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Blackmagic eGPU – Thunderbolt 3 external graphics processor

blackmagicdesign.com

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Re: Blackmagic eGPU – Thunderbolt 3 external graphics processor

#261

Post by pimeys »

sixothree wrote: post #206
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…

HP laptops are a huge exception to this rule. We commonly upgrade RAM and drives on our laptops. One of the elitebooks I saw recently doesn't even need a screwdriver to open the laptop.

Same with the Lenovo T-series. You can upgrade both batteries, both RAM chips, the LTE (or additionally a second SSD here), hard disk, wifi, until a cople a years ago the CPU, the monitor, keyboard, touchpad etc. All parts are available from Lenovo.

I guess the business Dells are the same?

Re: Blackmagic eGPU – Thunderbolt 3 external graphics processor

#262

Post by ctvo »

closetohome wrote: post #253
ctvo wrote: post #151

- Radeon Pro 580 - 300 USD - USB Hub / Thunderbolt 3 Hub - 100 USD - eGPU - 300 USD (Akitio Node, others) It's reasonably priced given the components. If it only had upgradability, it'd be very nice, but it's not a dealbreaker.

If you ever see a Thunderbolt 3 hub for $100 let me know!

You're right. It's a large distinction. I was thinking of USB-C hub (this one specifically: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hypershop/hyperdrive-us...) and it only supports 5Gb/s vs. 40Gb/s

Re: Blackmagic eGPU – Thunderbolt 3 external graphics processor

#263

Post by craftyguy »

pimeys wrote: post #261
sixothree wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HP laptops are a huge exception to this rule. We commonly upgrade RAM and drives on our laptops. One of the elitebooks I saw recently doesn't even need a screwdriver to open the laptop.

Same with the Lenovo T-series. You can upgrade both batteries, both RAM chips, the LTE (or additionally a second SSD here), hard disk, wifi, until a cople a years ago the CPU, the monitor, keyboard, touchpad etc. All parts are available from Lenovo. I guess the business Dells are the same?

Lenovo x230 checking in here. I've upgraded/replaced: battery, RAM, display panel, wifi, ssd (both in mSATA and SATA slots), keyboard (x220 keyboards FTW), BIOS (coreboot). The only thing I haven't replaced is the motherboard/CPU, because it doesn't seem worth the effort, even though it's technically possible.

Re: Blackmagic eGPU – Thunderbolt 3 external graphics processor

#264

Post by coldtea »

cosmojg wrote: post #12
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…

> $699 and no ability to upgrade Sounds like a perfect fit for the Apple ecosystem.

>Sounds like a perfect fit for the Apple ecosystem.

I've read statistics that most users, business or not, don't update anything, even when the hardware gives them the opportunity.

For businesses it doesn't even make much sense to update: they can just lease or buy new computers and have them as a tax writeoff.

As for most people, they just buy a new PC every 5-6 years (can be 10 years for the less interested in tech), and that's it.

It's a small niche of tinkerers and "power users" (actually power tinkerers -- there are users that do much more important stuff with the computers than them that still don't tinker at all) that ever does upgrade stuff.

Of course that's includes many people in our tech bubble, but you'd be surprised how many programmers don't care for upgrading and tinkering, and just buy a new laptop every so often.

As a programmer myself (CS degree and everything) I know I hate tinkering with hardware with a passion, but I know lots of others that do too. Of course I also know many dev friends and colleagues that do like building custom rigs.

Re: Blackmagic eGPU – Thunderbolt 3 external graphics processor

#265

Post by talldan »

dharma1 wrote: post #161
1_player wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

excellent info, thank you. So the Akitio node works ok with GTX 1080/ti? You mention you only use with bootcamp - but do you know if the MacOS drivers Nvidia provides work ok?

My understanding is that since High Sierra, Mac OS supports eGPUs natively, but only with AMD GPUs and only using thunderbolt 3:

https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT208544

There are some hacks to get other configurations working:

https://egpu.io/external-gpu-macos-10-13-4-update/

Re: Blackmagic eGPU – Thunderbolt 3 external graphics processor

#266

Post by gtm1260 »

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.

You should wait and see what the performance/reliability of these are. In almost every case, the GPU completley uses up the Thunderbolt 3 bandwidth, causing lag / reduced performance of the GPU and peripherals.

Re: Blackmagic eGPU – Thunderbolt 3 external graphics processor

#267

Post by talldan »

EGPUs sounds great on paper. A graphics card that I can use easily with either my macbook or windows desktop. I really think that could be an exciting way to prolong the life of old hardware or to get decent gaming performance out of non-gaming hardware.

At the moment, unless you're Windows only, the reality is a bit rougher. Although there are some pretty compelling enclosures out there (Node Pro, Mantiz Venus, Sonnet Breakaway), with Apple not supporting Nvidia (the only GPUs worth getting at the top-end) it's probably not worth it. Sure you can get it working with some hacks, but I personally wouldn't want to spend that much money to be reliant on 3rd party scripts.

Eventually the picture may change, AMD might release a competitive GPU, or the support on MacOS might open up. As soon as the software support is there I think this becomes a really compelling idea and it'll only become more so as the years go by and thunderbolt 3 becomes more widespread.

Re: Blackmagic eGPU – Thunderbolt 3 external graphics processor

#268

Post by justinator »

sangnoir wrote: post #236
cududa wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I have an 8-year-old laptop. I'd love to upgrade the wifi to something that can connect to 5GHz APs.

They do make usb wifi dongles.

Re: Blackmagic eGPU – Thunderbolt 3 external graphics processor

#270

Post by ajoy39 »

1996 wrote: post #216
cududa wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Make it three, mostly because the wifi card in my laptop was a nightmare to get working in linux
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