iOS Device Compatibility

Reference
Contents

Introduction 4
At a Glance 4
Device Compatibility Strings 4
Metal and OpenGL ES 4
How to Use This Document 5

Device Compatibility 6
Declaring the Required Device Capabilities 6
iPhone Devices 9
iPad Devices 12
iPod Touch Devices 16

Hardware GPU Information 18

Apple A7 and A8 GPU Hardware 19
Best Practices for OpenGL ES 3.0 20
OpenGL ES 3.0 on Apple A7 and A8 GPUs 20
OpenGL ES 2.0 on Apple A7 and A8 GPUs 23
PowerVR SGX Hardware 25
Best Practices for OpenGL ES 2.0 26
OpenGL ES 2.0 on PowerVR SGX Series 5 Hardware 26

Document Revision History 29

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Tables

Device Compatibility 6
Table 1-1 Dictionary keys for the UIRequiredDeviceCapabilities key 7
Table 1-2 iPhone 4, iPhone 5, and iPhone 6 device compatibility 10
Table 1-3 iPhone and iPhone 3G device compatibility 11
Table 1-4 iPad (4th generation), and iPad Air device compatibility 12
Table 1-5 iPad mini device compatibility 13
Table 1-6 iPad 1, iPad 2, and iPad (3rd generation) device compatibility 15
Table 1-7 iPod touch device compatibility 16

Hardware GPU Information 18

Table 2-1 Metal and OpenGL ES 3.0 compatible devices 18
Table 2-2 OpenGL ES 2.0 compatible devices 19
Table 2-3 OpenGL ES 3.0 attribute values implemented for the Apple A7 and A8 GPUs 20
Table 2-4 OpenGL ES 2.0 attribute values implemented for the Apple A7 and A8 GPUs 23
Table 2-5 OpenGL ES 2.0 attribute values implemented for SGX 543 and 554 26

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Introduction

iOS devices support a variety of features, including sensors, graphics processors and networking options. When
designing your app, you need to decide what capabilities your app needs and which devices to support,
because the capabilities of each kind of iOS device are different.

At a Glance
This document describes the details for each device in order to help you develop your app and choose devices
to test on. The information contained here is current as of iOS 8.0, but it is subject to change in future hardware
or software releases.

Device Compatibility Strings

Sometimes, your app is dependent on a specific hardware feature existing on a device. On iOS, you can declare
these dependencies when you build your app. When the app is built, this compatibility information is used to
prevent the app from being installed on a device it can’t run on—and it can also be used by the App Store to
prevent a customer from purchasing an app that doesn’t work on their device.

Chapter: Device Compatibility (page 6)

Metal and OpenGL ES

When working with Metal and OpenGL ES, you often need to know the exact capabilities of the underlying
hardware and the software that talks to it. Metal and OpenGL ES provide many built-in mechanisms for
determining this information; this document summarizes the most important information and provides other
information useful when creating Metal and OpenGL ES apps that run well on iOS devices.

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Introduction
How to Use This Document

Chapter: Hardware GPU Information (page 18)

How to Use This Document

Although this document provides important Metal and OpenGL ES hardware information, it is not definitive.
If you are unfamiliar with OpenGL ES programming, consult the OpenGL ES Programming Guide for iOS to learn
how to develop OpenGL ES apps on iOS. If you are unfamiliar with Metal programming, consult the Metal
Programming Guide to learn how to develop Metal apps on iOS. To ensure compatibility with future devices
and iOS versions, your app must always test the capabilities of the underlying Metal and OpenGL ES
implementation at runtime, disabling any features that do not have the required support from iOS.

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Device Compatibility

The information property list (Info.plist) file contains critical information about your app’s configuration
and must be included in your app bundle. Every new project you create in Xcode has a default Info.plist
file configured with some basic information about your project. You can modify this file to specify additional
configuration details for your app.

The UIRequiredDeviceCapabilities key lets you declare the hardware or specific capabilities that your
app needs in order to run. All apps are required to have this key in their Info.plist file. The App Store uses
the contents of this key to prevent users from downloading your app onto a device that cannot possibly run
it. The tables in this chapter show all iOS devices and their capabilities.

Important: All device requirement changes must be made when you submit an update to your binary.
You are permitted only to expand your device requirements. Submitting an update to your binary to restrict
your device requirements is not permitted. You are unable to restrict device requirements because this
action will keep customers who have previously downloaded your app from running new updates.

Important: If you require a capability listed in bold, you must build your app as a fat binary (armv6 and
armv7) or require a minimum iOS version of 4.3 or later. See the individual device tables for a specific key
requirement.

Declaring the Required Device Capabilities

The value of the UIRequiredDeviceCapabilities key is either an array or a dictionary that contains
additional keys identifying features your app requires (or specifically prohibits). If you specify the value of the
key using an array, the presence of a key indicates that the feature is required; the absence of a key indicates
that the feature is not required and that the app can run without it. If you specify a dictionary instead, each
key in the dictionary must have a Boolean value that indicates whether the feature is required or prohibited.
A value of true indicates the feature is required and a value of false indicates that the feature must not be
present on the device. If a given capability is optional for your app, do not include the corresponding key in
the dictionary.

Table 1-1 lists the keys that you can include in the array or dictionary for the UIRequiredDeviceCapabilities
key. You should include keys only for the features that your app absolutely requires. If your app can run without
a specific feature, do not include the corresponding key.

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Device Compatibility
Declaring the Required Device Capabilities

Table 1-1 Dictionary keys for the UIRequiredDeviceCapabilities key

Key Description Minimum

iOS
Required

accelerometer Include this key if your app requires (or specifically iOS 3.0
prohibits) the presence of accelerometers on the device.
Apps use the Core Motion framework to receive
accelerometer events. You do not need to include this key
if your app detects only device orientation changes.

armv6 Include this key if your app is compiled only for the armv6 iOS 2.0
instruction set.

armv7 Include this key if your app is compiled only for the armv7 iOS 3.1
instruction set.

auto-focus-camera Include this key if your app requires (or specifically iOS 3.0
prohibits) autofocus capabilities in the device’s still camera.
Although most developers should not need to include this
key, you might include it if your app supports macro
photography or requires sharper images in order to
perform some sort of image processing.

bluetooth-le Include this key if your app requires (or specifically iOS 5.0
prohibits) the presence of Bluetooth low-energy hardware
on the device.

camera-flash Include this key if your app requires (or specifically iOS 3.0
prohibits) the presence of a camera flash for taking pictures
or shooting video. Apps use the UIImagePicker-
Controller interface to control the enabling of this
feature.

front-facing-camera Include this key if your app requires (or specifically iOS 3.0
prohibits) the presence of a forward-facing camera. Apps
use the UIImagePickerController interface to capture
video from the device’s camera.

gamekit Include this key if your app requires (or specifically iOS 4.1
prohibits) Game Center.

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Device Compatibility
Declaring the Required Device Capabilities

Key Description Minimum

iOS
Required

gps Include this key if your app requires (or specifically iOS 3.0
prohibits) the presence of GPS (or AGPS) hardware when
tracking locations. (You should include this key only if you
need the higher accuracy offered by GPS hardware.) If you
include this key, you should also include the
location-services key. You should require GPS only
if your app needs location data more accurate than the
cellular or Wi-fi radios might otherwise provide.

gyroscope Include this key if your app requires (or specifically iOS 3.0
prohibits) the presence of a gyroscope on the device. Apps
use the Core Motion framework to retrieve information
from gyroscope hardware.

healthkit Include this key if your app requires (or specifically iOS 8.0
prohibits) HealthKit.

location-services Include this key if your app requires (or specifically iOS 3.0
prohibits) the ability to retrieve the device’s current
location using the Core Location framework. (This key refers
to the general location services feature. If you specifically
need GPS-level accuracy, you should also include the gps
key.)

magnetometer Include this key if your app requires (or specifically iOS 3.0
prohibits) the presence of magnetometer hardware. Apps
use this hardware to receive heading-related events
through the Core Location framework.

metal Include this key if your app requires (or specifically iOS 8.0
prohibits) Metal.

microphone Include this key if your app uses the built-in microphone iOS 3.0
or supports accessories that provide a microphone.

opengles-1 Include this key if your app requires (or specifically iOS 3.0
prohibits) the presence of the OpenGL ES 1.1 interfaces.

opengles-2 Include this key if your app requires (or specifically iOS 3.0
prohibits) the presence of the OpenGL ES 2.0 interfaces.

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Device Compatibility
iPhone Devices

Key Description Minimum

iOS
Required

opengles-3 Include this key if your app requires (or specifically iOS 7.0
prohibits) the presence of the OpenGL ES 3.0 interfaces.

peer-peer Include this key if your app requires (or specifically iOS 3.1
prohibits) peer-to-peer connectivity over a Bluetooth
network.

sms Include this key if your app requires (or specifically iOS 3.0
prohibits) the presence of the Messages app. You might
require this feature if your app opens URLs with the sms
scheme.

still-camera Include this key if your app requires (or specifically iOS 3.0
prohibits) the presence of a camera on the device. Apps
use the UIImagePickerController interface to capture
images from the device’s still camera.

telephony Include this key if your app requires (or specifically iOS 3.0
prohibits) the presence of the Phone app. You might
require this feature if your app opens URLs with the tel
scheme.

video-camera Include this key if your app requires (or specifically iOS 3.0
prohibits) the presence of a camera with video capabilities
on the device. Apps use the UIImagePickerController
interface to capture video from the device’s camera.

wifi Include this key if your app requires (or specifically iOS 3.0
prohibits) access to the networking features of the device.

For detailed information on how to create and edit property lists, see Information Property List Key Reference .

iPhone Devices
Table 1-2 and Table 1-3 (page 11) list the capabilities for iPhone devices.

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Device Compatibility
iPhone Devices

Table 1-2 iPhone 4, iPhone 5, and iPhone 6 device compatibility

Compatibility iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone

4 4s 5 5c 5s 6 6 Plus

accelerometer X X X X X X X

armv6 X X X X X X X

armv7 X X X X X X X

auto-focus-camera X X X X X X X

bluetooth-le X X X X X X

camera-flash X X X X X X X

front-facing-camera X X X X X X X

gamekit X X X X X X X

gps X X X X X X X

gyroscope X X X X X X X

healthkit X X X X X X

location-services X X X X X X X

magnetometer X X X X X X X

metal X X X

microphone X X X X X X X

opengles-1 X X X X X X X

opengles-2 X X X X X X X

opengles-3 X X X

peer-peer X X X X X X X

sms X X X X X X X

still-camera X X X X X X X

telephony X X X X X X X

video-camera X X X X X X X

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Device Compatibility
iPhone Devices

Compatibility iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone

4 4s 5 5c 5s 6 6 Plus

wifi X X X X X X X

Table 1-3 iPhone and iPhone 3G device compatibility

Compatibility iPhone iPhone 3G iPhone 3GS iPhone 3GS (China)

accelerometer X X X X

armv6 X X X X

armv7 X X

auto-focus-camera X X

bluetooth-le

camera-flash

front-facing-camera

gamekit X X

gps X X X

gyroscope

healthkit

location-services X X X X

magnetometer X X

metal

microphone X X X X

opengles-1 X X X X

opengles-2 X X

opengles-3

peer-peer X X X

sms X X X X

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Device Compatibility
iPad Devices

Compatibility iPhone iPhone 3G iPhone 3GS iPhone 3GS (China)

still-camera X X X X

telephony X X X X

video-camera X X

wifi X X X

iPad Devices
Table 1-4 and Table 1-5 (page 13), and Table 1-6 (page 15) list the capabilities for iPad devices.

Table 1-4 iPad (4th generation), and iPad Air device compatibility

Compatibility iPad iPad iPad iPad Air iPad iPad Air

Wi-Fi Wi-Fi + Air Wi-Fi + Air 2 2
(4th Cellular Wi-Fi Cellular Wi-Fi Wi-Fi +
gen) (4th gen) Cellular

accelerometer X X X X X X

armv6 X X X X X X

armv7 X X X X X X

auto-focus-camera X X X X X X

bluetooth-le X X X X X X

camera-flash

front-facing-camera X X X X X X

gamekit X X X X X X

gps X X X

gyroscope X X X X X X

healthkit

location-services X X X X X X

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Device Compatibility
iPad Devices

Compatibility iPad iPad iPad iPad Air iPad iPad Air

Wi-Fi Wi-Fi + Air Wi-Fi + Air 2 2
(4th Cellular Wi-Fi Cellular Wi-Fi Wi-Fi +
gen) (4th gen) Cellular

magnetometer X X X X X X

metal X X X X

microphone X X X X X X

opengles-1 X X X X X X

opengles-2 X X X X X X

opengles-3 X X X X

peer-peer X X X X X X

sms

still-camera X X X X X X

telephony

video-camera X X X X X X

wifi X X X X X X

Table 1-5 iPad mini device compatibility

Compatibility iPad iPad iPad mini iPad mini iPad iPad

mini mini with with mini 3 mini 3
Wi-Fi Wi-Fi + Retina Retina Wi-Fi Wi-Fi +
Cellular display display Cellular
Wi-Fi Wi-Fi +
Cellular

accelerometer X X X X X X

armv6 X X X X X X

armv7 X X X X X X

auto-focus-camera X X X X X X

bluetooth-le X X X X X X

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Device Compatibility
iPad Devices

Compatibility iPad iPad iPad mini iPad mini iPad iPad

mini mini with with mini 3 mini 3
Wi-Fi Wi-Fi + Retina Retina Wi-Fi Wi-Fi +
Cellular display display Cellular
Wi-Fi Wi-Fi +
Cellular

camera-flash

front-facing-camera X X X X X X

gamekit X X X X X X

gps X X X

gyroscope X X X X X X

healthkit

location-services X X X X X X

magnetometer X X X X X X

metal X X X X

microphone X X X X X X

opengles-1 X X X X X X

opengles-2 X X X X X X

opengles-3 X X X X

peer-peer X X X X X X

sms

still-camera X X X X X X

telephony

video-camera X X X X X X

wifi X X X X X X

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Device Compatibility
iPad Devices

Table 1-6 iPad 1, iPad 2, and iPad (3rd generation) device compatibility

Compatibility iPad iPad iPad 2 iPad 2 iPad iPad

Wi-Fi Wi-Fi + Wi-Fi Wi-Fi + Wi-Fi Wi-Fi +
3G 3G (3rd gen) Cellular
(3rd gen)

accelerometer X X X X X X

armv6 X X X X X X

armv7 X X X X X X

auto-focus-camera X X

bluetooth-le X X

camera-flash

front-facing-camera X X X X

gamekit X X X X X X

gps X X X

gyroscope X X X X

healthkit

location-services X X X X X X

magnetometer X X X X X X

metal

microphone X X X X X X

opengles-1 X X X X X X

opengles-2 X X X X X X

opengles-3

peer-peer X X X X X X

sms

still-camera X X X X

telephony

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Device Compatibility
iPod Touch Devices

Compatibility iPad iPad iPad 2 iPad 2 iPad iPad

Wi-Fi Wi-Fi + Wi-Fi Wi-Fi + Wi-Fi Wi-Fi +
3G 3G (3rd gen) Cellular
(3rd gen)

video-camera X X X X

wifi X X X X X X

iPod Touch Devices

Table 1-7 list the capabilities for iPod touch devices.

Table 1-7 iPod touch device compatibility

Compatibility iPod iPod iPod iPod iPod iPod touch

touch touch touch touch touch 5th gen
2nd 3rd gen 4th gen 5th gen 16GB (no
gen rear-facing
camera)

accelerometer X X X X X X

armv6 X X X X X X

armv7 X X X X

auto-focus-camera X

bluetooth-le X X

camera-flash X

front-facing-camera X X X

gamekit X X X X X

gps

gyroscope X X X

healthkit X X

location-services X X X X X X

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Device Compatibility
iPod Touch Devices

Compatibility iPod iPod iPod iPod iPod iPod touch

touch touch touch touch touch 5th gen
2nd 3rd gen 4th gen 5th gen 16GB (no
gen rear-facing
camera)

magnetometer

metal

microphone X X X X X

opengles-1 X X X X X X

opengles-2 X X X X

opengles-3

peer-peer X X X X X

sms

still-camera X X

telephony

video-camera X X

wifi X X X X X X

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Hardware GPU Information

Since the introduction of the original iPhone, Apple has continued to improve the GPU capabilities in new iOS
devices. When you write a Metal or OpenGL ES app, you need to understand the specific limits of each device
you app runs on. Currently, two distinct GPU categories are in common use:
● The Apple A7 and A8 GPUs
● The PowerVR SGX 543 and 554 GPUs

Table 2-1 lists the devices that are compatible with Metal and OpenGL ES 3.0.

Table 2-1 Metal and OpenGL ES 3.0 compatible devices

Device name GPU

iPad Air 2 Wi-Fi Apple A8 GPU

iPad Air 2 Wi-Fi + Cellular

iPad Mini 3 Wi-Fi Apple A7 GPU

iPad Mini 3 Wi-Fi + Cellular

iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus Apple A8 GPU

iPhone 5s Apple A7 GPU

iPad Air Wi-Fi Apple A7 GPU

iPad Air Wi-Fi + Cellular

iPad Mini with Retina display Wi-Fi Apple A7 GPU

iPad Mini with Retina display Wi-Fi + Cellular

Table 2-2 lists the devices that are compatible with OpenGL ES 2.0.

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Hardware GPU Information
Apple A7 and A8 GPU Hardware

Table 2-2 OpenGL ES 2.0 compatible devices

Device name GPU

iPad Air 2 Wi-Fi Apple A8 GPU

iPad Air 2 Wi-Fi + Cellular

iPad Mini 3 Wi-Fi Apple A7 GPU

iPad Mini 3 Wi-Fi + Cellular

iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus Apple A8 GPU

iPhone 5s Apple A7 GPU

iPhone 4s, iPhone 5, iPhone 5c SGX 543

iPhone 3GS, iPhone 3GS (China), and iPhone 4 SGX 535

iPad Air Wi-Fi and iPad Air Wi-Fi + Cellular Apple A7 GPU

iPad Wi-Fi (4th generation) and iPad Wi-Fi + Cellular (4th generation) SGX 554

iPad 2 Wi-Fi, iPad 2 Wi-Fi + 3G, iPad Wi-Fi (3rd generation), and iPad Wi-Fi + Cellular SGX 543
(3rd generation)

iPad Mini with Retina display Wi-Fi and iPad Mini with Retina display Wi-Fi + Cellular Apple A7 GPU

iPad Mini Wi-Fi and iPad Mini Wi-Fi + Cellular SGX 543

iPad Wi-Fi and iPad Wi-Fi + 3G SGX 535

iPod Touch (5th generation) SGX 543

iPod Touch (3rd and 4th generations) SGX 535

Apple A7 and A8 GPU Hardware

Together, the Apple A7 and A8 GPUs create a new generation of graphics hardware that support both Metal
and OpenGL ES 3.0. To get the most out of a 3D, graphics-dominated app running on the A7 and A8 GPUs,
use Metal. Metal provides extremely low-overhead access to the A7 and A8 GPUs, enabling incredibly high
performance for your sophisticated graphics rendering and computational tasks. Metal eliminates many
performance bottlenecks—such as costly state validation—that are found in traditional graphics APIs. If you
do not want to use Metal, use OpenGL ES 3.0 when building an app. Both Metal and OpenGL ES 3.0 incorporate
many new features, such as multiple render targets and transform feedback, that have not been available on

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Hardware GPU Information
Apple A7 and A8 GPU Hardware

mobile processors before. This means that advanced rendering techniques that have previously been available
only on desktop machines, such as deferred rendering, can now be used in iOS apps. See Metal Programming
Guide for more information about what features are visible to Metal apps.

To take advantage of the power of the A7 and A8 GPUs, your app must support Metal or OpenGL ES 3.0. Using
Metal or OpenGL ES 3.0 gives you access to the new features and also to a larger pool of rendering resources.
For example, on the A7 and A8 GPUs, an app that uses Metal or OpenGL ES 3.0 can access twice as many
textures in a shader than an app that uses OpenGL ES 2.0.

Best Practices for OpenGL ES 3.0

These practices apply to OpenGL ES apps on Apple A7 and A8 GPU hardware:
● Avoid operations that modify OpenGL ES objects already in use by the renderer because of previously
submitted drawing commands. When you need to modify OpenGL ES resources, schedule those
modifications at the beginning or end of a frame. These commands include glBufferSubData,
glBufferData, glMapBuffer, glTexSubImage, glCopyTexImage, glCopyTexSubImage,
glReadPixels, glBindFramebuffer, glFlush, and glFinish.
● Follow the drawing guidelines found in Do Not Sort Rendered Objects Unless Necessary in OpenGL ES
Programming Guide for iOS .
● When possible, your renderbuffer’s height and width should be a multiple of 32 pixels.

OpenGL ES 3.0 on Apple A7 and A8 GPUs

Table 2-3 provides a high-level summary for OpenGL ES 3.0.

Table 2-3 OpenGL ES 3.0 attribute values implemented for the Apple A7 and A8 GPUs

OpenGL ES 3.0 attributes Values for A7 and A8

GPUs

MAX_TEXTURE_SIZE, MAX_RENDERBUFFER_SIZE, 4096 x 4096

MAX_CUBE_MAP_TEXTURE_SIZE

MAX_ARRAY_TEXTURE_LAYERS 2048

MAX_COLOR_ATTACHMENTS 4

MAX_COMBINED_FRAGMENT_UNIFORM_COMPONENTS 50048

MAX_COMBINED_TEXTURE_IMAGE_UNITS 32

MAX_COMBINED_UNIFORM_BLOCKS 24

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Hardware GPU Information
Apple A7 and A8 GPU Hardware

OpenGL ES 3.0 attributes Values for A7 and A8

GPUs

MAX_COMBINED_VERTEX_UNIFORM_COMPONENTS 51200

MAX_DRAW_BUFFERS 4

MAX_FRAGMENT_INPUT_COMPONENTS 64

MAX_FRAGMENT_UNIFORM_BLOCKS 12

MAX_FRAGMENT_UNIFORM_COMPONENTS 896

MIN_PROGRAM_TEXEL_OFFSET -8

MAX_PROGRAM_TEXEL_OFFSET 7

MAX_SAMPLES 8

MAX_TEXTURE_IMAGE_UNITS 16

MAX_TRANSFORM_FEEDBACK_INTERLEAVED_COMPONENTS 64

MAX_TRANSFORM_FEEDBACK_SEPARATE_ATTRIBS 4

MAX_TRANSFORM_FEEDBACK_SEPARATE_COMPONENTS 4

MAX_VARYING_VECTORS 15

MAX_VERTEX_ATTRIBS 16

MAX_VERTEX_OUTPUT_COMPONENTS 64

MAX_VERTEX_TEXTURE_IMAGE_UNITS 16

MAX_VERTEX_UNIFORM_BLOCKS 12

MAX_VERTEX_UNIFORM_COMPONENTS 2048

MAX_UNIFORM_BLOCK_SIZE 16384

Considerations
The A7 and A8 GPUs process all floating-point calculations using a scalar processor, even when those values
are declared in a vector. Proper use of write masks and careful definitions of your calculations can improve the
performance of your shaders. For more information, see Perform Vector Calculations Lazily in OpenGL ES
Programming Guide for iOS .

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Hardware GPU Information
Apple A7 and A8 GPU Hardware

Medium- and low-precision floating-point shader values are computed identically, as 16-bit floating point
values. This is a change from the PowerVR SGX hardware, which used 10-bit fixed-point format for low-precision
values. If your shaders use low-precision floating point variables and you also support the PowerVR SGX
hardware, you must test your shaders on both GPUs.

The Apple A7 and A8 GPUs do not penalize dependent-texture fetches.

Always use framebuffer discard operations when your framebuffer contents are no longer needed. The penalty
for not doing so is higher than it was on earlier GPUs. For best results, use the GLKView class; it automatically
implements framebuffer discard operations.

When rendering to multiple targets, limit your app to four image targets (and no more than 128 bits of total
data on A7 and 256 bits of total data on A8 written to the targets). A single sRGB target counts as 64 bits.

Supported OpenGL ES 3.0 Extensions

OpenGL ES 3 includes functionality provided by extensions in Apple’s implementation of OpenGL ES 2.0. If you
are updating an existing OpenGL ES 2.0 app to use OpenGL ES 3.0, please note that many of these extensions
are not provided in OpenGL ES 3.0. Therefore, your code must be updated to use the new core functionality
instead.

The following extensions are supported for the A7 and A8 GPUs in OpenGL ES 3 apps:
● APPLE_clip_distance
● APPLE_color_buffer_packed_float
● APPLE_copy_texture_levels
● APPLE_rgb_422
● APPLE_texture_format_BGRA8888
● EXT_color_buffer_half_float
● EXT_debug_label
● EXT_debug_marker
● EXT_pvrtc_sRGB
● EXT_read_format_bgra
● EXT_separate_shader_objects
● EXT_shader_framebuffer_fetch
● EXT_texture_filter_anisotropic
● IMG_read_format

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Hardware GPU Information
Apple A7 and A8 GPU Hardware

● IMG_texture_compression_pvrtc

The A8 GPU supports the following additional extension: GL_KHR_texture_compression_astc_ldr.

The following extensions are supported, but OpenGL ES 3 provides core functionality that matches these
extensions. If you are porting an OpenGL ES 2 app that uses these extensions, you should migrate your shaders
to the core OpenGL ES 3 functionality.
● EXT_shader_texture_lod
● EXT_shadow_samplers
● OES_standard_derivatives

OpenGL ES 2.0 on Apple A7 and A8 GPUs

Table 2-4 provides a high-level summary for OpenGL ES 2.0.

Table 2-4 OpenGL ES 2.0 attribute values implemented for the Apple A7 and A8 GPUs

OpenGL ES 2.0 attributes Values for A7 and A8

GPUs

MAX_TEXTURE_SIZE, MAX_RENDERBUFFER_SIZE, 4096 x 4096

MAX_CUBE_MAP_TEXTURE_SIZE

MAX_TEXTURE_IMAGE_UNITS 8

MAX_COMBINED_TEXTURE_IMAGE_UNITS 8

MAX_VERTEX_TEXTURE_IMAGE_UNITS 8

MAX_VERTEX_ATTRIBS 16

MAX_VERTEX_UNIFORM_VECTORS 128

MAX_FRAGMENT_UNIFORM_VECTORS 64

MAX_VARYING_VECTORS 8

Considerations
The A7 and A8 GPUs process all floating-point calculations using a scalar processor, even when those values
are declared in a vector. Proper use of write masks and careful definitions of your calculations can improve the
performance of your shaders. For more information, see Perform Vector Calculations Lazily in OpenGL ES
Programming Guide for iOS .

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Hardware GPU Information
Apple A7 and A8 GPU Hardware

Medium- and low-precision floating-point shader values are computed identically, as 16-bit floating point
values. This is a change from the PowerVR SGX hardware, which used 10-bit fixed-point format for low-precision
values. If your shaders use low-precision floating point variables and you also support the PowerVR SGX
hardware, you must test your shaders on both GPUs.

The Apple A7 and A8 GPUs do not penalize dependent-texture fetches.

Always use framebuffer discard operations when your framebuffer contents are no longer needed. The penalty
for not discarding framebuffers is higher than it was on earlier GPUs. For best results, use the GLKView class;
it automatically implements framebuffer discard operations.

Supported OpenGL ES 2.0 Extensions

The following extensions are supported for the Apple A7 and A8 GPUs:
● APPLE_clip_distance
● APPLE_color_buffer_packed_float
● APPLE_copy_texture_levels
● APPLE_framebuffer_multisample
● APPLE_rgb_422
● APPLE_sync
● APPLE_texture_format_BGRA8888
● APPLE_texture_max_level
● APPLE_texture_packed_float
● EXT_blend_minmax
● EXT_color_buffer_half_float
● EXT_debug_label
● EXT_debug_marker
● EXT_discard_framebuffer
● EXT_draw_instanced
● EXT_instanced_arrays
● EXT_map_buffer_range
● EXT_occlusion_query_boolean
● EXT_pvrtc_sRGB
● EXT_read_format_bgra

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Hardware GPU Information
PowerVR SGX Hardware

● EXT_separate_shader_objects
● EXT_shader_texture_lod
● EXT_shader_framebuffer_fetch
● EXT_shadow_samplers
● EXT_sRGB
● EXT_texture_filter_anisotropic
● EXT_texture_rg
● EXT_texture_storage
● IMG_read_format
● IMG_texture_compression_pvrtc
● OES_depth_texture
● OES_depth24
● OES_element_index_uint
● OES_fbo_render_mipmap
● OES_mapbuffer
● OES_packed_depth_stencil
● OES_rgb8_rgba8
● OES_standard_derivatives
● OES_texture_float
● OES_texture_half_float
● OES_texture_half_float_linear
● OES_vertex_array_object

PowerVR SGX Hardware

Imagination Technologies has several useful references about PowerVR technologies:
● PowerVR SGX OpenGL ES2.0 Application Development Recommendations. Introduces the SGX Series of
processors and describes how to optimize for them.
● PowerVR 3D Application Development Recommendations. Introduces 3D graphics apps and provides
some “golden rules” for developing such apps.
● Imagination Technologies home page.

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Hardware GPU Information
PowerVR SGX Hardware

Best Practices for OpenGL ES 2.0

These practices apply to OpenGL ES apps on SGX Series 5 hardware:
● Avoid operations that modify OpenGL ES objects already in use by the renderer because of previously
submitted drawing commands. When you need to modify OpenGL ES resources, schedule those
modifications at the beginning or end of a frame. These commands include glBufferSubData,
glBufferData, glMapBuffer, glTexSubImage, glCopyTexImage, glCopyTexSubImage,
glReadPixels, glBindFramebuffer, glFlush, and glFinish.
● To take advantage of the processor’s hidden surface removal, follow the drawing guidelines found in Do
Not Sort Rendered Objects Unless Necessary in OpenGL ES Programming Guide for iOS .
● Vertex buffer objects (VBOs) provide a significant performance improvement on the PowerVR SGX. See
Use Vertex Buffer Objects to Manage Copying Vertex Data in OpenGL ES Programming Guide for iOS .
● Use Core Animation rotations of renderbuffers to rotate content between landscape and portrait mode.
For best performance, ensure that the renderbuffer’s height and width are each a multiple of 32 pixels.

OpenGL ES 2.0 on PowerVR SGX Series 5 Hardware

Table 2-5 provides a high-level summary for OpenGL ES 2.0 platforms.

Table 2-5 OpenGL ES 2.0 attribute values implemented for SGX 543 and 554

OpenGL ES 2.0 attributes Values for SGX 543 and

554

MAX_TEXTURE_SIZE, MAX_RENDERBUFFER_SIZE, 4096 x 4096

MAX_CUBE_MAP_TEXTURE_SIZE

MAX_TEXTURE_IMAGE_UNITS 8

MAX_COMBINED_TEXTURE_IMAGE_UNITS 8

MAX_VERTEX_TEXTURE_IMAGE_UNITS 8

MAX_VERTEX_ATTRIBS 16

MAX_VERTEX_UNIFORM_VECTORS 128

MAX_FRAGMENT_UNIFORM_VECTORS 64

MAX_VARYING_VECTORS 8

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Hardware GPU Information
PowerVR SGX Hardware

Considerations
The PowerVR SGX processes high-precision floating-point calculations using a scalar processor, even when
those values are declared in a vector. Proper use of write masks and careful definitions of your calculations can
improve the performance of your shaders. For more information, see Perform Vector Calculations Lazily in
OpenGL ES Programming Guide for iOS .

Although medium- and low-precision floating-point values are both processed in parallel, low-precision variables
have a few specific performance limitations:
● Swizzling components of vectors declared with low precision is expensive and should be avoided.
● Many built-in functions use medium-precision inputs and outputs. If your app provides low-precision
floating-point values as parameters or assigns the results to a low-precision floating-point variable, the
shader may have to include additional instructions to convert the values. These additional instructions
are also added when swizzling the vector results of a computation.

For best results, limit your use of low-precision variables to color values.

Supported OpenGL ES 2.0 Extensions

The following extensions are supported for all SGX Series 5 processors: 543 and 554:
● APPLE_copy_texture_levels
● APPLE_framebuffer_multisample
● APPLE_rgb_422
● APPLE_texture_format_BGRA8888
● APPLE_texture_max_level
● APPLE_sync
● EXT_blend_minmax
● EXT_debug_label
● EXT_debug_marker
● EXT_discard_framebuffer
● EXT_draw_instanced
● EXT_instanced_arrays
● EXT_map_buffer_range
● EXT_separate_shader_objects
● EXT_shader_framebuffer_fetch
● EXT_read_format_bgra

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Hardware GPU Information
PowerVR SGX Hardware

● EXT_shader_texture_lod
● EXT_texture_filter_anisotropic
● EXT_texture_storage
● IMG_read_format
● IMG_texture_compression_pvrtc
● OES_depth24
● OES_depth_texture
● OES_element_index_uint
● OES_fbo_render_mipmap
● OES_mapbuffer
● OES_packed_depth_stencil
● OES_rgb8_rgba8
● OES_standard_derivatives
● OES_texture_half_float
● OES_texture_float
● OES_texture_half_float
● OES_vertex_array_object

The following extensions are supported for the SGX 543 and 554 processors only:
● EXT_color_buffer_half_float
● EXT_occlusion_query_boolean
● EXT_pvrtc_sRGB
● EXT_shadow_samplers
● EXT_sRGB
● EXT_texture_rg
● OES_texture_half_float_linear

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Document Revision History

This table describes the changes to iOS Device Compatibility Reference .

Date Notes

2015-01-12 Updated OpenGL ES extension list with an A8 specific extension.

2014-10-24 Changed the GPU associated with iPad Mini 3's to the A7 chip.

2014-10-20 Updated to include new iPad information.

2014-09-17 Added new device compatibility information.

2014-02-11 Added opengles-3 compatibility key.

2013-10-22 Added new hardware devices. Added links to OpenGL ES extensions

introduced in iOS 7.

2013-09-18 New document that describes details about the features of existing iOS
devices.

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29
Apple Inc.
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