Would it be advisable to use a nice eGPU with a new 2018 mac mini in the future ?
If Apple refreshes the Mac Mini and it has a Thunderbolt 3 port, the answer is YES !
The current 2014 model still being sold only supports Thunderbolt 1, the answer is NO !
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At this time, Apple is really pushing Metal over OpenCL. For example, the iMac Pro currently support OpenCL 1.2 when the OpenCL 2.0 (mid-2013) and 2.1 (late 2015) specifications were available. Thus, my WWDC 2018 wishlist includes the following:
- Vulkan 1.x and OpenCL 2.x support
On my app, Fractal Architect, Metal outperforms OpenCL using eGPU for heavy compute tasks. On the internal GPUs, the reverse is true.
As a developer, I don't see Apple wanting to spend money on GPU compute. Because of this, I doubt they will step up to the latest version of OpenCL.
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1. It was 8600 GT chip-gate
2. Not specific to Apple MacBooks only, there were others that got affected by it
3. Nvidia paid for the repairs
4. Early 2013 iMac & mid 2012 to mid 2014 MacBook Pro’s had all Kepler GPU’s (GTX 750-780 in desktops and 650m-750m in laptops). I still rock high spec’ed mid 2014 MacBook Pro with 750m
All this while he’s saying this with his tin foil hat on.... not exactly a great reference
For Apple’s use case AMD is just better at OpenCL and more willing to work with them on customized GPU’s (trash can Mac Pro GPU’s or iMac 5K). While I agree that they both need their egos checked, i think it’s Nvidia that should show more humility and Apple to stop acting like a petulant child. Especially with official eGPU support & upcoming modular Mac Pro it should be a priority for Nvidia to get back in game with Macs
#my2cents
AMD has been winning the most OEM deals by far. Playstation, Xbox, Apple ...
You really have to "serve & support" your big customers at a reasonable price.
But, Apple does need to support Nvidia GPUs for professional apps. I think they should make it possible for Mac App store sandboxed apps to support CUDA too. Perhaps they need to create a way for key 3rd party drivers like CUDA, to be installed in a way that makes those 3rd party drivers callable by Mac App Store sandboxed apps. (Today sandboxed apps cannot.)
Nvidia's support for CUDA is huge. They have all sorts of tools, like the essential CUDA debugger, while Apple provides no support for debugging either Metal or OpenCL. CUDA is the "Gold Standard" for GPU compute.
AMD does have a tool that will convert your CUDA application so that your CUDA application will work on AMD GPUs. So even AMD is bowing before the dominance of CUDA in the real world over OpenCL.
I do not know how well their tool works, but it is an impressive step to supporting CUDA on AMD GPUs.
My own app can use either OpenCL, Metal, or CUDA for GPU compute rendering. On Nvidia GPUs, CUDA beats OpenCL.
But, with eGPU and the AMD Vega GPUs, either OpenCL or Metal give exceptional performance at a great price.