eGPU or complete new build?

[swarming1182]

Hi there, was hoping you knowledgeable folks might be able to offer me some advice. I wasn't sure about the right forum to post this in as it isn't exactly a 'build advice' question.

 

Basically, my current computer is the late 2019 MacBook Pro 13" (2-TB), at 1.4GHz quad-core i5, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD. I basically use it as my only computer via a hub, monitor, and wireless keyboard and mouse and it works great for those purposes. I've had it since last June and loved it. I'm a PhD student in the UK and I tend to travel around quite a lot for my research, so having a relatively powerful (in all ways except for gaming) and slim/light laptop is really useful, and given that my apartment is very small, being able to tuck away my laptop behind the monitor in a vertical stand saves me a huge amount of room not needing a desktop tower. I often have 20-40 PDFs open, multiple Word docs, Firefox with 20+ tabs, plus Spotify, Messenger etc. open in the background and it can all of those at the same time with ease.

 

Thing is, there's a few games I play on my Mac which I can't play on my Xbox One X or PS4 Pro, which are where I do the majority of my gaming (I know, sorry, I'm a console pleb!) In particular, League of Legends, World of Warcraft, Civilization VI, and Disco Elysium, and I'd really like to be able to play them on higher settings and with a better, smoother framerate than I can through my Macbook's relatively weak iGPU.

 

One option is of course to build a gaming PC. Because I still have a 500GB Samsung SSD from my old (otherwise very outdated) desktop, I've sourced around and figured out that for £650 I could put together a PC with a Ryzen 3 3200G, RX 580 8GB, and 16GB of 3000MHz DDR4 RAM and a nice NZXT case. But it feels a little redundant given that I prefer to play most AAA games on my consoles anyway.

 

The other option would be to spend £400 on just buying a Razer Core X and an RX 580 GPU. World of Warcraft and League of Legends are already pretty well-optimised to run on Mac OS anyway, and it would save me at least £250. I wouldn't need to manage a separate computer, have it taking up space in a tiny apartment or have to worry about how I transport it to wherever I move next in September. It could just sit on the cabinet next to my desk next to my vertical stand, keeping my desk clear for books, keyboard, mouse, work, etc. Or I could invest a little more and get the RX 5600-XT GPU and get even more power out of it.

 

I'm sure that this forum will lean towards building a new PC, and in theory I'd be happy to put the money into it, it's just that due to my circumstances it feels like just getting an eGPU might be the better option. But I was hoping any advice here or suggestions for things I should consider might help me make up my mind. Thank you!

[svmlegacy]

3 minutes ago, mlwry said:

Hi there, was hoping you knowledgeable folks might be able to offer me some advice. I wasn't sure about the right forum to post this in as it isn't exactly a 'build advice' question.

 

Basically, my current computer is the late 2019 MacBook Pro 13" (2-TB), at 1.4GHz quad-core i5, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD. I basically use it as my only computer via a hub, monitor, and wireless keyboard and mouse and it works great for those purposes. I've had it since last June and loved it. I'm a PhD student in the UK and I tend to travel around quite a lot for my research, so having a relatively powerful (in all ways except for gaming) and slim/light laptop is really useful, and given that my apartment is very small, being able to tuck away my laptop behind the monitor in a vertical stand saves me a huge amount of room not needing a desktop tower. I often have 20-40 PDFs open, multiple Word docs, Firefox with 20+ tabs, plus Spotify, Messenger etc. open in the background and it can all of those at the same time with ease.

 

Thing is, there's a few games I play on my Mac which I can't play on my Xbox One X or PS4 Pro, which are where I do the majority of my gaming (I know, sorry, I'm a console pleb!) In particular, League of Legends, World of Warcraft, Civilization VI, and Disco Elysium, and I'd really like to be able to play them on higher settings and with a better, smoother framerate than I can through my Macbook's relatively weak iGPU.

 

One option is of course to build a gaming PC. Because I still have a 500GB Samsung SSD from my old (otherwise very outdated) desktop, I've sourced around and figured out that for £650 I could put together a PC with a Ryzen 3 3200G, RX 580 8GB, and 16GB of 3000MHz DDR4 RAM and a nice NZXT case. But it feels a little redundant given that I prefer to play most AAA games on my consoles anyway.

 

The other option would be to spend £400 on just buying a Razer Core X and an RX 580 GPU. World of Warcraft and League of Legends are already pretty well-optimised to run on Mac OS anyway, and it would save me at least £250. I wouldn't need to manage a separate computer, have it taking up space in a tiny apartment or have to worry about how I transport it to wherever I move next in September. It could just sit on the cabinet next to my desk next to my vertical stand, keeping my desk clear for books, keyboard, mouse, work, etc. Or I could invest a little more and get the RX 5600-XT GPU and get even more power out of it.

 

I'm sure that this forum will lean towards building a new PC, and in theory I'd be happy to put the money into it, it's just that due to my circumstances it feels like just getting an eGPU might be the better option. But I was hoping any advice here or suggestions for things I should consider might help me make up my mind. Thank you!

Do eGPU's even work with Mac's?

[swarming1182]

2 minutes ago, svmlegacy said:

Do eGPU's even work with Mac's?

Yeah Mac OS has had proper plug-and-play support for a while now, it's just limited to AMD GPUs because Apple and Nvidia can't stop being children. The only difficulty beyond that is if you want to use Bootcamp, but there are workarounds in most cases for that too.

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT208544

[TheBahrbarian]

Personally I have always been intrigued by eGPUs, but have no personal experience with them. Idk how well they work with MAC (if at all) and what kind of compatibility issues they have in general. I think in your case I would suggest doing a desktop build, especially because of how limited mac OS is when it comes to gaming. It seems silly to me to spend hundreds on an eGPU for a laptop that can't really run that many games, and some of those that it can, it can already handle.

 

I understand your size constraints but I feel like that might be a need opportunity for you to design and build a really compact mini-itx build to take up minimal space. And it sounds like you do a ton of multitasking, which in general, a desktop will probably be better for, even if it seems like your laptop can handle it.

[boggy77]

another option, if you have good internet, is to use a cloud gaming service like the nvidia geforce now.

[Ashleyyyy]

22 hours ago, TheBahrbarian said:

Personally I have always been intrigued by eGPUs, but have no personal experience with them. Idk how well they work with MAC (if at all) and what kind of compatibility issues they have in general.

they work well on macOS but as said above your post only with AMD cards because nvidia are buttheads.