The Blackmagic External GPU with RX 580: A Game-Changer for MacBook Pro Owners?

For those who have invested in a beautiful 5K display, such as an LG Ultrafine Thunderbolt Display or a 4K Cinema Display, using it with a MacBook Pro can be a frustrating experience. The reason is that the MacBook Pro only has limited ports, which means you're stuck with HDMI or DisplayPort options, and unfortunately, these don't match up with the newer Thunderbolt 3 displays.

This limitation is exactly what Blackmagic's new External GPU (eGPU) enclosure aims to solve. With the eGPU, owners of a base Touch Bar MacBook Pro can now take advantage of their existing Thunderbolt ports to connect an external graphics card that supports their display of choice. The eGPU enclosure features a Thunderbolt 3 port, which is the same one used by the MacBook Pro, making it easy to plug in and use.

The eGPU unit itself is compact and comes with a power cable and a Thunderbolt 3 cable. To connect the display, users simply need to plug in the power cable to an outlet or a wall adapter, as well as the Thunderbolt 3 cable into the MacBook Pro's port. The eGPU enclosure is designed to be short, making it easy to place under a desk or other surface, although there is no option for a longer cable if you want to hide it from view.

When using the eGPU, users will need to plug in a Thunderbolt 3 DisplayPort cable to make use of the external graphics card. Fortunately, Blackmagic provides this cable with their eGPU unit, making it easy to test out the feature right away. As soon as the eGPU is plugged in and power is applied, the MacBook Pro springs to life, displaying a notification icon on the screen.

The eGPU's performance was put to the test using Geekbench and OpenCL benchmarks. The results were staggering - with an almost 33,000 score for the integrated graphics card, compared to just under 110,500 for the RX 580 in the eGPU enclosure. This represents a massive improvement over the integrated graphics, making it clear that the eGPU is capable of delivering top-notch performance.

One question on everyone's mind is whether this means that owners can now skip down-sizing their MacBook Pro from 15 inches to 13 inches and still get great performance when they need it. The answer is yes - with the eGPU, users can plug in an external graphics card and enjoy similar performance to what they would have gotten with a larger, more expensive MacBook Pro. This makes the base Touch Bar model an attractive option for those who need serious power but don't want to break the bank.

Overall, Blackmagic's External GPU enclosure with the RX 580 is a game-changer for MacBook Pro owners who want to take advantage of their existing Thunderbolt ports and connect high-end displays. While there are some limitations, such as the graphics card being built-in and not removable, the eGPU still represents an exciting new development in external graphics solutions.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey guys it's max from Apple Insider Apple yesterday surprised everybody when they refresh the MacBook Pros with the 2018 touch bar model that now includes a quad-core processor we did a hands-on first look looking all the new features we tested out the CPU performance and it is shocking but I'm going to leave that for another video that you guys can check out by clicking a little box at the end of this one but for this one we're talking about another surprise that came at the same time and that is this guy right here this is black magics external GPU and they created this along working alongside with Apple and there's one really really cool thing that I'm super excited about I'll talk about in just a bit but let's go ahead and open this guy up so this thing comes in at six hundred ninety-nine dollars and it has a built in AMD rx 580 graphics card with eight gigabytes of memory now just like other external GPUs it connects to your machine with a Thunderbolt 3 cable and along with passing through data it can also power your macbook pro charge it and make sure your battery is not running out so very very cool let's get this over here a little bit excited ah this looks very close on the start very futuristic let's pull the sucker out man it's got some weight all right what do you guys think about this guy right here let me know in the comment section below I personally really dig the design I was wondering when I saw it online is this exterior shell plastic and no it is not this thing is solid aluminum and it's like a space grey color let's compare it to this MacBook Pro it's a little bit more shiny but if not just decently well so if you're gonna have it next to your macbook it's gonna look good and I like this handle here this is solid so this is made out of plastic right here but it's built in really well so this is going to be the air intake here kind of like on a Mac Pro except it's not a cylinder and this looks like an exhaust with a large fan right up top one thing that is very cool and special about this unit is that the fan here is rated at only 18 decibels and the is an issue that we've had in the past with external GPUs the fans are always really loud you typically have a loud fan on the enclosure itself and then you have another fan or multiple fans on the graphics card and that can definitely get annoying especially when you're used to Apple products that are typically quite quiet this guy is going to be very very quiet spin it around here so you guys can see these are our ports right here we have a power jack we have a single HDMI 2.0 so that supports 4k at 60 Hertz two whole Thunderbolt three ports yes I said at two Thunderbolt 3 ports I'll talk about that in a second here and we have four USB 3.0 s now what really gets me excited about this is these two ports right here most of time when you have an external graphics enclosure you plug it into your macbook and then you have to plug in an external display into it but you only have the options that are available on your graphics card that means you can all use HDMI or DisplayPort so if you're in a situation like I am and you own a five-k LG ultrafine Thunderbolt display or a 4k one or maybe a cinema display you cannot use that with a thunderbolt so if you spent thirteen hundred bucks on a beautiful 5k display you are out of luck and I even considered selling that display so I can use an external graphics card with my macbook pro now you don't have to this guy is the first one to support that let's go ahead and pull out the accessories that they give us here we have a power cable in here and we have a Thunderbolt 3 cable and man is this thing short Wow so this is about as far as you can get from your MacBook Pro which shouldn't be too big of an issue but if you wanted to hide this like under your desk or something like that this guy is not going to cut it but you can buy another one that's up to six feet long that will still support everything so I'm going to unwrap this power cable and get my 5k display so I'm going to plug in the power here and our Thunderbolt three cable as soon as I plugged in a Thunder both read cable I heard a little click internally but it doesn't sound like this units powered on just yet and I don't see any sort of power button hidden away so it could just be automatic so now let's plug this guy in okay laptops charging so we're getting power and it's actually on it was that quiet that I couldn't hear it over the AC so right away I'm seeing a little icon that popped up here I recognized it right away and there we go we have this running we can close this and our monitor should stay on I don't have a wireless keyboard or mouse connected here like I typically do on my regular desk but we're running using the MacBook Pro with that new quad-core CPU that is extremely powerful now with an extremely powerful graphics card that's gonna do great for video editing and a beautiful 5k display now I'm really curious about how this guy's gonna perform and we're gonna be doing a variety of tests and benchmarks and everything else that you guys want to know about but I want to see our performance with Geekbench for lets say so here's our OpenCL results for the integrated graphics almost 33,000 and right away that rx 580 shows up so let's good give it around and see what we get so there you go guys we have a score of a hundred and ten thousand five hundred compared to just under 33,000 so a massive difference compared to the integrated graphics the biggest question I have in my mind is can I now skip my 15-inch go down size to a 13-inch which is much more convenient for everyday use and travel and flying all that stuff and then when I'm doing some serious work come into the office plug it into this graphics card and get better performance or the same performance as I would have in dealing with a much larger much more expensive MacBook Pro because this is a base touch bar MacBook Pro it's a lot cheaper than what I paid for mine I think half the price actually so there we have it the Blackmagic external GPU with the RX 580 built in the first a GPU that supports Thunderbolt 3 displays so everybody with a 5k display or a 4k or a cinema display can you make use I'm an external graphics card and not be limited anymore there are a few downsides with this unit first off the graphics card is built-in and is not removable meaning it's not gonna hold its value as well as other units could where you can actually pull out a graphics card put in a new one so that is one limitation and the other limitation is there is no a DisplayPort output as a guy we just have the Thunderbolt and we also have hdmi 2.0 but I did order a Thunderbolt 3 2 DisplayPort cable and we will be testing that out with this eg PU and seeing the follow you guys that don't have an hdmi 2.0 port will be able to make use of this external graphics card enclosure this has been Mac's make sure you guys are subscribed and you have those notifications enabled don't miss out on this video where we test out all the brand new features with the 2018 MacBook Pro and I will see you in the next video if you enjoy this video like it and hit that subscribe button also check out a 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 videohey guys it's max from Apple Insider Apple yesterday surprised everybody when they refresh the MacBook Pros with the 2018 touch bar model that now includes a quad-core processor we did a hands-on first look looking all the new features we tested out the CPU performance and it is shocking but I'm going to leave that for another video that you guys can check out by clicking a little box at the end of this one but for this one we're talking about another surprise that came at the same time and that is this guy right here this is black magics external GPU and they created this along working alongside with Apple and there's one really really cool thing that I'm super excited about I'll talk about in just a bit but let's go ahead and open this guy up so this thing comes in at six hundred ninety-nine dollars and it has a built in AMD rx 580 graphics card with eight gigabytes of memory now just like other external GPUs it connects to your machine with a Thunderbolt 3 cable and along with passing through data it can also power your macbook pro charge it and make sure your battery is not running out so very very cool let's get this over here a little bit excited ah this looks very close on the start very futuristic let's pull the sucker out man it's got some weight all right what do you guys think about this guy right here let me know in the comment section below I personally really dig the design I was wondering when I saw it online is this exterior shell plastic and no it is not this thing is solid aluminum and it's like a space grey color let's compare it to this MacBook Pro it's a little bit more shiny but if not just decently well so if you're gonna have it next to your macbook it's gonna look good and I like this handle here this is solid so this is made out of plastic right here but it's built in really well so this is going to be the air intake here kind of like on a Mac Pro except it's not a cylinder and this looks like an exhaust with a large fan right up top one thing that is very cool and special about this unit is that the fan here is rated at only 18 decibels and the is an issue that we've had in the past with external GPUs the fans are always really loud you typically have a loud fan on the enclosure itself and then you have another fan or multiple fans on the graphics card and that can definitely get annoying especially when you're used to Apple products that are typically quite quiet this guy is going to be very very quiet spin it around here so you guys can see these are our ports right here we have a power jack we have a single HDMI 2.0 so that supports 4k at 60 Hertz two whole Thunderbolt three ports yes I said at two Thunderbolt 3 ports I'll talk about that in a second here and we have four USB 3.0 s now what really gets me excited about this is these two ports right here most of time when you have an external graphics enclosure you plug it into your macbook and then you have to plug in an external display into it but you only have the options that are available on your graphics card that means you can all use HDMI or DisplayPort so if you're in a situation like I am and you own a five-k LG ultrafine Thunderbolt display or a 4k one or maybe a cinema display you cannot use that with a thunderbolt so if you spent thirteen hundred bucks on a beautiful 5k display you are out of luck and I even considered selling that display so I can use an external graphics card with my macbook pro now you don't have to this guy is the first one to support that let's go ahead and pull out the accessories that they give us here we have a power cable in here and we have a Thunderbolt 3 cable and man is this thing short Wow so this is about as far as you can get from your MacBook Pro which shouldn't be too big of an issue but if you wanted to hide this like under your desk or something like that this guy is not going to cut it but you can buy another one that's up to six feet long that will still support everything so I'm going to unwrap this power cable and get my 5k display so I'm going to plug in the power here and our Thunderbolt three cable as soon as I plugged in a Thunder both read cable I heard a little click internally but it doesn't sound like this units powered on just yet and I don't see any sort of power button hidden away so it could just be automatic so now let's plug this guy in okay laptops charging so we're getting power and it's actually on it was that quiet that I couldn't hear it over the AC so right away I'm seeing a little icon that popped up here I recognized it right away and there we go we have this running we can close this and our monitor should stay on I don't have a wireless keyboard or mouse connected here like I typically do on my regular desk but we're running using the MacBook Pro with that new quad-core CPU that is extremely powerful now with an extremely powerful graphics card that's gonna do great for video editing and a beautiful 5k display now I'm really curious about how this guy's gonna perform and we're gonna be doing a variety of tests and benchmarks and everything else that you guys want to know about but I want to see our performance with Geekbench for lets say so here's our OpenCL results for the integrated graphics almost 33,000 and right away that rx 580 shows up so let's good give it around and see what we get so there you go guys we have a score of a hundred and ten thousand five hundred compared to just under 33,000 so a massive difference compared to the integrated graphics the biggest question I have in my mind is can I now skip my 15-inch go down size to a 13-inch which is much more convenient for everyday use and travel and flying all that stuff and then when I'm doing some serious work come into the office plug it into this graphics card and get better performance or the same performance as I would have in dealing with a much larger much more expensive MacBook Pro because this is a base touch bar MacBook Pro it's a lot cheaper than what I paid for mine I think half the price actually so there we have it the Blackmagic external GPU with the RX 580 built in the first a GPU that supports Thunderbolt 3 displays so everybody with a 5k display or a 4k or a cinema display can you make use I'm an external graphics card and not be limited anymore there are a few downsides with this unit first off the graphics card is built-in and is not removable meaning it's not gonna hold its value as well as other units could where you can actually pull out a graphics card put in a new one so that is one limitation and the other limitation is there is no a DisplayPort output as a guy we just have the Thunderbolt and we also have hdmi 2.0 but I did order a Thunderbolt 3 2 DisplayPort cable and we will be testing that out with this eg PU and seeing the follow you guys that don't have an hdmi 2.0 port will be able to make use of this external graphics card enclosure this has been Mac's make sure you guys are subscribed and you have those notifications enabled don't miss out on this video where we test out all the brand new features with the 2018 MacBook Pro and I will see you in the next video if you enjoy this video like it and hit that subscribe button also check out a 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\n"