End of the magic - Blackmagic eGPU Pro + Vega 56 discountinued

[williamcll]

No news on whether enclosures for Navi cards will be available.

Quote

Blackmagic today informed MacRumors that it is no longer manufacturing its Blackmagic eGPU Pro due to AMD discontinuing its Radeon RX Vega 56 graphics chip.

Apple removed the Blackmagic eGPU Pro from its online store earlier this week, just days after marking the product as temporarily out of stock. The standard Blackmagic eGPU with AMD Radeon Pro 580 graphics remains available to purchase for the time being, but with a lengthy shipping estimate of 10-12 weeks. Priced at $1,199, the Blackmagic eGPU Pro first came out in October 2018 alongside refreshed Mac mini and MacBook Air models.

It is unclear if the Blackmagic eGPU Pro will return with a newer graphics chip at a later date.

Source: https://www.macrumors.com/2020/04/17/blackmagic-egpu-pro-discontinued/

Thoughts: Blackmagic's enclosures are way too overpriced for my liking. But considering the spending power of most apple users I don't think they would care.

[GDRRiley]

I'll be they make a refresh with the w5700x or big navi

blackmagic makes most things a good value but they know they can get apple users to overpay.

[DKL]

Wait $1200 for the GPU is more than I paid for my entire computer and I have a Vega 56 in it...

[justpoet]

BlackMagic has always been about the "this might seem ok, because we only qualified our own product with our other product, so just buy our product, because that's why it is worth more".  I would expect to see something similar for a next gen card if they can, but my guess would be that they'll skip the 5700 and jump to whatever "big navi" is that comes out next, since the Macbook Pro laptops that are out now already have navi based cards available in them.

[hishnash]

13 hours ago, GDRRiley said:

blackmagic makes most things a good value but they know they can get apple users to overpay.

they know some users will over pay, maybe apple users will have selected other external GPU options. Apple advertise multiple options on their support page and even give a guide as to what you need to look for if you buy one. https://support.apple.com/en-nz/HT208544

They even break down per GPU what cases are good and tested:

AMD Radeon RX 470, RX 480, RX 570, RX 580, and Radeon Pro WX 7100

OWC Mercury Helios FX4
PowerColor Devil Box
Sapphire Gear Box
Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box 350W
Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box 550W4
Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box 650W4
Razer Core X4
PowerColor Game Station4
HP Omen4
Akitio Node6

AMD Radeon RX Vega 56
OWC Mercury Helios FX4
PowerColor Devil Box
Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box 550W4
Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box 650W4
Razer Core X4
PowerColor Game Station4

 

AMD Radeon RX Vega 64, Vega Frontier Edition Air, and Radeon Pro WX 9100
Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box 650W4
Razer Core X4

AMD Radeon RX 5700, 5700 XT, and 5700 XT 50th Anniversary
Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box 650W4
Razer Core X4

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in-fact this is quite a use-full guide even if your not planning on connecting them to a mac. 

[Kisai]

5 hours ago, DKL said:

Wait $1200 for the GPU is more than I paid for my entire computer and I have a Vega 56 in it...

That's the point.

 

eGPU's make no sense for any use case when the enclosure itself costs as much as a desktop.