Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

budhardy

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 19, 2017
43
103
DC
Here's my specs

Screen Shot 2020-07-11 at 6.19.46 PM.png


Thanks!
 

pascaladjaero

macrumors newbie
Aug 10, 2017
22
11
You cannot generally upgrade the CPU or graphics card of a laptop. Most laptops running windows allow you to upgrade other components like RAM, WiFi cards, Storage and swap out batteries pretty easily. Older MacBooks were capable of this too but that is no longer the case. Now everything is soldered onboard and you always have to have that at the back of your mind when purchasing a MacBook.
Research and get the most suitable configuration that works best for you because you can't upgrade anything down the road
 
  • Like
Reactions: budhardy and tn-xyz

budhardy

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 19, 2017
43
103
DC
so, I guess I can do an external GPU. Do I buy a graphics card and the external dock to place it into?
 
  • Like
Reactions: PowerBook-G5

casperes1996

macrumors 604
Jan 26, 2014
7,488
5,652
Horsens, Denmark
so, I guess I can do an external GPU. Do I buy a graphics card and the external dock to place it into?

Sooo; What exactly are you looking to speed up? There are some tasks eGPUs are good at, and some tasks where the bandwidth limitation of the Thunderbolt cable holds it back

How to proceed depends on the type of system you want. eGPUs like the Black Magic eGPU that Apple sells is entirely plug-n-play. It's a single unit with the GPU, chassis and everything you just plug in, but is not generally upgradable down the road. Something like a Razer Core X is an empty box with a PCIe slot and power supply you slot a GPU into, where you need to buy the eGPU chassis and GPU separately - eGPUs operate at optimal performance when sending the display signal to an external monitor rather than back into the computer
 
  • Like
Reactions: budhardy

budhardy

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 19, 2017
43
103
DC
I'm trying to play Planet Coaster. I have all the requirements to play it, but My graphics card can be better. I use bootcamp on my MacBook Pro. It runs fine now but I think a better graphics card (egpu) will make it run better and keep the the temp cooler. Thanks!

Planet Coaster requirements: https://www.planetcoaster.com/en-gb/system-requirements
 

casperes1996

macrumors 604
Jan 26, 2014
7,488
5,652
Horsens, Denmark
I'm trying to play Planet Coaster. I have all the requirements to play it, but My graphics card can be better. I use bootcamp on my MacBook Pro. It runs fine now but I think a better graphics card (egpu) will make it run better and keep the the temp cooler. Thanks!

Cheers; Games generally scale alright with eGPUs, but keep in mind that Windows can sometimes be a bit... Annoying about it. So you may need to disable certain hardware elements on your Mac inside Windows when using an eGPU, like the camera, other ports - There are threads online about like an error 12 or 22 or something like that because Windows sees too many PCIe lanes allocated through the CPU and chipset than it knows how to deal with on the Mac logic board. - At least that's how I've understood the issue; I've only vaguely read about it and never used and eGPU; Search around a bit
 
  • Like
Reactions: budhardy
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.