As an enthusiast and fan of external GPUs, I've always been excited to explore the possibilities of upgrading my MacBook Pro with a powerful graphics card. In this video, I set out to test some popular Thunderbolt 3 enclosures that work with High Sierra, the latest version of Mac OS.
I began by testing the Razor Core enclosure, which uses the TI 82 controller and is one of the more popular options on the market. However, I quickly discovered that it didn't work in Mac OS High Sierra, a major hurdle for external GPU enthusiasts. Fortunately, there were workarounds available in Sierra, but those didn't apply to High Sierra.
Undeterred, I moved on to test the Mantas Venus enclosure, which is running new firmware from Intel to take full advantage of its capabilities. With 2200 megabytes per second of PCIE bandwidth, this enclosure is capable of powering even the most demanding applications and charging my 15-inch MacBook Pro with ease.
One of the standout features of the Venus enclosure is its ability to feed power to both my internal display and an external monitor, all from a single Thunderbolt 3 cable. This means that I can enjoy seamless performance and connectivity without any interruptions or hiccups. The enclosure also comes equipped with a SATA drive, providing additional storage options for my Mac.
I'm excited to report that external GPU support in High Sierra is incredibly straightforward and plug-and-play, even on very early Beta versions of the OS. This means that users can quickly and easily set up their external GPUs without any hassle or technical expertise. The 10-series Nvidia GPUs run decently well, while AMD GPUs like the Rx 480 and Rx 580 are highly reliable.
However, it's worth noting that there is a significant performance hit when using Thunderbolt 3 enclosures. Users can expect to lose around 10-15% of their performance just by plugging in an external GPU. This is not surprising, given the limitations of Thunderbolt 3 bandwidth.
In addition to the performance hit, I highly recommend running your external GPU with an external display. The performance boost is substantial, but it's still nowhere near what you'd get from a dedicated gaming laptop or PC. To put this into perspective, I ran some native Mac games on a 1080p external monitor and was pleasantly surprised by the results.
While external GPUs have come a long way in terms of setup and reliability, there is one major issue that affects their performance: cost. The enclosures themselves can be quite pricey, with prices ranging from $500 to over $1000. Similarly, the GPUs themselves are also expensive, especially when it comes to high-end models like those used for crypto mining.
When you factor in the need for an external monitor, which can add another $200-$700 to the cost, the total price tag becomes staggering. In some cases, building a gaming PC or laptop from scratch can be more cost-effective than investing in an external GPU setup. It's not that Apple's hardware is inherently flawed – it's just that many games and applications are optimized for Windows, resulting in superior performance.
That being said, there is hope on the horizon. The next generation of GPUs, such as Volta or Vega, may prove to be more cost-effective than their current counterparts. Similarly, advancements in Thunderbolt technology could potentially improve performance and reduce costs in the future.
For now, though, I remain skeptical about the value proposition of external GPUs for Mac users. Unless you absolutely need this functionality for work, it's just not worth the investment. The only way to achieve good external GPU performance on a Mac is to run Boot Camp Windows, which defeats the purpose of using an external GPU in the first place.
In conclusion, while external GPUs have come a long way in terms of setup and reliability, their cost-effectiveness remains a major concern. Unless you're willing to invest hundreds or even thousands of dollars into an external GPU enclosure and matching hardware, it's just not worth the hassle. As Thunderbolt technology continues to evolve, we may see improvements in performance and costs. Until then, I'll remain cautiously optimistic about the potential of external GPUs for Mac users.
"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enHey, how's it going, Dave 2D here. So I've always considered myself an enthusiast, or, at the very least a fan ofexternal GPUs.And this video was originally going to be kind of like a showcase of some external GPU enclosures that worked withHigh Sierra, the new upcoming Mac OS,but, as I tested things and I got into the thick of it, the video kind of changed course. Okay, High Sierra,this is the upcoming version of Mac OS, it's in Beta right now,but external GPU support is really solid. The Razor Core is one of the more popular Thunderbolt 3 enclosures,this is running the TI 82 controller, this does not work in Mac OS High Sierra.So, there were workarounds for this kind of stuff in SierraBut that doesn't work in High Sierra. The enclosure that I used to test most of this video was this thing, the Mantas Venus.Now I'm actually running new firmware from Intel to get2200 megabytes per second of PCIE Bandwidth, the older firmware had potential limitations because of the ports.Okay, inside the Venus, there's a big enough power supply in here to power ,and charge even the 15-inch Macbook ProIt can feed 87 wattsI think, to whatever it's connected to, and there's actually a connection in here for a SATA driveso, off of a single Thunderbolt 3 cable, you get power to your Macbook, you get external GPUcapabilities, and you get a drive in here for backup, or storage, or whatever you want to do.So I'm going to jump right into the thick of it. External GPU support in High Sierra is basically plug and play.It's running very early drivers on a Beta OS, but everything works really nice. The 10 seriesNvidia GPUs run decent, the AMD GPUs like the Rx 480 and Rx 580 are really reliable,but like any external Thunderbolt 3 GPU, you automatically lose about 10 to 15 percent of the performance just by nature of the connection.The other thing is that I highly recommend running this thing with an external display.You can connect it using like a ghost connector to run it on to the internal display, but I really don't recommend itIt's a 15 to 20 percent hit.So here are some native Mac games running on a 1080p external monitor, and if you look at these numbers,it doesn't look bad, right?It's way better than anything you'd get from a stockMacbook GPU, and as long as you're putting a powerful graphics card into the enclosure, you can get some strong frame rates for games.But then when you compare this Mac setup to a Window's setup, the difference issubstantial. You need to get a significantly more powerful GPU for the Mac just to keep up.And that's my whole issue. Even with great support, good drivers, and expensive hardware,performance isn't great in Mac OS. the only way to get good external GPU performance here,is to run Boot Camp Windows. And I noticed the same thing in Adobe Premiere. The external GPU helps a lot,I mean, it's so much better than the Radeon Pro, but the same external GPU gets better performance in Windows.And it's been like half a year since I've benchmarked external GPUs on Macs. They've become much easier to setupThere's no more scripts, and the whole thing is just a lot more reliable,but performance isexactly the same, and I'm convinced at this point that this is as good as performance is going to get for these cards, which quitefrankly, sucks.So one of the biggest issuesWith external GPUs is pricing. The enclosures themselves aren't cheap, and then the GPUs you need to put in them are pricey as wellespecially with all the crypto mining happening,so you're looking at four or five hundred dollars for the enclosure, and then at least three, maybe four hundred dollars for the GPU inside there.I mean, you could go lower, but then the whole thing isn't really worth your time.Then you need an external monitor, and those are a couple hundred,maybe a little bit more, and if you want to go something higher-end, like, you're pushing six, seven hundred dollars. At the end,this whole set up, just for the external GPU stuff,can easily break eleven or twelve hundred dollars, and at that price you can build a gaming PC,or you can get a solid gaming laptop for the money. See, if you're investing in an external GPU set up, but you're forced torun Boot Camp Windows for performance,I feel like you should spend that money on a dedicated Windows setup instead.External GPUs have always been very expensive already for windows laptops,but then on Macs, that price to performance ratio is just even worse. And it's not Apple's fault. None of this is Apple's hardware,it's just that many games and applications are optimized for Windows and just perform better there.Now maybe the next generation of GPUs will make this better, like maybe Volta or Vega will just make this somehow more cost-effective,or maybe enclosures will come down a lot in price, but there's something inherently wrong with this whole Thunderbolt 3 connection,maybe we need Thunderbolt 4,maybe we need more bandwidth available so that you're not losing so much performance when you're piping it through.I'm not sure what it is, but right now, for Macbook users, unless you absolutely need this thing in yourworkflow, like you need something for work to make this happenthis,mm-hmm, it's just not cost-effective.\n"
