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

Re: Blackmagic eGPU – Thunderbolt 3 external graphics processor

#81

Post by Tehnix » Fri, Jul 13, 2018, 7:28 AM UTC

firecall wrote: post #54

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…

Indeed - exactly. And it's wasteful - once the GPU is out of date you have to dispose of a perfectly good TB3 enclosure. Another anti-consumer decision made under the auspices of design and practicality that consumers want. I cant imagine a single customer has ever asked for a non-upgradable eGPU.

No, they asked for a quiet one.

Re: Blackmagic eGPU – Thunderbolt 3 external graphics processor

#82

Post by garmaine » Fri, Jul 13, 2018, 7:29 AM UTC

neya wrote: post #60

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…

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…

Razed has a $300 alternative that is explicitly supported by the Apple ecosystem.

Re: Blackmagic eGPU – Thunderbolt 3 external graphics processor

#83

Post by rajnp » Fri, Jul 13, 2018, 7:35 AM UTC

mikeyouse wrote: post #56

angott wrote: post #39

Earlier 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.

Ha, I just did that this week. I have a late 2011 MBP and I noticed it was dragging a bit so I upgraded it from 8gb ram to 16gb and bought a 500gb SSD to replace the factory HDD. The next day I decided I wanted more space for my pictures so I bought the little enclosure and swapped out my CDROM and just reused the factory 1TB HDD. Like $220 later and it feels like a brand new machine.

Did the same thing for my 2012 MBP.

Re: Blackmagic eGPU – Thunderbolt 3 external graphics processor

#84

Post by chrischen » Fri, Jul 13, 2018, 7:38 AM UTC

See also the Gigabyte Aorus GTX 1080 Gaming Box: https://amzn.to/2maZl0a. It's the same price and not only way more powerful than a Radeon 580 but also the size of the eGPU is way smaller.

Re: Blackmagic eGPU – Thunderbolt 3 external graphics processor

#85

Post by mch82 » Fri, Jul 13, 2018, 7:39 AM UTC

mikeyouse wrote: post #56

angott wrote: post #39

Earlier 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.

Ha, I just did that this week. I have a late 2011 MBP and I noticed it was dragging a bit so I upgraded it from 8gb ram to 16gb and bought a 500gb SSD to replace the factory HDD. The next day I decided I wanted more space for my pictures so I bought the little enclosure and swapped out my CDROM and just reused the factory 1TB HDD. Like $220 later and it feels like a brand new machine.

Any chance you've got a link to reliable instructions?

Re: Blackmagic eGPU – Thunderbolt 3 external graphics processor

#86

Post by bfred_it » Fri, Jul 13, 2018, 7:39 AM 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…

Two reasons: they have 40 Gbps thunderbolts and they love dongles.

Re: Blackmagic eGPU – Thunderbolt 3 external graphics processor

#87

Post by __david__ » Fri, Jul 13, 2018, 7:39 AM UTC

hit8run wrote: post #76

forrestthewoods wrote: post #67

How much latency does it add?

Yeah, would this be feasible for first person shooters where every millisecond counts?

If this added even a single millisecond I'd be extremely surprised. I can guarantee any latency this adds is imperceptible.

Re: Blackmagic eGPU – Thunderbolt 3 external graphics processor

#88

Post by growt » Fri, Jul 13, 2018, 7:42 AM UTC

neya wrote: post #60

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…

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…

Here is an overview I think is helpful [1]. The sonnet eGPU-case looks like its the best value for the price. And the gigabyte box on #1 maybe if you like to buy the GPU with the box.

[1] https://egpu.io/external-gpu-buyers-guide-2018/

Re: Blackmagic eGPU – Thunderbolt 3 external graphics processor

#89

Post by Angostura » Fri, Jul 13, 2018, 7:47 AM UTC

I'm understand why the page is so obsessed with DaVinci Resolve, but does anyone have any insight on how this would work with After Effects or Premier Pro?

Re: Blackmagic eGPU – Thunderbolt 3 external graphics processor

#90

Post by stfwn » Fri, Jul 13, 2018, 7:53 AM UTC

Apple disabled eGPU support for Thunderbolt 1 and 2 with macOS 10.13.4 [0]. Of course someone wrote a nifty script to unblock it and enable support for Nvidia GPU's while at it [1], but it's too bad a great upgrade path from slightly older MBP's (up to 2015) is not officially supported.

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

[1]: https://egpu.io/forums/mac-setup/script-enable-egpu-on-tb1-2...