Sonnet Announces New eGPU Docks With AMD Radeon RX 5000 Series GPUs and Support for Pro Display XDR

[LEDOLPH]

These seem pretty niche TBH. They do as someone pointed out facilitate a TB 3 display on older hardware and they will add more grunt for graphically intensive apps. Personally I found EGPU gains hit and miss. I was running a 2018 mini with a 5700 XT and Razor Core for editing (and some Windows gaming). It worked pretty well - but it was bulky, very noisy, and edit renders would often glitch out. It’s now being relegated to a backup machine - PS5 takes the gaming and an M1 Mini edits just as quickly - except silently and with no glitches. I think Apple toyed with the Intel and EGPU routes as a stop gap - but (at the expense of Windows) see massive power and performance wins with their own silicon. If you have an Intel TB3 machine with integrated GFX and need portability and extra power I’m sure these would be great. But the price is basically a bumped up Mini so it’s a tough call. But perhaps you’re super niche and need a Media Composer on Catalina with some extra grunt - 5700’s do have some video encoding acceleration, maybe you have an LC 5K monitor- but get ready to hear those fans...

 

[Wahlstrm]

I really don’t get all the negativity here.

This is a great upgrade for basically all TB3 Intel Macs sold during the past few years.
(Maybe even TB2 Macs with an adapter and some custom code?)

Given how little has happened in the Intel CPU space in the last decade,
most of these machines are still perfectly fine apart from GPU performance.

For a lot of people this little box can give them another 2-3years of usable performance.
It’s not super cheap but compared to dropping $4000 on a new Intel MBP it might not be such a bad deal.

 

[tschew72]

I used this setup with 5700XT and it’s cheaper! https://mobplay.games/articles/mac-boot-camp-egpu-setup-definitive-guide/

 

[mjtomlin71]

 

[macona]

It looks like it is just a matter of driver support for eGPUs to work on M1 Macs, x64 drivers will not work on the ARM chip. The Thundebolt to PCIe bridges that are used in the eGPUs work fine as a bridge and you can use other PCIe cards in them and they work as well, just no graphics support. So it would probably have to be Apple and AMD working together to make the necessary software updates.

 

[Zdigital2015]

Yes, the 6000 are in extremely short supply, but is that a reason not to support them? No of course not.

We know why there are no Apple Silicon drivers, because the machines don't support the GPUs.. and may never support eGPU.

AMD 5000 range weren't great CPUs.. in the Windows world, but for Macs, they are good ( that speaks for crap GPUs for Macs )

You’re forgetting what a dumpster fire AMD’s GPU drivers for the 5x00-Series were for a protracted length of time. I would assume nothing different with regard to the 6x00-Series as well for the next 3-6 months. I wouldn’t expect Apple to include drivers for the 6x00-Series for Intel until 11.3 or 11.4. I am assuming that Apple will support the 6x00-Series GPUs as they would be a great update for the 2019 Mac Pro. But expecting GPU drivers for macOS at this time is not practical at this time.

 

[magbarn]

Unless you’re stupidly buying this for gaming (either wait for gpus or next gen consoles to become more available instead), it’s better just to put up your intel Mac mini/mbp for sale and get the M1 version and pay less than buying this box and keeping your Intel.

Intel with eGPU = Mid 2020 MacBook Pro 13-inch, Intel Core i7-1068NG7 2.3GHz Quad-Core processor, RX 5700 XT GPU in eGPU box, MacOS Catalina
M1 MacBook Pro = 2020 Apple M1 MacBook Pro 13-inch, 8-Core CPU, 8-core GPU, MacOS Big Sur
Intel MacBook Pro = Mid 2020 MacBook Pro 13-inch, Intel Core i7-1068NG7 2.3GHz Quad-Core processor, Iris Plus integrated Graphics, MacOS Catalina

From barefeats website

 

[Christian Schumacher]

Unless you’re stupidly buying this for gaming (either wait for gpus or next gen consoles to become more available instead), it’s better just to put up your intel Mac mini/mbp for sale and get the M1 version and pay less than buying this box and keeping your Intel.

View attachment 1709599
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Intel with eGPU = Mid 2020 MacBook Pro 13-inch, Intel Core i7-1068NG7 2.3GHz Quad-Core processor, RX 5700 XT GPU in eGPU box, MacOS Catalina
M1 MacBook Pro = 2020 Apple M1 MacBook Pro 13-inch, 8-Core CPU, 8-core GPU, MacOS Big Sur
Intel MacBook Pro = Mid 2020 MacBook Pro 13-inch, Intel Core i7-1068NG7 2.3GHz Quad-Core processor, Iris Plus integrated Graphics, MacOS Catalina

From barefeats website

Sorry but there are people who need software outside of the app store, like Premiere, AE, Resolve, Avid, CAD, 3D, etc. People need reliable working software and hardware for work. GPU upgrade is meant for these people.