Nvidia Gpus For Mac

Recommended GPU for Developers NVIDIA TITAN RTX NVIDIA TITAN RTX is built for data science, AI research, content creation and general GPU development. Built on the Turing architecture, it features 4608, 576 full-speed mixed precision Tensor Cores for accelerating AI, and 72 RT cores for accelerating ray tracing. It also includes 24 GB of GPU memory for training neural networks. The #1 place for Mac Pro graphics cards. GPU upgrades from AMD and Nvidia. Nvidia Corporation (/ ɛ n ˈ v ɪ d i ə / en-VID-ee-ə) is an American multinational technology company incorporated in Delaware and based in Santa Clara, California. It designs graphics processing units (GPUs) for the gaming and professional markets, as well as system on a chip units (SoCs) for the mobile computing and automotive market. Its primary GPU product line, labeled 'GeForce', is.

Nvidia on Thursday replaced its Titan X with a new flagship graphics card, the $1,200 Titan Xp.

It boasts 12GB of GDDR5X memory with 11.4Gbps of throughput and 3,840 processor cores running at 1.6GHz, which results in 12 teraflops of performance. Those specs make it comparable to the the recently announced GeForce GTX 1080 Ti, which is a consumer card designed primarily for gaming.

The new Titan Xp, on the other hand, is designed to deliver 'extreme performance for extreme users where every drop counts,' according to an Nvidia blog post. In other words, the Titan Xp's market is aimed at people who need to harness a GPU for tasks like processing neural networks, not just for gaming.

To that end, the Titan Xp is also compatible with Macs, which often find their way into the studios of professionals with immense processing demands. The card is available for sale now directly from Nvidia, and the company plans to release Mac-compatible drivers later this month. Once it does, the Titan Xp will be the first card based on the Pascal architecture to support Apple computers.

For Mac users who don't need the Titan Xp's flagship performance, Nvidia said the new drivers will also enable support for all Pascal GPUs, including the GTX 1080 Ti, which is several hundred dollars cheaper.

In addition to buying the new card from Nvidia (which has a limit of two per customer), customers will also be able to order systems with a Titan Xp pre-installed; Nvidia says those PCs will be on the market soon.

An eGPU can give your Mac additional graphics performance for professional apps, 3D gaming, VR content creation and more.

eGPUs are supported by any Thunderbolt 3-equipped Mac¹ running macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 or later. Learn how to update the software on your Mac.

An eGPU lets you do all this on your Mac:

Accelerate apps that use Metal, OpenGL and OpenCL
Connect additional external monitors and displays
Use virtual reality headsets plugged into the eGPU
Charge your MacBook Pro while using the eGPU
Use an eGPU with your MacBook Pro while its built-in display is closed
Connect an eGPU while a user is logged in
Connect more than one eGPU using the multiple Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) ports on your Mac²
Use the menu bar item to safely disconnect the eGPU
View the activity levels of built-in and external GPUs (Open Activity Monitor, and then choose Window > GPU History.)

eGPU support in apps

eGPU support in macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 and later is designed to accelerate Metal, OpenGL and OpenCL apps that benefit from a powerful eGPU. Not all apps support eGPU acceleration; check with the app's developer to learn more.³

In general, an eGPU can accelerate performance in these types of apps:

Pro apps designed to utilise multiple GPUs
3D games, when an external monitor is attached directly to the eGPU
VR apps, when the VR headset is attached directly to the eGPU
Pro apps and 3D games that accelerate the built-in display of iMac, iMac Pro, MacBook Air and MacBook Pro (This capability must be enabled by the app's developer.)

You can configure applications to use an eGPU with one of the following methods.

Use the Prefer External GPU option

Starting with macOS Mojave 10.14, you can turn on Prefer External GPU in a specific app's Get Info panel in the Finder. This option lets the eGPU accelerate apps on any display connected to the Mac, including displays built in to iMac, iMac Pro, MacBook Air and MacBook Pro:

Quit the app if it's open.
Select the app in the Finder. Most apps are in your Applications folder. If you open the app from an alias or launcher, Control-click the app's icon and choose Show Original from the pop-up menu. Then select the original app.
Press Command-I to show the app's info window.
Select the tick box next to Prefer External GPU.
Open the app to use it with the eGPU.

You won't see this option if an eGPU isn't connected, if your Mac isn't running macOS Mojave or later, or if the app self-manages its GPU selection. Some apps, such as Final Cut Pro, directly choose which graphics processors will be used and will ignore the Prefer External GPU tick box.

Set an external eGPU-connected display as the primary display

If you have an external display connected to your eGPU, you can choose it as the primary display for all apps. Since apps default to the GPU associated with the primary display, this option works with a variety of apps:

Quit any open apps that you want the eGPU to accelerate on the primary display.
Choose Apple menu  > System Preferences. Select Displays, then select the Arrangement tab.
Drag the white menu bar to the box that represents the display that's attached to the eGPU.
Open the apps you want to use with the eGPU.

If you disconnect the eGPU, your Mac will default back to the internal graphics processors that drive the built-in display. When the eGPU is re-attached, it will automatically set the external display as the primary display.

About macOS GPU drivers

Mac hardware and GPU software drivers have always been deeply integrated into the system. This design fuels the visually rich and graphical macOS experience as well as many deeper platform compute and graphics features. These include accelerating the user interface, providing support for advanced display features, rendering 3D graphics for pro software and games, processing photos and videos, driving powerful GPU compute features, and accelerating machine learning tasks. This deep integration also enables optimal battery life while providing for greater system performance and stability.

Apple develops, integrates and supports macOS GPU drivers to ensure there are consistent GPU capabilities across all Mac products, including rich APIs like Metal, Core Animation, Core Image and Core ML. In order to deliver the best possible customer experience, GPU drivers need to be engineered, integrated, tested and delivered with each version of macOS. Aftermarket GPU drivers delivered by third parties are not compatible with macOS.

The GPU drivers delivered with macOS are also designed to enable a high-quality, high-performance experience when using an eGPU, as described in the list of recommended eGPU chassis and graphics card configurations below. Because of this deep system integration, only graphics cards that use the same GPU architecture as those built into Mac products are supported in macOS.

Supported eGPU configurations

It's important to use an eGPU with a recommended graphics card and Thunderbolt 3 chassis. If you use an eGPU to also charge your MacBook Pro, the eGPU's chassis needs to provide enough power to run the graphics card and charge the computer. Check with the manufacturer of the chassis to find out if it provides enough power for your MacBook Pro.

Recommended graphics cards, along with chassis that can power them sufficiently, are listed below.

Thunderbolt 3 all-in-one eGPU products

These products contain a powerful built-in GPU and supply sufficient power to charge your MacBook Pro.

Recommended Thunderbolt 3 all-in-one eGPUs:

Blackmagic eGPU and Blackmagic eGPU Pro⁴
Gigabyte RX 580 Gaming Box⁴
Sonnet Radeon RX 570 eGFX Breakaway Puck
Sonnet Radeon RX 560 eGFX Breakaway Puck⁵

AMD Radeon RX 470, RX 480, RX 570, RX 580 and Radeon Pro WX 7100

These graphics cards are based on the AMD Polaris architecture. Recommended graphics cards include the Sapphire Pulse series and the AMD WX series.

Recommended Thunderbolt 3 chassis for these graphics cards:

OWC Mercury Helios FX⁴
PowerColour Devil Box
Sapphire Gear Box
Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box 350W
Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box 550W⁴
Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box 650W⁴
Razer Core X⁴
PowerColor Game Station⁴
HP Omen⁴
Akitio Node⁶

AMD Radeon RX Vega 56

These graphics cards are based on the AMD Vega 56 architecture. Recommended graphics cards include the Sapphire Vega 56.

Recommended Thunderbolt 3 chassis for these graphics cards:

OWC Mercury Helios FX⁴
PowerColour Devil Box
Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box 550W⁴
Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box 650W⁴
Razer Core X⁴
PowerColor Game Station⁴

AMD Radeon RX Vega 64, Vega Frontier Edition Air and Radeon Pro WX 9100

These graphics cards are based on the AMD Vega 64 architecture. Recommended graphics cards include the Sapphire Vega 64, AMD Frontier Edition air-cooled and AMD Radeon Pro WX 9100.

Recommended Thunderbolt 3 chassis for these graphics cards:

Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box 650W⁴
Razer Core X⁴

AMD Radeon RX 5700, 5700 XT and 5700 XT 50th Anniversary

If you've installed macOS Catalina 10.15.1 or later, you can use these graphics cards, which are based on the AMD Navi RDNA architecture. Recommended graphics cards include the AMD Radeon RX 5700, AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT and AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT 50th Anniversary.

Recommended Thunderbolt 3 chassis for these graphics cards:

Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box 650W⁴
Razer Core X⁴

Learn more

Learn how to choose your GPU in Final Cut Pro X 10.4.7 or later.
To ensure the best eGPU performance, use the Thunderbolt 3 cable that came with your eGPU or an Apple Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) cable. Also make sure the cable is connected directly to a Thunderbolt 3 port on your Mac, not daisy-chained through another Thunderbolt device or hub.
If you have any questions about Thunderbolt 3 chassis or graphics cards, or about third-party app support and compatibility, contact the hardware or software provider.
Software developers can find out more about programming their apps to take advantage of macOS eGPU support.

1. If you have a Mac mini (2018) with FileVault turned on, make sure you connect your primary display directly to Mac mini during startup. After you have logged in and can see the macOS Desktop, you can unplug the display from Mac mini and connect it to your eGPU.

2. If you're using a 13-inch MacBook Pro from 2016 or 2017, always plug eGPUs and other high-performance devices into the left-hand ports for maximum data throughput.

Nvidia Mac Pro

3. macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 and later don't support eGPUs in Windows using Boot Camp or when your Mac is in macOS Recovery or installing system updates.

4. These chassis provide at least 85 watts of charging power, making them ideal for use with 15-inch MacBook Pro models.

5. Playback of HDCP-protected content from iTunes and some streaming services is not supported on displays attached to Radeon 560-based eGPUs. You can play this content on the built-in display on MacBook Pro, MacBook Air and iMac.