maxjstep

On 10/16/2016 at 9:43 AM, mrchrister said:

@mrchrister Thanks for the reply! I actually just purchased a new 32" 1440p monitor. The pixel density is noticeably less than my MacBook Pro's screen, but the screen real estate balance along with text readability is perfect, so I kind of gave up on a 4k monitor. Now, I just need the egpu to power it. It's nice to read feedback from someone with the same laptop as me, because it seems like most people own the late 2013 MacBook pro out of the 2013 models. If the egpu works fine for the early 2013 models, I will definitely go with a egpu setup. This will be mainly used to play games at 1440p native resolution with hopefully ultra settings at 60fps. I've been experimenting with low demanding games like CS Source and Im actually getting good results at native 1440p with my native 650M. Cant wait to see what the egpu setup with a 980 ti will get me with games like fallout 4 and gta v! 

Stumbled on what a egpu is today, and came across this forum which seems to be an excellent resource in learning more about them.

I have an early 2013 retina MacBook pro running Mac OS Sierra. I have the version with both Iris Pro Graphics and GT 650M and have been waiting for the new 2016 models to come out with Thunderbolt 3 and new graphics cards. My MacBook model was the last iteration to not be able to drive an external monitor at 4k 60hz, which I would also really like to be able to do. Would I be limited in doing an egpu setup with my current machine? It has Thunderbolt 1, I was wondering if that would be a significant bottleneck as it seems like most people are using Thunderbolt 2 with their egpu setups. I would also like to know if thunderbolt 3 is a major advantage with an egpu setup and if I should wait for the new MacBooks to come out. Will I be able to drive an external 4k monitor with a new powerful enough graphics card? And lastly, my ideal setup would be to use my Iris Pro/GT 650M on my built in display and then use something like a GTX980ti to run an external 4k monitor at the same time. I don't care about using the egpu to power my built in display, which I have read causes problems when you already have a discrete graphics card, but I would still like to be able to use it in a dual monitor setup for things like music production. Thanks for reading, look forward to any replies!