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Camark08

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 15, 2018
60
23
Hello I want to get an EGPU for my 2017 macbook pro 13 to play a couple of games I wouldn't consider really intense and I was wondering if there are any egpus that could work without needing a monitor. I don't have room for a monitor.
 
I am currently studying this:

https://9to5mac.com/guides/egpu/

Please someone correct me if I am wrong, but it seems if one buys an eGPU enclosure and a good video card. (total price for both in the video at the link above < $1000)

and hook them both up to 2018 macbook pro 13"

Then...

One has a heck of a basic game machine for windows AND guess what, I read where the macbook pros fans will not spin up like crazy while playing games since the hard work is being pushed to the eGPU.

so that's a plus for me since i wanted to build a quiet PC for gaming this year, but instead may just do the above

thoughts?

seems like unless you want 60FPS 4K battlefield 5 action, this will do for the majority of people for more then basic windows gaming on a mac.
 
I am currently studying this:

https://9to5mac.com/guides/egpu/

Please someone correct me if I am wrong, but it seems if one buys an eGPU enclosure and a good video card. (total price for both in the video at the link above < $1000)

and hook them both up to 2018 macbook pro 13"

Then...

One has a heck of a basic game machine for windows AND guess what, I read where the macbook pros fans will not spin up like crazy while playing games since the hard work is being pushed to the eGPU.

so that's a plus for me since i wanted to build a quiet PC for gaming this year, but instead may just do the above

thoughts?

seems like unless you want 60FPS 4K battlefield 5 action, this will do for the majority of people for more then basic windows gaming on a mac.

I would just build a quiet PC gaming rig. Because of the need to be transportable, notebooks are a compromise between power and portability, and cost more for the same amount of computing power. You can build a i5 based gaming rig relatively cheap with mid to mid-upper end AMD or Nvidia graphics card. There are loads of used Nvidias available now that the crypto mining crashed.

Stick in a SSD for $80-150 (256-1 TB) and a nice CPU cooler and you have a system may make little to no noise because the fans don't spin up until your reach 40-50C and these systems often never get that hot.

Also, if you decide you want to play more demanding titles you can upgrade your graphics card with a simple swap, and sell the old one for some cash.
 
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But would you say, IF i did the eGPU route and did not want to build my own machine (more of a space issue then anything) that the above system would be at least a "pretty good" windows gaming machine? not the best, mind you, just good enough.

and I think i could upgrade the vid card as well down the road if I went with an enclosure like the razer. not so with the blackmagic I agree.
 
The new nVidia card 2060? has more power then the 1070(ti?) it seems for only $350.

so that means I can get the enclosure and a card for $700 all in. I think I will go that route. just too easy for me. at least to try. I really don't want to build anything and have one more box in my office.

Will wait on some 2060 reviews and wait and see.
 
The new nVidia card 2060? has more power then the 1070(ti?) it seems for only $350.

so that means I can get the enclosure and a card for $700 all in. I think I will go that route. just too easy for me. at least to try. I really don't want to build anything and have one more box in my office.

Will wait on some 2060 reviews and wait and see.
Thanks. I will definitely look into it. It sucks the blackmagic is overpriced. I would look into a monitor but I'm on the go. Wouldn't mind bringing an egpu sometimes considering the MacBook weighs nothing.
 
I use a Razer Core X with a desktop RX580 for my 2016 nTB MBP and it works great. I'm playing recent games etc. on the internal monitor.

And yes, the laptop itself runs way cooler when using the eGPU.
 
I have the Razor Core X and AMD PowerColor Red Devil RX Vega 64. I did a lot of research to end up with that. Some Vega cards have fan issues according to one forum. I will buy a monitor one day.... Kind of waiting cos have the feeling Apple will release new monitors this year, or might just buy a specific gaming one, but at the moment just running on internal screen. Scores 142,000 on geekbench in MacOS and so far runs most games around 5 years old max settings or close to on the internal monitor. I didn't test any really new games yet, have a lot of catching up to do.

It does look really really good and make a massive difference using Egpu on the internal screen and the MBP screen is already very HQ display. Even though the data flow gets crunched both ways having to come back to the internal screen it's still plenty worth while.

As for bootcamp running on internal screen. I have not got this working yet. Ive tried twice and deleted the partition due to failure, but will have another go the next days as I just finished Witcher 2 and Witcher 3 in only on Windows.
 
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