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Apple Partnered With Blackmagic On An External GPU For MacBooks (techcrunch.com)
Apple has worked with cinema company Blackmagic on an external GPU based around an AMD Radeon Pro 580 graphics card with 8GB of DDR5 RAM. The Blackmagic eGPU features "an HDMI port, four USB 3.1s and three Thunderbolt 3s, the latter of which makes it unique among these peripherals," reports TechCrunch. From the report: The company says the on-board cooling system operates pretty quietly, which should fit nicely alongside those new, quieter MacBook keyboards. Many developers will no doubt prefer to configure their own, but for those who want an easier solution for playing resource-intensive games or graphics rendering on with a MacBook, this is a fairly simple solution. The [$699] eGPU is available now through Apple's retail channels.
for playing resource-intensive games or graphics rendering on with a MacBook, this is a fairly simple solution
The simple solution is to just use cloud based GPUs.
sudo rm -r -f --no-preserve-root /
Blackmagic makes hardware for video editing. I guess Apple is trying to keep FCP X relevant even while they hobble their actual hardware. This seems to be proof that the Mac Pro really is going to get killed off in favor of a laptop/all-in-one with an eGPU.
Why would you not?
Some Macs (iMac Pro) have powerful video cards now. And having one computer beats having to own and maintain two...
Beyond that, I was scarred for life trying to keep a gaming PC running Windows operational for many years. A possible slight drop in performance is worth it for my sanity.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Because my work is done on a mac, so I have a macbook. It dual boots windows, and has a GTX 1080 in an EGPU. Works great for regular games and VR. It's a nice looking setup too. Only one wire into the macbook.
Serious question. I do a lot of dev on a Mac but my personal gaming rig is still a PC with a high-end internal video card (in a separate room to cut down fan noise, etc.).
Other more basic question: If you're going to buy that thing then then why not buy a console instead? For less money.
Bonus: You'll have a much wider selection of games to play, too.
No sig today...
USB in its current form cannot be used efficiently for this. There is no provision for DMA between the connected devices and the host system, among other issues. Also, the PCIe 3.0 x4 of a thunderbolt 3 port should yield something like 40gbit/s transfers, which is faster than any USB specification (implemented or not) to date.
There is no XUL, only WebExtensions...
Blackmagic makes hardware for video editing. I guess Apple is trying to keep FCP X relevant even while they hobble their actual hardware. This seems to be proof that the Mac Pro really is going to get killed off in favor of a laptop/all-in-one with an eGPU.
Or that eGPU is part of the "Modular" approach for the new Mac Pro hinted-at by Uncle Craig.