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My first order of business was to test video exporting with and without the eGPU. When I first unboxed the eGPU, I thought I'd just plug it into my 2017 top-of-the-line 15-inch MacBook Pro (2.9GHz Intel Core i7 processor, 16GB of RAM, Intel HD Graphics 630, and Radeon Pro 560 discrete GPU with 4GB of VRAM) running the latest version of macOS High Sierra and - BOOM - faster graphics performance. It still lights up, and you still get the menu-bar icon. Even worse, when it's connected and not working, there's absolutely no way to tell (unless you're looking at the Activity Monitor or doing rigorous testing like me). My main beef with Blackmagic's eGPU isn't just that it's expensive or that the GPU is non-upgradeable, but that there are a whole lot checkboxes you need to tick off to get it to actually work. Also, on your Mac, the eGPU symbol appears in the menu bar. The only way to know if the eGPU is on and connected properly is the white LED down below, which lights up when its in use. Noticeably missing on the eGPU is a power button. The only indicator the eGPU is on is this light. (Don't daisy chain them, though, because that will overload the port, according to the company's FAQ.) I didn't get to test multiple Blackmagic eGPUs (I only had one to play with), but keep in mind that an app also needs to support multiple GPUs (external or not) in order for it to access the extra power.

If you need even more graphics performance, you can also connect multiple Blackmagic eGPUs directly to each of your Mac's Thunderbolt 3 ports. The Radeon Pro 580's not bad (it's the same one in the 2017 5K 27-inch iMac), but its performance still pales in comparison to NVIDIA's GTX 1080 and is nowhere as powerful as the AMD Radeon Pro Vega GPUs inside of the iMac Pro. This non-upgradeability severely limits its usefulness if you want more power down the road. Unlike other eGPUs such as the Razer Core, you can't swap the GPU. The almost 10-pound eGPU houses a non-upgradeable AMD Radeon Pro 580 graphics processor with 8GB of VRAM.

Review: The new MacBook Pro packs serious power, but only for a select fewīut first, some basics.