In recent years, Apple has chosen AMD as its go-to supplier of graphics chips rather than Nvidia. However, recent job listings on the Nvidia website suggest that this arrangement might be about to change significantly.
A blurb for a software engineer post with Nvidia states that the person who takes the job will “help produce the next revolutionary Apple products,” according to a report from Bloomberg. The listing also confirms that the role will involve “working in partnership with Apple.”
There are currently three listings for jobs with Nvidia that directly reference Apple. Two of those were posted more than a month ago, whereas the most recent was published on September 12.
The jobs are all within the field of software engineering and relate directly to Mac graphics drivers. It certainly seems that Nvidia is expanding its roster of personnel with particular experience working with Apple products, which would suggest that the company’s exclusive relationship with AMD is coming to an end.
However, there’s currently no confirmation that AMD would be completely frozen out of the deal, even if Apple were to make an agreement with Nvidia, which has provided graphics chips to Apple in the past. The company has previously played two component manufacturers against one another to get the best possible deal on parts, which could be the strategy here.
Apple hardware tends to use integrated graphics from Intel as standard, with more powerful chips being made available as optional extras. Users who employ their Mac to edit video or play games will be particularly interested in the prospect of the company shifting from AMD components to chips from Nvidia.
At this point, it’s difficult to say when a deal between Apple and Nvidia would take effect. It’s long been rumored that the MacBook Pro is due for a major overhaul this year, but that’s sure to predate the change of graphics chip supplier if jobs are still being advertised right now. As it stands, if Apple is building bridges with Nvidia, the first products to benefit from the arrangement would hit in 2017 at the earliest.
