eGPU with Mac Book Air 2015

[fehllyy]

Hi all,

 

 

 

 

 

I have been pestering my friend for ages now to get a PC, but he just wont listen to me. And then I heard about eGPU, an awesome way to externally connect a graphics card to any laptop with a thunder bolt port. I thought to myself what I wonderful idea it would be to use this method to connect something like an R9 380 to my friends Mac Book, and get a HUGE increase in gaming performance, with out buying a whole new computer. I was just wondering if anyone could recommend an eGPU bracket/connector/case to use for this purpose, and if it would actually work on a Mac.

 

I have posted an image of someone who has done this with  their Mac Book.

 

 

 

Cheers,

Ajax 

 

 

[Dschijn]

Yes it is possible! I am happy with running a GTX970 on my 15" MBPr.

Some details that you didn't write are very important:

- Which OS do you want to run the eGPU on?

- Internal and/or external monitor?

- Which games do you want to play?

- What performance do you exspect?

- What is your budget?

 

The MacBook Air 2015 lucky got TB2 and isn't limited in it's bandwidth like the older Air models. But the 13" MacBooks only have a Dual Core CPU which might not be enough for the latest games that demand more.

Running games on the internal display should work good (in Windows 8.1 and Nvdia eGPU only) since the display of the Air has a rather low resolution.

 

You can read a bit about the basic hardware for eGPUs here:

https://forum.techinferno.com/apple-egpu-discussion/10061-basic-egpu-hardware-guide-macs.html

[fehllyy]

• he plays Borderlands

he has a 24 inch LG monitor 

he is using the latest Apple OS (not to sure what that is, Yosemite?)

he has a budget of around $500-$600 for the whole setup (thats AUS dollars)

and it doesn't matter if he only gets like 35 FPS

[Dschijn]

OSX is no problem, eGPUs run great in OSX now. For that budget and setup I would recommend to use a GTX950 or maybe even a GTX960 4GB, but unfortunately the basic hardware is the AKiTiO Thunder2 and will take more 50% of the budget.

Gaming with the eGPU will only be possible on external monitors!

[fehllyy]

sweet! Thanks a lot.