Apple’s latest MacBook Pro accompanies a fair bit of controversy but the introduction of Thunderbolt 3 ports gives the notebook a lot of throughput plus a lot of capabilities. This is displayed evidently by an eGPU vendor who manages to demonstrate that the MacBook Pro which features a Thunderbolt 3 is compatible with AMD’s Vega GPU.
macOS High Sierra’s Latest Beta Reveals That Apple’s MacBook Pro Is Compatible With an AMD Vega Graphics Processor - Benchmarking Results Were Not Published However
@Mantiz_John on Twitter unveiled that even while running the latest beta of Apple’s macOS High Sierra update, the MacBook Pro can be paired with an AMD Vega GPU thanks to the Thunderbolt 3 and eGPU enclosure added to the equation. Unfortunately, gaming benchmarks were not published, which is something all of us would have wanted to see.
Thunderbolt 3 through a Type-C USB port does not deliver equal performance compared to an actual gaming system. According to previous benchmarks that we have seen, there is a 7-10 percent performance drop due to the lack of bandwidth. However, it is impressive to see that Apple’s MacBook Pro family will finally be capable of running games fluidly with the purchase of added hardware.
Vega RX 64 is on High Sierra Beta 5 pic.twitter.com/kEn6GOT4Yc
— Mantiz eGPU (@Mantiz_John) August 10, 2017
Apple’s macOS High Sierra is going to launch later this year for selected models and will offer a wide range of additions and improvements for users worldwide. One of the biggest changes being introduced to High Sierra is Apple’s new API called Metal 2. With the Metal 2, Apple claims that users will be able to experience up to 10 times the graphical performance increase.
A while back, NVIDIA also released GPU drivers for the Pascal architecture for this platform; this effectively means that users who decide to hook up an external GPU to a MacBook Pro via a Thunderbolt 3 port will be able to experience better performance while running macOS High Sierra.
If you want to check out the specifications of the eGPU solution, they have been listed below.
Specifications of the Mantiz MZ-02 eGPU Enclosure
- 5 USB 3.0 ports
- 1 Gigabit Ethernet port
- 2.5-inch mounting plate for SATA-based hard drive
- PCIe slot for GPU
- Price: $379
News Source: Twitter (Mantiz eGPU)
