MBP 14" M2 as desktop replacement

[katyoshi]

BLUF: What is the most recommended docking station with displayport monitor connections compatible with the new 14" MBP?

I am living in Germany right now and I can ship via APO or amazon.de.

Looking to buy and use the MBP 14" M2 as desktop. I got all the windows gaming PC peripheries (mouse, keyboard, xbox one controller, razor headset) ready to connect to a docking station. I got a 34" ultrawide Alienware monitor. I would use the MBP for everyday use, media consumption such as netflix/apple TV/youtube music etc, and also gaming like on fortnite, call of duty, battlefield one/five. I like to use an xbox one controller for all these games. I am looking to sell one of our custom built windows PCs. I built these two gaming desktops myself for me and my wife. Now we are looking to sell one of these PCs.

Side note, I also have the Razor Core X Chroma external GPU case that I could use with my MBPs. In my main gaming windows PC, I have an AMD Radeon RX 6800XT. My wife's computer has an Asus ROG Strix 2080.

What is the most recommended docking station compatible with the new 14" MBP? I would prefer a docking station with a DisplayPort to connect to my alienware ultrawide monitor. I'm planning on taking out the AMD or NVIDIA GPUs out of the windows PC to put into the Razor Core X Chroma external case.

Thanks all!

 

[iMacDragon]

Forget it for the gaming usage you describe, external GPU's and most windows games will not run.

Some can be got to run via parallels or crossover/wine, but these are ( sadly ) not good as primary gaming systems.

 

[katyoshi]

Forget it for the gaming usage you describe, external GPU's and most windows games will not run.

Some can be got to run via parallels or crossover/wine, but these are ( sadly ) not good as primary gaming systems.

Thanks. I’ll keep my primary gaming desktop then lol

 

[iMacDragon]

Thanks. I’ll keep my primary gaming desktop then lol

Yeah, they're great laptops, but unless the gaming industry adds more support quite limited for that usage still.

Is why I still have a gaming desktop, though my mac laptop is primary computer.

Visa

 

[maflynn]

and also gaming like on fortnite, call of duty, battlefield one/five.

Macs are not gaming machines and the available games is paltry compared to windows. If you're looking to game, then the Mac isn't the ideal machine. Fortnite will work, since there's a macos version, but not the battlefield franchise

Side note, I also have the Razor Core X Chroma external GPU case that I could use with my MBPs.

This isn't going to work. The intel Macs prior to the M1 could use an eGPU, the ARM based Macs cannot.

 

[dmccloud]

For most non-gaming related tasks, the 14" MBP with an M2 Pro or Max could serve as a desktop replacement. For gaming, that is not nearly as convincing a case. I have been running a few cross-platform benchmarks comparing my M2 Max MBP to the Ryzen 9 5900x machine I built last year, with about as similar specs to this Mac as one could get (by accident).

Ryzen 9 5900x (12 core, 24 thread)
32 GB DDR4-3600 RAM
1TB Samsung Pro 980 SSD
nVidia Geforce RTX 3060

Just as a hint as to what I have observed so far, here are the Geekbench 5 CPU results:

Ryzen 9 Build:

M2 Mac MBP:

Other benchmarks such as Cinebench R23 have shown similar performance gains for the M2 Max when compared to the Ryzen 9 build. This was slightly surprising to me because the Ryzen part has a higher max speed (4.7Ghz) in single core mode and the perceived advantage of hyperthreading. On the compute side using Open CL, the M2 Max got an average of 65387 across three runs, while the 3060 averaged 66307, which is only around a 1.4% difference.

While the performance is definitely there for the M2 Max as long as raytracing isn't involved, the lack of overall support from game developers for the Mac is what is really holding the system back as a viable competitor in the gaming space. This is why I have a custom-built gaming PC in addition to a Mac, that way I can game without limitations on one machine while also working on coding, content creation, etc. with the Mac regardless of whether I am at home or on the road.

 

[katyoshi]

Thanks for the info folks. Looks like i'll still keep my gaming custom built PC and use the macbook pro as a on the go device

 

[A.R.E.A.M.]

for what its worth, i did egg-actly what you are trying to do.

a few months ago i built a PC desktop to replace my tried and true alienware area 51 r2. it served me well and was a great machine, but i had money burning a hole in my pocket so decided to build a new machine.

I had 5TB of SK Hynix nvme drives, 128GB ddr5 ram, intel i9-12900ks, asus rog strix 3090 ti, and a 1600W corsair power supply. i also had last gen flagship M1 max 64gb 8tb 16 inch variant. id have the mac on the go and would get home and use my desktop. i use davinci resolve studio on both machines, but it would get a little tedious to open up whatever i was working on on my mac to the desktop, but i made it work for those few months. before i got that macbook i used a dell G7 17 inch laptop which was fine but ram was limited to 32gb.

well, the 16 inch 96gb 8tb m2 max came out and i decided i wanted to have that, so i sold my custom built desktop so i can fund the m2 max. i do not game but as mentioned, i edit video, and wanted desktop power in a laptop on the go because im often in situations where im not in my home suite, so i got a TS4 dock and all i have to do now is plug up one tb4 cable and boom goes the dynamite, im up and running, picking up where i left off. this laptop is very very capable of doing what i need from it.