Reviews |Blackmagic, Apple, launch external GPU for MacBook Pro

Blackmagic, Apple, launch external GPU for MacBook Pro

Blackmagic, Apple, launch external GPU for MacBook Pro
News

Blackmagic, in collaboration with Apple, has launched a new external GPU designed to bring ‘high-end desktop class graphics processing’ to the MacBook Pro for professional video workflows, immersive VR and 3D games.

The Blackmagic eGPU is the first of its kind to support Thunderbolt 3 displays and is aimed at professional video editors, Hollywood colourists and visual effects artists.

The Blackmagic eGPU features a Radeon Pro 580 graphics processor, which can fill 38.4 billion textured pixels per second. The Blackmagic eGPU also offer 8GB of GDDR5 RAM, 256-bit memory bandwidth and 36 discreet compute units for up to 5.5 teraflops of processing power.

What’s more, the Blackmagic eGPU supports Metal graphics technology from Apple, which provides near-direct access to the GPU for maximizing graphics and compute performance with games and applications.

In short, the Blackmagic eGPU’s promises to speed up your video editing and colour correction.

It also features two 40Gb/s Thunderbolt 3 connections, a built-in 4 port USB hub and HDMI which supports 4K output.

A built-in power supply powers the GPU while also providing 85W of downstream power via Thunderbolt 3 for charging laptop computers and powering peripherals. The power supply works from 100V to 240V and features a standard IEC power connector so it can be used anywhere.

The Blackmagic eGPU price tag is £599 / $699 and requires macOS 10.13.6 High Sierra or later.