Sonnet crams Thunderbolt 3 eGPU into original Mac mini-sized enclosure with eGFX Breakaway...
Mac upgrade company Sonnet has released the eGFX Breakaway Puck, enabling multi-display capabilities in a portable enclosure for Thunderbolt 3 computers.
The eGFX Breakaway Puck comes in two models, one with a Radeon RX 560 similar to that in the high-end 15-inch 2017 MacBook Pro, and a second with the Radeon RX 570 as found in the high-end 20.5-inch 2017 4K iMac and one model of the 5K iMac. The enclosure provides three DisplayPort 1.4 ports, and one HDMI 2.0b port, all capable of 4K resolution at 60Hz.
The unit provides 45W of charging power to connected laptops through the Thunderbolt 3 port. While not sufficient to maintain full charge when a computer is under heavy load, the unit provides sufficient power to significantly reduce battery drain -- and will charge a connected computer fully given time when not in use.
The unit measures 6 inches wide, 5.12 inches long, and 2 inches tall. It weighs 3.2 pounds with the RX 560, and 4.3 pounds with the RX 570. A 0.5 meter Thunderbolt 3 cable is included in the package.
The Radeon Pro 560 has a peak performance of up to 1.9 teraflops, and has 16 compute units, and a memory bandwidth of 81 Gigabytes per second. The Radeon Pro 570 is faster at 3.6 teraflops, with 29 compute units, and 218 GB/S memory bandwidth. At present, it is not clear how much the Thunderbolt 3 interface will constrain performance versus a "native" chip, if noticeable at all.
A VESA mounting bracket is available, which secures the Puck to the back of a monitor or multiple display stand. A short DisplayPort cable is included with the VESA kit to assist with cable management.
Apple's compatibility with external GPUs is limited until the spring. The RX 570 works out of the box, with no software installation required, but the RX 560 requires a relatively simple hack to use -- for now.
AppleInsider will be examining the new eGPU offering in the weeks to come.
The eGFX Breakaway Puck Radeon RX 560 has a retail price of $449. The higher-end eGFX Breakaway Puck Radeon RX 570 retails for $599. The optional PuckCuff VESA Mounting Bracket Kit sells for $59. All models are immediately available.
The eGFX Breakaway Puck comes in two models, one with a Radeon RX 560 similar to that in the high-end 15-inch 2017 MacBook Pro, and a second with the Radeon RX 570 as found in the high-end 20.5-inch 2017 4K iMac and one model of the 5K iMac. The enclosure provides three DisplayPort 1.4 ports, and one HDMI 2.0b port, all capable of 4K resolution at 60Hz.
The unit provides 45W of charging power to connected laptops through the Thunderbolt 3 port. While not sufficient to maintain full charge when a computer is under heavy load, the unit provides sufficient power to significantly reduce battery drain -- and will charge a connected computer fully given time when not in use.
The unit measures 6 inches wide, 5.12 inches long, and 2 inches tall. It weighs 3.2 pounds with the RX 560, and 4.3 pounds with the RX 570. A 0.5 meter Thunderbolt 3 cable is included in the package.
The Radeon Pro 560 has a peak performance of up to 1.9 teraflops, and has 16 compute units, and a memory bandwidth of 81 Gigabytes per second. The Radeon Pro 570 is faster at 3.6 teraflops, with 29 compute units, and 218 GB/S memory bandwidth. At present, it is not clear how much the Thunderbolt 3 interface will constrain performance versus a "native" chip, if noticeable at all.
A VESA mounting bracket is available, which secures the Puck to the back of a monitor or multiple display stand. A short DisplayPort cable is included with the VESA kit to assist with cable management.
Apple's compatibility with external GPUs is limited until the spring. The RX 570 works out of the box, with no software installation required, but the RX 560 requires a relatively simple hack to use -- for now.
AppleInsider will be examining the new eGPU offering in the weeks to come.
The eGFX Breakaway Puck Radeon RX 560 has a retail price of $449. The higher-end eGFX Breakaway Puck Radeon RX 570 retails for $599. The optional PuckCuff VESA Mounting Bracket Kit sells for $59. All models are immediately available.
Comments
Thank you Sonnet!!!!!
But by and large the consumer PC market has died and that includes the Mac.
As much I love them - the segment *the only segment* that’s growing is pc gaming. Even MICROSOFT pumped actual power into thier console and while that’s great Apple is not into it.
I suppose theyre declining actual investment in that segment because these other companies have excellent workarounds now but I wager it’s got something to do with thier casual gaming profits... or because Macs run both Operating Systems - which is probably the smartest thing any computer maker has done in 10 years.
Now that they they can play GTA Online and Chatology/Pixelmator etc.
Im not just a one off. People love Macs but can’t afford two setups. An under 500$ box that turns a MacBook Air into a ROG or whatever should be illegal.
Thankfully it’s not.
Gaming is double the size of Hollywood and still no one cares.
So what's a used to do, wait for Apple to catch up?
One of the things I love about my MacBook Pro is that it's almost always dead silent. Even when it's working hard, the fan noise is barely noticeable because of the effort Apple puts into its exhaust systems to "shape" the noise to make it less objectionable to human ears. That kind of work involves some fairly sophisticated engineering and R&D -- and probably a fair amount of trial-and-error -- which is expensive. It also requires expertise in a discipline that falls outside what most tech companies likely have in-house.
Since "quiet" seems to be expensive to design and build, I get the feeling that any affordable outboard device is going to be noisy, and conversely, that quiet devices will be expensive. Is that accurate, or am I making a flawed assumption?
I wish this or something like it could work with Mac minis, especially since it's supposed to be of similar size. I think the latest (2014) mini only does TBolt 2.
Almost makes me want a NUCintosh or a FrankenNUC.
This thing costs as much as one of those shoebox-sized enclosures plus a modestly-specced desktop class GPU. I guess the idea is that people will pay more for portability, but who? Not graphics professionals. Probably not gamers. No bueno.
Using a more powerful graphics card adds heat, so the additional cooling requirements increase the weight and size of the computer. It also uses more power, requiring an even bigger and heavier computer to accommodate increased battery capacity. For some people those would be acceptable trade-offs. Others, including me, would prefer a more svelte, efficient daily driver to which I can attach a trailer when I need to do heavy hauling.
As people like @StrangeDays have pointed out in other discussions, computer design is a series of balancing acts, especially in a laptop. Every gain in one area has a downside in another. There's no way to please everyone, so the designer has to aim for the largest group. Thankfully improvements in Thunderbolt and the rise of external enclosures are making this less of an issue.
The 980ti in my Mantiz case is a hair quieter than a 5,1 Mac Pro under heavy load.
They are an inelegant "solution" to a computer that is poorly designed in the first place. If they were absolutely necessary then Apple would never have been able to sell a single MacBook of any kind. Since there are professionals who get by just fine without slots, you then have to ask the question why should everyone have 7 slots when most people need none?
Look at what people are using, or could use, and either build it in or find a future proof interconnect. The fact that you can hook up all these wonderful GPUs through a ThunderBolt 3 interface - which basically just moves the slot outside of the computer - now allows even a MacBook Pro to have access to the fastest crazy large GPUs. I suspect the market for that is small, which is why they aren't building ROG style laptops. Besides those who really want an ROG laptop are free to buy one.
- It's not nVidia (so sad)
- It's not as powerful as a GTX 1060 (the minimum requirement for VR)
- It's 2.6 times more expensive than the what the RX 570 typically sells for (at $229)
But at least you can buy it for a Mac in one convenient fourth-party, repackaged solution. So... that's nice.Then again, you could just buy any eGPU and stick whatever card you wanted (hello GTX Titan, you beautiful monster). And if you're a stickler for the $600 budget, you could just nab an eGPU with a built-in GTX 1070 for $569.99 today.
Which one do you have? One of the issues with the MBP (and laptops) has often been noise that gets picked up easily in recordings, podcasts, etc.
https://www.anandtech.com/show/12003/intel-to-create-new-8th-generation-cpus-with-amd-radeon-graphics-with-hbm2-using-emib
“It has been discussed if this is a play just for Apple, given that Apple was behind Intel implementing eDRAM on its Crystalwell processors, and the latest generation of Crystalwell parts seem to be in Apple iMacs almost exclusively.”
🤔