- [Narrator] Today, we're going to be looking at
the benefits of using an external graphics processor on Mac.
In this episode, we'll be benchmarking games
using Apples Blackmagic eGPU.
An external graphics processor can give your Mac
additional graphics performance for gaming applications.
The Blackmagic eGPU demoed today, in an essence,
is allowing you to connect desktop-class
graphics performance to any Thunderbolt 3 equipped Mac.
It has a Radeon Pro 580 graphics processor
and eight gigabytes of GDDR5 memory.
All these games shown today have been played on a 2018
15-inch MacBook Pro
and are all playing at the same graphical settings.
Anyway, let's begin with our first game,
Divinity: Original Sin 2.
Divinity: Original Sin 2 is one of the few games
I have confirmation that has official eGPU support,
as the developers made a public statement
about this support.
Not all Mac games are officially supported by an eGPU
and it's up to you to check with the games developer
to find out if they are officially supporting this function.
Based on my testing, this game running without
the Blackmagic eGPU, we are seeing
an average frame rate of 55
and when the eGPU is connected,
this increases to an incredible average fps of 100.
If I run the game at its max settings with the eGPU,
it receives an average frame rate of 60.
Next up, we have the best action-adventure game on Mac,
Rise of the Tomb Raider.
Here is another game that has official eGPU support,
as Feral Interactive have clearly stated this.
Without the eGPU, we are seeing an overall fps of 40
and with the eGPU connected, this is pushed up to 74 fps.
Running this game at its ultra-pre-set with the eGPU,
it is able to typically stick around 50 frames per second.
Coming up next,
we have the latest macOS racing game, Gravel.
Gravel might be the most demanding game on Mac today.
My MacBook Pro can run this game at medium settings
with an average frame rate of 30,
which goes to show how demanding Gravel actually is
for even high end Macs.
With the Blackmagic eGPU connected,
this frame rate increases from 30 to around 60 fps,
which is a much better gaming experience.
Moving on we have the adventure game,
Life is Strange: Before the Storm.
Before the Storm is not a demanding game at all.
With no eGPU, it is receiving around 65 to 70 fps
and with the eGPU connected,
this goes up to 120 frames per second.
Next, we have the most popular Mac game, Fortnite.
Interestingly, Fortnite ran at 75 to 85 fps
with and without the eGPU.
So, I put the game up to the epic quality settings
and without the eGPU, it runs at about 40 fps
and with the eGPU, it is seeing closer to 70 fps.
I don't know why the frame rate didn't change
under the medium preset, but playing at epic settings,
you can see the benefits of using this eGPU.
Next up, we have the free macOS game, Paladins.
Paladins doesn't support the Metal API, it supports OpenGL.
But I wanted to use this game as a demonstration that,
even if a game doesn't support the Metal framework,
it will still see an improvement with an eGPU connected.
So, for testing-wise, with no eGPU,
Paladins has an average fps of 70
and with the eGPU connected, it typically sees
well over 120 fps, which is a dramatic improvement.
And yes, Paladins is still supported on Mac.
The reason why I'm saying this is because
if you look at the Steam page,
it's still missing the macOS icon
because they haven't updated this,
since Mojave broke the game.
Okay, our last game is Book of the Dead.
Book of the Dead is a free interactive demo by Unity,
which can be used to demonstrate Unity Engine's
new scriptable render pipeline
and to benchmark how capable your Mac is
for playing high-end games.
So, without the eGPU, Book of The Dead
is unplayable at 18 frames per second,
but if I connect the eGPU, it is completely playable
at 45 to 50 frames per second, which isn't amazing,
but you have to remember that this is one of, if not,
the most demanding applications
that you can run on a Mac today.
So, what can we take from all this?
The Blackmagic eGPU is Mac gaming nirvana.
It allows any new high-end or low-end Mac,
with Thunderbolt 3 equipped,
to play pretty much any Mac game at high settings.
Plus, you can experience an improved overall frame rate,
typically way over 60 frames per second.
What do you think about all this?
Are you going to pick up an eGPU?
Do you have an eGPU?
Do you just not care?
Let me know everything that you are thinking
right now in the comments.
Anyway, I'll talk to guys later.
Thanks for watching, bye bye.