The most pointless eGPU ever created

Ever wanted an eGPU that where the GPU is soldered into the case? No? Well then this will be your absolute nightmare! :'D

Upgrade your vega to RX 580 in 2018...Wait what?

No worries, at least youll get like 60% of the RX 580 card when connecting the eGPU and will barely be usable nor supported by anything.

Yay go apple. Makes dreams come true.

 

Not sure why anyone would expect any less from Apple. They overtook BMW years ago as the kings of engineering arrogance: soldered GPUs came first, then soldered CPUs, then soldered SSDs, now soldered RAM and so on. The only reason why you'd solder any of those components is to prevent people from upgrading or replacing them in the event of failure - its a purely greed based decision. When all of their crappy engineering "solutions" eventually fail Apple will also deny it is their fault for as long as possible (butterfly keyboards for example). Other manufacturers are not much better with their BGA ebola, but Apple take it to a new level. And, sadly, Apple get away with this crap because of the fanboy cult which follows them - though I am starting to notice long term Apple users turn away from them in increasing numbers.

 

The same thing happens in every sector. Take Gibson guitars for example. Took out the real way of wiring a guitar with pots and switches and now use circuit boards. PURE JUNK. Then they charge a huge premium for the name.

 

In Apple's defense (what there is), this was designed as a great USB-C breakout hub for the LG 5k display. It also provides the Macbook with full power and it is close to dead silent under load while matching the aesthetics of the Macbook.

Ironic, since any game worth it's salt or program that uses the CPU will have the Macbook providing MORE than enough noise.

Price is stupidly high and performance is, well, an RX 580. (!)

And as noted, zero upgrade factor...

 

The RX 560X is not VEGA , its Polaris.
Its basically a 2y old GPU, that even at launch wasn't that great..

But yeah, Apple keeps using that because its cheaper, so they can make more money.

 

Was talking about the vega options they have in some systems and only way to "upgrade" is by using the eGPU, which would be a downgrade, making this whole thing even more hilarious. It's like apple trying to make you not have performance.

 

Not quite, the reason things went soldered wasn't to stop people upgrading - I think the vast vast majority of people just don't upgrade their computers - we would be in the <1% of those who may do so, so they won't go after us.

The reason is two fold. One, it makes the assembly cheaper, much cheaper. There is actually better reliability on soldered parts, meaning again cheaper assembly (as less fail QC). Secondly, it allows for things to be made more portable.

I agree however there are a lot of negatives as a result, like many I would prefer at least not to have my SSD soldered. Although the computers are now more reliable being soldered, it is countered by the fact that if something should go wrong, you have to now replace the whole board. So in the end, was it worth it? I don't think so but it is what it is.

As for the BlackMagic GPU, it can't really be compared to say a Razer Core X with a RX580. It can't be upgraded due to it's propriety nature - and it's propriety nature is what allows it to be smaller while having good cooling - infact it is far quieter than if you DIY'd the same dGPU with a separate e-GPU enclosure. I do think they have missed a HUGE trick by not doing it to the Vega 56/64 GPU'S, the RX 580 isn't worth it.

 

Ask owners of 2011/2012 MBPs how that's worked out for them.

 

Hint: It didn't

-Former 15" MBP 2011 owner

 

That was down to poor soldering which couldn’t cope with heat changes. The process of soldered components is more reliable than socketed - but that doesn’t excuse poor workmanship. Apple have made many poor decisions over the years on various aspects - however we shouldn’t blame a valid engineering and design technique for the issues, but Apple alone.

It would be no different if they didn’t solder it but didn’t provide adequate cooling and let the card fry.

There are dozens of laptops with soldered Gpu’s which don’t suffer like the 2011/2012.

 

Is it? I would be willing to believe your claim if you provided some more info, as right now it sounds absurd

And yes, you are right on apples poor decisions

 

Best would be to google it as it’s an engineering principle - don’t really know if there is a dedicated article comparing them.

Here is one excerpt of it but there are probably many:

You avoid a whole manufacturing step a long with connectors which can fail, making it more reliable. This is in addition to cost and size benefits. I believe for example overall we have had less RAM failures for those which were soldered vs those which weren’t, but as said before I’d still prefer non-soldered not so much for upgradability reasons (which is one of it’s strength and how people have managed to bring life to 2008 MacBooks to be usable today) but that should there be a component failure, even if it’s more likely with socketed models, at least I can just replace that part and not half the laptop...

This forum has quite a huge anti-BGA base (aka those against soldered) and even they can’t argue reliability as being an issue, only repairability and upgradability.

 

That cost benefit is primarily for the company making the product. Size is a benefit to aesthetics but a detriment to performance, as we have seen with the Core i9 debacle, which has impacted pretty much all thin-and-lights that used it. If those soldered CPUs don't fail, they are still not performing to their advertised potential.

 

I am sure revenue was the main reason to do so - making it cheaper to produce and more attractive to market (thinner) will definitely have been what drove them to do it. Reliability however will also make cost lower (because less systems end up failing QC in the factory and even less due to RMA).

As for the Core i9 issue, I believe this was addressed by the patch some what - however we should note that the cooling in not just the MacBook Pro (but also say, the XPS 15) are built around handling a CPU load of ~45W. These new CPU's however use a hell of a lot of power and I don't believe any manufacturer actually addressed this with a new design/cooling system.

This doesn't excuse them as clearly they would have all had a chance to test the chips before selling them - they just decided to sell them anyway (not limited to Apple however).

Ignoring this years chips which clearly run far hotter than the norm, unlike in your desktop setups (where we can have it on full turbo boost 24/7), all thin premium laptops (heck even a lot of gaming laptops) only aim to run it at base clock speed indefinitely and not their boosted clock speed - by design.

 

Except by soldering everything, they have to create a new motherboard design for every configuration, and if something were to fail it would not be easily replacable, eventually ending up in more cost due to repairs when compenents eventually fail, and anyways soldering everything is just worse for consumers IMO

You are correct in that it was somewhat mildy addressed in a patch, but it still runs around 95C-100C at around base speeds, and only a few gaming laptops have actually addressed the 8950HK for what it truly is (a worse binned 8700)

 

I’m sure have costed it so that overall it costs them less factoring it all (otherwise they would have reverted it now rather than start soldering more now, such as the SSD - may God have mercy). I am certain that issues within warranty were caused by the more complicated engineering process.

Now, with the majority failing outside of warranty and they end up charging ~£800 for the repair, it’s no cost to them - and suddenly most end up buying a new laptop instead of fixing it due to absurd cost, further lining their pockets.

This is why I hate soldered laptops, I can already see a £800 bill before the 5 year mark where as before I may expect one thing to go bad with it being easily replaceable.

 

The update Apple released only addressed the issue within MacOS. There was no change in CPU behavior when running Windows via Boot Camp.

 

Yep, to the dismay of many users. With kernel panic issues and speaker crackling, not sure 2018 is worth investing in. The T2 chip issues haven’t been resolved it seems (same for iMac).

 

No Mac is ever worth investing in unless you require a MacOS enviroment, and still its a terrible experience.

 

My mid 2014 15” (non-dGPU version) was really nice.

 

Yes, but then you have the worse performance compared to a similar windows windows machine and the far, far, more expensive Apple tax, no upgradability, less I/O, and just honestly having to deal with MacOS and it's lack of software compared to Windows.
Although, the 2012 Unibody MacBooks are some of my favorite machines if I'm honest

 

At the time of purchse of my mid 2014, comparable laptops where either around the same price or more expensive. I could get cheaper but they wouldn't be as premium. It might be different now but back then, the top end Window laptops were hovering around £1,500-£2,000+. After discount, I believe I purchased mine for around £1400. Performance wise it wasn't any worse than the competitor as pretty much everyone is using the same chip, but I did have a superior battery size, screen, SSD compared to the Window laptops available at the time.

 

A shame they have fallen so far from that point

 

Prior to trying the Air in 2013, I had a Macbook 13 (2008) a/k/a "Blackbook" (cool for the time but overpriced at $1500 for what it was) and I was looking for a Windows ultrabook to run Windows or Linux. I bought a couple Asus Zenbook ultrabooks ($500) and did not care for the hardware: keyboards, touchpad were inferior and the hinges would often no stay up properly from the weight of the metal display chassis it seemed. I tried sending them back, but the refurbs were just as bad. I tried a Dell XPS, Samsung ultrabook from a colleague, and a Sony Vaio (all $800-$1100). Performance was OK but various things about each chassis, wifi, touchpad, or keyboard bothered me to the point I was 100% of the time using an external keyboard and mouse if I bothered to use it at all. The next bump up was $1500-$1700 to get something premium but I didn't want to spend that much especially not on something with planned obsolesce or to get a high-end Thinkpad.

I re-evaluated the Air while I was at Microcenter one day. I was basically trying to find the Windows/Linux "clone" of a Air or another premium computer to save money or get better performance and I wasn't finding it. I ultimately chose the Air 11 over the Macbook Pros. I didn't buy the absolute base model (i5/2GB RAM/64GB SSD/11 inch) but the one up for $50 more (i5/4GB/128GB) which was "enough" and avoided overspending to get i7 or 8GB+ or 256GB+ or a larger chassis. That $ would be better served in my desktop (processing power, I/O, expansion, etc) . For what I need out of a computer I was right.

When choosing a Mac laptop it is too easy to overspend and end up with something that is a good cost/usefulness benefit. At that is individual to each person. So I don't disagree with that premise. But I don't agree that all Apple products are overpriced relative to their completion -- at least back in 2013 -- if you are were smart buyer. I do agree that they don't build them like that anymore (keyboards, mag safe, etc). I still use my MacBook Air 11 (2012) almost every day.

 

Very much my experience back in 2014. Everything that could even come close to the MacBook was not cheaper. I had an excel sheet with all the different options with pros and cons. A lot of them immediately failed to have anything near the battery life offered by the MacBook (99.5Wh on the 15”). I even compared it to Windows laptops £500 more and they still came up short one way or another.

It is true that you may get more specs for your money, but this is a laptop so the screen, battery life, trackpad, keyboard, sound, size and weight, materials etc all mattered and it was well ahead of Windows at the time. Even as a .Net developer, I ended up with a MacBook (and used parallels for Windows) due to this.

I think after 2015 Window really catched up to Apple, and when Apple failed in 2016 to create a proper upgraded (imo), Apple were no longer worth the money. Windows laptops are now far ahead.

 

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To be honest I think BGA is still mostly a cost/size measure and probably because there aren't any standard sockets for graphics processors yet short of using a PCI-E card.

BGA in my opinion is not always great for reliability. Socketed connections are generally friction fit, which means there's a little leeway to move with varying temperature. BGA soldered components cannot do this, and instead put mechanical stress on the soldering when heated. Over time this can cause failures, and yes this still happens on modern hardware, but the failures are simply spread out across all kinds of stuff that uses BGAs.