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Using "Apple's" is still extremely misleading, and I'm pretty certain Apple's lawyers would not approve.
Apple worked with them on it. That being said, I think calling it "Apple"'s GPU is quite misleading.
I'm not really interested in dropping thousands of euros on the latest gaming hardware. I'm not in the pointlessly blinking leds equipped PC market. And I'm done building my own PC after having to replace the power supply in my last effort three times.
I do tend to have up to date mac hw. For me the whole point of that is buying one and then using it for 4-6 years. I actually have the MBP 15" from last year with 16GB. It's not great for gaming though. My four year old imac 5k still gets better framerates in things like x-plane. Both have the issue that they run quite hot when doing anything 3D and cpu intensive. My imac needs to emulate a vacuum cleaner just to keep it from throttling cpu and gpu.
My imac 5k is coming up for replacement somewhere in the next two years. I'm probably going to drop around 3-4K on whatever replaces it. I'd totally consider something with an external GPU. I actually like the form factor but would spend money on an external GPU for casual gaming and VR.
I'd prefer something that focuses on just cpu/memory/ssd and then plug in storage and gpu via some cables. So, this is going the right way.
Apple should focus the next mac pro around this concept. They tried with the previous one but then messed up by soldering the GPU in, which turned out a deal breaker since the whole point of mac pros is 3d graphics. So, simply ship something with plenty of ports and CPU sockets and sell GPU, Storage, screens, etc. separately. CPUs are barely evolving anyway. I got about a 35% build speed improvement by replacing a late 2011 MBP with a late 2017 one. Both were quad core i7s. Seriously underwhelming. And yes, I max out 4 cores with my builds.
From 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…
No ability to upgrade? Sounds very familiar for every Apple user out there.
An Nvidia GPU with CUDA would've been nice...
But if you're thinking about scientific programming, it's not so much effort to use AWS GPUs. I do that, and don't think I would buy an eGPU even if it was CUDA capable.
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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…
Based on what I've seen from non-technical friends and family, the standard approach to laptops is to buy a $300 netbook, fill it with crappy browser extensions and malware over a few years, complain that the computer is "too old and slow", throw it out and buy a new one.
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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…
If you upgrade the CPU, you usually have to upgrade the motherboard. That's about it.
How does a Radeon Pro 580 compare to an Nvidia 1070 or 1080?
That's how you can think about Apple and their Metal architecture, they're basically doing the same thing like nvidia, but kind of decouple it from the GPU vendor. They simply go with AMD hardware because it gives them more bang for the buck (they don't need the optimizations because they do it themselves and pass it down to their customers).
For work in the real world creative industries, like CAD or graphic design, many rely on Adobe or Autodesk products, and that's a nvidia stronghold, most Adobe and Autodesk apps are optimized for nvidia cards.
Gaming is coupled with the CAD/VFX ecosystem, and nvidia historically just have a stronger relationship with game studios and VFX companies, that's why game studios and devs tend to optimize for them first.
Does anyone here currently run a eGPU on their MacBook Pro and can share their experience (including what card you are using)?
Works pretty well, and my latest addition is a DisplayPort switch to use the iGPU directly with the monitor (when I'm in macOS) or the external GPU (when I'm in Bootcamp). Performance is great, around ~95% of desktop GPU I'd say.
The only issue is that it needs a particular boot sequence to enable it, when switching from macOS to Windows with the GPU enabled: reboot from macOS, turn on the GPU, the default partition is Windows so Windows will boot with the GPU enabled.
To reboot from Windows to macOS, disabling the GPU: reboot from Windows, hold Option at boot to show the boot menu, then turn off the GPU and boot into macOS.
Not that bad once you get used to it, and having a desktop GPU on my laptop makes it all worth it.
My post on /r/eGPU: https://www.reddit.com/r/eGPU/comments/77e86g/success_macboo...