macOS officially announces support for external GPU

byJulian O'hayon

It was held in June 2017WWDC 2017"The latest version of macOS announced in"macOS High Sierra"Although it was revealed that it supports the external GPU, it was officially announced that at the end of March 2018 when approximately one year had elapsed, it finally supported the external GPU with macOS High Sierra.

Use an external graphics processor with your Mac - Apple Support
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208544

MacOS officially gains support for external GPUs - The Verge
https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2018/3/30/17180042/macos-external-gpu-support-graphics-card

From "macOS High Sierra 10.13.4" released on March 30, 2018, it becomes possible to connect external GPU to Mac using Thunderbolt 3 port. Connecting an external GPU makes it possible to perform tasks that require computing power such as PC games and movie editing more quickly and Apple specifically emphasizes the use of VR using external GPUs.

It is already reported in GIGAZINE how to check the performance by connecting the external GPU to the MacBook Pro using the beta version of macOS High Sierra. AMD's high-end GPU "RX Vega 64" was externally attached to the MacBook Pro and the benchmark was measured. As a result, I succeeded to score more than six times as much as the built-in GPU Intel Iris Plus.

AMD's high-end GPU "RX Vega 64" is externally attached to MacBook Pro, and GPOS performance is overwhelming even in macOS beta version - GIGAZINE


There are some limitations on what you can do with external GPUs. First, Apple only supports some AMD Radeon branded GPUs at the time of article creation, in that only selected models are officially supported. In addition, some Macs already have AMD Radeon's GPU. Although it supports only AMD Radeon, it does not mean that it does not support GeForce products, which is GPV brand of NVIDIA, The Verge of foreign media.

Secondly,Boot CampIf you use Windows to install Mac on a Mac, you will not be able to use an external GPU. Also, the application must also support external GPUs. And lastly, "The external GPU relies on Thunderbolt 3's high-speed data transfer, so it is necessary to prepare a Mac that supports Thunderbolt 3". This applies to MacBook Pro released after 2016 and iMac and iMac Pro that appeared in 2017.