Quick review of Razer Core X eGPU, with 2018 MBP

[NickName99]

I recently purchased a used Razer Core X eGPU enclosure for $220 (eBay). I also picked up a used Sapphire Pulse RX 580 4GB for $110 (eBay).

I’m using a 2018 MacBook Pro 15”. 560X graphics built in. External 1080p monitor.

The enclosure is incredibly well built and easy to open up (no tools required), nice cable management, no silly colored lights or anything. Really high build quality. It supports pretty much any GPU, even big crazy power hogs like the Vega 64. It’s pretty quiet too.

I plugged everything together, it just worked. All my 3D frame rates pretty much doubled, (OpenCL is twice the performance as well), you just have to remember to go into “Get Info” and check the box to “Prefer external GPU” for apps you want to use the eGPU.

In Boot Camp, I had already installed the latest AMD drivers via bootcampdrivers.com. I left the eGPU powered up and plugged in, restarted into Windows 10, everything just works. Way higher frame rates in my Steam games. Love it.

Bonus: the TB3 cable powers the MacBook Pro. Now my Apple power charger is just an extra USB-C charger.

Anyways, this was so much bang for the buck, I highly recommend it. Everything just worked, for my 2018 MacBook Pro anyways.

Next year, if I feel like it, maybe I’ll pick up a Vega 56 for like $120 and sell my old RX 580 for like $60. Easy!

 

[wardie]

I recently purchased a used Razer Core X eGPU enclosure for $220 (eBay). I also picked up a used Sapphire Pulse RX 580 4GB for $110 (eBay).

I’m using a 2018 MacBook Pro 15”. 560X graphics built in. External 1080p monitor.

The enclosure is incredibly well built and easy to open up (no tools required), nice cable management, no silly colored lights or anything. Really high build quality. It supports pretty much any GPU, even big crazy power hogs like the Vega 64. It’s pretty quiet too.

I plugged everything together, it just worked. All my 3D frame rates pretty much doubled, (OpenCL is twice the performance as well), you just have to remember to go into “Get Info” and check the box to “Prefer external GPU” for apps you want to use the eGPU.

In Boot Camp, I had already installed the latest AMD drivers via bootcampdrivers.com. I left the eGPU powered up and plugged in, restarted into Windows 10, everything just works. Way higher frame rates in my Steam games. Love it.

Bonus: the TB3 cable powers the MacBook Pro. Now my Apple power charger is just an extra USB-C charger.

Anyways, this was so much bang for the buck, I highly recommend it. Everything just worked, for my 2018 MacBook Pro anyways.

Next year, if I feel like it, maybe I’ll pick up a Vega 56 for like $120 and sell my old RX 580 for like $60. Easy!

Nice one. What sort of resolution/frame rate you getting in Win10 with bootcampdrivers? I’m finding on my internal 580 that I can get it to about 40-45fps at 4K but it struggles at 5K down 25fps not playable. [2017 i7 27” AMD580 1TB-SSD 24GB]

 

[NickName99]

Nice one. What sort of resolution/frame rate you getting in Win10 with bootcampdrivers? I’m finding on my internal 580 that I can get it to about 40-45fps at 4K but it struggles at 5K down 25fps not playable. [2017 i7 27” AMD580 1TB-SSD 24GB]

I’d be happy to run some benchmarks if you have any particular ones in mind, but I’ve just got my 1080p external monitor so I’m running everything at 1920*1080. 4K gaming isn’t in reach for recent titles without cutting edge GPUs that cost a fortune: https://www.geforce.com/whats-new/g...e-tomb-raider-geforce-rtx-2080-ti-performance

Frame rates depend quite a lot on the game, and where you are in the game: Rise of the Tomb Raider runs pretty well overall at high settings. Indoor areas it’s typically 60fps, but in Geothermal Valley in the huge outdoor areas it still bogs down into the 30s sometimes. That part of the game is notorious for low frame rates. The in-game benchmark tool is wildly optimistic: it indicates almost double the frame rates you’ll actually see in the more demanding parts of the game.

Shadow of Mordor is always pegged at 60fps with high settings, but that’s an older title.

I picked up Prey while it was on sale for like $6 in steam, but I’ve barely played it. So far in the intro parts of the game it’s pegged at 60fps, whereas with the 560X it was 30s-40s at lower settings.

 

[wardie]

I’d be happy to run some benchmarks if you have any particular ones in mind, but I’ve just got my 1080p external monitor so I’m running everything at 1920*1080. 4K gaming isn’t in reach for recent titles without cutting edge GPUs that cost a fortune: https://www.geforce.com/whats-new/g...e-tomb-raider-geforce-rtx-2080-ti-performance

Frame rates depend quite a lot on the game, and where you are in the game: Rise of the Tomb Raider runs pretty well overall at high settings. Indoor areas it’s typically 60fps, but in Geothermal Valley in the huge outdoor areas it still bogs down into the 30s sometimes. That part of the game is notorious for low frame rates. The in-game benchmark tool is wildly optimistic: it indicates almost double the frame rates you’ll actually see in the more demanding parts of the game.

Shadow of Mordor is always pegged at 60fps with high settings, but that’s an older title.

I picked up Prey while it was on sale for like $6 in steam, but I’ve barely played it. So far in the intro parts of the game it’s pegged at 60fps, whereas with the 560X it was 30s-40s at lower settings.

The frame rates I quoted were from running Forza Horizon 4 with ultra settings at 2160p, to play it P2P against my son on his xbox! As an aside, the iMac works really well for this also with a Logitech G920 steering wheel via USB... The benchmark I’ve run is one I’ve used a lot in windows, the Unigine Valley benchmark. Same sort of results.

 

[NickName99]

The frame rates I quoted were from running Forza Horizon 4 with ultra settings at 2160p, to play it P2P against my son on his xbox! As an aside, the iMac works really well for this also with a Logitech G920 steering wheel via USB... The benchmark I’ve run is one I’ve used a lot in windows, the Unigine Valley benchmark. Same sort of results.

Cool! I see there’s a free demo, I’ll download it when I get home and see how it runs. It sounds like it’s one of the few newer games that can run ok at 4K on more affordable GPUs like the RX 580. I expect it will run similarly to your system, minus a bit of eGPU tax, since our GPUs are similar. Your 4-core i7 CPU is much faster per core, but I’ve got a 6-core i7, so overall your CPU is probably about 10-12% faster.

 

[Rob21]

I just bought a Razer Core X and a RX 580 but I can't seem to get it to work in bootcamp with my 2017 13in MacBook Pro (4 TB ports). My machine hangs at the Windows logo when it's booting and the internal display glitches. I'm completely new to this and after watching YouTube videos I thought I'd be able to just plug & play.