With my new gaming PC, and as amazing as it is (I'm typing this on said system, in fact), I'm really starting to struggle with feelings of "man, do I even still need you anymore" with my Mac, and I don't like feeling that way at all. But as it stands right now, Mac is basically a total non-player in the gaming space outside of casual games, and even though it'll almost certainly never be my main thing, I at least want to see it be a player again like it was in decades long gone, a contender, just like I want to see for Windows in the phone space, and to a lesser extent, Google in the power-user space.
HOWEVER, all that said, I still want this for Mac -VERY BADLY!- I doubt very very much that it'll ever outright replace traditional DIY, Windows powered gaming PC rigs, and would probably NEVER be my main outlet for gaming. But I find it no more likely, and CERTAINLY no more easy or guaranteed than I would say about the others.
That's certainly not to say that it -CAN'T- happen, as I would NEVER say that about Windows Phone, nor would I even say that probably about Google. Serious gaming on Mac has just as big a hill to climb to be successful as Windows does in the phone space, and as Google does in the high-end computing space.
Even if Mac really enters the space with full support for this, and suddenly enters the general league of power currently enjoyed in near-monopoly in Windows, how quickly will developers get on board? How long will Macs remain 3rd class citizens on Steam, and the like? At best, the "game gap" in Mac is roughly analogous to the "app gap" in Windows phone. I don't even know the ratio, but something like 9/10 PC games not even being available on Mac doesn't sound unreasonable to me at all. But most damning of all - and the problem that will take, by far, the longest to overcome, if it's EVER overcome, is the HUGE deficit in games availability. Third, unless you spend A LOT more than you do on a PC, you're likely to get a weaker CPU and/or less RAM, and all the rest. Second, there's bound to be more latency with Thunderbolt than with a straight-into-the-mobo setup like you have in conventional gaming PCs (plus, what if the cat unplugs the cord while you're gaming). First, between a Mac, a thunderbolt enclosure, and GPU, you'll be spending a lot more than you would to build a Win10 gaming PC, or even most store-bought, pre-built ones. And that's saying a lot!Įven if this becomes fully supported, it'll still not be in the league of gaming on Windows. As it stands, Mac is no more a player in the high end space than Windows is a player in the phone space. They really need to make this a supported thing that works with more GPUs. Other questions about external GPUs? Let us know below.
How to set up your Mac with an external GPU.Thankfully, you don't have to venture into the void without guidance: The eGPU.io community has put together a huge array of helpful how-tos and setup guides for interested users - I'm looking forward to using their startup guide and forums to make a Thunderbolt 3 eGPU for my MacBook Pro.
In addition, should you decide to use an external GPU, there are only a handful of Thunderbolt enclosures and graphics cards with appropriate Mac drivers - you can't just pick an arbitrary graphics card you'd like to attach to your Mac.
Proceed at your own risk, here be dragons, et cetera. That's not to say you can't use an external GPU on older operating systems - only that Apple Support won't bail you out if you do something that doesn't agree with your Mac. Here's the issue: Macs won't officially support external GPUs until macOS High Sierra.