And, of course, none of the current Mac range has any internal expansion slots that would allow you to install a new GPU in order to upgrade your graphics performance (although Apple has recently been dropping hints about a new ‘modular’ Mac Pro design that is due later this year). An integrated graphics processor is a small graphics chip that is actually part of the Mac’s main processor (CPU) – rather than having a ‘dedicated’ graphics card (or GPU – ‘graphics processing unit’), which is a completely separate graphics card that works alongside the main CPU in order to give graphics performance a much bigger boost. Apple has also announced a gaming subscription service that’s due to arrive later this year – which suggests that it’s finally waking up to the Mac games scene at last – and there are rumours that it’s developing a VR headset that will require plenty of 3D graphics power to run properly.īut, unfortunately, many Macs and MacBook models still rely on ‘integrated graphics’ to handle graphics, video and animation work. But, in the past couple of years, Apple has started to recognise that Macs need a bit of a graphics boost in order to tackle tasks such asĪugmented reality. Macs are often criticised for being overpriced and underpowered – especially when it comes to the kind of graphics performance that is needed for the latest 3D games, or for professional video-editing and animation software. Once you’ve chosen the eGPU that’s best for you, you’ll want to read about

In this article we explain the advantages of using an external graphics card with your Mac or MacBook, and round up the best buying options currently available.

2012 mac mini external gpu