Blackmagic eGPU – Thunderbolt 3 external graphics processor • Hacker News Board

Re: Blackmagic eGPU – Thunderbolt 3 external graphics processor

#211

Post by pensatoio » Fri, Jul 13, 2018, 4:23 PM UTC

1_player wrote: post #140

jonbaer wrote: post #5

Does anyone here currently run a eGPU on their MacBook Pro and can share their experience (including what card you are using)?

Akitio Node + Apple TB2->3 dongle + GTX 1080 + external LG 4K monitor on a rMBP 15" 2015, used only w/ Bootcamp. 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…

Great info, thank you! Glad to see there's a sub for this too. I'm about to try the same setup.

If it performs well enough, I might just do away with owning a gaming desktop entirely.

Have you tried GSync with your setup?

Re: Blackmagic eGPU – Thunderbolt 3 external graphics processor

#212

Post by fcarraldo » Fri, Jul 13, 2018, 4:29 PM UTC

saagarjha wrote: post #102

rvanmil wrote: post #93

Pardon my ignorance, but do I need an external monitor to use this, or can I just plug this into my MacBook Pro and have improved graphics performance on the built-in display?

It works without an external display as well.

This is false. You can hack support for internal display acceleration, but it requires using a "Phantom" display dongle adapter and results in significantly worse performance because of the limited bandwidth available.

Re: Blackmagic eGPU – Thunderbolt 3 external graphics processor

#213

Post by dsl » Fri, Jul 13, 2018, 4:30 PM UTC

Slartie wrote: post #80

I'm wondering why they didn't include a 10Gbps Ethernet port into this thing. They advertise it to professional graphics and video artists - don't these groups usually have to move around quite a lot of huge 3D data, image and video files? It seems hard to imagine those people to either place all of that stuff exclusively on their new 8k$ MacBookPros with 4TB of SSD space (because even 4TB quickly runs out in that pr…

Under heavy load eGPU completely saturates the PCIe bandwidth. Razer couldn't even get a USB mouse to not lag in their first eGPU product.

Re: Blackmagic eGPU – Thunderbolt 3 external graphics processor

#214

Post by dsl » Fri, Jul 13, 2018, 4:32 PM UTC

ant6n wrote: post #109

torstenvl wrote: post #16

I 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?

The Elgato Thunderbolt Dock comes with a software utility that gives you a "Disconnect Dock" menu bar option, which unmounts and unloads everything in one click.

Re: Blackmagic eGPU – Thunderbolt 3 external graphics processor

#215

Post by anentropic » Fri, Jul 13, 2018, 4:33 PM UTC

whichdan wrote: post #8

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…

"the design has been optimized for quiet operation"

this is important to me, glad to hear it!

Re: Blackmagic eGPU – Thunderbolt 3 external graphics processor

#216

Post by 1996 » Fri, Jul 13, 2018, 4:34 PM UTC

cududa wrote: post #203

awalton wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'd bet 99.9% of people buying PC Laptops never upgrade a single chip... Some huge percentage of that is because many if not most laptops shipping today have wired everything down. You can't even update the Wifi chip in most laptops today, even though the whole reason we put Wifi on a daughtercard in the first place is because we knew the standards were going to have to move... Meanwhile, I'm typing this from a fiv…

You are the first person I've ever heard complain about not being able to upgrade the wifi in their laptop.

Make it 2 then. I want a good chipset with good drivers, that does not crash or has bad performance for weird reasons.

Until last year, I physically removed the default cards in any of my laptops to put a "known good"" Dell ath9k in place. I bought them in bulk, and I may still have some spares

i am now investigsting "modern" alternatives

Re: Blackmagic eGPU – Thunderbolt 3 external graphics processor

#217

Post by everyone » Fri, Jul 13, 2018, 4:34 PM UTC

This is quite amusing. In order to make your sleek macbook suffice for the purposes or real work.. You need to hook up this massive brick.

Re: Blackmagic eGPU – Thunderbolt 3 external graphics processor

#218

Post by d35007 » Fri, Jul 13, 2018, 4:37 PM UTC

everyone wrote: post #217

This is quite amusing. In order to make your sleek macbook suffice for the purposes or real work.. You need to hook up this massive brick.

Oh look, the trolls came out to play

Re: Blackmagic eGPU – Thunderbolt 3 external graphics processor

#219

Post by everyone » Fri, Jul 13, 2018, 4:45 PM UTC

anentropic wrote: post #215

whichdan wrote: post #8

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…

"the design has been optimized for quiet operation" this is important to me, glad to hear it!

I dont get really this.. I have a stock air-cooled asus GTX 970, and for almost all use cases on my PC it is completely silent. The fans only turn on when the card temp goes over a certain value. The only thing that causes this is a modern taxing AAA type game (eg. The witcher 3). And when I'm playing a game like that Ive got my headphones on.

I can be running Unity, visual studio, adobe premier, illustrator, photoshop, discord, trello, github + a million browser tabs and whatnot and it maketh not a peep.

So, unless ure AAA gaming an average of the shelf GPU these days is passively cooled already.

Re: Blackmagic eGPU – Thunderbolt 3 external graphics processor

#220

Post by turtlebits » Fri, Jul 13, 2018, 4:47 PM UTC

awalton wrote: post #71

dmix wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd bet 99.9% of people buying PC Laptops never upgrade a single chip... Apple's non-pro lines are likely not much different. Apple largely sacrificed that ability (in a few product lines) in favour of creating some of the thinnest laptops available. I don't remember them ever doing that before Macbook Air, for now reason. That said, in this case, I don't see what is being gained by not making the GPU swappable or at…

> I'd bet 99.9% of people buying PC Laptops never upgrade a single chip... Some huge percentage of that is because many if not most laptops shipping today have wired everything down. You can't even update the Wifi chip in most laptops today, even though the whole reason we put Wifi on a daughtercard in the first place is because we knew the standards were going to have to move... Meanwhile, I'm typing this from a fiv…

There's a tradeoff of laptop size/weight and expandability. The market builds what most consumers want, which is aesthetics.