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Comment by moloch | Hacker News Reader

I really want the GPU performance, my mid-2014 MBP can only output to a 4k monitor @30hz

Use display port instead of HDMI. I have a Late-2013 and there's a huge difference between DP and HDMI.

This. I regularly drive my 4K monitor at 60hz from my personal rMBP (2013 with dGPU) and work rMBP (2015 without dGPU). Interestingly the first MBP to DP cable I used didn't work, but the second did.

Hijacking the thread to complain about DP!

Ports are way too wobbly unless you use your laptop as desktop. I love ability of using 2 external displays with MacBook keyboard and trackpad just right there in the center. But move the computer a centimeter and displays disconnect. Moderately painful!

You should look into thunderbolt external GPUs. The discrete GPUs in apple laptops have traditionally been out of date, out of the box.

Good enough for a lot of people, but if it matters to you, and you really want a mac, perhaps the external GPU is the option for you.

The technology is really not there yet. I have been considering changing my setup to a 13.3 light notebook with long battery life + an external GPU, but I'm still waiting on the technology to become mature.

Have you looked into Razor thing? They claim full PCI utilization, if I'm not mistaken.

You mean the Razer Core? It looks like it's announced on their website but not actually on sale.

EIT: It is actually on sale, but US-only (hence why I couldn't see it with UK settings).

There are no mass-market thunderbolt GPUs with fully-functional mac drivers at this point, are there? I've been looking and at best there are unsupported hacks.

An external Thunderbolt 2 GPU will only run at the equivalent of PCI x4, while Thunderbolt 3 eGPUs will do enough bandwidth to have full GPU performance. eGPU driver support was added to macOS Sierra, so hopefully the new Macbook Pros with USB-C / Thunderbolt 3 will support eGPUs nicely.

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