Apple Begins Exclusively Selling 'Blackmagic eGPU' for $699, Aimed at New MacBook Pros

[gpociej]

You have three options: 10 GbE, 1 GbE, or 0 GbE as dongles or no dongle. If they included ethernet then they would be taking away an option. Dongles are annoying. But if you have a big dongle that is the eGPU, then what's another?

Simple answer.
Fully equiped eGPU enclosure would act like a dock in home = more GPU power, external screen, corded mouse and kb (if you wish these), ethernet and everything what you want to use at desk connected to this enclosure and by single cable to your MacBook.

Going out of home?
Unplug one cable and you're good to go.

Looks like it's too much to expect...

 

[dukebound85]

Simple answer.
Fully equiped eGPU enclosure would act like a dock in home = more GPU power, external screen, corded mouse and kb (if you wish these), ethernet and everything what you want to use at desk connected to this enclosure and by single cable to your MacBook.

Going out of home?
Unplug one cable and you're good to go.

Looks like it's too much to expect...

Look into this enclosure.

It’s what I use and it’s what you describe. I use it as a dock/egpu with a rx570

https://mymantiz.com/products/mz-02-venus

 

[gpociej]

@dukebound85
Thanks for your suggestion.

I have looked onto many enclosures in past which should work with MacBook but with every single one I had some "but"...

Sadly when Apple choose one to "support" (by selling) didn't choose one that will fulfill every need for regular users and pros.

 

[Anarchy99]

Really? Because with othe egpu you can’t.....
[doublepost=1531580599][/doublepost]
You don’t get it.... it’s the power over thunderbolt so you can charge your laptop via thunderbolt.


I mean you do see the ac plug insert right on the enclosure for power to the card right?
[doublepost=1531580667][/doublepost]
Answer is YES if you get the script from egpu.io
[doublepost=1531581012][/doublepost]
The adapter is not all that is needed. You need a script to enable the functionality. Apple killed egpu support for tb1and 2 devices

I was talking hardware, im not wrong. I also mentioned epu.io forums
i neglected all other software people may need too eg. nvidia driverS, other scripts from epu.io depending on there macOS version etc.
it doesnt mean they dont need the dongle, heck if im guilty of anything they also need a thunderbolt2 cable to connect to the dongle.

i never claimed to be a comprehensive guide, just point them in the right direction which includes comprehensive guides

 

[killawat]

The 5K display uses USB 3.0 because it has a USB 3.0 controller connected to the Thunderbolt 3 controller in the display. The 4K display uses USB 2.0 because it uses all 4 super speed lines in a USB-C cable for DisplayPort 1.2 alt mode so only the USB 2.0 data lines of the USB-C cable remain.
Apple blocked TB1/TB2 for all eGPU's. I don't think they would add anything extra for this eGPU. eGPU.io website has work arounds for this block which should also be applicable to this eGPU.

oof,my bad got the sizes mixed up for the USB 2.0.

 

[skyline r34]

Why does it have to come with a Radeon card inside? I'm more of a Nvidia fan, I don't know much about eGPU's but I thought you can put any regular GPU inside like the razor

 

[Rockadile]

Why does it have to come with a Radeon card inside? I'm more of a Nvidia fan, I don't know much about eGPU's but I thought you can put any regular GPU inside like the razor

It could be GPU swappable but no one knows until we get our hands on it.

Apple + AMD = PB & J
Apple + Nvidia = Oil & Water

AMD inclined to support Apple Metal. Apple make AMD driver for Macs.

 

[Anarchy99]

It could be GPU swappable but no one knows until we get our hands on it.

Apple + AMD = PB & J
Apple + Nvidia = Oil & Water

AMD inclined to support Apple Metal. Apple make AMD driver for Macs.

is that why apple started treating poor Nvidia like the redheaded stepchild, i remember them mentioning the Kepler architecture onstage at the mbp keynote and in older macs they used to fairly regularly hop between Nvidia and ATI, but lately its been AMD all the way to the detriment of the users, (yes, there are lots, of mac optimizations to current AMD implementations but the reverse could have been true had they chose to focus on Nvidia)

honestly, by virtue of Nvidia cards being overall better performers hardware-wise the last decade or so, if they were going to pick one to be exclusive too i wish it was Nvidia

 

[Gudd]

Someone suggested (earlier in this thread I think) that the AMD direction is related to Nvidia's handling of the GPU chip problems in the MBP's a few models back. I have no idea if there is any basis in fact of that but it seems pretty plausible to me that would sour the Apple / NV relationship quite significantly.

 

[hick9]

is that why apple started treating poor Nvidia like the redheaded stepchild, i remember them mentioning the Kepler architecture onstage at the mbp keynote and in older macs they used to fairly regularly hop between Nvidia and ATI, but lately its been AMD all the way to the detriment of the users, (yes, there are lots, of mac optimizations to current AMD implementations but the reverse could have been true had they chose to focus on Nvidia)

honestly, by virtue of Nvidia cards being overall better performers hardware-wise the last decade or so, if they were going to pick one to be exclusive too i wish it was Nvidia

There are multiple reason for them using AMD in their laptops if I recall, most which are all related to the GPU's software and hardware ability. When they first switched over to AMD, at the time most single 5K monitors were DisplayPort 1.2 and required 2 streams just to run the monitor. AMD GPUs supported six streams, Nvidia's GPU’s only supported 4 streams. That allowed 15-inch MacBook Pro models to use four of them to drive two 5K monitors, a fifth to drive the internal display and still have one stream free for future use. Power-wise the laptop version of the GTX 1060 has an 85W TDP where the MacBook Pro’s AMD GPUs Apple decided to use were all 35W. I also believe Apple signed an agreement with AMD to supply all its graphics chips for the next few years, which encourages AMD to support Apple technologies like METAL.

 

[Naimfan]

That looks awfully expensive for the performance on offer . . .

 

[ThinkDifferentKK]

I'm currently comparing Blackmagic with Sonnet+WX 7100. I personally want to choose the Sonnet+WX 7100 because it is configurable. I can change the graphic card as I want. But I'm not sure which one has better performance on Mac.
They both have similar specs, actually WX 7100 is a little bit better. However, I think the Radeon Pro 500 series are made for Macs only, so they must be fully optimized for Mac. I'm not sure if WX 7100 will work as fine as Radeon Pro 580. For example, Radeon Pro 580 support Metal acceleration, but WX 7100 doesn't.

I mainly use pro apps like C4D, Maya, AE, Final Cut Pro, DaVinci Resolve etc. Which one will give me faster preview and render?

 

[ThunderSkunk]

Considering the Grand Central Dispatch arkletecture in OS X that utilizes every processor available in the machine and sends threads to them in parallel, will adding one of these to a 2017-18 iMac mean OS X uses it not specifically for graphics, but merely as more available processors to crunch your data with more horsepower? For $700, that'd be a nice big kick of oomph when further bloated OS's & Apps start to bog down the machine.

 

[drewsof07]

There are multiple reason for them using AMD in their laptops if I recall, most which are all related to the GPU's software and hardware ability. When they first switched over to AMD, at the time most single 5K monitors were DisplayPort 1.2 and required 2 streams just to run the monitor. AMD GPUs supported six streams, Nvidia's GPU’s only supported 4 streams. That allowed 15-inch MacBook Pro models to use four of them to drive two 5K monitors, a fifth to drive the internal display and still have one stream free for future use. Power-wise the laptop version of the GTX 1060 has an 85W TDP where the MacBook Pro’s AMD GPUs Apple decided to use were all 35W. I also believe Apple signed an agreement with AMD to supply all its graphics chips for the next few years, which encourages AMD to support Apple technologies like METAL.

Glass half empty here: At the point Apple transitioned support to AMD, Nvidia had broadened their market lead in terms of performance and commanded a premium for their chips. IMHO the transition boiled down to significant cost savings with AMD.