Apple Unveils External GPU Enclosure Kit for Developers

In a significant move to boost performance on Thunderbolt 3 supporting Macs, Apple has unveiled an external GPU enclosure kit specifically designed for developers. The kit, codenamed "PUK," consists of various components including an RX 580 video card from Sapphire, an e.gFX Breakaway Box 350, a Belkin USB C 2.4 port USB hub, and a promo code worth $400 towards the purchase of an HTC Vive VR headset.

The RX 580 card is a reference design model from Sapphire, which boasts approximately six teraflops of raw computing power. This translates to about triple the processing power of the discrete GPUs found in the latest MacBook Pros released in 2016 and 2017. The e.gFX Breakaway Box 350 serves as a compact enclosure that houses the RX 580 card, allowing for seamless integration with Thunderbolt 3 supported Macs.

The kit's charging capabilities have been tested on a 15-inch MacBook Pro, where it managed to keep the device from draining even under full load and allowed for slow charging in lighter loads. However, this feature is only available within the developer beta version of the e.gFX enclosure. The retail version, priced at $299, provides significantly less power with just 15 watts, necessitating the use of another power source or waiting for the more expensive Sonnet 550 model that will be released in late September, offering a full 87 watts of charging capability.

In comparison to other tested enclosures, the Sonnet e.gFX Breakaway Box 350 results in lower noise levels. The fully stressed enclosure recorded sound levels at 51 decibels from 3 feet away from the case and 40 decibels when idle. For context, a 2016 MacBook Pro under full load emits about 36 decibels, while running idle, it produces approximately 31 decibels without resorting to third-party hacks.

The availability of an external GPU enclosure like this is crucial for developers aiming to create more resource-intensive applications or games that can harness the power of Thunderbolt 3 equipped Macs. However, there are certain limitations and restrictions associated with using these external GPUs in conjunction with Apple's latest operating system, High Sierra. One major limitation is the lack of support for clamshell mode, an additional hurdle facing users in terms of accessing HDMI audio on their machines.

Furthermore, the e.gFX Breakaway Box 350 does not currently support AMD cards like the RX 580 or NVIDIA's offerings within the Sierra environment due to compatibility issues stemming from a feature called "Metal 2" which enables developers to integrate GPU-specific features into their applications. As Apple continues to work on refining its Metal API, developers will be able to integrate this kind of technology more seamlessly.

The advent of Thunderbolt 3 brings another challenge: power transmission rates decrease as the distance between the external device and the connected computer increases. Specifically, any card plugged via an older Apple Thunderbolt 2 adapter will experience a reduction in performance by about 20%, while connecting to an even older Thunderbolt 1 Mac results in nearly a 50% loss of maximum GPU power.

For developers working on demanding applications or video editing software like DaVinci Resolve, the performance boost provided by this external GPU kit is substantial. Testing on a high-end 2017 MacBook Pro with a Ryzen Threadripper processor and the e.gFX Breakaway Box 350 revealed impressive results: in the OpenCL test, the RX 580-equipped system scored approximately 120.2478 points, which is almost three times faster than the internal GPU found within the same machine.

Additionally, when running this high-end system with a monitor connected via Thunderbolt 3, it outperformed the latest MacBook Pro released in 2017 and equipped with an Radeon Pro 580 GPU, scoring around 117.000 points, showcasing the substantial potential of these external GPUs for users looking to squeeze every bit of performance out of their systems.

In DaVinci Resolve's "4K 16:9" test, running a demanding 20-second project in four 4K resolutions simultaneously, the e.gFX Breakaway Box 350-powered system delivered a significant boost in speed. This test resulted in an improvement of approximately 69% when compared to using internal graphics alone and a 27% increase in efficiency even over the full resolution rendering in our five-minute 1080p benchmark.

For users seeking an efficient workflow, this e.gFX Breakaway Box 350-powered system with the RX 580 can make a significant difference. However, it's essential to remember that these results are derived from a beta version of High Sierra and may change once the operating system is fully released and its API has been refined.

While there are several advantages associated with this external GPU enclosure kit for developers, Apple still faces challenges in making its Metal 2 feature more user-friendly. The absence of support for certain features like clamshell mode or HDMI audio within the current version of High Sierra raises questions about the future direction of Apple's efforts in developing this technology.

In conclusion, while there are various benefits to using an external GPU enclosure like the e.gFX Breakaway Box 350, developers and users must navigate some limitations and compatibility issues. As Apple continues to improve its Metal API, we can expect these technologies to become more accessible and efficient for a broader audience of users.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enas this year's WWDC conference Apple unveiled an external GPU enclosure kit for developers meant to plug into any Thunderbolt three supporting Mac to boost performance the eg PUK consists of an rx 580 video card asana eg FX breakaway box 350 a Belkin USB C 2 4 port USB a hub and finally a promo code $400 towards the purchase of a HTC vive VR headset the rx 580 card included in the developer's kit is as expected a reference design card from sapphire roughly speaking outside of the enclosure it is a six teraflop card where the Radeon pro 460 and 560 built into the 2016 and 17 macbook pros are right around 1.9 teraflops so the rx 580 delivers about triple the raw computing power of the discrete GPUs the sonnet developer enclosure delivered 60 watts of charging power which is enough to keep our 15-inch MacBook Pro from draining even under full load and it will allow to slowly charged under lighter loads but the 60 watt version isn't available outside of the developer beta the $299 retail version only provides 15 watts so you'll need to plug into another source of power or wait for the more expensive sonnet 550 which will be available in late September and provide a full 87 Watts of charging power it's quieter using the same cards than all of the other enclosures we've tested fully stress the enclosure hit 51 decibels at 3 feet from the case and 40 decibels at idle for comparison a 2016 MacBook Pro under load is about 36 decibels and about 31 decibels at idle without relying on third-party hacks Apple's a GPU implementation in high sierra is very much in its infancy right now there are a bunch of restrictions including the lack of clamshell mode no current support for HDMI audio no sleep support for attached Mac and a few other things what we don't want to see is Apple forcing annointed case and card combinations on users an open case that supports a Thunderbolt 3 protocol and a wide selection of compatible video cards to choose from will help the darién users who want to give it a shot that way the Final Cut Pro crowd can get optimized AMD cards and the Adobe game can get Invidia interestingly the sonnet breakaway box runs on Sierra with relatively simple hacks required to get it going but the RX by aiding GPU does not currently there's no way to compare metal to metal 2 and hi-c as we mentioned the AMD card and the developer kit does not work in Sierra and the Nvidia cards that we're currently using in Sierra do not work in High Sierra Thunderbolt 3 will hit you for about 10% of any given card the maximum potential performance wise connecting to older gear through Apple Thunderbolt 2 adapter will chop off about 20% and connecting to an older Thunderbolt 1 Mac will see losses of nearly 50% of a card's maximum power we tested the developer a GPU kit connected to our top end 2017 15-inch MacBook Pro with an Rx 5 64 gigabyte graphics card running the beta 6 version of High Sierra in Geekbench for the external rx 580 scored an impressive 120 2478 in the OpenCL test and 120 4312 with the 4k display plugged into the GPU both almost three times faster than the best available graphics in the MacBook Pro in comparison our 2017 5k iMac with the Radeon Pro 588 gigabyte which is based on the same GPU scored 117,000 we think that's very impressive performance an RX 580 plugged directly into a PCI slot scores about 130 mm so real-world performance loss is very minimal and even with that loss it beats out the best available graphics card in the 2017 5k iMac the BlueStacks tests favored the e GPU kit finishing in almost half the time though we did have to connect the EGP you to an external monitor to get it to work properly for our own stress test we use DaVinci Resolve we ran our hardest test a 20 second 4x4 k-project and saw a 69% improvement using the e GPU kit in our five minute 1080p test it was 27% faster than the internal graphics we also saw a 29% improvement in our five-minute 4k render keep in mind this is still a beta version of High Sierra and we expect the performance and usability to improve once full support for the technology arrives in the spring of 2018 if you enjoyed this video like it and hit that subscribe button also check out our price guide which makes it extremely easy to find the best deals and Apple products updated daily be sure to follow us on social media and we'll see you in the next video youas this year's WWDC conference Apple unveiled an external GPU enclosure kit for developers meant to plug into any Thunderbolt three supporting Mac to boost performance the eg PUK consists of an rx 580 video card asana eg FX breakaway box 350 a Belkin USB C 2 4 port USB a hub and finally a promo code $400 towards the purchase of a HTC vive VR headset the rx 580 card included in the developer's kit is as expected a reference design card from sapphire roughly speaking outside of the enclosure it is a six teraflop card where the Radeon pro 460 and 560 built into the 2016 and 17 macbook pros are right around 1.9 teraflops so the rx 580 delivers about triple the raw computing power of the discrete GPUs the sonnet developer enclosure delivered 60 watts of charging power which is enough to keep our 15-inch MacBook Pro from draining even under full load and it will allow to slowly charged under lighter loads but the 60 watt version isn't available outside of the developer beta the $299 retail version only provides 15 watts so you'll need to plug into another source of power or wait for the more expensive sonnet 550 which will be available in late September and provide a full 87 Watts of charging power it's quieter using the same cards than all of the other enclosures we've tested fully stress the enclosure hit 51 decibels at 3 feet from the case and 40 decibels at idle for comparison a 2016 MacBook Pro under load is about 36 decibels and about 31 decibels at idle without relying on third-party hacks Apple's a GPU implementation in high sierra is very much in its infancy right now there are a bunch of restrictions including the lack of clamshell mode no current support for HDMI audio no sleep support for attached Mac and a few other things what we don't want to see is Apple forcing annointed case and card combinations on users an open case that supports a Thunderbolt 3 protocol and a wide selection of compatible video cards to choose from will help the darién users who want to give it a shot that way the Final Cut Pro crowd can get optimized AMD cards and the Adobe game can get Invidia interestingly the sonnet breakaway box runs on Sierra with relatively simple hacks required to get it going but the RX by aiding GPU does not currently there's no way to compare metal to metal 2 and hi-c as we mentioned the AMD card and the developer kit does not work in Sierra and the Nvidia cards that we're currently using in Sierra do not work in High Sierra Thunderbolt 3 will hit you for about 10% of any given card the maximum potential performance wise connecting to older gear through Apple Thunderbolt 2 adapter will chop off about 20% and connecting to an older Thunderbolt 1 Mac will see losses of nearly 50% of a card's maximum power we tested the developer a GPU kit connected to our top end 2017 15-inch MacBook Pro with an Rx 5 64 gigabyte graphics card running the beta 6 version of High Sierra in Geekbench for the external rx 580 scored an impressive 120 2478 in the OpenCL test and 120 4312 with the 4k display plugged into the GPU both almost three times faster than the best available graphics in the MacBook Pro in comparison our 2017 5k iMac with the Radeon Pro 588 gigabyte which is based on the same GPU scored 117,000 we think that's very impressive performance an RX 580 plugged directly into a PCI slot scores about 130 mm so real-world performance loss is very minimal and even with that loss it beats out the best available graphics card in the 2017 5k iMac the BlueStacks tests favored the e GPU kit finishing in almost half the time though we did have to connect the EGP you to an external monitor to get it to work properly for our own stress test we use DaVinci Resolve we ran our hardest test a 20 second 4x4 k-project and saw a 69% improvement using the e GPU kit in our five minute 1080p test it was 27% faster than the internal graphics we also saw a 29% improvement in our five-minute 4k render keep in mind this is still a beta version of High Sierra and we expect the performance and usability to improve once full support for the technology arrives in the spring of 2018 if you enjoyed this video like it and hit that subscribe button also check out our price guide which makes it extremely easy to find the best deals and Apple products updated daily be sure to follow us on social media and we'll see you in the next video you\n"