eGPU support on Apple Silicon?

We are spending a lot of time optimizing or Metal work for discrete graphics cards and external GPUs with eGPU support. Is this going to be something Apple Silicon will support since Thunderbolt 3 won't be part of these machines? I am worried.
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dstimm
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Sorry, we cannot comment about future software or hardware products. But we’d love to hear more about the optimization work you’ve been doing or questions you have about that.

And although they don’t address your question, here’s where you’ll find sessions about using Metal with the Apple Silicon Mac:
Bring your Metal app to Apple Silicon Macs
Optimize Metal Performance for Apple Silicon Macs
Mac Developer Transition Kit
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Graphics and Games Engineer
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Late reply, but Thunderbolt 3 *is* going to be part of future Macs, it's just not part of the DTK.

Search for "thunderbolt arm Macs" for several links.
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funwithstuff
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For the record (and now since M1 units are released), Thunderbolt 3 is supported but not eGPU. The M1 SOC does not support external graphics processors as of macOS 11.0. Moreover apparently the corresponding eGPU kernel extensions are present and installed in the operating system partition, but only compiled for Intel.


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adib
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By chance is there any update on eGPU support coming to Apple Silicon?

I badly need CUDA but because I can't attach an external Nvidia card I'm forced to use a PC.

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smcleod
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  • Regardless of eGPU support, Apple's intel Macs stopped supporting Nvidia around High Sierra due to conflicts between the companies. The Mac will recognize the card, but not be able to use due to kernel counter-drivers. However, intel Macs support AMD cards. Apple will never provide support for your Nvidia card, unfortunately for you.

    —
    -Cement-World-
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Can you update on when or if ever the M1 macs will get eGPU support? The GPU cores in the Mac Studio are not fast enough alone for any 3D work. Thanks

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LukeXBB
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No thunderbolt 3 dock offers the display output options, especially for high refresh rate external displays as a eGpu, even if the external GPU would only be used as a charger + monitor output dock, it would make the user experience of a M1 MacBook Pro with multiple high refresh rate external displays so much easier. Please consider eGpu support on Apple Silicon for user experience alone, sure performance is important too but don’t think of eGpu as a performance only upgrade. As a developer a multi monitor setup high frame rate should be possible with one cable, currently on Apple Silicon Macs it’s not possible.

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XavierGadgets
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@XavierGadgets M1 macs can support plenty of monitors. I run three on my Mac Studio. The problem is you need at least an M1 Max or the 14" which has an HDMI port so that you can run two monitors. I run a 360Hz 1080p monitor, a 240Hz 1440p monitor, and a 60Hz 1440p monitor. All refresh rates work fine except the 360Hz one, it caps at 240Hz (likely OS limited)

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LittleMetal
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Hi there,

You might have better luck asking this question over in Apple Support Communities run by Apple Support.

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Sunny_Apple
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