I share this information with you because I saw it coming up in several Threads if the 16" MBP connected to an eGPU does (and if how much) run quiter compared to having the monitor connected to the internal dGPU.
And it does. Obviously. Quite a bit, in my personal use case - Webdevelopment (CPU heavy), Graphics design (GPU heavy) & Video Editing (GPU & CPU) - around half as loud, relative to the rpm range above 2000. If you're in quiet room, it makes a noticeable difference.
The 5500m does seem to be active but only using ~3 Watts.
See the screenshots attached - I measured Heaven and compared each a day of work-usage history to each other. The later day using the eGPU with a similar workflow.
Setup: MBP 16" i9 2.3 5500m 8GB
eGPU: Sonnet Breakaway 550 with Vega 56 running a 64 BIOS
Monitor: MBP Lid closed, Dell U3219Q @scaled 4k
Using the eGPU stationary does make sense and keeps the MBP total wattage a good amount of watts lower, therefore reducing Fan-Activity. Performance-wise I only see minimal benefit using an eGPU with something similar to a Vega56. The 5500m is very capable, I just happened to have the eGPU around.
If reducing noise is your main goal, look for a silent GPU, otherwise you miss the point
. The fans of my 56 are mostly turned completely off and I disconnected the dedicated enclosure fan.
A practical usecase is to offload available power and heat to the CPU, which also decreases the overall power draw - which regularly goes above 100w and therefore increases battery usage.
So far, if you have other advice how to keep the fans low using external Monitors, let us know.
And it does. Obviously. Quite a bit, in my personal use case - Webdevelopment (CPU heavy), Graphics design (GPU heavy) & Video Editing (GPU & CPU) - around half as loud, relative to the rpm range above 2000. If you're in quiet room, it makes a noticeable difference.
The 5500m does seem to be active but only using ~3 Watts.
See the screenshots attached - I measured Heaven and compared each a day of work-usage history to each other. The later day using the eGPU with a similar workflow.
Setup: MBP 16" i9 2.3 5500m 8GB
eGPU: Sonnet Breakaway 550 with Vega 56 running a 64 BIOS
Monitor: MBP Lid closed, Dell U3219Q @scaled 4k
Using the eGPU stationary does make sense and keeps the MBP total wattage a good amount of watts lower, therefore reducing Fan-Activity. Performance-wise I only see minimal benefit using an eGPU with something similar to a Vega56. The 5500m is very capable, I just happened to have the eGPU around.
If reducing noise is your main goal, look for a silent GPU, otherwise you miss the point
. The fans of my 56 are mostly turned completely off and I disconnected the dedicated enclosure fan.A practical usecase is to offload available power and heat to the CPU, which also decreases the overall power draw - which regularly goes above 100w and therefore increases battery usage.
So far, if you have other advice how to keep the fans low using external Monitors, let us know.
