Blackmagic Design Releases $699 eGPU for New MacBook Pros

[Guest]

Blackmagic Design released a new Radeon Pro 580-equipped external GPU to accompany Apple's updated MacBook Pros.

Blackmagic Design Releases $699 eGPU for New MacBook Pros : Read more

 

[dextermat]

One more dongle. Thanks!

 

[zodiacfml]

Quite surprising. Blackmagic is a Pro camera manufacturer, focusing on video.
I don't see why a Macbook would need a more powerful discrete GPU for video work.

 

[redgarl]

Phhhh... 700$ for a RX580.... I guess that Apple users really do pay the stupid tax.

 

[velocityg4]

Quite surprising. Blackmagic is a Pro camera manufacturer, focusing on video.
I don't see why a Macbook would need a more powerful discrete GPU for video work.

I believe Apple has a lot of GPU integration in Final Cut and other apps via Metal 2.

 

[toadhammer]

2 thunderbolt ports is a pleasant surprise, and usually hard to find.

 

[Ken Snyder]

But correct me if i'm wrong but 2 is not enough is it? I mean 2 really means 1. One to connect it to your computer and one to do something else. It's basically just a passthrough. Also wondering for those of us driving 3 monitors (built-in and two external), is there no benefit to both monitors being plugged into the eGPU? Maybe that's not important but I'd have thought it would help.

 

[g-unit1111]

Phhhh... 700$ for a RX580.... I guess that Apple users really do pay the stupid tax.

That's actually an RX580 Pro (not sure what the difference is), although yeah that does seem quite a bit steep for that.

 

[JonDol]

There are better eGPUs out there that come with a more powerful PSU, not necessarily bundled with a graphic card (which also means easy upgrade) and are not limited to one product only as the MacBookss here.

 

[Stephen_144]

Why not add an HDMI 2.1 compatible controller chip? This type of device can remain in operation for several laptops and desktops thus has a longer lifespan. In ~6months everything but HDMI 2.1 will be blah.

 

[genz]

Quite surprising. Blackmagic is a Pro camera manufacturer, focusing on video.
I don't see why a Macbook would need a more powerful discrete GPU for video work.

Because frankly, it's GPU performance is abysmal in 2018. Have you ever even contemplated how it would be to use Blackmagic RAW 4K footage on even a maxed out MBP?

This is for the CUDA and openCL compute. I wouldn't be surprised if it was a headless unit with no Video outs, really.

 

[genz]

But correct me if i'm wrong but 2 is not enough is it? I mean 2 really means 1. One to connect it to your computer and one to do something else. It's basically just a passthrough. Also wondering for those of us driving 3 monitors (built-in and two external), is there no benefit to both monitors being plugged into the eGPU? Maybe that's not important but I'd have thought it would help.

Thunderbolt is an Apple Intel joint venture. Whenever anyone else uses one, they must pay Apple-Intel around $30 per socket. Apple intended it to be used like FW and everyone have two to daisy-chain, as the technology is noticeably slower when split, than chained.

 

[genz]

But correct me if i'm wrong but 2 is not enough is it? I mean 2 really means 1. One to connect it to your computer and one to do something else. It's basically just a passthrough. Also wondering for those of us driving 3 monitors (built-in and two external), is there no benefit to both monitors being plugged into the eGPU? Maybe that's not important but I'd have thought it would help.

Thunderbolt is an Apple Intel joint venture. Whenever anyone else uses one, they must pay Apple-Intel around $30 per socket. Apple intended it to be used like FW and everyone have two to daisy-chain, as the technology is noticeably slower when split, than chained.

 

[toadhammer]

But correct me if i'm wrong but 2 is not enough is it? I mean 2 really means 1. One to connect it to your computer and one to do something else. It's basically just a passthrough. Also wondering for those of us driving 3 monitors (built-in and two external), is there no benefit to both monitors being plugged into the eGPU? Maybe that's not important but I'd have thought it would help.

I think nothing exists with 3. However, there are things out there, including monitors, that have 2 for chaining. This egpu at least gives you the ability to connect a single cable to your MBP, and have monitors/keyboard/charger all hanging off the egpu like a magical dock. You can connect 2 monitors direct (TB + HDMI) and I suspect chain a 3rd off the 1st.

-edit- Word is the spec doesn't allow 3. Like Ghostbusters, don't cross two streams

 

[cia1413]

"Quite surprising. Blackmagic is a Pro camera manufacturer, focusing on video.
I don't see why a Macbook would need a more powerful discrete GPU for video work."

Blackmagic is a suppler of many devices that are a part of video production. One of the big things they sell is a program called resolve that is used for color correction and transcoding.

GPU power is very important for transcoding and anything that increases it can be huge when you are transcoding 4k footage on set.

PS their cameras suck.

 

[JonDol]

But correct me if i'm wrong but 2 is not enough is it? I mean 2 really means 1. One to connect it to your computer and one to do something else. It's basically just a passthrough. Also wondering for those of us driving 3 monitors (built-in and two external), is there no benefit to both monitors being plugged into the eGPU? Maybe that's not important but I'd have thought it would help.

Thunderbolt is an Apple Intel joint venture. Whenever anyone else uses one, they must pay Apple-Intel around $30 per socket. Apple intended it to be used like FW and everyone have two to daisy-chain, as the technology is noticeably slower when split, than chained.

As far as I remember, a few weeks after the USB 3.2 specs were released they announced the TB would no longer require licence fees...

 

[genz]

But correct me if i'm wrong but 2 is not enough is it? I mean 2 really means 1. One to connect it to your computer and one to do something else. It's basically just a passthrough. Also wondering for those of us driving 3 monitors (built-in and two external), is there no benefit to both monitors being plugged into the eGPU? Maybe that's not important but I'd have thought it would help.

Thunderbolt is an Apple Intel joint venture. Whenever anyone else uses one, they must pay Apple-Intel around $30 per socket. Apple intended it to be used like FW and everyone have two to daisy-chain, as the technology is noticeably slower when split, than chained.

As far as I remember, a few weeks after the USB 3.2 specs were released they announced the TB would no longer require licence fees...

This is a bit misleading alone. The 3.2 style, USB-C looking ports are royalty free, probably as much due to the fact that 3.2 is basically TB3 = USB-C 3.1 x4 mode, and easy to implement due to the change in port. This is, by design admission of defeat in a way, as it would be as if Betamax's final solution was to only make Betamax/VHS combo units that were incompatible with prior Betamax without add-ons, then placing the cost of add-on high and making the base unit cheap, although they switched to being a USB modder in a sense.

The TB2 ports are different and still require licensing. They are the ones that benefit from the daisy-chaining.

The MiniDisplayPort standard is free too, but TB and TB2 specifically still require Apple-Intel fees, and that naturally means the adapter to TB2 does too, hence it's steep prices everywhere. Oh, and the actual device, naturally.

Apple is driving the strategy to isolate the device. No license fees will ultimately mean more devices opt for TB3 over TB2 or now equally priced USB-C, and the thickness drive will mean no space for other options. The large majority of those devices will be USB-C due to USB market dominance. Every dongle will have a price associated with its relative speed. This suddenly makes TB2 support much more widespread for the current products on sale, and probably not worth the cost of a redesign to fit USB-C/TB3 alone until full refresh, if at all. When they have the (license fee paid) device, then Apple sell the cheapest dongle but still 50 over a USB-C to USB. Wise chess moves.

I expect TB4 to come with a 250W TDP and support for direct GPU interface over the cable. Could mean the appearance of PCI-E-less GPUs that run off the wire.