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179Mac Gamer HQ picks its favorite Mac games from 2018, including AAA games, indies and more. By Kirk Hiner| Updated Oct 30, 2018 2018 will soon be over and the quantity of great new MacOS games released so far is impressive. The Best Graphics Cards of 2018. Packing Titan X levels of performance for hundreds less, the $699 GTX 1080 Ti is the new dream card for 4K gaming and playing on high-refresh monitors at 1440p. Apple offers three different graphics-card options for the Mac Pro, ranging from a general-purpose card to a high-end option intended for scientists and engineers. Apple last week introduced new upgrade options for the high-end 15-inch MacBook Pro, allowing customers to add Radeon Pro Vega 16 and 20 graphics cards to the device for superior graphics performance. Mac; Gaming; MakeUseOf. There are a lot of options out there. If you’re planning a new build, there’s even the option of going without a discrete card. In 2018, AMD released the Ryzen architecture What Is So Good About the New AMD Ryzen? The Best Graphics Cards in 2018. You may notice that we’ve left out such options as the 1080 Ti. End of month discounts are heating up on Apple's brand-new 2018 13' and 15' MacBook Pros, and B&H is getting in on the action by throwing in free gift cards with the purchase of qualifying systems.
with 104 posters participating, including story authorWhen Apple released macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 on March 29, fully supported external graphics-card functionality was one of the flagship features.
![2018 2018](/uploads/1/2/6/1/126163762/884518542.jpg)
Most Macs ship with discrete or integrated GPUs—power-saving cousins to the graphics cards found in desktop PCs—that emphasize efficient power and heat management as much as they do performance. External graphics cards (eGPUs) allow users to connect those powerful desktop graphics cards to their computers via the Thunderbolt 3 ports on modern Macs.
That could solve many of the frustrations some users have with the Mac platform, like the lack of an upgrade path for professional-use machines that depend on graphics power and lackluster gaming performance in the latest games.
At Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) last year (and when the company unveiled the iMac Pro in December), it claimed that eGPUs would be a good way to add multiple GPUs for demanding work for which just one is not sufficient or to upgrade performance as the iMac Pro's included GPU ages.
When we talked with Survios, a studio that has developed VR software for the Mac platform, we learned that slow progress in the MacBook Pro and standard iMac integrated and discrete GPUs is holding back most Macs from supporting VR. Survios only supports the iMac Pro's built-in GPU.
Mac gamers have long dealt with GPUs that don't keep the pace with demands from the latest PC games, so eGPU enthusiast communities have popped up around the Web in places like the MacRumors forums and eGPU.io. There's pent-up demand for better graphics performance on Macs, and eGPUs offer some hope.
And Apple and Intel's Thunderbolt 3 interface (found in the highest-end Macs from 2016 and 2017, so far) offers theoretical speeds of up to 40Gbps. That's a big improvement over the previous interface, and it's arguably finally fast enough to finally make eGPUs viable without dramatic performance disadvantages compared to traditional PCI-e interfaces.
All that is to say that the time is ripe for eGPUs to come to the Mac. With the new official support in macOS 10.13.4, Apple is finally helping consumers try eGPUs out.
We tested an eGPU enclosure with a Thunderbolt 3-equipped MacBook Pro, and found that, in most applications, performance didn't disappoint. Unfortunately, we also found limitations and software support inconsistencies that prevent the Mac eGPU dream from being fully realized at this time.
Setting up and managing the eGPU
Most Powerful Graphics Card 2018
Setup is simple. Once you have an external enclosure and a desktop graphics card, you just slot the card into the PCI-e slot in the enclosure just like you would on a desktop computer's motherboard. Then you plug the enclosure into the wall, connect the Mac to the enclosure with a Thunderbolt 3 cable, connect the enclosure to your external display with the cable of your choice, and turn it all on.
Once you've logged into macOS, you'll see a new icon in the menu bar on the top right. Clicking it will show you which eGPUs are connected, and you can click on them to disconnect them. If you don't do this before unplugging the enclosure, you'll get an error message similar to the one you'd get if you unplugged an external drive without ejecting it, but a hard crash is unlikely.
You also don't have to reboot your Mac to enable or disable the eGPU. If you look at the About This Mac panel, you should see that the GPU in the enclosure is listed under graphics.
That's it. You don't have to install any software or drivers, and you don't have to tweak any settings. There's not even anything in System Preferences acknowledging the eGPU's presence, much less offering you options to change.
If you want, you can connect an HTC Vive VR headset to the eGPU enclosure. The eGPU works in clamshell mode (when your laptop lid is closed), and it should automatically go to sleep when your Mac does. Finally, provided the eGPU's power supply offers enough wattage to power both the GPU and your Mac, you don't have to use one of your Thunderbolt 3 ports for your Mac's power adapter; supported enclosures will provide power to your Mac.
There are still major limitations
There are still lots of things that you can't do with eGPUs, and some of them are major. Apple has supported eGPUs by keeping the focus extremely narrow and by restricting which software and hardware is supported.
Some of these limitations are understandable and expected, but others make this feel like an incomplete rollout—a stopgap until full eGPU support hopefully comes later. Apple will need to address those less understandable ones for this to be the normal upgrade path for Mac users.
Thunderbolt 3 is required
Apple requires both your Mac and your eGPU enclosure to have Thunderbolt 3 ports. This wasn't always the case; early betas of 10.13.4 allowed you to plug in an eGPU with Thunderbolt 2 on a Mac Pro, for example. However, that capability was (probably deliberately) absent from the final release of that OS update.
That limits eGPU support to MacBook Pros from October 2016 forward, the iMac Pro, and iMacs from June 2017 and later. In other words, only the most recent Apple hardware supports eGPUs. This is disappointing, but perhaps unavoidable if we're being realistic about it. Thunderbolt 2 has a max throughput of 20Gbps; that's half what you get with Thunderbolt 3. Apple might have deemed Thunderbolt 2 insufficient for smooth performance.
The eGPU community has produced scripts that re-enable this. You just need to get your feet (very) wet to make it happen, and since it's not supported, an ideal experience is far from guaranteed. Plus, Thunderbolt 1 and 2 are arguably just not fast enough to provide you with satisfactory performance benefits.
Nvidia graphics cards are not supported
Only AMD graphics cards are supported, so if you have an Nvidia GPU, you're out of luck without going through some unsupported hoops. This is disappointing, as many users deem Nvidia GPUs to be preferable for games—although much of that is because of Nvidia's strong Windows drivers, which doesn't apply here.
While we're not happy about this, we're also not surprised: every current Mac that has a GPU solution other than Intel's integrated graphics uses AMD. Some earlier models, like the 2012 Retina MacBook Pro, used Nvidia graphics and are still supported by Apple, but they also don't have Thunderbolt 3, so eGPUs are not an option for them. Neither Apple nor Nvidia offer official video drivers for recent Nvidia cards.
The eGPU enthusiast community has also developed some hack-y solutions for this, but again, that's far from ideal.
There’s no support in Boot Camp
Apple's Boot Camp software makes installing and running Windows relatively painless; it provides the latest video drivers and more for your Mac in Microsoft's operating system. Unfortunately, Boot Camp does not currently include support for eGPUs in Windows.
This limitation really stings, because outside of professional and creative applications, most people who want eGPUs want them to play modern games on Apple hardware, and that experience is often best under Windows. Failure to support this means one of the big selling points of eGPUs is not addressed by Apple's current implementation.
As with the previous two limitations, you can still make it happen with some technical knowledge and online resources. But frankly, the necessary process is an absolute nightmare. The majority of users don't have the knowledge, confidence, or desire to pull this off, and even those who do will have to invest a fair bit of time to achieve an ultimately suboptimal experience.
Built-in displays usually can’t be powered by the eGPU
The eGPU solution in macOS 10.13.4 works by outputting the video over Thunderbolt 3 to an external enclosure, which then sends the image to an external display. Connecting the Mac to the enclosure without an external display does nothing in all circumstances we tested—the OS recognizes that the GPU is there, but it still runs everything off of the laptop's own discrete or integrated GPU until an external display is connected to the enclosure.
There are a few clarifications worth noting here, though. First, this is not a hardware limitation. People on the eGPU.io forums have successfully gotten the internal display working on the internal display in Windows (with a lot of work). Second, Apple's support documentation says that third-party software developers could choose to support this for certain applications. In fact, we saw test units of the iMac Pro running Cinema 4D in macOS with eGPUs on the iMac Pro's internal display at an Apple event in December. So we expect this one to be addressed. This can also be accomplished with a hack, but it's pretty wonky.
Next up, let's talk performance.
July 25, 2018 8:16 am
Hi,
Just thought I would upload my experience with the following equipment:
- Macbook Pro 13' (2018) w/ 8GB RAM
- Sonnet eGFX 650w enclosure
- AMD Vega 64 Strix
- Sonnet eGFX 650w enclosure
- AMD Vega 64 Strix
First of all, the GPU ( https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0781VL2HB/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1) is VERY big, and I could not fit it into the Sonnet eGPU case without taking out the fan. This was easy to do though and the GPU was still a VERY tight fit, so be warned.
It was recognised automatically by the Macbook Pro, so I booted up World of Warcraft (Legion zones) to test the graphics, WITHOUT an external monitor. I was really dissapointed, the frame rates were OK, but really bad for the card I had (45-60 fps) with big lag spikes. I then tested different resolutions by reducing the render scale, this improved the graphics (was getting between 55-60 fps), but whenever it rained, or there was any large amount of spell graphics in the game, the FPS tanked.
Thinking there might be some throttling in the thunderbolt cable as I was using the internal monitor, I hooked up an 1080p external monitor. Frame rates were more steady, but anytime I turned the graphics up it just felt wrong, the fps was ok, but it felt stuttery, and the FPS would occasionally drop. I had Warcraft set to display on my external monitor (and I used the macbook in clam shell mode and out of it). I tested Diablo 3 and it was the same, just didnt feel right for a £550 GPU.
I then read a guide on here, that I should move the menu bar to the external monitor so that was the primary monitor. As soon as I did that, the graphics are amazing. I have WoW set at nearly maxed out (aside from AA which I have on x2) and it runs at a perfect 60 with no stutter.
I tried to bootcamp, but was having no success with the eGPU (black screen of death), so I am going to leave that alone for a bit until some clever people come up with a hack for it.
Anyway, some of this might already be covered, but I spent a whole evening trying to get it to work the way I wanted, so wanted to share my experience.
TL:DR: My experience was to NOT use the internal screen, make the external monitor the PRIMARY monitor. Oh and use the script posted on eGPU to force all applications to use the eGPU. Very impressed with the results.
Pending: Add my system information and expected eGPU configuration to my signature to give context to my posts
July 25, 2018 8:28 am
Nice configuration! Similar to mine ?
MacBook Pro 2018 Touch Bar i7 quad-core 2.7Ghz - 16GB RAM - 512GB PCIe SSD
my Mantiz Venus extreme mod with Sapphire Nitro+ RX Vega 64
July 25, 2018 9:09 am
Thank you. I want it to last a couple of years at least.... which makes me think I should have got the 16GB Macbook (it isnt available yet in my country), but hopefully I should be ok
Pending: Add my system information and expected eGPU configuration to my signature to give context to my posts
July 25, 2018 10:34 am
Plenty of guides for getting things working on Bootcamp on here....
2017 13' MacBook Pro Touch Bar
GTX1060 + AKiTiO Thunder3 + Win10
GTX1070 + Sonnet Breakaway Box + Win10
GTX1070 + Razer Core V1 + Win10
Vega 56 + Razer Core V1 + macOS + Win10
Vega 56 + Mantiz Venus + macOS + W10
GTX1060 + AKiTiO Thunder3 + Win10
GTX1070 + Sonnet Breakaway Box + Win10
GTX1070 + Razer Core V1 + Win10
Vega 56 + Razer Core V1 + macOS + Win10
Vega 56 + Mantiz Venus + macOS + W10
---
July 25, 2018 10:46 am
@brawl, consider massaging your post into being a build guide so can be added to the Builds area:
eGPU Setup 1.35 • eGPU Port Bandwidth Reference Table • Several builds
2015 15' Dell Precision 7510 M1000M + GTX 1080 Ti @ 32Gbps-M2 (ADT-Link R43SG) + Win10
2015 15' Dell Precision 7510 M1000M + GTX 1080 Ti @ 32Gbps-M2 (ADT-Link R43SG) + Win10
July 25, 2018 3:42 pm
@brawl, consider massaging your post into being a build guide so can be added to the Builds area:
Oh, will do, apologies!
Pending: Add my system information and expected eGPU configuration to my signature to give context to my posts
July 25, 2018 3:44 pm
Plenty of guides for getting things working on Bootcamp on here....
I guess that is something for this weekend! I did have a gander at a few of them, which involved disabling the sight camera, but I saw some mixed results so was unsure if I should start messing around with my Mac if it wasnt 100%.
Pending: Add my system information and expected eGPU configuration to my signature to give context to my posts
July 25, 2018 3:52 pm
The 2018 is a bit different than 2016 and 2017 MacBook Pros. Most likely internal display acceleration by the eGPU is not yet possible for AMD cards. There's another concern for the 13' MBP in stuck Windows logo internal display. What I found is that in order to make the AMD eGPU functional, it needs to be detected at boot to get enough resource allocation. That means the iGPU gets disabled and hence stuck Windows boot logo on the internal display.
• Best ultrabooks for eGPU use
• eGPU enclosure buying guide
November 26, 2018 7:09 pm
do you think this would work well with the mac mini? do you think 32gb memory is overkill or future proofing?
Pending: Add my system information and expected eGPU configuration to my signature to give context to my posts
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