While the original OS X display model, Quartz, evolved from Display PDF via NextStep, I believe that it shifted back to pixel rasterization to offload more of the display stack onto the GPU.
Quartz Extreme?
John Siracusa, Ars Technica:
It's possible that existing consumer video cards could be coerced into doing efficient vector drawing in hardware. Apple tried to do just that in Tiger [note], but then had to back off at the last minute and disable the feature in the shipping version of the OS. It remains disabled to this day.
Quartz Extreme?
John Siracusa, Ars Technica:
It's possible that existing consumer video cards could be coerced into doing efficient vector drawing in hardware. Apple tried to do just that in Tiger [note], but then had to back off at the last minute and disable the feature in the shipping version of the OS. It remains disabled to this day.
[note] https://arstechnica.com/reviews/os/macosx-10.4.ars/14
https://arstechnica.com/staff/2006/04/3720/