Apple’s New ARM-Based Macs Don’t Support External GPUs

[Tsing]

Image: Apple



Apple impressed the computing world yesterday by unveiling its latest lineup of MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Mac mini products, which will go down in history as the first to leverage the company’s ARM-based M1 SoC. Some readers have already discovered a glaring oversight, however: they don’t support external GPUs.



As AppleInsider and social media users have discovered, M1 Macs will only be able to leverage their chip’s integrated graphics, which, while relatively impressive (eight cores, 2.6 teraflops of throughput), can’t compete with discrete solutions.



This makes the new MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Mac mini difficult pills...

Continue reading...

 

[Uvilla]

They basically made an arm based console.

 

[Space_Ranger]

So the iGPU for the ARM CPUs are capable of video encoding and processing on the stage with nVidia and AMD's GPU? Who'd have thunk it?

 

[Zarathustra]

So the iGPU for the ARM CPUs are capable of video encoding and processing on the stage with nVidia and AMD's GPU? Who'd have thunk it?

I'm not up to speed with this product launch, but Apple has from what I have read previously included special purpose ASIC's in their ARM SoC's for things like this. So it's probably not GPU based, it's much more efficient special purpose ASIC based.

I'm not a fan of the ASIC strategy as using highly specific hardware limits flexibility, and may force premature upgrades when tasks and standards change, but it is certainly one way of doing things. The benefits are that specialty ASIC's are much more efficient at completing their tasks than doing it in general purpose CPU processing or GPU's.

Also, keep in mind, these are Apple's own designs based on ARM. Who knows what type of GPU capabilities they include. They are probably not going to wow any of us any time soon, but they may not suck for casual desktop use.

Either way, I'm into the tech because I like building and customizing things, not because I like premade packages, so this is not for me.

 

[Brian_B]

Either way, I'm into the tech because I like building and customizing things, not because I like premade packages, so this is not for me.

My personal computers - this 100%

For work though, it's either Mac or Linux - they take a bit of fiddling to get set up, but once you do they are rock solid. I have more trouble with goddam Microsoft accounts and auto-updates than anything at work.

So I am cautiously optimistic about these new ARM models. I think the fact they don't support eGPUs is not a deal breaker for my use case, but I could see some content creators getting snubbed by that. I am surprised the Pro model at least doesn't support it, but I would bet by the time the Pro desktop model gets revamped (in 8 years or so) it will get support for discrete and possibly eGPUs. It's not like anyone was buying a Mac to game on in the first place.

 

[Zarathustra]

My personal computers - this 100%

For work though, it's either Mac or Linux - they take a bit of fiddling to get set up, but once you do they are rock solid. I have more trouble with goddam Microsoft accounts and auto-updates than anything at work.

So I am cautiously optimistic about these new ARM models. I think the fact they don't support eGPUs is not a deal breaker for my use case, but I could see some content creators getting snubbed by that. I am surprised the Pro model at least doesn't support it, but I would bet by the time the Pro desktop model gets revamped (in 8 years or so) it will get support for discrete and possibly eGPUs. It's not like anyone was buying a Mac to game on in the first place.

I love linux. But I run it on a custom built systems.

I've always hated prebuilt boxes.

I've never worked anywhere that used Macs.

I'm on my 9th company post college at this point.

7 of them issued Dell Latitude D or E series laptops with docking stations to everyone.

1 of them issued HP Laptops to everyone.

1 of them was a startup, and used whatever computers they could affordably get their hands on. In my case it was a Dell XPS laptop.


Only time I've ever seen a Mac in the workplace was when some pissy executive demanded special treatment from IT.

 

[Endgame]

I love linux. But I run it on a custom built systems.

I've always hated prebuilt boxes.

I've never worked anywhere that used Macs.

I'm on my 9th company post college at this point.

7 of them issued Dell Latitude D or E series laptops with docking stations to everyone.

1 of them issued HP Laptops to everyone.

1 of them was a startup, and used whatever computers they could affordably get their hands on. In my case it was a Dell XPS laptop.


Only time I've ever seen a Mac in the workplace was when some pissy executive demanded special treatment from IT.

I'm on my 3rd Fortune 100 after college. IT has typically been split 50/50 between Macbook Pros and Windows Laptops, though my current job with my current team is more like 80% mac and 20% windows. The windows boxes have historically been the cheapest possible laptops at the time (I've had Lenovo, Toshiba, Dell, and HP assigned at one point or another) .

Given that these devices are treated like an appliance, its hard to beat the Mac. The hardware, such as the screen and battery, is always light years better than the random junk laptop, and its almost always a better processor (I have an i3 in my current work laptop).

 

[Zarathustra]

Given that these devices are treated like an appliance, its hard to beat the Mac. The hardware, such as the screen and battery, is always light years better than the random junk laptop, and its almost always a better processor (I have an i3 in my current work laptop).

I'm curious. May I ask what industry this is?

 

[Brian_B]

Given that these devices are treated like an appliance, its hard to beat the Mac. The hardware, such as the screen and battery, is always light years better than the random junk laptop, and its almost always a better processor (I have an i3 in my current work laptop).

I would say - the run of the mill Mac will tend to have better hardware than a run-of-the-mill commodity laptop. But you can almost always get a better PC laptop than you can even a max-spec'ed Mac. A lot of companies, mine included, will get the junk laptops because they are cheaper, and then wonder why they are underpowered and break all the time....

But yeah, it's really hard to beat longevity of Mac hardware - it just tends to hold up well.

 

[Zarathustra]

I would say - the run of the mill Mac will tend to have better hardware than a run-of-the-mill commodity laptop. But you can almost always get a better PC laptop than you can even a max-spec'ed Mac. A lot of companies, mine included, will get the junk laptops because they are cheaper, and then wonder why they are underpowered and break all the time....

But yeah, it's really hard to beat longevity of Mac hardware - it just tends to hold up well.

I have found that high end Dell Latitude's, are usually just as good as MacBook pro's (and usually easier to service)

They also cost about the same.

I'd never use a consumer laptop in the workplace.

 

[Riccochet]

We run Dell Precision's. They've been pretty **** solid.

Mac's just aren't ideal in healthcare. Everything is tailored to run on Windows. Providers are the worst about that. They buy an expensive Macbook Pro and expect everyone and everything to conform to their choice. Then they get pissed when they're informed that they'll need to buy VMWare Fusion and Windows to run on their Mac, or pay for RDP licensing.

 

[Stoly]

I haven't seen many macs in business since I was in college. And I'm taking about Mac SE and Mac II

I've been doing IT outsourcing support for decades (always wanted to say that)

Almost everywhere I go its a macbook for some top executive or a designer. The rest are mostly Dell or HP. Heck I've been to a few design companies and most of then don't even use macs anymore they've actually switched to ipads.

 

[Burticus]

I work in IT for a software company. It's 75% PC and 25% mac laptops. And EVERY SINGLE TIME someone has VPN problems of software issues... it's the mac people. I get so tired of listening to these guys whine on meetings... "oh but this doesn't work right, and XYZ blah blah".... even our mgmt has told them to STFU during meetings. Some have gone so far as to have been issued TWO laptops, one mac and one PC. And when they whine about VPN, we immediately shut them down... "but does it work on the PC? Oh it does? Oh ok then....."

 

[Brian_B]

I work in IT for a software company. It's 75% PC and 25% mac laptops. And EVERY SINGLE TIME someone has VPN problems of software issues... it's the mac people. I get so tired of listening to these guys whine on meetings... "oh but this doesn't work right, and XYZ blah blah".... even our mgmt has told them to STFU during meetings. Some have gone so far as to have been issued TWO laptops, one mac and one PC. And when they whine about VPN, we immediately shut them down... "but does it work on the PC? Oh it does? Oh ok then....."

This is true. I have a ton of problems with VPN/Citrix Desktop type stuff on OS X. I have a Windows VMWare image just for running those things when I need them.

 

[Endgame]

I'm curious. May I ask what industry this is?

Currently, tech. Previously finance and insurance.

 

[Endgame]

This is true. I have a ton of problems with VPN/Citrix Desktop type stuff on OS X. I have a Windows VMWare image just for running those things when I need them.

Cisco vpn seems to work just fine. When you need to triple ssh tunnel though a bastion and a jump host to hit a target Linux box, and need pkcs11 keys tied to a yubi key... god it’s a PITA on windows - in Mac you can just drop to a command prompt, setup a ssh config and press the key.

 

[Riccochet]

I agree. Cisco Anyconnect has not given me any issues on Mac's. Neither has the Microsoft RDP client.

The bigger issue is clients that don't know their own Apple account info to get these things installed.

 

[LazyGamer]

We have iPhones for everyone... and Latitude laptops or Precision laptops issued. Bought a Latitude on sale, used for a few weeks, and returned for an XPS; can't fault the Latitude for build quality or ease to work on, they've definitely got that part down, it's the archaic touchpad setup that bothered me. Most people have them connected to TB docks and their desk setup so I assume complaints are low, or they just don't know any better.

As for these ARM Macs, more power to them. Apple has always been in the business of 'appliance' computers, it's like computing but with training wheels that don't come off. As an enthusiast that's a downer but for products that are generally designed to just work, it's hard to fault. I can say that I'm certainly attracted by the idea of a laptop with Apple's ergonomic standards and several days of battery life under normal usage myself.

 

[rat]

The windows boxes have historically been the cheapest possible laptops at the time (I've had Lenovo, Toshiba, Dell, and HP assigned at one point or another) .

Given that these devices are treated like an appliance, its hard to beat the Mac. The hardware, such as the screen and battery, is always light years better than the random junk laptop, and its almost always a better processor (I have an i3 in my current work laptop).

Given that the windows machines have been the cheapest possible laptops at the time...

If you were to even out the playing field by allowing a windows laptop to cost as much as a Mac laptop does...

It's quite easy to beat the Mac then.

Gotta love it, "Cheapest windows laptop vs a Macbook, OMG I can't see why windows laptops suck!"

 

[Brian_B]

Given that the windows machines have been the cheapest possible laptops at the time...

If you were to even out the playing field by allowing a windows laptop to cost as much as a Mac laptop does...

It's quite easy to beat the Mac then.

Gotta love it, "Cheapest windows laptop vs a Macbook, OMG I can't see why windows laptops suck!"

I don't think anyone is arguing that PC laptops don't exist that can compete with Apple. They certainly do.

I think most of us are just complaining that our workplaces won't furnish them to us, because they only look at the sticker price.