Blackmagic eGPU Pro mini review: silent, fast and extremely expensive, like a Mac

Apple's Mac products have been the subject of much criticism, but one of the most commonly cited is that they often do not have the same graphical power as similarly priced Windows machines. Unfortunately, the company currently does not offer any desktop tower in which you could, for example, insert two extremely powerful game graphics cards.

Part of that could change soon when Apple goes on its own silicon on Mac or when it introduces a new Mac Pro. But for now, the company's official response to this type of criticism is doubling the external GPU support under macOS. The assistance for this started during the High Sierra cycle and was developed in a useful way in the Mojave OS version of last year.

In addition to providing software support for eGPUs, Apple has developed what is more or less its official eGPU solution, in much the same way that some LG monitors have been the external displays recommended by Apple for some time now. To do this, the company has partnered with hardware manufacturer Blackmagic Design, an Australian company specializing in products for video professionals. The first Blackmagic eGPU included an AMD Radeon Pro 580 priced at $ 699. We reviewed it at the end of last summer and found that even though it was quiet and easy to use, and that the graphics processor was an important upgrade over the graphics Many Macs integrated, we wanted a premium GPU option to be offered to creative professionals and hardcore gamers who needed more.

Enter the Blackmagic eGPU Pro. At $ 1199, it includes a Radeon RX Vega 56. And in theory, it's a great upgrade. We have recently defined basic criteria to determine whether this new offer justifies the huge jump in prices and meets the wishes of a high-end version of the previous model.

Characteristics

As stated earlier, the most important specification to consider here is the GPU itself: a Radeon RX Vega 56 with 8GB of HBM2 memory. It is a high-end workstation GPU designed for video editing and 3D modeling. It is even faster than the best Vega GPUs available in the MacBook Pro or iMac (respectively Radeon Pro Vega 20 and 48 midrange).

It's the same GPU (including memory) that you'll find in the basic iMac Pro, which starts at $ 5,000. The only way to get a GPU faster than this one on current Macs without eGPU is to buy this iMac Pro and add an extra $ 550 or $ 700 for the Radeon Pro Vega 64 or 64X with 16GB of HMB2.

The Blackmagic eGPU Pro works with all Thunderbolt 3-equipped Macs. It has two Thunderbolt 3 ports, four USB 3 ports (Type A), an HDMI 2.0 port, and a DisplayPort 1.4 port. . It is capable of delivering 85W of power to the connected Mac, which is enough for any Mac laptop to continue to work. During a hot minute, some versions of macOS have supported eGPUs on Thunderbolt 2. But this brief moment has passed for a long time.

The case includes eGPU, a Thunderbolt 3 cable of half a meter and a power cable: there is no external power supply block. In terms of dimensions, the speaker itself measures 29.44 x 17.68 x 17.68 cm (11.59 x 6.96 x 6.96 cm) and weighs 4.5 kg (9.92 lb).

Design

There is not much new to add to what we said about eGPU Blackmagic last August. As far as we can judge, the chassis is the same. It's just the GPU inside that is different.

The Blackmagic eGPU Pro tries to minimize its impact on your desktop by being big. Its obelisk-shaped design is unusual; People passing by your office may have to try their luck before knowing exactly what it is. The design of the Pro can certainly be described as minimalist, but it is at the same time a touch too flashy for my taste. It's subjective, though. Despite these efforts to reduce its footprint, the overall volume is a little larger than we would like. There are actually smaller eGPU packages on the market. But Blackmagic gave priority to silence.

And as was the case with the slower model last year, Blackmagic was successful on that front and that's really what you pay for. If there is a quieter eGPU enclosure than one of the Blackmagic eGPUs, I have never seen it myself. The eGPU Pro is audible only in an otherwise silent room and, even in this case, it is subtle. In fact, it is noticeably quieter than a MacBook Pro with fully developed fans. Chances are, if you have an office covered with computers and peripherals, it will be one of the quietest devices.

There is another positive point to consider here. This thing has a ton of ports, and Thunderbolt ports can be chained to one point. There is a chance that you will have a single wire connected to your Mac: the Thunderbolt 3 port of this eGPU. This makes it not only an eGPU box, but a decent port hub.

Given that the best-powered Thunderbolt 3 and USB hubs can run at more than $ 300, this value proposition somewhat dampens the price of this eGPU. This is obviously not a consolation if you have already invested in a configuration that already works for you.

Samuel Axon's inscription image