So 698 for a 580 and eGPU enclosure?
If you aren't a developer, and don't have a developer friend who could just buy it for you, then yes. I doubt that there will be much of a resale market for these unless Apple underestimates demand and doesn't feel bothered to keep supply up (a dubious proposition IMO since - with what I know - Apple very seriously wants to own a significant portion of the AR space).
So, not really a deal, but hardly the worst in terms of pricing. And this assumes that no other docks or graphics cards will work, which I don't expect to be true. I'm actually really excited to see what happens in this space in the coming months.
I get that, i have deep Apple nerd feelings going waaaaay back. I do wonder if this is a path that leads to Apple selling 1st party enclosures (and aimed at pro or consumer) or if its something they will just seed to 3rd party vendors. I can see plausible arguments for either or none.
Yeah, I have no idea to tell you the truth. Nor do I have strong feelings as to whether or not I'd prefer a world in which they did or didn't participate. My main concern would be that they very likely wouldn't want such a solution to be user-upgradable since it would require a lot of design/manufacturing concessions, would put downward pressure on hardware sales, and wouldn't placate Intel the way a non-upgradeable dock would. As such, my expectation is that they'll just do a good job of providing robust hard/software support but otherwise let the 3rd party market deal with selling actual docks.
(I would be a fan of that way of doing things, FWIW.)
One other idea (that I have no insight into and is just conjecture): I think it would be very interesting if Apple's eventual replacement for the Thunderbolt monitor would be a display that had a GPU incorporated into it (either optionally or not). When you think about it, it would be a better solution for most than a discrete GPU dock since it accomplishes the same goal but adds perceptibly no additional space or cable clutter, relative to having an external monitor setup to begin with. Further, it would let laptops like the MacBook (which have really limited GPU power) easily render these incredibly high resolution screens that they're being connected to nowadays, yet keep the added bulk and power requirements demanded by a desktop-class GPU secluded to the non-mobile monitor (where it doesn't really matter much).
Honestly, if I were Razer, that's what I would be building if I weren't already - a monitor with integrated GPU. That would sell like hotcakes IMO.
