Great. Now you can hang an external GPU off Apple’s glued-together POS laptops with paper keyboards, soldered-in RAM and drives, idiotic glossy screens, and gay-ass “touch bars”
Blackmagic eGPU – Thunderbolt 3 external graphics processor
121–130 of 276 posts
Re: Blackmagic eGPU – Thunderbolt 3 external graphics processor
#122Acoustic Performance: ~18dB I did expect a fanless design by Apple :-/
Fanless dissipation of 150W TDP? Good luck.
Re: Blackmagic eGPU – Thunderbolt 3 external graphics processor
#123Earlier quoted context omitted.
I miss so much my 2009 MacBook Pro, where you could take out the DVD drive and replace it with an additional SSD for a performance boost.
I'm still using mine, with a patched version of OSX High Sierra installed. No problems.
How has your experience with that been? My MBP (early 2011) won't be supported by MacOS Mojave, so I'm anticipating a similar patch.
I may end up staying with High Sierra, but I'd really like to try out the dark mode
Re: Blackmagic eGPU – Thunderbolt 3 external graphics processor
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
Huh. They're targeting ... people who don't know any better? I want to see rendering benchmarks (both 1080p/2160p) of this vs external Thunderbolt GTX/1060,1070,1080 enclosures (and AMDGPU equivalents). I mean if it works better and you do a lot of video, then yea, go for it. If it's only marginally better, buy something with a real PCIe slot that's upgradable. Even business customers should not buy this if the bench…
Four years ago I bought a desktop gaming PC (I'm normally a Mac user) with the idea that I could upgrade it over the years to keep it current but avoid replacing the whole thing. Turns out in practice technology changes enough over that time to only leave the case, and perhaps the PSU. The motherboard, CPU, RAM and graphics card are all obsolete now. The SSD can be reused but newer technology is much faster. I don't…
It is not easy now but you can plan for upgrade of PC and then do it successfully. E.g. If you bought AM4 platform in 2017 you would be able to upgrade. If you bought AM3 platform in Phenom era you could upgrade to vishera/zambezi.
You can upgrade your storage independently, you can upgrade you GPU out of step from other components, you can upgrade GPU more often than CPU without compromising too much. And so on. You can for example keep your soundcard since 10 years ago with some fiddling with drivers. One of my SSDs is 6 years old and while not ideal case it is still much faster than modern HDD and I use it constantly.
What you also mention - case and PSU - those alone cost ~100-200$ each, so worthy saving for upgrade. My seasonic PSU will work for a decade at least, or more.
It is not easy, yes. But possible.
Re: Blackmagic eGPU – Thunderbolt 3 external graphics processor
#125From the FAQ: > Can I upgrade the GPU chip in the Blackmagic eGPU? > No, the design has been optimized for quiet operation so it’s better suited for creative customers. This means the design is not a simple chassis with a PCIe card plugged in, but an integrated electronics, mechanical and cooling design that cannot have the GPU chip upgraded or changed. $699 and no ability to upgrade makes it pretty clear that they'r…
OTOH $699 sounds like a reasonable price for a GPU in that class? You're just trading an internal interface for an external one.
Re: Blackmagic eGPU – Thunderbolt 3 external graphics processor
#126From the FAQ: > Can I upgrade the GPU chip in the Blackmagic eGPU? > No, the design has been optimized for quiet operation so it’s better suited for creative customers. This means the design is not a simple chassis with a PCIe card plugged in, but an integrated electronics, mechanical and cooling design that cannot have the GPU chip upgraded or changed. $699 and no ability to upgrade makes it pretty clear that they'r…
I think it's not the best deal, but it's so much better than other jokers in this space, because, the alternative I've found is Razor Core series ( https://www.razer.com/sg-en/gaming-laptops/razer-core-v2 ) which is a joke - $500+ ($750 where I live) and it doesn't even include a GPU in it! I'm seriously interested if there's some sort of DIY out there wherein you could just buy a bunch of chips from eBay, put togeth…
http://barefeats.com/ which in the Apple community is known for graphics testing of Apple products and other solutions has done a lot of work with external GPU enclosures.
One vendor (Sonnet) [1] has a 580 solution at 499. B&H has the no GPU unit at 299. So there are options.
[1]https://www.sonnetstore.com/collections/egpu-expansion-syste...
Re: Blackmagic eGPU – Thunderbolt 3 external graphics processor
#127Earlier quoted context omitted.
Four years ago I bought a desktop gaming PC (I'm normally a Mac user) with the idea that I could upgrade it over the years to keep it current but avoid replacing the whole thing. Turns out in practice technology changes enough over that time to only leave the case, and perhaps the PSU. The motherboard, CPU, RAM and graphics card are all obsolete now. The SSD can be reused but newer technology is much faster. I don't…
> The motherboard, CPU, RAM and graphics card are all obsolete now. The SSD can be reused but newer technology is much faster. Unless you got a bulldozer CPU, I don't believe you. I bet that upgrading just the graphics card would give you 90% of the effect of upgrading everything.
I have a Vishera CPU and it is definitely NOT obsolete. If anything it ages much better that Intels due to better multicore support in modern apps.
Re: Blackmagic eGPU – Thunderbolt 3 external graphics processor
#128it cost me roughly $600 to build diy egpu. happy to see this finally hit the mainstream.
Re: Blackmagic eGPU – Thunderbolt 3 external graphics processor
#129Earlier quoted context omitted.
You are the 0.01%
No, I'm really not. In fact, the only reason this isn't done more often is because some OEMs defraud their customers by forcing obsolescense into their products, such as intentionally designing them to be very impractical if not impossible to do basic stuff such as cleaning air ducts or replacing a HD. If you asked any macbook pro owner if they were willing to spend money to double its RAM or HDD capacity I'm sure yo…
They're not forcing anything. You want an upgradeable laptop? Buy one. I'm sorry the fact that a lot of people like thin and light designs is to painful to you, but those people do have a choice.
Re: Blackmagic eGPU – Thunderbolt 3 external graphics processor
#130I like that it has four USB Type A ports. This would essentially take the place of a Thunderbolt 3 dock for me, which is already $200-$300. I'm considering getting one.
Let's say I plug a bunch of external HDDs on this dock, and I want unplug this all. Do I have to dismount them all one by one?
You can unmount it from OS X.