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Would Macbook 12 inch with TB3 be able to handle external Video card 4k Edits

FilmIndustryGuy

FilmIndustryGuy

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
May 12, 2015
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Manhattan Beach, CA
Since intel says TB3 will bring full size external video cards, would it be possible in theory to edit 4k footage in Final Cut and just use the power of the external card for processing on the next Macbook 12 inch? I'm not sure what Final cut and Premiere Pro utilize these days as far as video card or CPU power. If its mostly the video card than all you would need is a macbook 12 inch and an external bay with powerful card? or am I just dreaming and instead should buy a Mac Pro?
 
As of now, no. OSX doesn't support external GPU's. Also, I doubt they'll add TB3 to the MacBook. There's basically no space for he Alpine Ridge chip on the tiny logic board without making it bigger, thus sacrificing battery life.

Also it isn't very Apple-like to support external GPU's which look clunky and will be for just a minority of users. They'll have to write drivers and the like to make this possible.
 
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Koudspeel said:
As of now, no. OSX doesn't support external GPU's. Also, I doubt they'll add TB3 to the MacBook. There's basically no space for he Alpine Ridge chip on the tiny logic board without making it bigger, thus sacrificing battery life.
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Isn't TB3 included in the processor Kaby Lake? Meaning it wouldn't require more space on the logic board.
 
Tanax said:
Isn't TB3 included in the processor Kaby Lake? Meaning it wouldn't require more space on the logic board.
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Yes, that's exactly what worries me, meaning that it is unlikely that we'll have Kaby Lake CPUs in MacBooks prior to 2018. If Intel keeps up its stalling strategy in order to survive a few more years on silicon (there isn't much left after 10 nm node), then we might have to wait for Thunderbolt 3 being included in MacBooks till 2019-2020.
 
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ParanoidDroid said:
Yes, that's exactly what worries me, meaning that it is unlikely that we'll have Kaby Lake CPUs in MacBooks prior to 2018. If Intel keeps up its stalling strategy in order to survive a few more years on silicon (there isn't much left after 10 nm node), then we might have to wait for Thunderbolt 3 being included in MacBooks till 2019-2020.
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Kabylake will be out end of 2016 it is just a rebadge and slight GPU boost on skylake chips it has been slotted in to cover that canon lake won't be with us until the end of 2017. Skylake is already ddr4 and tb3 ready and I think that all the portable updates this year will include USB3.1/TB3 composite ports although the underwhelming performance increases from ddr4 means they probably won't bother with that until next year.
 
mjs402 said:
Yes, it technically will be able to if they add TB3 in the next iteration.

http://www.neowin.net/news/acer-unveils-its-first-external-mobile-gpu-dock-powered-via-thunderbolt-3

That is running a Skylake Core m processor, it is a tablet/laptop hybrid thing.
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I think you meant to say: "theoretically yes". Because technically it won't be possible. OSX doesn't have eGPU support. Apple will have to add driver support for eGPUs in OSX first. Howerver, you WILL be able to use eGPUs in Bootcamp under Windows, if the MacBook gets TB3, which I doubt (see post #2).
 
Num
Koudspeel said:
I think you meant to say: "theoretically yes". Because technically it won't be possible. OSX doesn't have eGPU support. Apple will have to add driver support for eGPUs in OSX first. Howerver, you WILL be able to use eGPUs in Bootcamp under Windows, if the MacBook gets TB3, which I doubt (see post #2).
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I didn't say anything about OSX. I'm not arguing over definitions that can be interpreted differently, I don't have time for that, but if you do good for you. The fact remains, if it adopts it, it technically will.
 
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mjs402 said:
Num


I didn't say anything about OSX. I'm not arguing over definitions that can be interpreted differently, I don't have time for that, but if you do good for you. The fact remains, if it adopts it, it technically will.
Click to expand...

I was just clearing things up. Your previous post could be interpreted in different (wrong) ways.
 
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