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Apple adding native support for eGPUs is huge. (Can't believe Microsoft missed a beat and didn't add an official eGPU dock to their Surface line. A couple peop

Apple adding native support for eGPUs is huge. (Can't believe Microsoft missed a beat and didn't add an official eGPU dock to their Surface line. A couple people I know passed on the Surface Studio because it isn't powerful enough despite loving the hardware otherwise)

DaiPlusPlus 9y ago
Technically it does - the Surface Book's "Performance Base" has a beefy NVIDIA GPU inside of it, while the rest of the main system, with an Intel GPU, is in the display portion - though I don't know what interface is used between the display and the base - is it "real" hot-pluggable PCI-Express, something proprietary, or Thunderbolt?
- plttn 9y ago
  It's a proprietary port, yes.
  - DaiPlusPlus 9y ago
    But what's the underlying electrical and signal interface?
    - plttn 9y ago
      Documentation is a bit vague on it, but from what I can tell the last references to it are just USB3, USB2, and DisplayPort. However I'm not sure how the GPU in my Surface Book fits into that, as on the surface according to Device Manager it's connected to a PCI bus. edit: according to a few news sources, the version of SurfaceConnect (at least on the Book) does contain PCIe lanes for the GPU.
lewisl9029 9y ago
> Can't believe Microsoft missed a beat and didn't add an official eGPU dock to their Surface line. This is also the only thing holding me back from getting a Surface Pro/Book/Laptop. Without Thunderbolt 3 + eGPU support, it's simply not possible to get decent graphics performance on these machines. It's such a shame because I love everything else about the Surface product line. I'm cautiously optimistic about the Eve V as an alternative: http://eve-tech.com/product/ http://eve-tech.com/product/ (I swear their site wasn't this obnoxious the last time I looked...)
Eric_WVGG 9y ago
I am absolutely betting that the eventual 5k “Cinema Display” has a built-in GPU. It’s not like Apple to make support for hardware markets they aren’t planning on competing in, and an enclosure is too hacky for Cupertino.
kllrnohj 9y ago
Is it really huge, though? They still don't support Vulkan or even OpenGL 4.2 (2011) What are you even going to use that eGPU with other than installing Windows through bootcamp so you can actually make use of the hardware?
- Analemma_ 9y ago
  It's been pretty clear for a while that OpenGL on Macs is dead, and that it's "Metal or GTFO". If modern OpenGL is still a requirement for you, grit your teeth and choose Windows or Linux.
  - pjmlp 9y ago
    OpenGL is also dead on Windows for UWP applications. The only available option is via ANGLE or stay on Win32 until it gets kicked out.
    - rtpg 9y ago
      Does this mean opengl is going to work on less and less platforms? Are there real crosspolatform options left? Or are people going to rely more and more on things like Unity to capture that extra complexity?
      - snuxoll 9y ago
        With everything realistically heading towards lower level API's like DirectX 12, Vulkan and Metal I doubt many people are going to be rolling their own engines anymore. OpenGL and D3D11 made it fairly doable, but these new API's are more than most people will want to deal with.
      - kllrnohj 9y ago
        Sure, you just use OpenGL or Vulkan and don't bother with UWP. You're shipping games on Steam anyway not the Microsoft Store. If for some weird reason you care about Windows Mobile then UWP still isn't useful because it doesn't support Windows Phone 8, which is the majority of the windows mobile marketshare.
cududa 9y ago
I'm most certainly one of those people. I just kind of assumed it'd be supported and had to cancel my pre-order after realizing that wasn't the case.
archagon 9y ago
Unfortunately, most Mac ports of games have lower performance (sometimes up to 50%) and less features than their Windows counterparts. Even A+ ports like CS:GO look different (some shaders disabled?) and don't feel nearly as good to play. I doubt these Metal eGPUs will be cross-platform. Unless you're using them for professional work, I think it will be better to just get something like the Akitio Node and use it in BootCamp.

DaiPlusPlus 9y ago

Technically it does - the Surface Book's "Performance Base" has a beefy NVIDIA GPU inside of it, while the rest of the main system, with an Intel GPU, is in the display portion - though I don't know what interface is used between the display and the base - is it "real" hot-pluggable PCI-Express, something proprietary, or Thunderbolt?

plttn 9y ago
It's a proprietary port, yes.
- DaiPlusPlus 9y ago
  But what's the underlying electrical and signal interface?
  - plttn 9y ago
    Documentation is a bit vague on it, but from what I can tell the last references to it are just USB3, USB2, and DisplayPort. However I'm not sure how the GPU in my Surface Book fits into that, as on the surface according to Device Manager it's connected to a PCI bus. edit: according to a few news sources, the version of SurfaceConnect (at least on the Book) does contain PCIe lanes for the GPU.

lewisl9029 9y ago

> Can't believe Microsoft missed a beat and didn't add an official eGPU dock to their Surface line. This is also the only thing holding me back from getting a Surface Pro/Book/Laptop. Without Thunderbolt 3 + eGPU support, it's simply not possible to get decent graphics performance on these machines. It's such a shame because I love everything else about the Surface product line. I'm cautiously optimistic about the Eve V as an alternative: http://eve-tech.com/product/ http://eve-tech.com/product/ (I swear their site wasn't this obnoxious the last time I looked...)

Eric_WVGG 9y ago

I am absolutely betting that the eventual 5k “Cinema Display” has a built-in GPU. It’s not like Apple to make support for hardware markets they aren’t planning on competing in, and an enclosure is too hacky for Cupertino.

kllrnohj 9y ago

Is it really huge, though? They still don't support Vulkan or even OpenGL 4.2 (2011) What are you even going to use that eGPU with other than installing Windows through bootcamp so you can actually make use of the hardware?

Analemma_ 9y ago
It's been pretty clear for a while that OpenGL on Macs is dead, and that it's "Metal or GTFO". If modern OpenGL is still a requirement for you, grit your teeth and choose Windows or Linux.
- pjmlp 9y ago
  OpenGL is also dead on Windows for UWP applications. The only available option is via ANGLE or stay on Win32 until it gets kicked out.
  - rtpg 9y ago
    Does this mean opengl is going to work on less and less platforms? Are there real crosspolatform options left? Or are people going to rely more and more on things like Unity to capture that extra complexity?
    - snuxoll 9y ago
      With everything realistically heading towards lower level API's like DirectX 12, Vulkan and Metal I doubt many people are going to be rolling their own engines anymore. OpenGL and D3D11 made it fairly doable, but these new API's are more than most people will want to deal with.
    - kllrnohj 9y ago
      Sure, you just use OpenGL or Vulkan and don't bother with UWP. You're shipping games on Steam anyway not the Microsoft Store. If for some weird reason you care about Windows Mobile then UWP still isn't useful because it doesn't support Windows Phone 8, which is the majority of the windows mobile marketshare.

cududa 9y ago

I'm most certainly one of those people. I just kind of assumed it'd be supported and had to cancel my pre-order after realizing that wasn't the case.

archagon 9y ago

Unfortunately, most Mac ports of games have lower performance (sometimes up to 50%) and less features than their Windows counterparts. Even A+ ports like CS:GO look different (some shaders disabled?) and don't feel nearly as good to play. I doubt these Metal eGPUs will be cross-platform. Unless you're using them for professional work, I think it will be better to just get something like the Akitio Node and use it in BootCamp.