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Apple’s Mac computers, particularly models like the MacBook Pro and iMac Pro, are incredibly powerful machines.

But there are, of course, a number of instances that demand even more graphical processing power. That’s where a device called an eGPU comes in.

Contents

• 2 How to Use an eGPU With Your Mac Apps

What is an eGPU (External GPU)?

An eGPU, or external graphics processor, can give your Mac extra processing power. This can come in handy when you’re running professional or graphically intensive like video games or 3D and VR content creators.

Third, I did have to troubleshoot some games and make changes in Windows in order to get games to work with the eGPU, meaning your mileage may vary depend in the game you want to play.

There are even a number of eGPU platforms that have been created specifically with Apple’s Mac in mind — including the Blackmagic eGPU lineup.

RELATED:

How to Use an eGPU With Your Mac Apps

Before you start, you’ll need to plug an eGPU into a Mac running macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 or later.

External GPUs can only be plugged in with a Thunderbolt 3 port. In addition, you’ll want to plug the eGPU directly into your Mac’s Thunderbolt 3 port. Don’t use an adapter or hub.

First, Check Your App

Keep in mind that not all apps support eGPU acceleration. You’ll want to check the app itself or contact the app developer to see further details.

In general, many professional applications, VR apps, and 3D games can use external GPU acceleration — in the latter case, when an external monitor is attached directly into the eGPU.

Some professional apps and 3D games will accelerate the built-in display of your Mac computer (although this must be enabled by the developer).

How to Prefer an App to Prefer an eGPU

Once you figure out if your app is compatible with an eGPU, you can move on to actually setting it as the preferred graphics processing unit.

Do note that not all apps let users set a preferred GPU. Some apps self-manage this process — and will ignore this manual setting.

But in most cases, this is the method you’ll use to set an app to use an external GPU.

• Open a new Finder window.
• Find the app you’d like to use with your eGPU. (Most apps will be in the Applications folder — you can also control-click the app icon and select Show Original.)
• Control-click the app and select Get Info. Alternatively, click on it once and press Command + I.
• In the pop-up box, check the box next to Prefer External GPU.
• Close out of the pop-up box and open the app to use it with your external GPU.

How to Prefer an eGPU-Connected Display

As mentioned above, some 3D games can use an external graphics processing unit when there’s an external monitor or display connected to it (and not directly to your Mac).

In these cases, you have the option of setting that eGPU-connected display as your primary display for all apps. Here’s how.

• Close out of all apps, or at least the ones you want to use with your eGPU.
• Click on the Apple logo in the top-left of the menu bar.
• Select System Preferences.
• Click on Displays and then Arrangement.
• Drag the white menu bar to the box representing the display attached to your eGPU.
• Open the app connected to your eGPU.

How to Disconnect an eGPU

Once you’re done using an external GPU, or you just need to take your MacBook Pro on the go, you’ll want to disconnect it. Luckily, it’s pretty easy to do so.

Just find the external GPU icon in the top menu bar — it’ll be on the right side. Click on it and then select Disconnect in the drop-down menu.

Mike is a freelance journalist from San Diego, California.

While he primarily covers Apple and consumer technology, he has past experience writing about public safety, local government, and education for a variety of publications.

He’s worn quite a few hats in the journalism field, including writer, editor, and news designer.

To use an eGPU, a Mac with an Intel processor is required.

An eGPU can give your Mac additional graphics performance for professional apps, 3D gaming, VR content creation and more.

eGPUs are supported by any Mac with an Intel processor and Thunderbolt 3 ports¹ running macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 or later. Find out how to update the software on your Mac.

An eGPU lets you do all of the following on your Mac:

• Accelerate apps that use Metal, OpenGL and OpenCL
• Connect additional external monitors and displays
• Use virtual reality headsets plugged into the eGPU
• Charge your MacBook Pro while using the eGPU
• Use an eGPU with your MacBook Pro while its built-in display is closed
• Connect an eGPU while a user is logged in
• Connect more than one eGPU using the multiple Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) ports on your Mac²
• Use the menu bar item to disconnect the eGPU safely
• View the activity levels of built-in and external GPUs (Open Activity Monitor, then choose Window > GPU History.)

eGPU support in apps

eGPU support in macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 and later is designed to accelerate Metal, OpenGL and OpenCL apps that benefit from a powerful eGPU. Not all apps support eGPU acceleration; check with the app's developer to find out more.³

In general, an eGPU can accelerate performance in these types of app:

• Pro apps designed to utilise multiple GPUs
• 3D games when an external monitor is attached directly to the eGPU
• VR apps when the VR headset is attached directly to the eGPU
• Pro apps and 3D games that accelerate the built-in display of iMac, iMac Pro, MacBook Air and MacBook Pro (This capability must be enabled by the app's developer.)

You can configure applications to use an eGPU with one of the following methods.

Use the Prefer External GPU option

Starting with macOS Mojave 10.14, you can turn on Prefer External GPU in a specific app's Get Info panel in the Finder. This option lets the eGPU accelerate apps on any display connected to the Mac, including displays built into iMac, iMac Pro, MacBook Air and MacBook Pro:

1. Quit the app if it's open.
2. Select the app in the Finder. Most apps are in your Applications folder. If you open the app from an alias or launcher, control-click the app's icon and choose Show Original from the pop-up menu. Then select the original app.
3. Press Command-I to display the app's info window.
4. Select the tick box next to Prefer External GPU.
   
5. Open the app to use it with the eGPU.

You won't see this option if an eGPU isn't connected, if your Mac isn't running macOS Mojave or later, or if the app self-manages its GPU selection. Some apps, such as Final Cut Pro, directly choose which graphics processors will be used and will ignore the Prefer External GPU tick box.

Set an external eGPU-connected display as the primary display

If you have an external display connected to your eGPU, you can choose it as the primary display for all apps. Since apps default to the GPU associated with the primary display, this option works with a variety of apps:

1. Quit any open apps that you want the eGPU to accelerate on the primary display.
2. Choose Apple menu  > System Preferences. Select Displays, then select the Arrangement tab.
3. Drag the white menu bar to the box that represents the display that's attached to the eGPU.
4. Open the apps you want to use with the eGPU.

If you disconnect the eGPU, your Mac will default back to the internal graphics processors that drive the built-in display. When the eGPU is re-attached, it will set the external display as the primary display automatically.

About macOS GPU drivers

Mac hardware and GPU software drivers have always been deeply integrated into the system. This design fuels the visually rich and graphical macOS experience as well as many deeper platform compute and graphics features. These include accelerating the user interface, providing support for advanced display features, rendering 3D graphics for pro software and games, processing photos and videos, driving powerful GPU compute features, and accelerating machine learning tasks. This deep integration also enables optimal battery life while providing greater system performance and stability.

Apple develops, integrates and supports macOS GPU drivers to ensure that there are consistent GPU capabilities across all Mac products, including rich APIs like Metal, Core Animation, Core Image and Core ML. In order to deliver the best possible customer experience, GPU drivers need to be engineered, integrated, tested and delivered with each version of macOS. Aftermarket GPU drivers delivered by third parties are not compatible with macOS.

The GPU drivers delivered with macOS are also designed to enable a high-quality, high-performance experience when using an eGPU, as described in the list of recommended eGPU chassis and graphics card configurations below. Because of this deep system integration, only graphics cards that use the same GPU architecture as those built into Mac products are supported in macOS.

Supported eGPU configurations

It's important to use an eGPU with a recommended graphics card and Thunderbolt 3 chassis. If you also use an eGPU to charge your MacBook Pro, the eGPU's chassis needs to provide enough power to run the graphics card and charge the computer. Check with the manufacturer of the chassis to find out if it provides enough power for your MacBook Pro.

Recommended graphics cards, along with chassis that can power them sufficiently, are listed below.

Thunderbolt 3 all-in-one eGPU products

These products contain a powerful built-in GPU and supply sufficient power to charge your MacBook Pro.

Recommended Thunderbolt 3 all-in-one eGPUs:

• Blackmagic eGPU and Blackmagic eGPU Pro⁴
• Gigabyte RX 580 Gaming Box⁴
• Sonnet Radeon RX 570 eGFX Breakaway Puck
• Sonnet Radeon RX 560 eGFX Breakaway Puck⁵

AMD Radeon RX 470, RX 480, RX 570, RX 580 and Radeon Pro WX 7100

These graphics cards are based on the AMD Polaris architecture. Recommended graphics cards include the Sapphire Pulse series and the AMD WX series.

Recommended Thunderbolt 3 chassis for these graphics cards:

• OWC Mercury Helios FX⁴
• PowerColor Devil Box
• Sapphire Gear Box
• Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box 350W
• Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box 550W⁴
• Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box 650W⁴
• Razer Core X⁴
• PowerColor Game Station⁴
• HP Omen⁴
• Akitio Node⁶

AMD Radeon RX Vega 56

These graphics cards are based on the AMD Vega 56 architecture. Recommended graphics cards include the Sapphire Vega 56.

Recommended Thunderbolt 3 chassis for these graphics cards:

• OWC Mercury Helios FX⁴
• PowerColor Devil Box
• Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box 550W⁴
• Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box 650W⁴
• Razer Core X⁴
• PowerColor Game Station⁴

AMD Radeon RX Vega 64, Vega Frontier Edition Air and Radeon Pro WX 9100

These graphics cards are based on the AMD Vega 64 architecture. Recommended graphics cards include the Sapphire Vega 64, AMD Frontier Edition air-cooled and AMD Radeon Pro WX 9100.

Recommended Thunderbolt 3 chassis for these graphics cards:

• Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box 650W⁴
• Razer Core X⁴

AMD Radeon RX 5700, 5700 XT and 5700 XT 50th Anniversary

If you've installed macOS Catalina 10.15.1 or later, you can use these graphics cards, which are based on the AMD Navi RDNA architecture. Recommended graphics cards include the AMD Radeon RX 5700, AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT and AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT 50th Anniversary.

Recommended Thunderbolt 3 chassis for these graphics cards:

• Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box 650W⁴
• Razer Core X⁴

Learn more

• Find out how to choose your GPU in Final Cut Pro 10.4.7 or later.
• To ensure the best eGPU performance, use the Thunderbolt 3 cable that came with your eGPU or an Apple Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) cable. Also, make sure the cable is connected directly to a Thunderbolt 3 port on your Mac, not daisy-chained through another Thunderbolt device or hub.
• If you have any questions about Thunderbolt 3 chassis or graphics cards, or about third-party app support and compatibility, contact the hardware or software provider.
• Software developers can find out more about programming their apps to take advantage of macOS eGPU support.

1. If you have a Mac mini (2018) with FileVault turned on, make sure you connect your primary display directly to Mac mini during startup. After you've logged in and can see the macOS Desktop, you can unplug the display from Mac mini and connect it to your eGPU.

2. If you're using a 13-inch MacBook Pro from 2016 or 2017, always plug eGPUs and other high-performance devices into the left-hand ports for maximum data throughput.

3. macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 and later don't support eGPUs in Windows using Boot Camp or when your Mac is in macOS Recovery or installing system updates.

4. These chassis provide at least 85 watts of charging power, making them ideal for use with 15-inch MacBook Pro models.

5. Playback of HDCP-protected content from iTunes and some streaming services is not supported on displays attached to Radeon 560-based eGPUs. You can play this content on the built-in display on MacBook Pro, MacBook Air and iMac.

6. If you use Akitio Node with a Mac notebook, you may need to connect your Mac to its power adapter to ensure proper charging.