Apple today announced M1, the most powerful chip it has ever created and the first chip designed specifically for the Mac. Of note is that Macs with Apple’s M1 chip do not support eGPUs.
M1 is optimized for Mac systems in which small size and power efficiency are critically important. As a system on a chip (SoC), M1 combines numerous powerful technologies into a single chip, and features a unified memory architecture for dramatically improved performance and efficiency.
Apple’s first Macs built around its self-developed SoC do not support eGPUs, Apple tells TechCrunch. It’s unclear exactly where the incompatibility begins; does the M1 chip itself not play friendly with eGPUs, or is it something else about the three new Macs announced today?
Consumers have long turned to these external graphics cards to give computers a dramatic boost in memory-intensive tasks. eGPUs allow laptops or underpowered desktops to punch out of their weight class. In particular, Apple’s past laptops were known for having substantial RAM and processing power but lacking in graphical processing power. Likewise, users have found that a past-generation Mac Mini with extra RAM and an eGPU can match a Mac Pro’s performance for a fraction of the price — that’s not currently possible with the just-announced Macs.
MacDailyNews Note: Apple today said that their M1 SoC delivers up to 6x faster GPU performance vs. the previous gen. Intel-based Macs. The GPU in M1 is in a class by itself. Featuring up to eight powerful cores capable of running nearly 25,000 threads simultaneously, the GPU can handle extremely demanding tasks with ease, from smooth playback of multiple 4K video streams to rendering complex 3D scenes. With 2.6 teraflops of throughput, M1 has the world’s fastest integrated graphics in a personal computer.