So as we often say, when asked if this or that upgrade helps, 'It depends on what you run.The graphics score shows you just how serious the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti is even when constrained by a x4 PCIe Thunderbolt 3 connection. With Premiere Pro whose Mercury Playback Engine kicks in with the presence of an NVIDIA GPU, only the MacBook Pro saw a significant benefit from the eGPU with the GTX 1080 Ti. However, even when rendering traditionally GPU sensitive blur effects like Gaussian, Directional and Focus, there was no advantage in adding the eGPU with the GTX 1080 Ti. The eGPU with the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti (and Mac Pascal drivers) gave a big performance boost in some cases but little or none in others.įor some readers, there were high hopes for Final Cut Pro. Tomb Raider - Run built-in benchmark at 2560x1440 using High preset. GTX 1080 Ti helps the MacBook Pro but not Mac Pro. Premiere Pro CC - Export complex sample project to Blu-ray format. The Mac Pro with eGPU used both D700s plus the GTX 1080 Ti to render the sample while the MacBook Pro with eGPU used just the GTX 1080 Ti.įinal Cut Pro X - Export BruceX 5K project to Master File as ProRes 4444 XQ 5120x2700. LuxMark - Though an artificial OpenCL cross-platform benchmark, it allows you choose one or more GPUs to render a sample scene. We imported the popular Candle project.Īdvantage GTX 1080 Ti (HIGHER frames per second = FASTER)ĭaVinci Resolve - Playback with no effects of a 5120x2160 R3D clip.ĮGPU with GTX 1080 Ti not helpful here. (LOWER time in SECONDS = FASTER)ĭaVinci Resolve - Playback 1080p clip while rendering a single Noise Reduction node on the fly.

You can download the demo along with simple test scenes like the Benchmark Scene we used.

Octane Render - It only runs if there is one or more CUDA capable GPUs present. We rendered the BMW GPU Benchmark sample posted in their Demo File section. If you select GPU, you can choose either CUDA or OpenCL. RMBP>Pro460 - 2016 MacBook Pro using built-in AMD Radeon Pro 460 GPUīlender - This is a free, open source 3D renderer. RMBP>Core>1080Ti - NVIDIA GTX GeForce 1080 Ti GPU in the Razer Core eGPU Box connected to the Thunderbolt 3 port of a 2016 MacBook Pro 15-inch NMP>D700s - 2013 Mac Pro using built-in dual AMD FirePro D700 GPUs NMP>Node>1080Ti - NVIDIA GTX GeForce 1080 Ti GPU in the AKiTiO Node eGFX Box connected to the Thunderbolt 2 port of a 2013 Mac Pro

1080 ti external gpu macbook pro