Egpu for 2018 Mac Mini / Graphics CPU Issue

Hi,

Following document could help your decision making.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208544

An eGPU will almost certainly improve performance. That said, it sounds like you already own the mini and are committed to 4K editing... so have you tried any test edits with just the UHD 630 yet?

For general eGPU considerations...

• Make: Avoid eGPUs with Nvidea cards since those have no MacOS support (unless working exclusively in bootcamp.)
• Performance/Cost: Skip the RX 560 enclosures. An RX 570-4GB or RX 580-8GB provides much better value. MacOS also has Vega drivers if performance is more important than cost.
• Portability: Sonnet Breakaway Puck RX 570 is the smallest on the market, even with the massive power brick. Con: non-upgradable and more expensive than buying a budget enclosure/card independently.
• Budget: Sonnet Breakaway Box 550W and the AKiTIO Node are inexpensive and support most cards. Con: too large to slide into a student backpack if the eGPU also needs to be portable.
• Hubs: Some enclosures like the Mantiz Venus offer USB ports for a 1-cable dock-like experience. Convenient, but USB ports share Thunderbolt bandwidth slightly lowering GPU performance.

Unless you are doing a lot of animation or 3D modeling,

video apps are typically much more CPU intensive than

GPU.

Personally, if I were doing anything video related and had the

cash, I would go with some system with an 8 core i9 since video

is very core hungry. Currently, the only Apple products with that

option are the 15" MacBook Pros and the 27" iMac, both of which will

already have a powerful discrete graphics card.