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Need suggestions for external GPU.

Skylinegodzilla
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Go to solution Solved by maartendc,
1 hour ago, Skylinegodzilla said:

So I just finished watching Linus video on his ultamit travel gaming setup and it got me wondering if it can fix a bottleneck I have in one of my systems.

 

now I am going to be building my own pc in the next copple of years I've just got to sort out some things first so for the mean time I have to work with what I have got and what I have got is a MacBook Pro, running a bootcamp windows 10 OS, somthing that as we all know we can not upgrade the internal hardware.

 

But the computer itself is not that bad the onley real bottle neck in it is the GPU. I'll be playing a generic game on steam. My CPU will be running at 40%. I'll be using 25% of my ram yet my GPU will be running flat out at 100%

of corse those are just avage aproxamations the real stats change depending on what I have running.

 

So I'm wondering if there is a external GPU setup that can work with my setup over thunderbolt that I could look in to and if there's any recommendations on what I should buy.

 

I can provide further details about my computers setup when I get home if it's needed.

but the base specs are

i7 CPU (exsact gen and speed will be added when I get home)

16 GB ram

Nvida 720m builtin graphics processer

1TB SSD

Macbook pro late 2013 refurbished 2015

I have exactly the same Macbook Pro as you, and I used to run an external GPU.

 

Problem is that your laptop has Thunderbolt 2, and most of the third party manufacturer made GPU enclosures use Thunderbolt 3. So they are not compatible.

 

i used to have a homemade Akitio Thunder 2 (running Thunderbolt 2), with external PSU. This is the cheapest solution (about $200 for the box, and $50 for the PSU). In Windows 10, with Nvidia GPU's, the system should recognize this setup automatically, and it SHOULD work. However, these homemade solutions have some problems, as they are not officially supported. Sometimes the system has trouble booting, or recognizing the GPU, etc. etc. It was a pain in the ass. 

 

Also, in some cases it only works on an external monitor connected to the eGPU (in case your laptop has the Nvidia 750M dedicated graphics (you have 720M??), there are some problems getting the eGPU to work on the internal screen (called Nvidia Optimus technology).

 

Check this out for a list of Thunderbolt 2 enclosures: https://egpu.io/setup-guide-external-graphics-card-mac/#tb2-enclosures

 

Check out this forum for guides and help: https://www.techinferno.com/index.php?/tags/egpu/

 

But again, you would be better off using a laptop with Thunderbolt 3, and using one of the enclosures made by Razer, Asus, Dell, Akitio, etc.. which would be officially supported. Much less problems. But they ARE more expensive than running a home-made system. This is probably the cheapest Thunderbolt 3 option: https://www.akitio.com/expansion/node

 

Or better yet, use the money to just build a standard gaming rig. Will work better and more reliably for the same or slighly more money. Believe me, I speak from experience.

 

Good luck!

Posted

So I just finished watching Linus video on his ultamit travel gaming setup and it got me wondering if it can fix a bottleneck I have in one of my systems.

 

now I am going to be building my own pc in the next copple of years I've just got to sort out some things first so for the mean time I have to work with what I have got and what I have got is a MacBook Pro, running a bootcamp windows 10 OS, somthing that as we all know we can not upgrade the internal hardware.

 

But the computer itself is not that bad the onley real bottle neck in it is the GPU. I'll be playing a generic game on steam. My CPU will be running at 40%. I'll be using 25% of my ram yet my GPU will be running flat out at 100%

of corse those are just avage aproxamations the real stats change depending on what I have running.

 

So I'm wondering if there is a external GPU setup that can work with my setup over thunderbolt that I could look in to and if there's any recommendations on what I should buy.

 

I can provide further details about my computers setup when I get home if it's needed.

but the base specs are

i7 CPU (exsact gen and speed will be added when I get home)

16 GB ram

Nvida 720m builtin graphics processer

1TB SSD

Macbook pro late 2013 refurbished 2015

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1 hour ago, Skylinegodzilla said:

So I just finished watching Linus video on his ultamit travel gaming setup and it got me wondering if it can fix a bottleneck I have in one of my systems.

 

now I am going to be building my own pc in the next copple of years I've just got to sort out some things first so for the mean time I have to work with what I have got and what I have got is a MacBook Pro, running a bootcamp windows 10 OS, somthing that as we all know we can not upgrade the internal hardware.

 

But the computer itself is not that bad the onley real bottle neck in it is the GPU. I'll be playing a generic game on steam. My CPU will be running at 40%. I'll be using 25% of my ram yet my GPU will be running flat out at 100%

of corse those are just avage aproxamations the real stats change depending on what I have running.

 

So I'm wondering if there is a external GPU setup that can work with my setup over thunderbolt that I could look in to and if there's any recommendations on what I should buy.

 

I can provide further details about my computers setup when I get home if it's needed.

but the base specs are

i7 CPU (exsact gen and speed will be added when I get home)

16 GB ram

Nvida 720m builtin graphics processer

1TB SSD

Macbook pro late 2013 refurbished 2015

I have exactly the same Macbook Pro as you, and I used to run an external GPU.

 

Problem is that your laptop has Thunderbolt 2, and most of the third party manufacturer made GPU enclosures use Thunderbolt 3. So they are not compatible.

 

i used to have a homemade Akitio Thunder 2 (running Thunderbolt 2), with external PSU. This is the cheapest solution (about $200 for the box, and $50 for the PSU). In Windows 10, with Nvidia GPU's, the system should recognize this setup automatically, and it SHOULD work. However, these homemade solutions have some problems, as they are not officially supported. Sometimes the system has trouble booting, or recognizing the GPU, etc. etc. It was a pain in the ass. 

 

Also, in some cases it only works on an external monitor connected to the eGPU (in case your laptop has the Nvidia 750M dedicated graphics (you have 720M??), there are some problems getting the eGPU to work on the internal screen (called Nvidia Optimus technology).

 

Check this out for a list of Thunderbolt 2 enclosures: https://egpu.io/setup-guide-external-graphics-card-mac/#tb2-enclosures

 

Check out this forum for guides and help: https://www.techinferno.com/index.php?/tags/egpu/

 

But again, you would be better off using a laptop with Thunderbolt 3, and using one of the enclosures made by Razer, Asus, Dell, Akitio, etc.. which would be officially supported. Much less problems. But they ARE more expensive than running a home-made system. This is probably the cheapest Thunderbolt 3 option: https://www.akitio.com/expansion/node

 

Or better yet, use the money to just build a standard gaming rig. Will work better and more reliably for the same or slighly more money. Believe me, I speak from experience.

 

Good luck!

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Thank you marrtendc. 

and your right I have a Nvidia 750M I just did not have the computer in front of me to double check at the time.

 

At the end of the day, I just wanted to remove the unfair bottleneck in my otherwise somewhat decent system so I could squeeze some more gaming use out of it b4 I build my first proper gaming rig and then use my mac purely for programming, graphic design and other work.

 

I plan on starting to build a proper gaming rig next year/2019 but I don't want to rush that project just so that I can pc game properly right now.

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