Just a couple of months after 8.1, we’re back with Mako Core™ 8.2 and it includes a big step forward for Apex™, our GPU-powered renderer first introduced in 8.0 (April).
What’s new in Mako Core 8.2?
Halftone screening on the GPU
Apex now performs screening via the post-processing API we added in 8.1. Because the work happens directly on the GPU, it’s extremely fast and scales beautifully.
Packed outputs for leaner I/O
You can retrieve screened results as packed bytes (eg 1 bit-per-pixel). Packing also happens on the GPU, so it’s fast and it shrinks the data coming back from the device, boosting overall throughput.
Why it matters
Moving more of the pipeline onto the GPU isn’t just a speed play—it frees the CPU for everything else in your workflow. The result is a smoother, faster end-to-end process, especially under heavy, multi-job loads.
The road ahead
This is the direction for Mako and Apex: push the right operations to the GPU when it wins, and when it doesn’t, squeeze modern CPUs for everything they’re worth. We’re already exploring additional hot spots in the pipeline where we can deliver noticeable performance gains – sometimes with GPU assistance, sometimes with highly tuned CPU code.
Mako Core 8.2 is available for download now. Pick up the release notes on our documentation site.
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