Contribute
Register

Apple has stopped providing standalone updaters in macOS Big Sur

Status
Not open for further replies.
I was about to buy M1 Mac mini then I realized the EGPU did not work with it, that slowed me down for a second then I looked at the tires on my 4-Runner and realized I needed to replace them, then the new contract is not going to come in till after the new year so the extra funds were not available so I have not ordered and put it off.

It will be interesting to see if Apple will just continue using their own GPUs or tap AMD again. If I had to bet, I would put my money on them going it alone. They do love having full control of the entire widget. I suspect eGPUs are going the way of the dodo.
 
It will be interesting to see if Apple will just continue using their own GPUs or tap AMD again. If I had to bet, I would put my money on them going it alone. They do love having full control of the entire widget. I suspect eGPUs are going the way of the dodo.

I do not even mind that if they have a GPU that competes, sure they beat intel onboard and a RX560 but that is not enough for me :( I tested my sister's M1 Macbook Air with Twinmotion and it only gets about 8fps and runs really choppy maybe that is because it is not native ARM. The hack pulls about 60 FPS and moves very fluid. It is my primary rendering software so it is integral to my work.
 
I'm also trying to control my spending... The pandemic lockdowns in New York is bankrupting our bar so I lost one my income streams. Hopefully, by the time second gen comes around, things will be back to normal.
and @scottkendall

Well it's no consolation, I know, but having to support a family I usually have to sell old stuff before I can justify any new stuff. (Sold a laptop this time along with the iMac). The best part about the M1 acquisition was that over here it was about £100 less to buy the M1 Mac Mini than the previous i3 3.6 4-core. No contest as they say.

As for graphics performance. I've only tested seriously on a Unity-based 3D game and it was easily as smooth as my RX570 i5 Hack. Zero problems being Intel running through Rosetta too. But I can imagine for pro use you would need much more available VRAM. I think the M1 is so good because there are no bottle-necks and everything is on the same die. Quite how it reportedly betters the latest Mac Pro is honestly a mystery to me. I've no way to test or compare.
 
I do not even mind that if they have a GPU that competes, sure they beat intel onboard and a RX560 but that is not enough for me :( I tested my sister's M1 Macbook Air with Twinmotion and it only gets about 8fps and runs really choppy maybe that is because it is not native ARM. The hack pulls about 60 FPS and moves very fluid. It is my primary rendering software so it is integral to my work.

I'm confident they will be showing systems with much better GPUs. I think that even simply switching to dedicated VRAM (maybe GDDR6X?) will yield significant improvements.
 
Max's brother in this video on the Arm Mac Pro says AMD is going the way of Nvidia. Not to be found in any new Macs.

 
It will be interesting to see if Apple will just continue using their own GPUs or tap AMD again. If I had to bet, I would put my money on them going it alone. They do love having full control of the entire widget. I suspect eGPUs are going the way of the dodo.
Getting the M1 compatible is a big focus. No eGPU is a big deal since these have been gaining popularity for laptop and mini owners. Of course, they are probably gong to keep things scarce for awhile like AMD and Nvidia to keep the older stock items moving off the shelves.
 
Max's brother in this video on the Arm Mac Pro says AMD is going the way of Nvidia. Not to be found in any new Macs.


Good stuff. Very logical predictions.
 
Getting the M1 compatible is a big focus. No eGPU is a big deal since these have been gaining popularity for laptop and mini owners. Of course, they are probably gong to keep things scarce for awhile like AMD and Nvidia to keep the older stock items moving off the shelves.

I really don't think they will waste time writing drivers for Apple Silicon. I think it would make more sense for them to just improve the GPUs on the SoC.
 
I really don't think they will waste time writing drivers for Apple Silicon. I think it would make more sense for them to just improve the GPUs on the SoC.

That highlights an interesting question ...

With there being effectively two versions of Big Sur - Intel and Apple Silicon - do they both have the same driver bases or are all those legacy NVidia and AMD cards that were native to Intel macOs missing in the AS version? Well I can see AMD7,8,9,10k kexts, Geforce GL and NVDAHal kexts too. So that looks like they are still there. But perhaps they are just inactive ... ?
 
That highlights an interesting question ...

With there being effectively two versions of Big Sur - Intel and Apple Silicon - do they both have the same driver bases or are all those legacy NVidia and AMD cards that were native to Intel macOs missing in the AS version? Well I can see AMD7,8,9,10k kexts, Geforce GL and NVDAHal kexts too. So that looks like they are still there. But perhaps they are just inactive ... ?

I don't know why those drivers are in the Apple Silicon version of Big Sur... They obviously do nothing since attempts at using eGPU on M1 Macs have not worked.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top