 3:39 pm PDT by
Apple today released several open source large language models (LLMs) that are designed to run on-device rather than through cloud servers. Called OpenELM (Open-source Efficient Language Models), the LLMs are available on the Hugging Face Hub, a community for sharing AI code. As outlined in a white paper [PDF], there are eight total OpenELM models, four of which were pre-trained using the...
iOS 18 Siri Integrated Feature

iOS 18 Rumored to Add These 10 New Features to Your iPhone

Wednesday April 24, 2024 2:05 pm PDT by
Apple is set to unveil iOS 18 during its WWDC keynote on June 10, so the software update is a little over six weeks away from being announced. Below, we recap rumored features and changes planned for the iPhone with iOS 18. iOS 18 will reportedly be the "biggest" update in the iPhone's history, with new ChatGPT-inspired generative AI features, a more customizable Home Screen, and much more....
maxresdefault

Apple Announces 'Let Loose' Event on May 7 Amid Rumors of New iPads

Tuesday April 23, 2024 7:11 am PDT by
Apple has announced it will be holding a special event on Tuesday, May 7 at 7 a.m. Pacific Time (10 a.m. Eastern Time), with a live stream to be available on Apple.com and on YouTube as usual. The event invitation has a tagline of "Let Loose" and shows an artistic render of an Apple Pencil, suggesting that iPads will be a focus of the event. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more ...
Apple Vision Pro Dual Loop Band Orange Feature 2

Apple Cuts Vision Pro Shipments as Demand Falls 'Sharply Beyond Expectations'

Tuesday April 23, 2024 9:44 am PDT by
Apple has dropped the number of Vision Pro units that it plans to ship in 2024, going from an expected 700 to 800k units to just 400k to 450k units, according to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Orders have been scaled back before the Vision Pro has launched in markets outside of the United States, which Kuo says is a sign that demand in the U.S. has "fallen sharply beyond expectations." As a...
iPad And Calculator App Feature 1

Apple Finally Plans to Release a Calculator App for iPad Later This Year

Tuesday April 23, 2024 9:08 am PDT by
Apple is finally planning a Calculator app for the iPad, over 14 years after launching the device, according to a source familiar with the matter. iPadOS 18 will include a built-in Calculator app for all iPad models that are compatible with the software update, which is expected to be unveiled during the opening keynote of Apple's annual developers conference WWDC on June 10. AppleInsider...
macbook pro purple february

Best Buy Introduces Record Low Prices on Apple's M3 MacBook Pro for Members

Thursday April 25, 2024 7:41 am PDT by
Best Buy is discounting a collection of M3 MacBook Pro computers today, this time focusing on the 14-inch version of the laptop. Every deal in this sale requires you to have a My Best Buy Plus or Total membership, although non-members can still get solid second-best prices on these MacBook Pro models. Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Best Buy. When you click a link and make a...