It also means that highly demanding games can be played at maximum resolution on Mac – something that current Macs struggle with or can’t handle.Īlthough there are other innovative gaming solutions like NVIDIA’s GeForce Now, they don’t compare to the advantages of having an eGPU box connected to your Mac.Īn eGPU allows you to play graphics intensive games at maximum frame rates just as if you were playing it on a PC – even on older Macs as long as they have a Thunderbolt 3 port.
Unless you have one of the new Apple silicon M1 Macs or one of the iMac Pros then an eGPU is a good investment to enhance the graphic processing capabilities of your Mac.Īn eGPU unit can turn your humble MacBook Pro or MacBook Air into a powerful desktop gaming system or 4K video editing system capable of competing with the very best.Īdvanced 3D graphics platforms such as NVIDIA CUDA, which are way beyond the capabilities of current Macs, suddenly become accessible with an eGPU. However, although there are many eGPUs on the market, not all are Mac compatible. With the introduction of super fast Thunderbird 3 ports on Macs and eGPU compatibility in the latest versions of macOS Monterey, Big Sur and Catalina, you can finally accelerate 3D graphics in Metal and OpenCL using an eGPU.Īn eGPU is essential to keep up with the demands of the latest games, graphic intensive applications and meet the demands of Virtual Reality (VR) games or Augmented Reality (AR).
I could buy a less expensive computer, and have an external device for power when I need it. I originally thought having an eGPU would be a great idea. Why having an eGPU is symptomatic of a larger problem That said, the Core X suffers from some of the same issues all eGPUs suffer. I was never distracted or irritated by the sound. You can still hear the fan when it's powered on, but to me it sounds like white noise.
It's about a foot long, half a foot tall, and only a few inches wide. It's not "tiny" by any means, but it's just big enough to store your graphics card and power it. Keep in mind, you still need to buy a graphics card separately for the enclosure, and those can be very expensive - as in, hundreds of dollars, and sometimes close to $1,000. This might sound expensive, but believe it or not this is actually on the low end for eGPU prices.