nhughes

aka_JYeager said:

Your headline is mistaken.

Dell has had the UP3218K 8K monitor for sale for some time (Amazon, BHPhoto, etc.) that is 280 ppi. It uses DP connectors which should be available from the vast majority of graphics cards you would put into the eGPU.

280ppi, while impressive, is actually out of the range of how macOS is specifically designed. Check the chart included in the story (ideal Retina monitors are ~220ppi, while non-Retina are ~110ppi).

Also, I cannot find any evidence that the Dell 8K behemoth (which costs $5,000) is at all compatible with macOS or any Mac hardware. At the very least, you would need to occupy two Thunderbolt 3 ports, and convert them to mini DisplayPort, to be able to drive the monitor.

fishbert said:

So, the headline is basically "Desktop impresses with desktop-class graphics" ... am I missing something here?
That seems like a really low bar for being impressed with something.

Past iMacs had mobile GPUs, not desktop graphics.

xbit said:

digital_guy said:

Where is '3D Touch' on either, or rather any iPad model? How is there incentive for developers to accommodate its use? Why was it even introduced to begin with?

I'm absolutely in love with my new 12.9" iPad but I do miss using 3D Touch to move the cursor around text fields. 

You can use two fingers on the keyboard for this.

tycho_macuser said:

Lol.
Interesting the bizarre disparity of opinion...

I read this blurb on 9to5:
“The new iPad Pro, however, concedes nothing to price. It’s an all-in product that cuts no corners”

Buuuuut, on this site:

“with a $649 starting price, Apple cuts just a few too many corners for our liking”

I own one & love it (though, I’m straining to try to see the display differences that these reviewers call “obvious”).... so I was REALLY curious what corners they felt were cut- after reading like 30 paragraphs of praise, I finally came across the note that they thought Apple should’ve included the faster charger. 
Thats the “few too many corners” AI is talking about I guess.

sheesh..... talk about nit-picking!

You left out the parts where I note that the $650 entry price is $150 more than the new flagship iPad cost for years. Or where I say the $329 iPad offers more value to consumers (a product we rated higher at 4.5/5 stars). Or where I said that to get the most out of this iPad you would have to spend closer to $981. Or where I say that Smart Connector support is lacking and Apple should push third parties to create more options, since only Logitech is making devices for it. 

4 out of 5 is an excellent score for an excellent product. But there are clear, simple ways Apple could improve the product without the need for a theoretical A11X chip or 16MP camera or iOS 12. Hence the score, and the comment about cut corners. 

StrangeDays said:

lorin schultz said:

StrangeDays said:
[...] Not sure where the second monitor expectation is coming from?

Perhaps you didn't read the article. This device does not pass signal back to the Mac, only to an separate monitor.

Perhaps I did read the article but it wasn't clear that you can only output it to an external monitor.

Ever since Thunderbolt was announced people have been posting how cool it would be if you could plug an external GPU into your laptop or AIO and leverage a new powerful GPU for gaming sessions. I thought that's what this thing was for. 

From the article:

"Don't loop back the video to a MacBook Pro's display with hacks you find, because that's about another 50 percent, in addition to the overhead from Thunderbolt."

So with Thunderbolt 3, you'll lose about 60 percent of the processing power of the external GPU if you hack it to loop back to a MacBook Pro internal display (or an iMac internal display). Hence my comment about the iMac needing a second screen with lower PPI next to it to fully take advantage of this.

My point still stands: Unless you're developing or playing VR on an iMac, the best  and most likely use case for an eGPU (with Apple's current method in High Sierra) is actually docking your MacBook Pro and using an external monitor.

Here's where things get really frustrating: The highest PPI mass-market external displays you can currently buy? LG's UltraFine 4K and 5K displays... which don't work with eGPUs because they only accept USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 input. This will get better once there are better and more ultra-high-resolution displays on the market which accept mini DisplayPort input, and I have to believe they are coming at some point. Until then, you'll have to settle for a separate screen that has a lower pixel density than your MacBook Pro or iMac display, and that seems like a major step backwards for such a significant investment.

But hey, it's all in beta. Give it time. Apple isn't launching this feature publicly until 2018.