Moving to mac for work, looking for input

[MrFisc]

Recently I've stopped gaming nearly as much as I used to as I have two kids now. I spend most of my days working (i'm a software engineer), and have decided I'm going to sell my gaming computer in order to upgrade my work environment (better monitors etc).

 

Phase 1: Selling my gaming computer

My gaming computer is the following set up:

• GPU: MSI RTX 2070
• CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2600
• Memory: 16GB G.Skill Trident Z RGB
• Mother Board: AORUS x470 Ultra Gaming
• Boot Drive: Samsung 970 Evo 256GB m.2
• Storage: 4TB 7200RPM HDD
• Cooling: Corsair H100i V2 CPU Cooler + 2x front rgb case fans, 1x rear case fan
• PSU: 850W
• Case: Versa N24 Case
• Displays: 2x - 32" Curved 1080p Monitors
• Keyboard: Corsair Strafe RGB (Cherry MX Silents)

I'm thinking I will sell this all as a bundle for around $1,300-$1,500 (i'm open to suggestions on that price, i find it difficult to price packages like this since i've only ever built computers and never purchased them as packages)

 

Phase 2: Upgrading my work environment

I don't want to completely lose the ability to play games, my most played game right now is rocket league (which happens to run on macOS). I have a late 2015 macbook pro, and I believe it only supports thunderbolt 2, so finding a GPU enclosure was a bit of a struggle, but, my purchase list will look like this.

• 2x 4k Monitor for work ($900 max, will do 1x 4k and 1x 1440p if i can't find decent enough monitors at that price point)
• RX 590 ($200)
• TB2 GPU Enclosure (~$200) (I've only found one that supports TB2, so would love some help on this front)

I already have a replacement keyboard for the one i would sell.

 

Questions

Right now my main questions are:

1. Is this entire idea even realistic?
2. Will an RX590 support 2x 4K displays, or 1x 4k display & 1x 1440p display. Keep in mind i wouldn't be gaming at these resolutions. I'm content to continue playing the one game that I play at 1080p, i would just need the computer to be able to run smoothly at these resolutions for normal work.
3. Are there any good options for GPU enclosures that support Thunderbolt 2 and are no more than $300?
4. Is there a better option for the Video card than what I'm suggesting?
5. Is the asking price for the gaming computer fair, low or high?
6. Is there a better all around solution to upgrade my working environment given that I have this gaming PC / monitors / keyboard to sell? I'm open to suggestions.
7. Let me know if there are more things to consider that I haven't thought of.

[SenKa]

Answering your questions in order.

 

1: Yes and no.

2. The RX590 can certainly do 2 4K displays, it will have no issue doing so.

3. This is where the no of my answer to question 1 comes. TB2 is not natively supported for E-GPU's under macOS, and the bandwidth is so low compared to PCI-E Gen 3 16X you would bottleneck most GPU's out there. Even TB3 isn't amazing in this regard, but for 1080P gaming it is fine.

4. Your mac will be getting Catalina, which supposedly has Navi support. So if this proves to be true, the 5700 would be a better buy.

5. Honestly cannot speak to this.

6. The best alternative would be to sell your Mac as well, and buy one of the TB3 equipped Macbook Pros, due to TB2's limitations mentioned above. The only one to avoid is the 6 Core Macbook Pro 15", as it has thermal/power issues that even its replacement 8 core does not.

[MrFisc]

6 minutes ago, SenKa said:

This is where the no of my answer to question 1 comes. TB2 is not natively supported for E-GPU's under macOS, and the bandwidth is so low compared to PCI-E Gen 3 16X you would bottleneck most GPU's out there. Even TB3 isn't amazing in this regard, but for 1080P gaming it is fine.

4. Your mac will be getting Catalina, which supposedly has Navi support. So if this proves to be true, the 5700 would be a better buy.

Is there any way to get an eGPU working natively on a 2015 MBP?

7 minutes ago, SenKa said:

6. The best alternative would be to sell your Mac as well, and buy one of the TB3 equipped Macbook Pros, due to TB2's limitations mentioned above. The only one to avoid is the 6 Core Macbook Pro 15", as it has thermal/power issues that even its replacement 8 core does not.

The issue there is that selling both of these computers, the late 2015 MBP and the gaming computer described above would only net me around the amount of money I would need to purchase the same tier MBP this model year. Which seems like a miss-appropriation of funds. I could be wrong here, but i don't know if the current gen 13" mbp with the 1.4ghz cpu would cut it for me.

[SenKa]

1 minute ago, MrFisc said:

Is there any way to get an eGPU working natively on a 2015 MBP?

Again, yes and no. It might work, but will probably be rather slow and definitely be buggy due to the aforementioned bandwidth limitations.

 

2 minutes ago, MrFisc said:

The issue there is that selling both of these computers, the late 2015 MBP and the gaming computer described above would only net me around the amount of money I would need to purchase the same tier MBP this model year. Which seems like a miss-appropriation of funds. I could be wrong here, but i don't know if the current gen 13" mbp with the 1.4ghz cpu would cut it for me.

I am actually in the same boat in that regard. But one thing you are missing in your comparison is turbo boost speeds, where new CPU's are much better. That "1.4GHz CPU" turbos up to 3.9GHz, where your 2.7GHz or 2.9GHz CPU turbos up to 3.3GHz, and with the generational improvements that will actually net to a productivity upgrade. Though one thing to note is that the model you're looking at only has 2 Thunderbolt 3 ports. As versatile as they are, you are much better off spending more for the 4 TB3 version.

[The Sloth]

 

 

OP Look here, it should give you a very in depth idea, read everything before trying 2015 macbook pro wasn't designed to be used with Egpu.

 

 

website -  https://egpu.io/setup-guide-external-graphics-card-mac/

 

 

8 minutes ago, SenKa said:

Again, yes and no. It might work, but will probably be rather slow and definitely be buggy due to the aforementioned bandwidth limitations. 

 

 

Bandwidth limitations and proper support, TB1 and  TB2 are not solid as TB3.

[MrFisc]

3 minutes ago, nerdslayer1 said:

OP Look here, it should give you a very in depth idea, read everything before trying 2015 macbook pro wasn't designed to be used with Egpu.

 

 

website -  https://egpu.io/setup-guide-external-graphics-card-mac/

[The Sloth]

 

3 minutes ago, MrFisc said:

I am using firefox and Ublock and getting this

 

 

 

 

 

[MrFisc]

2 minutes ago, nerdslayer1 said:

I am using firefox and Ublock and getting this

I got it working, although this information seems old. The latest update refers to macOS 10.13.4

[The Sloth]

Just now, MrFisc said:

I got it working, although this information seems old. The latest update refers to macOS 10.13.4 

I was pointing at that for the technical information regarding TB2

 

Quote

I have a late 2015 macbook pro, and I believe it only supports thunderbolt 2, so finding a GPU enclosure was a bit of a struggle, but, my purchase list will look like this.

 

[DrMacintosh]

If you're looking to get a MacBook, I would say that selling your 2015 Pro and going for a 13" model and getting a Thunderbolt 3 eGPU enclosure is the most viable option. You can get Thunderbolt 2 eGPUs to work, but the performance is going to be so bottlenecked and you won't be able to use it in the future since Thunderbolt 2 is no longer supported. 

 

All the 13" models are 4C/8T now btw.