Graphics cards recommendation guide and checklist – eGPU FAQ

Depending on your use case, we have prepared detailed guide for best graphics card choise for your eGPU.

1. Video editing

Application: Adobe Premiere, Adobe After Effects, DaVinci Resolve, AVID Media Composer, NeatVideo.

What video resolution or file format are you working with?

FullHD:
The best choice would be NVIDIA GTX 1070 or GTX 1080, depending on budget and the level of performance you would like to get.

The performance difference between GTX 1080 and GTX 1080 is up to 30%.
NOTE: For Mac Pro, we would recommend a GTX 1080 or GTX 1080 Ti.

Recommended bundles:
Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box with GTX 1080 :
https://bizon-tech.com/us/sonnet-egfx-breakaway-box.html/#470:1616;472:1622;481:1660;483:1664

Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box with GTX 1080 Ti :
https://bizon-tech.com/us/sonnet-egfx-breakaway-box.html/#470:1618;472:1622;481:1660;483:1665

4K, RED RAW and Arri RAW formats:

The best option would be NVIDIA Titan Xp.
For the limited budget, you can choose GTX 1080 Ti.

Recommended bundle:
Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box with Titan Xp :
https://bizon-tech.com/us/sonnet-egfx-breakaway-box.html/#470:1617;472:1622;481:1660;483:1665

6K or 8K:
Titan Xp is a must. 6K and 8K video formats require a lot of VRAM (Titan Xp comes with 12GB VRAM).

Recommended bundle:
Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box with Titan Xp :
https://bizon-tech.com/us/sonnet-egfx-breakaway-box.html/#470:1617;472:1622;481:1660;483:1665

Application: Final Cut Pro X

What video resolution or file format are you working with?

FullHD:
The best choice would be AMD Radeon RX 570 or RX 580, depending on budget and the level of performance you would like to get.

The performance difference between RX 570 and RX 580 is up to 30%.
NOTE: For Mac Pro, we would recommend an RX 580 or RX Vega 64.

Recommended bundles:
Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box with RX 580 :
https://bizon-tech.com/us/sonnet-egfx-breakaway-box.html/#470:1613;472:1622;481:1659;483:1664

Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box with RX Vega 64 :
https://bizon-tech.com/us/sonnet-egfx-breakaway-box.html/#470:1613;472:1622;481:1693;483:1692

4K, RED RAW and Arri RAW formats:

The best option would be AMD Radeon Vega Frontier Edition.
For the limited budget, you can choose AMD Radeon RX Vega 64.

Recommended bundle:
Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box with AMD Radeon Vega Frontier Edition :
https://bizon-tech.com/us/sonnet-egfx-breakaway-box.html/#470:1613;472:1622;481:1698;483:1692

6K or 8K:
AMD Radeon Vega Frontier Edition is a must. 6K and 8K video formats require a lot of VRAM (AMD Radeon Vega Frontier Edition comes with 16GB VRAM).

Recommended bundle:
Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box with AMD Radeon Vega Frontier Edition :
https://bizon-tech.com/us/sonnet-egfx-breakaway-box.html/#470:1613;472:1622;481:1698;483:1692

2. 3D rendering.

Applications: Cinema 4D, Maya, AutoCAD, Blender, DAZ Studio, ArchiCAD, Revit, SketchUp.
Octane Render plugin.

All of these applications are able to use Octane Render GPU rendering plugin.

The best graphics card choice would be NVIDIA GTX Titan Xp.

For the limited budget, you may choose GTX 1080 or 1080 Ti.

3. Image editing, photos

Applications: Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Lightroom, Adobe Illustrator

The GTX 1070 or GTX 1080 would be the best option here.

These applications use the GPU acceleration not as heavily as video editing applications.

4. Games

What CPU your Mac have?

Mac with a dual-core CPU, Intel Core i5 (MacBook Air, MacBook Pro 13”, Mac mini Mid 2014):
the best option would be GTX 1070 or GTX 1080.

See our Battlefield 1 gameplay benchmark video (MacBook Air 2012 (dual-core) + eGPU + GTX 980):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R03YU8Wy0nQ
The benchmark results (Ultra settings): 50 fps.(eGPU) vs, 5–7 fps. (internal graphics card)

Recommended bundle:
Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box with GTX 1080 :
https://bizon-tech.com/us/sonnet-egfx-breakaway-box.html/#470:1616;472:1622;481:1660;483:1664

Mac with Quad-Core CPU, Intel Core i7 (iMac, MacBook Pro 15):
the best option would be GTX 1080 or GTX 1080 Ti.

Recommended bundle:
Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box with GTX 1080 Ti :
https://bizon-tech.com/us/sonnet-egfx-breakaway-box.html/#470:1618;472:1622;481:1660;483:1665

Mac Pro Late 2013: the best option would be Titan Xp.
Please note, that Mac Pro is not compatible with eGPUs on Windows. macOS support only.

Recommended bundle:
Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box with GTX Titan Xp:
https://bizon-tech.com/us/sonnet-egfx-breakaway-box.html/#470:1617;472:1622;481:1660;483:1665