It's a bit of both. I believe Apple maintain the app-facing side of the GL implementation. Backend plugins are provided by IHVs to talk to their specific hardware, but with Apple still controlling the release channels.

AFAIK there's no route for an IHV to get an updated driver to a user without going through Apple, put it that way.

Then how come you can't manually install driver updates? Because Apple controls the release channels and public facing interface.

You can install Nvidia drivers on your own for OS X, look up "Nvidia Web Driver". Here's an example: http://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/73628/en-u...

AFAIK, that driver only applies to CUDA and other proprietary Nvidia platforms, not necessarily OpenGL.

I think you misunderstood something. If you read the info text for the driver on the linked page, it explicitly mentions that you need a _separate_ driver for CUDA.

GPU driver: http://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/73628/en-u... Additional CUDA driver: http://www.nvidia.com/object/macosx-cuda-6.0.37-driver.html

You answered your own question. :)