The main push Apple was showing during their Keynote was VR development and being able to use an eGPU as one example. Specifically showing an HTC Vive.
...and that's pretty surprising since Tim Cook just weeks ago seemed to be dismissing VR and embracing AR. Something apparently changed 'twixt February and now.
^_^ Nothing has changed. VR is only one of the many things enabled by eGPU.
In general, a powerful external GPU can: * Drive huge screens * Play games in high setting as long as companies like Valve and Epic port them properly * Train large deep learning models * Enable rendering of large and complex scenes, including VR, 360 and regular assets.
Apple has VR, AR and deep learning projects well underway. They all have different target users.
Specifically for VR, they seem to benefit content creators and core gamers, not the masses (yet ?). What's more interesting is indirectly, Apple has thrown their weight behind OpenVR/SteamVR. No doubt Vavle, Epic Games and Unity will help drive the VR library forward. I am sure Sony is happy with Apple's VR support too. PSVR is successful, but will gain even more recognition if Apple jump in too. Why ? VR is niche.
Now that Apple is formally recognizing eGPUs, I wondering what, if any, product Apple might release themselves. Before the MBP2016 release there were rumors of a new Apple Thunderbolt Display with integrated GPU. Could this be coming now later in year?
It would seem to be the obvious way to go. Pair a screen with GPU then free up the Internal GPU for "compute" processing closer to the CPU. So a new AppleDisplay to work with a MacBookPro would also be good for a MacPro where the screen could then be as far away as the length of Thunderbolt3 cable you're willing to pay for. Apple could then leave open the market for others to make compute eGPU's like the dev kit.
Applying the same logic if Apple do make VR googles then one Ax chip per eye linked to a Mac doing the heavy scene work. Add a couple of cameras in each eyepiece to use the vision tools in iOS11 to do position tracking based on surface recognition.
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A Mac Mini running one of these would be an intriguing option. Wouldn't be the mid-tower Mac I want, but it'd be getting closer.
Will this work on existing Mac Minis?
Any word of a Mac Mini refresh that would include Thunderbolt 3?
In general, a powerful external GPU can:
* Drive huge screens
* Play games in high setting as long as companies like Valve and Epic port them properly
* Train large deep learning models
* Enable rendering of large and complex scenes, including VR, 360 and regular assets.
Apple has VR, AR and deep learning projects well underway. They all have different target users.
Specifically for VR, they seem to benefit content creators and core gamers, not the masses (yet ?). What's more interesting is indirectly, Apple has thrown their weight behind OpenVR/SteamVR. No doubt Vavle, Epic Games and Unity will help drive the VR library forward. I am sure Sony is happy with Apple's VR support too. PSVR is successful, but will gain even more recognition if Apple jump in too. Why ? VR is niche.
Applying the same logic if Apple do make VR googles then one Ax chip per eye linked to a Mac doing the heavy scene work. Add a couple of cameras in each eyepiece to use the vision tools in iOS11 to do position tracking based on surface recognition.