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Iris Pro or NVIDIA GT 750M with possible eGPU update in the future?

Q

qom

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 6, 2007
80
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So, I'm looking into upgrading to a new rMPB. I've been following the eGPU development for awhile and it seems to be maturing into something quite useful!

I also saw that you'd be better of going with simply Iris rather than the GT 750M dGPU. I would be interested in buying a eGPU in the future if the prices come down a bit, but otherwise I think it's too steep, which puts me in a dilemma. Should I get the high end model with the GT 750M or stick with the base model with upgraded ram and hdd? As you know the price is almost the same if you go that route, but you "miss out" on the dGPU.

What's the penalty of going with dGPU if you're opting for eGPU in the future?

What would you do?
 
qom said:
What would you do?
Click to expand...
What is the intended purpose of the rMBP, unless I missed it, I failed to see what tasks the computer was going to perform.

3d modeling, photoshop, games, spreadsheets?
 
Well, I'm mostly working in Adobes Creative Suite (Indesign/Photoshop mainly, some After Effects), some web development.

For that I know Iris Pro will do.

But I'm also a very occasional gamer, thus I'm very interested in the possibility to be able to hook up a high end graphics card and an external monitor to be able to play games with great performance that these new eGPU solutions can deliver.

If the prices come down a bit (and that somebody releases a neater solution, better footprint and included psu), I might pick one of those eGPU docks up. Hence the dilemma. Am I shooting myself in the foot if I get the 750M if I'd be likely to go eGPU in the future?
 
qom said:
So, I'm looking into upgrading to a new rMPB. I've been following the eGPU development for awhile and it seems to be maturing into something quite useful!

I also saw that you'd be better of going with simply Iris rather than the GT 750M dGPU. I would be interested in buying a eGPU in the future if the prices come down a bit, but otherwise I think it's too steep, which puts me in a dilemma. Should I get the high end model with the GT 750M or stick with the base model with upgraded ram and hdd? As you know the price is almost the same if you go that route, but you "miss out" on the dGPU.

What's the penalty of going with dGPU if you're opting for eGPU in the future?

What would you do?
Click to expand...

If you go with the dGPU, the only penalty when you go eGPU in the future is that you can't make use of NVIDIA Optimus in Boot Camp.

That's the only disadvantage :)
 
yjchua95 said:
If you go with the dGPU, the only penalty when you go eGPU in the future is that you can't make use of NVIDIA Optimus in Boot Camp.

That's the only disadvantage :)
Click to expand...

Not sure what Optimus means? The ability to toggle between two GFXs?
 
qom said:
Not sure what Optimus means? The ability to toggle between two GFXs?
Click to expand...

Something like that, only that it uses both at the same time.

The iGPU will be used to render the display and the dGPU will be used to render everything else before sending it to the iGPU to output to the display, if I'm not mistaken.
 
yjchua95 said:
Yup, forgot to mention this. On the dGPU model with eGPU, the internal display remains inactive until you drag a window from the external display back to the internal display.
Click to expand...

so it can work? nice. Probably helps with cooling too as all gpu functions are external. Too bad egpu enclosures are so expensive. If a tb2 one was ~$300 or less with power supply included, id consider getting one closely.
 
Freyqq said:
so it can work? nice. Probably helps with cooling too as all gpu functions are external. Too bad egpu enclosures are so expensive. If a tb2 one was ~$300 or less with power supply included, id consider getting one closely.
Click to expand...

Yup, it'll work.

I'm not too concerned about running off an external display only with an eGPU setup because gaming is best done on a large screen anyway :)

And besides the internal display still can be deactivated by dragging a window from the external display back to the internal display.
 
yjchua95 said:
Yup, it'll work.

I'm not too concerned about running off an external display only with an eGPU setup because gaming is best done on a large screen anyway :)

And besides the internal display still can be deactivated by dragging a window from the external display back to the internal display.
Click to expand...

Interesting. So windows detects the internal screen, but it is blank until used by a window? Sounds ideal, as bandwidth isn't wasted on the internal screen unless needed.
 
yjchua95 said:
The Sonnet IIID enclosure for eGPUs support OS X and Windows (Boot Camp - UEFI) natively.
Click to expand...

Impressive. I didn't know apple had included native support for eGPUs. Now I just have to wait for them to drop to reasonable price levels. Almost can build a desktop for the same price listed on amazon right now (over $900).
 
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