Apple and Blackmagic have teamed up to design a new external GPU (eGPU) called the Blackmagic eGPU that promises to bring desktop-class performance to the MacBook Pro line of professional notebooks.
External GPUs are not a new thing in the PC world. And it wasn’t until macOS 10.13.4 High Sierra that Apple brought official eGPU support. Apple has a support page that lists recommended enclosures, chassis and cards. They’re mostly AMD-based graphic cards. You’ll notice the absence of NVIDIA cards due to driver issues, but let’s hope NVIDIA and Apple can sort this out soon.
An eGPU has many key advantages. It will give your Mac/PC additional graphics performance for pro applications, 3D gaming, VR gaming, and more. It doesn’t just accelerate apps that use Metal, Open GL, Open CL, but also gives you the ability to connect more external monitors and displays, plug In VR headsets, and charge your MacBook Pro while using the eGPU. You can even connect more than one eGPU using multiple Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) ports on your Mac.
So, back to the Blackmagic eGPU. The sexy tower features a Radeon Pro 580 under the hood with 8GB of GDDR5 RAM, 256-bit memory bandwidth and 36 discreet compute units, good for 5.5 teraflops of processing power. It’s capable of filling a massive 38.4 billion textured pixels per second.
The eGPU connects via Thunderbolt 3 (40Gb/s), and it comes with four USB 3.1 ports and a HDMI 2.0 port. It has 85W of charging power (100V-240V) and is the first eGPU to support Thunderbolt 3 displays.
It uses a special cooling system that delivers quiet operation, as low as 18dB.
Blackmagic says, “It’s perfect for speeding up professional creative application workflows including editing, colour correction and visual effects with DaVinci Resolve.”
Looks-wise, the Blackmagic eGPU fits Apple’s design aesthetic – it’s extruded from a single piece of aluminium.
The Blackmagic eGPU is available exclusively from the Apple Store Online and Apple stores for USD699 (MYR2,824).
For more info, visit Blackmagic Design.
Source: PetaPixel
