General Discussions

[fuellegend]

Getting an egpu for a 15" 2019 Macbook pro. Would the AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100 be a good intermediate choice or should I upgrade to the AMD Radeon Pro W5700?

[pokester]

That really depends on what you are going to do with the cards? Your machine likely already has on of the following AMD discrete GPU's. Radeon Pro 555X 4GB, Radeon Pro 560X 4GB, Radeon Pro Vega 16 4GB, Radeon Pro Vega 20 4GB

So they should already be adequate for accelerating creative apps and mild video editing. 

So which GPU is already built in and what software do you want to run faster, or is it gaming?

[fuellegend]

Thanks for responding. I have the Pro Vega 20 4GB. I use my system for video editing and once I start to put vfx and layers in the timeline it starts to lag and stutter. Want to get an eGPU to help. I usually use Adobe CC but I will also use FCP and Resolve. Also, I noticed Dell has a Radeon Pro W5700 on sale for $599. Is that the regular card or a specific one for Dell computers?

[pokester]

The card would work in other computers too.  I would contact the support departments for the software you will use and ask them what GPU's will best accelerate their software. With video however the more CPU cores you can throw at it the better. You would likely have been much better to have chosen a desktop solution with a higher core count CPU. 

[pokester]

I should add that while that card is not limited to Dell that doesn't mean it will work with Apple. I would figure out what card you think you need and contact Apple about what cards are compatible. You could also talk to the folks at other world computing @ macsales dot com. They sell Mac compatible hardware and have great support. 

[fsadough]

@fuellegend 

If your application takes advantage of GPU power, then eGPU with a W5700 would be a better choice. Make sure you double check with Apple and eGPU manufacturer which cards are compatible depending on your MacOS version. A DELL W5700 OEM version could be tricky. If you can easily return the card, try it out. We never tested OEM GPUs in an eGPU box.