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Apple's $1,199 Blackmagic eGPU Pro Now Available for Purchase, Delivers Mid-January
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Typical Apple.. it's already an outdated and overpriced Vega 56. This is just bait for people with money to blow.
But it's not actually an Apple product.
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Pricing a basic eGPU box and card in Japan for my 2015 MPB and really, for not much more I can get quite a decent gaming/Production machine. For $1200, I get a very good PC gaming/production machine plus access to the full range of native Windows software.
Unless you are somehow really wedded to OSX for production, I am not sure why you would do this. I love my Macbook Pro, but it doesn't make much financial sense to use and eGPU at the current prices/performance, especially for slightly older Macs.
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Remember this ain’t just to have an eGPU but also more USB ports offloading computational power, external displays and charging.
There are much cheaper alternatives.
Apple needs to check the market first before targeting it and pricing like numskulls.
Where the profits drop due to lacking iPhone XS/XS Max sales and it’ll happen in the next two quarters unless heavier discounts and deals occur that’s when Cook will begin to see the what alone with the Baird. 2qtrs in a row is all it’ll take.
I am wedded to OSX. Although, I'm just using it for normal web development (& some C++). I'm not interested in taking off the time to learn how to install ´Apache & MySQL and editors and ftp clients and what not on a Windows or Linux machine.
I was just kinda wondering what this new thing could do for me.
It’s not utter nonsense. Blackmagic are the ONLY one selling a silent desktop class eGPU. This ‘you can build quiet cool’ tower for eGPU you talk about doesn’t exist and nothing else supports 5K Thunderbolt Display support.
If you want to argue against hundreds of users reporting on forums and YouTube then please find help.
I don’t even know why you talk about the MacBook Pro’s heat as some kind of argument in your favor. The heat has been a problem in slim laptops since late 90s and will never ever go away unless they use ARM. eGPU is actually a great solution for offloading that heat and the Blackmagic is the quietest one available.
I’m surprised MacRumors didn’t pick up on the story that a few days ago Adobe updated Premiere Pro on Windows to natively export Apple ProRes. Supposedly they had to negotiate with Apple to make this happen.
Why is that relevant? Because it may have honestly been the last reason to edit video on a Mac over a PC and now that’s gone.
I make indie films and ProRes is still very much the standard for delivery to encoding houses and distributors. Now I don’t have to jump through hoops and use hacks to export it on my Windows desktop.
I used to think I’d switch to Macs eventually but it no longer makes any sense. 99.9% of my time on my desktop is spent in Adobe programs, Resolve, Office, or Chrome. At this point, I wouldn’t even care if the OS was just a black screen with links to open those programs, as long as those programs run well. I do all my more personal stuff on my iPhone anyway. The desktop is for work and if I’m in the OS, I’m not doing work.
I just edited and am now color grading a feature film shot in 8K Redcode Raw on a Windows machine that is several years old. It only took a $400 new GPU I dropped in, and then I even sold my old GPU for $125. I was convinced I was going to have to go to NASA to work on this crazy footage (especially color grading and noise reducing it). Nope... $275.
Why is that relevant? Because it may have honestly been the last reason to edit video on a Mac over a PC and now that’s gone.
I make indie films and ProRes is still very much the standard for delivery to encoding houses and distributors. Now I don’t have to jump through hoops and use hacks to export it on my Windows desktop.
I used to think I’d switch to Macs eventually but it no longer makes any sense. 99.9% of my time on my desktop is spent in Adobe programs, Resolve, Office, or Chrome. At this point, I wouldn’t even care if the OS was just a black screen with links to open those programs, as long as those programs run well. I do all my more personal stuff on my iPhone anyway. The desktop is for work and if I’m in the OS, I’m not doing work.
I just edited and am now color grading a feature film shot in 8K Redcode Raw on a Windows machine that is several years old. It only took a $400 new GPU I dropped in, and then I even sold my old GPU for $125. I was convinced I was going to have to go to NASA to work on this crazy footage (especially color grading and noise reducing it). Nope... $275.
Gotta love the picture, the Mac Mini is the cheapest product of all three (until you upgrade the CPU and storage).
When did non-pro peripherals become more expensive than your processing unit - some geniuses must've figured it was a greatly under-exploited market.
When did non-pro peripherals become more expensive than your processing unit - some geniuses must've figured it was a greatly under-exploited market.
Gigabyte = GB
Gigabit = Gb (a lot less than the above).
I’m hoping just a typo but you keep stating Gb in products know to have evaluated their storage or ram as GB is a bit off for me.
Give you an inefficient and expensive way of doing what the computer should do in the first place.
Soon we'll have an external battery pack for another 800$ as Apple is progressing to make the macbooks even more thinner.
I am using an eGPU (Sonnet 550 + RX560) with Sierra and a 2011 Macbook Pro and only via community hack (egpu.io) am I able to do so. Apple disabled Thunderbolt 1/2 support on purpose starting with High Sierra - it´s a blunt software lock to sell new hardware, nothing else. Same goes with their NVIDIA ban.
It works perfectly at the moment, though, but only with a handful of supported apps. In my case Final Cut and DaVinci and DXO. My Macbook Pro is still powerful - mind you, it´s the model with the failed DGPU, which I disabled, thanks to the DIY community. Otherwise I would have needed to buy a new machine - and frankly, their quality is so down the tube whith exorbitant pricing, it´s no longer funny. I can´t see any mac hardware at the moment, that I want to buy. I would need to go second hand to get a reliable machine, it´s so crazy.
In general eGPU support is a mixed experience with Apple. They seem to support it somehow, but limit it potential at the same time. It´s also far too unstable with their current Thunderbolt 3 based hardware, for whatever reason, mostly I guess because of declining quality of hardware components and builts. It´s telling that they don´t offer in house built eGPU cases or thunderbolt perpherials in general.
Recent benchmarking from some people with real heavy workloads regarding eGPU and internal DGPU indicate a somewhat murky picture. It seems Apple prioritizes the DGPU when available (and sellable) before a connected eGPU, which then gives you hardly any additional power to utilize. I do believe they artifically limit the eGPU potential, according to the hardware they want to sell - macbook pros with internal DGPUs.
The already messed with the software side of things on many occasions to sell more of their products. I no longer have any trust in Apple, hardware or software wise.
It works perfectly at the moment, though, but only with a handful of supported apps. In my case Final Cut and DaVinci and DXO. My Macbook Pro is still powerful - mind you, it´s the model with the failed DGPU, which I disabled, thanks to the DIY community. Otherwise I would have needed to buy a new machine - and frankly, their quality is so down the tube whith exorbitant pricing, it´s no longer funny. I can´t see any mac hardware at the moment, that I want to buy. I would need to go second hand to get a reliable machine, it´s so crazy.
In general eGPU support is a mixed experience with Apple. They seem to support it somehow, but limit it potential at the same time. It´s also far too unstable with their current Thunderbolt 3 based hardware, for whatever reason, mostly I guess because of declining quality of hardware components and builts. It´s telling that they don´t offer in house built eGPU cases or thunderbolt perpherials in general.
Recent benchmarking from some people with real heavy workloads regarding eGPU and internal DGPU indicate a somewhat murky picture. It seems Apple prioritizes the DGPU when available (and sellable) before a connected eGPU, which then gives you hardly any additional power to utilize. I do believe they artifically limit the eGPU potential, according to the hardware they want to sell - macbook pros with internal DGPUs.
The already messed with the software side of things on many occasions to sell more of their products. I no longer have any trust in Apple, hardware or software wise.
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Yeah the prices some people mentioned here for a PSU or a Case are absolutely ridiculous.
It's more than obvious that they don't know what they are talking about.
asus vega 56Let me break it down if i wanted these things by other high quality hardware vendors.
so, BM eGPU Pro is 1359€ in EU, you get a TB dock and an eGPU.
If i want a dock, a vega 56 (new, not 2nd hand) and an external case from high quality vendors it goes like this:
400€ for Vega 56 (Sapphire)
500€ for sonnet 650W
300€ for Caldigit TS3+ dock
---
1200€. the premium on black magic in that case is 159€. which is not a lot.
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i'm seriously considering the BlackMagic now when i say it like this
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...=vega 56&cm_re=vega_56-_-14-126-180-_-Product
mantiz venus with 4 usb 3.0 in back and 2 in the front, gigabyte ethernet. and build in psu enough to power vega 64.
https://www.amazon.com/Mantiz-Thunderbolt-Certified-External-interface/dp/B0745H6GTX
total cost. 810 usd.
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Which reasons? That for less money you get less security and quality?
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Apple did not set the price of this non-Apple product
They have discreet graphics, hence the two videocards inside. This is just extra.