Apple Offers External GPU Enclosure to Developers As Valve Opens Door to VR Mac Gaming

[MacRumors]

Apple announced a new version of its Metal graphics technology during Monday's keynote at the Worldwide Developers Conference. As part of macOS High Sierra, Metal 2 will officially support external GPUs, allowing any Mac with a Thunderbolt 3 port to benefit from graphics hardware powerful enough to run demanding virtual reality applications and games.

The native VR support in macOS High Sierra also opens up the possibility for Mac owners to hook up VR headsets to their computer for the first time. And in a concurrent related announcement, Steam game platform creator Valve also revealed in a blog post on Monday that it is making a beta version of its SteamVR software development kit available on Mac, offering players the same 360-degree, room-scale tracking as the Windows and Linux variants.

On the development side, we have worked closely with Epic and Unity to make Mac extensions of content built on those engine technologies as simple as possible. Extension tools for those engines, and others, are available as part of this beta.

We've also worked with Mozilla to help enable WebVR support on Firefox, so macOS-based web developers can start trying out VR.

In addition to the Valve partnership, Apple announced it is also selling its own external graphics enclosure to developers who want to work on graphically intensive VR and 3D applications and games, although Apple noted that external GPU support likely won't arrive for consumers until spring 2018.

Apps that use Metal, OpenCL, and OpenGL can now take advantage of the increased performance that external graphics processors can bring. The External Graphics Development Kit includes everything you need to start optimizing advanced VR and 3D apps on external graphics processors with macOS High Sierra.

Apple's External Graphics Development Kit comes with a Sonnet external GPU chassis with Thunderbolt 3 and 350W power supply, an AMD Radeon RX 580 8GB graphics card, a Belkin USB-C to 4-port USB-A hub, and a promo code for $100 towards the purchase of a HTC Vive VR headset.

The External Graphics Development Kit costs $599 and requires a Mac with Thunderbolt 3 running the latest beta version of macOS High Sierra. The other caveat is that customers have to be a member of the Apple Developer Program to be eligible to purchase the kit.

The kit can be bought directly from Apple's website, although Apple cautions that the HTC Vive promo codes have limited availability and are distributed on a first-come, first-served basis.

Article Link: Apple Offers External GPU Enclosure to Developers As Valve Opens Door to VR Mac Gaming

 

[Appleaker]

That kit is good value considering what's included.
I so glad to see Apple taking graphics seriously again, yesterday showed a big step forward for Mac graphics in many ways.

 

[lysingur]

This is a game changer (pun intended). I think Apple is finally getting serious about gaming.

 

[anthorumor]

This news made my day. Very unexpected considering it could render high MacBook Pro sales moot if you can deal with an eGPU setup.

 

[Devie]

Holy **** this is the best news to come out of wwdc. Now all I need is a refreshed mini and I can finally upgrade my 2010 iMac. I've since built a gaming PC instead .

 

[Piggie]

Wonder if you take the current price of say a GTX 1080 or 1080Ti PCI card.

How much "extra" you will need to pay for this enclosure?

Do we though assume they will be "Special" Apple Graphics Cards?
Or rather, tweaked in such a way that a stock one won't work ?

 

[Wiejeben]

Thrilled to finally see official support for external graphics!

 

[antonis]

Apple's External Graphics Development Kit comes with a Sonnet external GPU chassis with Thunderbolt 3 and 350W power supply, an AMD Radeon RX 580 8GB graphics card, a Belkin USB-C to 4-port USB-A hub, and a promo code for $100 towards the purchase of a HTC Vive VR headset.

So, this means that it is locked to a specific AMD GPU model ?

 

[crsh1976]

First:

In addition to the Valve partnership, Apple announced it is also selling its own external graphics enclosure to developers who want to work on graphically intensive VR and 3D applications and games, although Apple noted that external GPU support likely won't arrive for consumers until spring 2018.

Then:

Apple's External Graphics Development Kit comes with a Sonnet external GPU chassis with Thunderbolt 3 and 350W power supply, an AMD Radeon RX 580 8GB graphics card, a Belkin USB-C to 4-port USB-A hub, and a promo code for $100 towards the purchase of a HTC Vive VR headset.

So which is it? Apple does not make the enclosure from the sound of it, it's made by Sonnet, but it's part of the Apple Dev Kit.

 

[Pangalactic]

Is it only for new Macbooks or for the 2016 as well? Because as far as I remember they were locked from supporting eGPUs

 

[mctrials23]

So I went on the US site for this and it was $599 then I tried to get it from the UK store and its coming up at £799 when I go through the checkout. Does the US site up the price at checkout as well or are we just getting royally screwed on price in the UK?

 

[Pakaku]

That kit is good value considering what's included. I wonder what the retail price for the enclosure will be considering the mostly overpriced graphics PCIe enclosures that exist today.

I so glad to see Apple taking graphics seriously again, yesterday showed a big step forward for Mac graphics in many ways.

A review of the case says it is $299 USD: https://egpu.io/sonnet-breakaway-box-review-cool-quiet/

The GPU is $259 on Newegg, so when considering what the rest of the bundle includes, the total price seems okay.

 

[Appleaker]

A review of the case says it is $299 USD: https://egpu.io/sonnet-breakaway-box-review-cool-quiet/

The GPU is $259 on Newegg, so when considering what the rest of the bundle includes, the total price seems okay.

Oh thanks, I didn't realise it had been released yet (should have looked into it!). Again, I think that's quite pricey, with $199 being the sweet spot and $99 (if possible) being a steal. So yeah, the bundle price is a good deal.

 

[jeremiah256]

Oculus VR founder Palmer Luckey was asked in 2016 about the possibility of the Oculus platform ever supporting Mac OS X; his response was that it depends on if Apple ever “releases a good computer."


Me thinks there may be consequences and repercussions.

 

[jmack007]

The release notes for this eGPU are badly written but do answer some questions.

https://developer.apple.com/development-kit/media/external-graphics/Release-Notes-ECDK_v1.pdf

The External Graphics Development Kit supports the AMD Radeon RX 580 8GB graphics card that is supplied with the kit. Other graphics cards are unsupported in the External Graphics Development Kit. The Sonnet external GPU chassis is designed to work with graphics cards up to 250W with a single 8-pin power connector.

Kind of contradictory. Also, it says it wont work in BootCamp. But I cant see why it wouldn't unless they have some type of restriction at the hardware level.

 

[Killerbob]

You guys reckon that this would work with Thunderbolt 2?

 

[nebo1ss]

So I went on the US site for this and it was $599 then I tried to get it from the UK store and its coming up at £799 when I go through the checkout. Does the US site up the price at checkout as well or are we just getting royally screwed on price in the UK?

Do not forget that the UK one would have 20 percent VAT included hence the base price is £665. The US price does not include sales tax if you add 8 percent it is then $646. Does this seem more reasonable?

 

[jmack007]

You guys reckon that this would work with Thunderbolt 2?

The kit may work with Thunderbolt 2-enabled Mac computers via a Thunderbolt 2 to Thunderbolt 3 adapter, but this is an unsupported configuration.

https://developer.apple.com/development-kit/media/external-graphics/Release-Notes-ECDK_v1.pdf

 

[mctrials23]

Do not forget that the UK one would have 20 percent VAT included hence the base price is £665. The US price does not include sales tax if you add 8 percent it is then $646. Does this seem more reasonable?

No is the simple answer. Thats still not even a 1:1 conversion of $ - £.

I can get the Sonnet box for £300 elsewhere and the 580 is a £220-240 card. That doesn't come anywhere near £800.

£520 to buy 2 parts or £800 from apple...

 

[elmaco]

I have wanted something like this for years.

There are a lot of people who own a laptop and that want to play games, but that doesn't want to buy a stationary computer. No need to put a powerful graphics card in the laptop (and making it more heavy). Just need an external graphics card that I can plugin when I am at home.

 

[JWatt68]

I can't help but be very underwhelmed. I have enjoyed a lot of apple products over the years and have always looked forward to each and every announcement, with new equipment to look forward to. Yesterday however isn't even catching up with hardware available for PC from over a year ago. And with Nvidia launching its Max-Q laptop specifications why on earth do you need an external box for high end graphics when Nvidia can run a GTX1080 in a slim laptop configuration. Now we have to wait until December for the "Pro" imac using outdated Xeon cpu's, never mind how long until the new Mac Pro is available, and every spec is already superseded with 18 core Intel i9x processors that will be available for PC in a few weeks!! Come on apple, get back in the game? This is just very very disappointing.

 

[naujoks]

Haha! Haha! External gpus! What could be more awkward than that?

 

[Infrared]

Do not forget that the UK one would have 20 percent VAT included hence the base price is £665. The US price does not include sales tax if you add 8 percent it is then $646. Does this seem more reasonable?

US price: $599

Multiplied by a conversion rate of 0.774475 £/$: £463.91

Plus 20% VAT: £556.69

Actual selling price: £799? (+43.53%)

 

[VulchR]

US price: $599

Multiplied by a conversion rate of 0.774475 £/$: £463.91

Plus 20% VAT: £556.69

Actual selling price: £799? (+43.53%)

Brexit tax.

Anyway, an external GPU seems a little clunky given the Mac's design philosophy for so long. I presume this is aimed at professionals rather than consumers....

 

[nebo1ss]

US price: $599

Multiplied by a conversion rate of 0.774475 £/$: £463.91

Plus 20% VAT: £556.69

Actual selling price: £799? (+43.53%)

Ah but you know it does not work like that. Just compare iPhone, iPad or any other Apple product and you will see the same. I am not saying it is right, just that is normal with Apple. Actually it is not just Apple either. Example the OPPO 203 UHD blue ray player sells for $599 in the US and £650 in the UK.