macOS 10.13.4, released to the public yesterday afternoon, introduces official support for eGPUs (external graphics processors) on Thunderbolt 3 Macs. Alongside the release, Apple has published a detailed support document that outlines how eGPU support works and provides graphic card and chassis recommendations for use with your Mac.
External GPUs seem like an incredibly clunky solution to a problem I doubt many people actually have. If your workload relies heavily on GPU power, you’re probably not using Apple laptops anyway.
Well, no, because it wasn’t an option before. But, it is now.
The lack of GPU power has been the major knock against using laptops with docking stations instead of a desktop for many workloads. This is really cool. Here’s hoping hotplug support for eGPUs lands in Linux soon.
I don’t really game anymore, partially because the upsides of the macbook and using a portable computer have been so great.
I don’t think I’m alone; I reckon you’ll see a fair few macbook owners adding eGPUs for bootcamp gaming.
That said, there’s likely a much larger market for design professionals that need a portable device which can provide some extra oomph at their primary working location.
I wonder how well that will work. You hear how the graphics cards move closer to RAM/CPU to get more performance and then this is external? Isn’t that a big bottle neck?
To certain degree. AFAIK the transfer rate is lower than that of an internal bus on a computer, yet you will get far more graphics power than the integrated Intel solution.
In fact… it is not insane.
Usually, for any GPU application, you either want:
1. Very close CPU/GPU if they share RAM.
2. Lots of GPU memory if your GPU uses its own RAM.
(2) are typically the high end systems, as the higher end GPUs need a very performing memory subsystem. Any program that wants to exploit those high end GPUs is going to be optimized to minimize main<->GPU memory traffic. Note that is the “link” that is implemented via thunderbolt.
Numbers seem to point that the performance hit was not that huge (~5% to 10% if I recall properly) with Thunderbolt 3. The advantages of eGPU are many, at least for the way Apple conceives its products nowadays: they can create really integrated systems, compact form factor with all expandability done through thunderbolt. This way it may even leave the GPU enclosures and part of the support for the GPU companies themselves.
My bet is that the new mac pro, as well as the new mac mini, will be small form factor. The new mac pro having plenty of thunderbolt connectivity. The pro that wants a muscle GPU can go for its GPU enclosure of his choice. He may even pass on a mac pro and rely on a macbook pro connected to one of those eGPU. External enclosures have been a hassle, but the technology is there to remove much of the hassle as power and data uses a single cable now.
That’s the way I see it. Many people will complain. The solution won’t be cheap either, as it will rely on external enclosures. However:
– Apple can design “closed” computers with no need for a discrete GPU. If you need a discrete GPU, just go with an external solution. No need to care about external GPU power draw nor heat dissipation… that will be handled by the external enclosure.
– GPU makers can offer their own solutions for mac power users.
– It also makes for a very good solution for laptop users that could use an eGPU for “docked” work.
I also bet that future iterations of thunderbolt are going to reduce the performance gap.
If this means I can have a universal dock/enclosure, this would be godsend for never purchasing bulky or huge laptops. The one thing I would know is a deal breaker is the divergence of standards between vendors that would never make this happen.
I wish it would happen though. That would be the same for desktops. I would very much love to have a smaller one and not stress the MB on machines used for testing GPUs.
I know I’m probably in a minority, but I like having those options.
May be this sets the foundation for some sort of future MacBook / Mac Pro hybrid? A lightweight portable MacBook that can be transformed in a Mac Pro when back in the office.
Like the Powerbook Duo? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerBook_Duo You pressed a button on your “desktop” and out popped a laptop, like a floppy disk. When in desktop config you had more HD memory and better graphics. I had one back in the day. Incredible versatility!
Edited 2018-03-31 15:51 UTC
OMG, that’s incredible! I never knew Apple had made such a device. I’m surprised they haven’t tried to push docking stations since.
I do really like the idea of a powerful (i7, Ryzen) laptop that you plug into a single thunderbolt 3 cable to add a “real” graphics card, monitors, etc.
I have a Dell XPS with one of the thunderbolt 3 docks. Even the most basic USB shit doesn’t work reliably under Linux.
I also have an external Thunderbolt 2 PCI slot (filled with a low end Radeon HD 4xxx) and a Thunderbolt 3 -> Thunderbolt 2 adapter. I’ve actually gotten the GPU to work under linux after a cold boot… but hot-plugging is a mess.
Until this stuff “just works” in hardware, it’s going to be a mess and slow.