Is Blender Compatible with Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3/M4)?
Introduction
Blender is a free, open-source 3D creation suite used for modeling, animation, rendering, and more. Apple Silicon support has matured significantly since the M1 launch, and Blender now runs natively with Metal GPU acceleration.
Key Takeaways
- Native Apple Silicon support since Blender 3.1 (March 2022).
- Metal GPU rendering works for both Cycles and EEVEE render engines.
- No Rosetta 2 needed — The ARM-native build offers full performance.
- Competitive performance — M3 Max and M4 Max chips handle professional workloads well.
- All features available — No macOS-specific feature limitations.
Metal GPU Rendering
Before Metal support, Mac users were limited to CPU-only Cycles rendering, which was painfully slow. Now:
- Cycles uses Metal for GPU ray tracing on Apple Silicon.
- EEVEE (Blender’s real-time renderer) runs on Metal with full feature support.
- Viewport rendering is hardware-accelerated, providing smooth interactive performance.
To enable Metal rendering: go to Edit > Preferences > System and set the Cycles render device to Metal.
Performance Benchmarks (Relative)
| Chip | Blender Benchmark (Monster scene) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| M1 | ~4:30 | Good for learning and light projects |
| M1 Max | ~2:15 | Solid mid-range performance |
| M2 Ultra | ~1:10 | Competitive with desktop GPUs |
| M3 Max | ~1:25 | Excellent single-chip performance |
| M4 Max | ~1:05 | Current fastest Apple Silicon |
| RTX 4090 | ~0:25 | Still the rendering king |
Times are approximate and will vary by scene complexity and Blender version.
Plugin and Add-on Compatibility
Most Blender add-ons work on Apple Silicon without issues. Exceptions:
- Add-ons that include compiled C/C++ extensions need ARM-native builds. Most popular add-ons have been updated.
- CUDA-specific features are not available (CUDA is NVIDIA-only). Use Metal instead.
- OptiX denoising (NVIDIA-only) is replaced by the OpenImageDenoise CPU denoiser, which works well.
Conclusion
Blender is fully compatible with Apple Silicon Macs. With native ARM performance, Metal GPU rendering, and active development support, it’s an excellent 3D creation platform on modern Macs. For GPU-heavy production rendering, dedicated NVIDIA hardware is still faster, but Apple Silicon handles most workflows impressively well.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Blender run natively on Apple Silicon?
Yes. Blender 3.1 and later include a native Apple Silicon build that runs without Rosetta 2.
Can I use GPU rendering in Blender on Apple Silicon?
Yes. Blender 3.1+ supports Metal GPU rendering on Apple Silicon. Cycles and EEVEE both work with Metal acceleration.
Is Blender on Apple Silicon as fast as on a dedicated NVIDIA GPU?
For most modeling and animation tasks, Apple Silicon is very capable. For heavy Cycles rendering, high-end NVIDIA GPUs (RTX 4080/4090) are still faster, but M2 Ultra/M3 Max/M4 Max chips are competitive for many workloads.