While it is possible to connect a Thunderbolt 3 dock to a computer's USB-C port, or a USB-C dock to a Thunderbolt 3 port, the maximum possible bandwidth will be 10Gbps instead of 40Gbps, as well as potential limitations on power delivery. Since power is also provided to peripherals as well, this means that connected devices won't be a drain on the host MacBook's battery at all. Nothing pre-Thunderbolt 4 allows that, as Thunderbolts 1 through 3 are a daisy-chain topography. For a start, the enclosures don't have to be equipped with an eGPU, as they offer a PCIe expansion slot. An Ideal eGPU Companion for Your Mac or PC. An eGPU is a great choice for graphic designers who need something graphically powerful but do not want to shell out all of the money for an expensive desktop. And, if you do want something a little more versatile, then Razer has just announced a new model called the Core X Chroma, which will cost £380/$400 and provide additional USB and Ethernet ports, as well as some eye-candy lighting effects for the gaming brigade. But, unfortunately, many Macs and MacBook models still rely on 'integrated graphics' to handle graphics, video and animation work. It doesn't have room for an internal power supply, though, so you have to plug it into an external power 'brick' - although you can at least put that down on the floor to keep it out of the way. The following list was produced on July 29, 2020, and includes currently-available docks currently on the market. The XG Station Pro is slimmer than rivals such as the Razer Core X, measuring just 109mm wide, so it won't take up too much space on your desk. 1. The enclosure is just an empty box that contains a PCIe expansion slot, and a power supply for the graphics card. The 2019 Mac Pro might be the best Mac desktop ever by a long shot, but the Mac mini is the best value desktop Mac, and it remains my favorite desktop Mac to this day. The best Thunderbolt 3 docks for your Mac in 2020. The eGPU Pro also has a USB hub built-in as well, with four USB 3.0 ports for connecting peripherals and accessories. The first, of course, is the graphics card itself, also known as a GPU. In contrast, the less expensive Radeon RX 570 cards used in our other tests typically managed around 35fps. The Core X can handle more serious work as well, with the Unigine Valley graphics test leaping from 5.7fps to 34fps with the Core X and our Radeon card, while the high-tier Aztec test in GFXBench saw a 6X increase, from 14.5fps to 88.5fps. An integrated graphics processor is a small graphics chip that is actually part of the Mac's main processor (CPU) - rather than having a 'dedicated' graphics card (or GPU - 'graphics processing unit'), which is a completely separate graphics card that works alongside the main CPU in order to give graphics performance a much bigger boost. This will largely be determined by the user's present hardware needs, though they will also have to take into account any future items they may need ports for. Best eGPU Graphics Card for MacBook Pro in 2020! The ability to take advantage of power delivery to pass power to the host device without sacrificing a port's data connection is also highly useful, especially on the 13-inch MacBook Pro with just two Thunderbolt 3 ports. GRAPH LEGEND 2020 rMBP 13-in = Mid 2020 MacBook Pro 13-inch, Intel Core i7-1068NG7 2.3GHz Quad-Core processor, Iris Plus integrated Graphics + VII = Radeon VII GPU with 16G of HBM2 memory inside eGPU* + 5700XT = Radeon RX 5700 XT GPU with 8G GDDR6 memory inside eGPU * 2019 rMBP 16-in = Late 2019 MacBook Pro 16-inch, Intel Core i9 … The Mac mini's integrated graphics could only manage 14.5fps on this test, but plugging in the eGPU Pro allowed it to hit a full 145fps. However, the graphics card is fixed inside the enclosure, so you can't replace it and upgrade to an even faster graphics card in the future. The advent of Thunderbolt 3, a high-bandwidth 40Gbps connection and power delivery over a single small cable, led to an explosion of user-friendly plug-and-play docks that consumers can easily install and use with relative ease. Its power delivery can recharge the vast majority of MacBook models, its ports cover the majority of typical use cases, and it is all packed into a relatively small package. Get desktop-class graphics performance on your MacBook Pro with the Blackmagic eGPU. Apple’s latest Mac mini is the first to feature the company’s own M1 chip inside. There's just a single Thunderbolt 3 port on the back that lets you connect the Core X to your Mac, but no other ports or connectors at all (and the video connectors for external monitors will be part of the graphics card that you supply yourself). Do all 5 USB-A ports provide high power delivery or just some of them? The first version of the XG Station was released as part of the RoG range a few years ago, and it's a real beast - built like a tank and festooned with glowing lights to tempt gaming fans. If you are searching for a premium quality eGPU that will deliver top-notch… Compatible graphics cards: Radeon Pro 580 or RX Vega 56 (pre-installed). “ But on Catalina, Apple doesn’t allow that software to install, so no power delivery.“. There are several Breakaway Boxes in Sonnet's current range - available with or without a graphics card, as you prefer - and they still make a good option for desktop Macs that need a graphics boost for video or 3D work. The original Blackmagic eGPU has an internal Radeon Pro 580 graphics processor and the higher-end Blackmagic eGPU … AppleInsider would highly suggest the CalDigit Thunderbolt Station 3 Plus (TS3 Plus) as an excellent example of a dock that should work for most people. Speaking of power delivery, it is worth investing in a dock that offers enough to provide power to your MacBook for use and for recharging. The specifications can be tricky to understand, and worse, they may not even work on Macs with newer OS versions. iPhone 12 demand could help Apple reach $3T valuation by end of 2021, Kroger plans rollout of iPhone-assisted COVID-19 rapid testing kits, Mac mini 'pink squares' graphical glitch fix on the way, Review: PowerKick suffers from poorly executed gimmicks in an otherwise decent battery, Apple Pioneer Place renovations continue ahead of Monday's reopening, WhatsApp will disable messages unless users agree to new privacy policy, Supposed 'AirPods 3' photo hints at flat-sided stem changes, Chrome is still a memory hog on macOS compared to Safari. © Copyright 2021 IDG Communications Ltd. All Rights Reserved. This pro device can turn its hand to a spot of off-duty gaming as well - lifting the Mac Mini's performance from just 25fps in Batman: Arkham Asylum to a speedy 67fps, even on the game's 'extreme' graphics settings. Compatible graphics cards: AMD Radeon RX 570 (pre-installed). Generally, docks include some form of networking connectivity, typically in the form of Gigabit Ethernet. And, of course, none of the current Mac range has any internal expansion slots that would allow you to install a new GPU in order to upgrade your graphics performance (although Apple has recently been dropping hints about a new 'modular' Mac Pro design that is due later this year). There's also something to be said about using it as a central docking point for a home setup. This could open up the choice of docks further, to include docks that lack features that are already serviced by your adapter. Docks also offer an opportunity to provide power to peripherals, or sometimes the host MacBook itself. And, of course, the graphics card inside the Puck can't be replaced or upgraded in the future. The Puck includes a built-in graphics card, but measures just 51mm high, 152mm wide and 130mm deep. There's an entire community over at egpu.io dedicated to making egpu's work optimally with all sorts of laptops including macbooks.. What? There's a reason that we explicitly recommended the Caldigit TS3+. Even so, having the option of carrying the Puck from one location to another will appeal to a lot of people - it's a great upgrade for the 13in MacBook Pro, which only uses integrated graphics, or as a compact companion for the new Mac mini. We were a little disappointed by the installation process, which proved a bit more complicated than we would have liked. Depending on the model of dock and MacBook, a dock can provide enough power to recharge the MacBook's battery, without relying on using one of the main Thunderbolt 3 ports with a separate charger. Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650. This selection typically includes USB Type-A ports, USB-C, Thunderbolt 3, video outputs like DisplayPort or HDMI, Gigabit Ethernet, and memory card slots. Asus is one of the top manufacturers of Windows PCs, and it has a division called Republic Of Gamers (RoG) that specialises in gaming gear. Docks typically have external power sources, which enable power delivery functionality. eGPUs are supported by any Mac with an Intel processor and Thunderbolt 3 ports 1 running macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 or later. Several big-name PC manufacturers make their own eGPUs, such as the Asus and Razer enclosures that we review here. The XG Station Pro is sold 'unpopulated' - without a graphics card - and installing your own graphics card involves removing and replacing multiple screws and metal plates as you open up the case and then put it back together again. Apple recommends that you have Mojave running on your Mac, but it is also possible to use an eGPU with Thunderbolt 3 Macs that are running the older High Sierra (although it has to be version 10.13.4 or later). These are more expensive than 'unpopulated' enclosures, but they're very quick and easy to install, and give you an instant 'plug and play' upgrade that doesn't involve any work with a screwdriver. The main attraction of the Mantiz MZ-03 Saturn Pro is that it has … And although the two companies are rivals in the PC arena, Asus has worked with Apple to ensure that the XG Station Pro is certified fully compatible with macOS on Macs that have Thunderbolt 3. In this article we explain the advantages of using an external graphics card with your Mac or MacBook, and round up the best buying options currently available. Think of it as a USB hub, but instead of simply providing more of the same port, the dock usually includes a selection of commonly-used connections, alongside more Thunderbolt 3 ports. So no go under windows virtualization. This guide aims to demystify the peripheral and to help you narrow down the selection to one or a few that will best suit the job. By doing this via a dock, the port that would have been used for power is instead freed up for use for both power and for data transfer, enabling it to be fully usable. If you have a Mac mini (2018) or Mac Pro (2019) with FileVault turned on, make sure to connect … The Apple iMac 27-inch (2020) starts at $1,799, and includes 3.1GHz 6-core 10th-generation Intel Core … On the front is an SD card slot, audio in and out, a USB 3.1 Type-C gen 1 port, and USB 3.0 type-A port. It's been like this for a decade.So, you connect one to your Mac, and have the ones left on your Mac, plus the downstream Thunderbolt 3 port. This means it is feasible for a different compatible expansion card to be used with the Mac. The slimline enclosure still has enough room for a full-length graphics card - going up to a Radeon Pro WX7100 for Mac users - and two powerful fans to keep the card cool. Here's AppleInsider's guide to picking the best Thunderbolt 3 dock for your Mac. The current Core X model isn't admittedly terribly exciting to look at, simply consisting of a large, black metal box. Tried MSFS 2020 using Parallels 16 (configured to use 6 cores and 32gb ram) on 2018 Mac Mini, 64gb Ram, Blackmagic eGpu Pro (Radeon Vega 56). The only minor oddity is that the Puck has one HDMI and three DisplayPort interfaces that allow you to connect up to four separate monitors. Best all-rounder for gaming, graphics and design: Razer Core X Its two eGPU products were primarily developed for use with Resolve and Fusion, but Apple seems to have adopted Blackmagic as its recommended eGPU upgrade for use with a wide range of professional graphics, video and virtual-reality tools. The eGPU Pro that we review here might be overkill for many people, but it delivers the goods for professional users who need really high-end performance. In rare situations, there is the opportunity to add a hard drive to an eGPU enclosure, turning it into an external storage device. I, like many others, hoped that it'd be possible to easily use an egpu with a macbook pro to have a solid mobile gaming rig. Here's the crazy thing; nowadays I'm running fcpx without any eGPU. However runs very poorly. Apple has also announced a gaming subscription service that's due to arrive later this year - which suggests that it's finally waking up to the Mac games scene at last - and there are rumours that it's developing a VR headset that will require plenty of 3D graphics power to run properly. The integrated graphics in our Mac mini could only manage 5.7fps with the Unigine Valley benchmark, but the eGPU Pro stormed ahead with a 10X performance increase to 57fps. This technology is still new to the Mac, so hopefully there will be more developments - such as support for nVidia graphics cards - to come in the next year or so. Dell XPS 15 7590 specs: 15.6-inch 4K OLED panel. This doesn't affect our editorial independence. The choice of graphics card can be tricky, though. Mac mini No screen Processor: M1 on 2020 models, Intel 8th gen 6-core on 2018 model From £699/$699 Pros: Cheapest Mac (now even cheaper); small desktop option The gaming gurus at Razer have always been good at supporting Macs - despite the fact that Apple has traditionally turned its nose up at gaming on the Mac - and its Core range of eGPU enclosures has been Mac-compatible for quite a long time. Functionally, they work similarly to a dock, in that they connect over Thunderbolt 3, can potentially provide power delivery, and performs a function. We saw the same 10X performance increase with the high-tier Aztec test in GFXBench. One of the things we like most about Sonnet is that the company was the first to cater for Mac userswhen all other eGPU manufacturers were still focusing on the PC market. Note: We may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site, at no extra cost to you. Even so, the Core X is actually quite well designed, and also one of the most affordable eGPU enclosures currently available, costing just £260/$300 when bought on its own without a graphics card. Best eGPU For Mac - Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box. Mac users, however, tend to prefer elegant eye-candy, so Asus recently launched the XG Station Pro, a more streamlined eGPU enclosure aimed at professional and creative users. We have to point out that the external power supply that goes along with the Puck is almost as big and heavy as the Puck itself, so it's not quite as super-portable as Sonnet's publicity photos suggest. In the case of eGPU enclosures, they hold an external graphics card to augment the video processing capabilities of the Mac, as the name suggests. Sonnet was one of the first companies to support Macs with its eGFX Breakaway Box a couple of years ago. Look very carefully before buying one of these things. Those performance levels will vary, depending on your choice of graphics card, but the low cost of the Core X means that you'll have more money left over to spend on a really good graphics card. Prices start at £599/$699 for the standard Blackmagic eGPU, which is sold with a Radeon Pro 580 graphics card already fitted inside it. But you have to download software for high power delivery. The PCIe expansion slot inside the enclosure is also a standard component, so it should allow you to insert any graphics card made by AMD or nVidia, the two big companies that dominate the GPU market these days. PowerColor Mini – Best eGPU for Video Editing. Apple's Preferred eGPU. These partnerships do not influence our editorial content. Fortunately, the XG Station Pro performed very well once we'd installed our Radeon RX 570 graphics card, boosting the meagre 5.7fps of our Mac mini to a more respectable 35fps when running the demanding Unigine Valley tests. Apple iMac 27-inch (2020): Price and availability . If you already have Thunderbolt 3 adapters, you can also connect them to a dock's Thunderbolt 3 ports, if it has them. In effect, you need a dock with at least 30W power delivery to fully power a MacBook Air, a 60W version for a 13-inch MacBook Pro, 87W for the 15-inch MacBook Pro, and 96W for the 16-inch MacBook Pro. Some models also offer legacy connections, including eSATA, VGA, and occasionally FireWire, which may have limited utility for most users, but could be essential for people with older hardware that simply doesn't support newer variants. Asus has also chosen a smart shade of 'space grey' for the aluminium chassis of the enclosure, ensuring that it will look very smart and professional alongside a Mac in your office. PowerColor mini is a powerful, portable, and … | 23 Apr 19. One great advantage of using an eGPU is that you can have a slimline laptop that you carry with you when you're out and about, and then plug it into an eGPU when you get home or back to the office - instantly turning your lightweight laptop into a heavyweight desktop computer capable of running high-end graphics software or the latest 3D games. Learn more. Compatible graphics cards: Any AMD/nVidia GPU, requiring up to 500W power supply. It's small enough to carry around in a backpack or briefcase, so you can easily carry it to a friend's house for an evening of gaming, or take it into your office if you need to give your work laptop a boost every now and then. But if space is at a premium at home or in your office, or you need a portable graphics upgrade that can easily be moved from one location to another, then the Puck is hard to beat. Many eGPU enclosures also include some form of extra ports, such as network or a few USB 3.0 Type-A connections. In fact Sonnet Breakaway Boxes were the first to be endorsed by Appleand marketed to Apple developers to help encourage the development of VR and AI apps on macOS. Once you've chosen the eGPU that's best for you, you'll want to read about How to use an eGPU with a Mac. The specifications can be tricky to understand, and worse, they may not even work on Macs with newer OS versions. 47 'eGPU' stories. Featuring the Radeon Pro 580 graphics processor, the Blackmagic eGPU is built to make any Mac with Thunderbolt 3 ports a graphics powerhouse. The compact design of the Puck means you can easily sit it on your desk alongside your Mac, or perhaps buy one of Sonnet's mounting brackets (£58/$59) to attach it to the back of your monitor. Blackmagic Design has a long background in the professional video market, developing software such as DaVinci Resolve and Fusion for editing and special effects work. 32GB DDR4/2666. - YouTube. Best Thunderbolt 3 eGPU enclosures for macOS | AppleInsider However, its new eGPU Pro steps right up to a professional-level Radeon RX Vega 56 with 8GB of video memory. Apple's website currently lists these GPUs as being compatible with macOS: You should also remember that the high-end Radeon Pro and Vega graphics cards require a lot of power, so you should always check with the manufacturer of your eGPU enclosure to make sure that its internal power supply is suitable for the graphics card that you plan to use (most manufacturers do have this info on their web site, along with a list of compatible graphics cards). And, of course, the Sonnet and BlackMagic eGPUs include a pre-installed graphics card for people who prefer a really simple 'plug and play' upgrade. I’ve put together the a list of all the best NVIDIA and AMD GPU’s arranged in order of performance. If you've got a Mac with Thunderbolt 3 that is running High Sierra or the latest Mojave version of the macOS, then you can now connect your Mac to an eGPU - or 'external GPU' - that allows you to have a powerful new graphics card that sits outside the Mac. The built-in graphics card means that installing the Blackmagic eGPU Pro is very simple - just plug in the power cable, and then use the included Thunderbolt cable to connect it to your Mac. To use an eGPU, a Mac with an Intel processor is required.. An eGPU can give your Mac additional graphics performance for professional apps, 3D gaming, VR content creation, and more. Compatible graphics cards: Radeon RX 570 and RX 580, and Radeon Pro WX7100. I recently bought a TB 3 dock from OWC. Blackmagic eGPU is compatible with any Mac with an Intel processor and Thunderbolt 3 ports running macOS High Sierra 10.13.5 or later.Blackmagic eGPU Pro requires a Mac with an Intel processor and Thunderbolt 3 ports running macOS Mojave 10.14.1 or later.. Apple's preferred eGPU for the Touch Bar MacBook Pro -- or any Intel-based Mac that has Thunderbolt 3 ports and is running macOS 10.13.6 (High Sierra) or newer -- is the Blackmagic Design eGPU series. There have been a lot of rumours flying around about Apple developing some sort of headset or glasses that will bring virtual reality (VR) or augmented reality (AR) to the Mac and iOS devices. The bad news is that most eGPU enclosures are simply sold as empty boxes - 'unpopulated' - with no graphics card inside them. It is very hard not to recommend the CalDigit Thunderbolt Station 3 Plus to anyone looking for a dock. This is unlikely, but possible in some industries, such as in video editing involving multiple clients and high resolution and bitrate files. This guide should work the same for any eGPU that is compatible with macOS … That might be a bit intimidating for people who haven't tried to install a graphics card into an eGPU enclosure before, and the simple pull-out handle of Razer's Core X is much easier to use. 1TB Samsung NVMe M.2 SSD. It's easy to set up and use as well, with a simple handle on the back of the unit that allows you to pull the case open and quickly install your graphics card without having to worry about too many nuts and bolts. The 4 best Mac eGPUs: Why external graphics cards are the future, Jump straight to our full best mac egpus list. Thunderbolt 3 offers 40Gbps of bandwidth, which is a considerable amount to use, but while it is more than enough for a Gigabit Ethernet connection, a display, and a smattering of slower connections, it can still be overwhelmed in some situations. The sheer size of the Core X also means that it has room for a large internal power supply, which can drive even the most powerful graphics cards and still charge up a laptop at the same time. This means you have to budget a minimum of £250/$300 just to buy the empty enclosure on its own, and then add the cost of your new graphics card on top. The only disadvantage with the Blackmagic eGPUs is that the graphics cards are fixed inside the case, and don't allow you to remove them and replace them in the future - as you can do if you buy an empty enclosure such as the Asus XG Station Pro or the Razer Core X. Intel 9th-gen Core i9-9980HK. For those who have owned a MacBook Pro for some time, a dock provides a way out from the dongle lifestyle. But if your choice of graphics card is still limited, there's an increasing range of Thunderbolt 3 eGPU enclosures now available that will work with both Macs and Windows PCs. This means that your games will look better as well as simply running faster. As you might expect, those scores are similar to those of the Razer Core X when used with the same graphics cards. But you have to download software for high power delivery. Docks have been a concept in computing for a considerable period of time, with many options offered to connect a notebook computer to a variety of peripherals or other systems. I recently bought a TB 3 dock from OWC. This model satisfies your need for intensive gaming. By Macs are often criticised for being overpriced and underpowered - especially when it comes to the kind of graphics performance that is needed for the latest 3D games, or for professional video-editing and animation software. However, current Mac models don't have any expansion slots inside them that would allow you to install the GPU into the Mac itself, so you have to install the GPU into an external box - often called an 'enclosure' - that sits outside the Mac. However, the XG Station Pro is more expensive than its Razer rival, with a UK price around £420 from Scan (which is also higher than its US price of $330, from Amazon or B&H Foto) so you're paying a bit extra for that elegant, slimline design. In 2019 you would specify that fcpx use the eGPU instead of the igp, and it would push that eGPU utilization for all tasks. And while we wouldn't recommend the expensive eGPU Pro for gaming, it was able to boost the Mac mini's performance with our Batman game from 25fps to 99fps even on the game's highest graphics settings. However, we tested the more powerful model, which has a Radeon RX 570 and costs £648/$499. But on Catalina, Apple doesn’t allow that software to install, so no power delivery.i took some time to decide which dock to buy, and even though I paid $300 (on sale), not every feature works for such an expensive device.be careful, just seeing a list of features doesn’t tell you that they will work as expected, or at all. It can handle design and graphics work too, boosting the Unigine Valley test from just 5.7fps to 32fps, and the higher-tier Aztec test in GFXBench from 14.5fps to a very respectable 80fps. Its inclusions across the entire Mac line make Thunderbolt 3 docks usable in many instances, but arguably its main audience is for buyers of the MacBook Pro range, to expand the selection of ports available to them from the standard two or four Thunderbolt 3 ports. The simplest answer is to have more connection options. The GPU is the single most important component in any DaVinci Resolve workstation or laptop. Around the back are two more USB-A ports, a USB 3.1 Type-C Gen.1, an upstream Thunderbolt 3 with support for 87W power delivery, a downstream Thunderbolt 3 port, Gigabit Ethernet, DisplayPort 1.2 digital optical out, and a power connection. Learn how to update the software on your Mac. But the Core X gets the basics right, with its simple setup allowing us to quickly install our own Radeon RX 570 graphics card and give our Mac mini an impressive and affordable upgrade. Most customizable / DIY eGPU: ADT-Link R43SG-TB3 (There are lots of Windows PCs that have Thunderbolt 3 these days too and, in fact, many of the eGPU enclosures that are on sale at the moment are designed by PC manufacturers for their own gaming PCs and laptops.). There are also specialist companies, such as Sonnet and Blackmagic, that just focus on making eGPU enclosures and other upgrade products for Macs and PCs. There are two Thunderbolt 3 ports on the back of the unit - with one being used to connect to your Mac - and both HDMI and DisplayPort connectors as well, which will allow you to run three separate monitors all at the same. It costs a thumping £1,199/$1,199, but provides the sort of performance you'd expect from a top-of-the-range iMac or iMac Pro. Choosing a GPU is a careful balance between performance needs (and expectations), and budget. The only thing to watch out for here is that there are three large air-vents on the front and sides of the Puck, so you do need to leave a bit of free space for ventilation. Though this largely is useful for people who need to add an extra GPU to their Mac setup, it's an alternative to a dock in a few ways. But, in the past couple of years, Apple has started to recognise that Macs need a bit of a graphics boost in order to tackle tasks such as virtual reality and augmented reality. Welcome to our guide to Mac eGPUs. And, at 230mm high, 165mm wide and 370mm deep, it will need plenty of desk space if you want to sit it beside your Mac (especially as Razer's Thunderbolt cable is only 0.5m long, so you'll have to buy a longer cable if you want to move the Core X down on to the floor). Best eGPU for Mac: Mantiz Saturn Pro, Razer Core X Chroma and ASUS XG Station Pro. Unfortunately, Apple and nVidia don't seem to get along these days, so the macOS currently only works with a limited selection of graphics cards from AMD.