Cheapest Egpu Setup For Mac

admin

Touch Bar MacBook Pro Q&A

Update Published November 18, 2019

The $299 Razer Core X offers a bigger chassis, perfect for installing massive GPUs like. The Core X will be one of Razer's first eGPUs to play nice with Macs. Value: At $299, the Core X is Razer's most affordable eGPU.

All Mac Q&As >>Touch Bar MacBook Pro Q&A (Home)

To be notified of new Q&As, sign up for EveryMac.com's bimonthly email list.

If you find this page useful, please Bookmark & Share it. Thank you.



What is an eGPU? What is the advantage of an eGPU? Do the 'Touch Bar' MacBook Pro models support one? Which is best for me?

An eGPU -- or external Graphics Processing Unit -- essentially is a graphics card in a box connected to a computer.

In the past, it was common for a Mac user to buy a tower Mac and install a faster or additional graphics card in an internal expansion slot to improve performance. When this Q&A was first written, the last Mac with support for third-party video cards was the tower Mac Pro last updated back in 2012. Thankfully, with the new 2019 Mac Pro, it is again possible to upgrade the video card in a desktop Mac.

For those who like the idea of upgradable notebook Macs, the Thunderbolt 3 port also provides a faint glimmer of hope. Thunderbolt 3 is fast enough to connect external devices at speeds that once were limited to internal upgrades and opens more options. Thunderbolt 3 still can be slower than internal connections, though.

Advantages & Disadvantages of eGPUs

An eGPU, or effectively any external upgrade, has two main advantages over internal ones -- they are simpler to connect and setup and can be easily re-deployed, even temporarily. In an office, for example, an eGPU could be used on one computer for video editing and popped over to another one to finish a rendering project.

Internal upgrades have the general advantages of being smaller, cheaper, and not contributing to clutter on a desk. They do require at least marginally more effort for installation, although Apple historically has had some great case designs that made upgrades easy.

From the single thumbscrew Macintosh II in 1987 to the 'fold down door' Power Mac G3 (Blue & White) in 1999 and the Unibody MacBook and MacBook Pro models in 2008, Apple has released plenty of easy-to-upgrade Macs. There is no particular need for internal upgrades to be difficult if a computer is well designed and the return to a better design as reflected by the 2019Mac Pro is wonderful.

Apple's Preferred eGPU

Apple's preferred eGPU for the Touch Bar MacBook Pro -- or any Mac that has Thunderbolt 3 ports and is running macOS 10.13.6 (High Sierra) or newer -- is the Blackmagic Design eGPU.


Photo Credit: Blackmagic Design (Touch Bar MBP - Left, eGPU - Right)

Codesigned by Apple and Blackmagic, this eGPU is arguably attractive and less arguably quiet (18 db). It also includes a rear-mounted integrated hub with four USB 3.0 (USB-A) ports, two Thunderbolt 3 ports, and an HDMI port.

Unfortunately, it is not possible to upgrade the internal Radeon Pro 580 GPU with a faster or alternate option now or down the road, which you might find to defeat the purpose of upgrades entirely. It is essentially a non-upgradable upgrade.

The always excellent ArsTechnica has an in-depth review of the Blackmagic Design eGPU that you may wish to read, as well.

Third-Party eGPU Options

There are a number of third-party eGPU options. None of these report specific noise volume, so it is best to assume that they are louder, and none include a hub of ports, but they cost significantly less and all support standard video cards that can be upgraded.

Three good options include the AKiTiO Node and OWC Mercury Helios FX 650, from site sponsor OWC, and the Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box, from site sponsor Adorama.


Photo Credit: OWC (Left); Sonnet (Right)

Make sure that the eGPU box you want to purchase provides sufficient power to drive your desired video card in addition to charging your Mac at the same time.

The AKiTiO supports 400W; the OWC supports 650W; and the Sonnet is available in 350W, 550W and 650W variants.

Supported Video Cards

Universal forwarder windows. Universal Forwarder Support for Mac OSX 10.13? I noticed on the download page that Splunk Enterprise is supported on OSX 10.13 but the Universal Forwarder is not. Setting aside the kerfuffle caused by the new OSX logging mechanisms, is there any reason not to use UF 7.1.1 on OSX 10.13?

Apple provides a helpful list of video cards that are formally supported with the macOS and an eGPU box.

These video cards require an eGPU that provides 350W or more of power:

  • AMD Radeon RX 470
  • AMD Radeon RX 480
  • AMD Radeon RX 570
  • AMD Radeon RX 580
  • AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100

These require at least 550W of power:

  • AMD Radeon RX Vega 56
  • Sapphire Vega 56
  • XFX Vega 56

These require at least 650W of power:

  • AMD Radeon RX Vega 64
  • AMD Radeon Pro WX 9100
  • AMD Radeon RX 5700*
  • AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT*
  • AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT 50th Anniversary*
  • Vega Frontier Edition Air

* Note that these graphics cards also require a Mac running macOS Catalina 10.15.1 or newer. All of these other graphics cards only require a Mac running macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 or newer.

By evaluating the eGPU box options and the supported video cards, you can find the best option for you.

In the US, site sponsor OWC sells the AKiTiO Node and the OWC Mercury Helios FX 650 ready for you to install a video card or with a bundled Radeon RX 580. Site sponsor Adorama sells all versions of the Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box.

In Australia, site sponsor Macfixit sells the OWC Mercury Helios FX 650, as well.


Permalink E-mail a Friend Bookmark & Share Report an Error/Typo


Suggest a New Q&A Sign Up for Bimonthly Site Update Notices


<< Touch Bar MacBook Pro Q&A (Main) All Mac Q&As


EveryMac.com is provided 'as is' without warranty of any kind whatsoever. EveryMac.com, and the author thereof, shall not be held responsible or liable, under any circumstances, for any damages resulting from the use or inability to use the information within. For complete disclaimer and copyright information please read and understand the Terms of Use and the Privacy Policy before using EveryMac.com. Use of any content or images without expressed permission is not allowed, although links to any page are welcomed and appreciated.

Need to run applications using Windows and a powerful eGPU? Here's one way to do it!

Apple enabled eGPU functionality seemingly eons ago to make macOS a fully functional development platform for AR and VR. Sometimes, however, users might need to boot in Windows to test, compare, and simply run certain applications. Apple's hardware can make things problematic with this in mind. Adding hardware peripherals on a Windows-based PC is pretty straightforward. Adding hardware peripherals to a Mac running Windows is another matter. Now that eGPUs have been available for quite some time on macOS, things have improved. And since Microsoft has released an eGPU friendlier update to Windows 10 (update 1803), you can now take some 'easier' steps to get your eGPU to function on your Mac whilst running BootCamp.

Install Windows with BootCamp

First, you need to install Windows via BootCamp. For detailed information on how to do that follow our how-to guide. Make certain you perform this step without the eGPU attached.

Prepare your Mac for special boot options

For our next steps, we will assume you are familiar with Disk Utility. If you need more information, please take the time to understand the basics of the application before using it. It can seriously bork your system to an unrecoverable state. You've been warned! Once you have Windows installed at the most basic level (no need to worry about updates yet), reboot into macOS. You can do this by:

  1. Hold down the option key on your keyboard while powering on the machine.
  2. You'll see some boot options that you can select. Select the Macintosh HD.
  3. Hit return.

Once in macOS:

  1. Start Disk Utility.
  2. Create a new APFS Partition. It needn't be large but I made mine around 6GB so I can easily store boot files on it but a small 80MB size would do just fine.
  3. Name the partition EFI.

In order for us to be able to use the eGPU, we'll need to trick the hardware into thinking we are starting up in macOS when in reality we'll be starting it up into Windows. A utility will be needed during boot time to allow for the Intel GPU to be enabled. Although my MacBook Pro also has a secondary more powerful dGPU onboard, for some reason, the Radeon 560 GPU when paired with the eGPU causes system locks and blue screens. This will be our workaround.

  1. Navigate to https://github.com/0xbb/apple_set_os.efi/releases.
  2. Download the latest version of apple_set_os.efi.

Now we must set up the file structure to be able to be properly read by Mac's boot manager.

  1. Open terminal.
  2. Type cd /Volumes/EFI. This is the partition we set up earlier.
  3. Type mkdir efi.
  4. Hit enter.
  5. Type mkdir efi/boot.
  6. Hit enter.

Next, we must copy the apple_set_os.efi file we download to the newly created directory structure we just created. I'm assuming you still have the same terminal application open as stated in the previous steps. Otherwise, ensure you're in the /Volumes/EFI directory.

  1. Type cp ~/Downloads/apple_set_os.efi efi/boot/bootx64.efi
  2. Hit enter.

Restart into Windows using the new EFI boot option

Similar to the way we booted into macOS, we'll now need to boot into Windows using our utility.

  1. Power off your Mac.
  2. Power on your Mac whilst holding the option key.
  3. Select EFI boot.
  4. Hit enter.

You'll now start back up into Windows with all of your connected GPUs visible to the OS. However, the non-Intel dGPU in your MacBook Pro will cause a conflict with your eGPU once you've installed the proper AMD Radeon drivers. So instead of using the AMD provided drivers for the internal dGPU, make certain you leave the driver installed as a Basic Display Adapter.

Allow the OS to automatically download and install the proper drivers for your eGPU adapter. Once the certified versions of eGPU display adapter drivers have installed, you can then download and update drivers using the device manager. Using the manufacturer's display driver adapter installer causes my internal dGPU to be discovered prompting a driver upgrade and then a system freeze.

On top of that, updating my display driver with the Apple-provided BootCamp updater also causes a system hang. Avoid that as well for the time being. If you find yourself having made a driver installation mistake, restart in safe mode, delete the installed display adapters in device manager and start again.

Final comments

That's how I got my eGPU to run under BootCamp on my macOS on my 2016 MacBook Pro. If you've found better less intrusive methods, let us know in the comments!

macOS Catalina

Main

We may earn a commission for purchases using our links. Learn more.

U.S. and Afghan forces successfully captured insurgents using an iPhone app

When their specialist kit failed, soldiers turned to an iPhone to get the job done.