# EGPU for better DAW Performance?



## mattwmusic (Jan 1, 2021)

Hey all,

happy new year! I’m currently running a 2019 MacBook Pro with 8 cores and 64 gigs of Ram and want to optimize it a bit more for composing as it gets pretty hot at times. Would an EGPU help at all with Logic/Cubase performance or is it a stupid thing to spend money on for the hope of a slightly more efficient workflow? I really don’t know how a GPU works in scoring work so any tips/advice is greatly appreciated! Thanks so much!


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## mixtur (Jan 1, 2021)

It wont really make any difference. Some plugins use 3d-rendering (open-gl etc) but your built-in graphics should be able to handle that. Maybe one day when there are plugins available which use cuda etc


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## astreamproductions (Jan 1, 2021)

If you are using an external monitor on a MBP 2019 your GPU will actually be working quite hard and an eGPU would allow you to run the Macbook at overall cooler temperature (that might otherwise contribute to throttling of your main CPU). You would get less fan noise as well. If you are only using the built in monitor it wouldn’t have any effect as mentioned above.


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## Rory (Jan 1, 2021)

Apple has a page on what an eGPU will and won't do: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208544

I have a 2018 Mac mini with an Eizo external monitor and use an AMD Radeon Vega 56 external GPU with Final Cut Pro, DaVinci Resolve and Capture One. As someone working on a pilot's license, I also use it with X-Plane, which is graphics intensive. I would not purchase an eGPU in the hope that it would improve Logic Pro X performance. I think that that would be a waste of hundreds of dollars, an external graphics card and enclosure being a fairly expensive proposition.


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