Blackmagic Design has partnered with Apple to develop the new Thunderbolt 3-connected Blackmagic eGPU — an external GPU that Blackmagic promises will help speed up creative workflows.
Overview
The Blackmagic eGPU features a built-in Radeon Pro 580 graphics processor as well as two Thunderbolt 3 ports, HDMI 2.0, 85W of charging power and four USB 3.1 connections. The eGPU connects to a computer directly through Thunderbolt 3, and Apple claims that it will give 2.8x faster graphics performance on the 15-inch MacBook Pro and 8X faster performance on the 13-inch model.
“The Blackmagic eGPU adds the performance customers need to make the latest 3D games and VR look more realistic than ever. That means customers will get higher resolution images, higher frame rate gameplay, better lighting and more detailed textures for truly immersive experiences, even on a laptop computer,” said Blackmagic in their announcement.
Additionally, the device delivers 8GB of GDDR5 RAM, 256-bit memory bandwidth and 36 discreet units for up to 5.5 teraflops of processing power.
The Blackmagic eGPU should improve editing performance in DaVinci Resolve 15
Blackmagic says DaVinci Resolve 15 users can expect to see a great increase in performance for editing with “more real time effects, color corrections with more nodes and spectacular Resolve FX such as film grain, light rays, blurs and more.”
Thunderbolt 3 support
Two 40GB/s Thunderbolt 3 connections are designed into the Blackmagic eGPU with a built-in 4 port USB hub and an HDMI connection that supports 4K output.
Thunderbolt 3 functionality also provides 85W of downstream power when charging laptops and powering peripherals.
According to Blackmagic, the Blackmagic eGPU is also the first external GPU to support Thunderbolt displays like LG’s UltraFine 5K Display.
Pricing and Availability
The Blackmagic eGPU is out now for $699 in the Apple store.