

I have to give Apple props where props are due.
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The good news is that we’ve seen Nvidia web drivers for Pascal-based cards in the not too distant past. Here’s hoping that we’ll see updated macOS drivers for Nvidia cards that work with eGPU boxes on macOS 10.13.4 sooner than later. Obviously, Nvidia fans are kind of left in the lurch, at least officially.
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Apple also says that eGPU support is not available when performing system updates, or while your Mac is in macOS Recovery mode. This doesn’t come as much of a surprise, but Boot Camp installs are not officially supported when it comes to external GPUs. The Sonnet Radeon RX 570 eGFX Breakaway Puck is an external graphics enclosure with a RX 570 GPU built in. Lastly, Sonnet offers and all-in-one end-to-end eGPU enclosure with a built in graphics card.
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If you’re sticking with cards from AMD’s Polaris architecture - the EX 570, 580, and Radeon Pro WX 7100, then, in addition to all of the previous enclosure mentioned, you can also use the following:īudget-minded customers may appreciate these two options. Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box 650W (85W Power Delivery).Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box 550W (85W Power Delivery).OWC Mercury Helios FX (85W Power Delivery).If you’re not using a Vega 64, Vega Frontier Edition Air, or Radeon Pro WX 9100, then you’ll be fine with with either of the following: That said, there are quite a few additional enclosures that Apple recommends.

This external enclosure will likely enjoy a longer life and greater compatibility than lesser enclosures.
Apple egpu toggle full#
The 650W also provides 85W of Power Delivery, which means it can recharge a 15-inch MacBook Pro at full speed. Because this card provides a plenty of power, it’s able to work with more power hungry cards, like the RX Vega 64, with no problems. It’s compatible with the RX 5xx series, along with the RX Vega 56, RX Vega 64, etc. If you’re looking for an enclosure that will have the best compatibility across all recommended cards, then the Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box 650W seems like the one to get. The Akitio Node Pro, not recommended by Apple, but it works Recommended external graphics enclosureĪlthough we’ve tested and successfully used a variety of external graphics boxes over the last few months, including the Akitio Node, Akitio Node Pro, and Mantiz Venus, none of these enclosures are included in Apple’s recommended list of enclosures. If you were able to get in early with a card like the RX Vega 64, then good on you. Note: Graphics card prices are kind of insane right now, and the blame can primarily be placed on cryptocurrency miners. Subscribe to 9to5Mac on YouTube for more videos Recommended eGPUsĪpple recommends a variety of GPUs, but these only include offering from AMD. Hence, support for Thunderbolt 2 and Thunderbolt eGPU enclosures is not officially supported.ġ3-inch MacBook Pro users need to make sure that they utilize the Thunderbolt 3 ports on the left side of the machine for best performance. The common thread here is that each of these Mac computers feature Thunderbolt 3 support, a requirement for eGPU setups. This is very good news for those of us who don’t wish to connect an external display, but your favorite app’s developer will need to get behind eGPU support. Apple notes that this capability is opt-in, and will need to be enabled by the app’s developer. The internal display on a MacBook Pro or iMac can be accelerated by games and apps that choose to support built-in display acceleration. Final Cut Pro X now supports VR headsets, and an eGPU allows editors to monitor 360-degree video via an HTC Vive. eGPUs are also useful for connecting supported VR headsets, like the HTC Vive, to the Mac. One notable use case of an eGPU is for connecting one or more external displays, especially a high resolution display with a high refresh rate. What’s even more interesting is that the Mac can support multiple eGPUs simultaneously, which opens up lots of possibilities for applications that can take advantage of the processing power provided by such a setup. Games are the obvious application, but machine learning applications also stand to heavily benefit. eGPUs are able to accelerate apps that use Metal, OpenGL.

Why use an external GPU?Įxternal GPUs provide extra graphics processing power for graphics-intensive applications. If you’re considering adopting an external graphics setup, then you definitely want to be familiar with Apple’s published requirements. Apple has published a new document to help users navigate the ins and outs of eGPU support, including a list of eligible Mac hardware, external graphics enclosures, and GPUs.

Today Apple released macOS 10.13.4 to the public, bringing official external graphics support to the Mac.
