MacBook Air with eGPU vs Macbook Pro's internal Video Card

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1

I’m thinking of starting playing WOW again and I’m also about to buy a new computer. For different reasons, I only want to use one computer at home, and it is going to be a Mac for other reasons than gaming, so that is a given. I’m thinking of a MacBook Air that supports eGPU and I’m going to have an external screen.

  1. Would any particular configuration of MacBook Pro, using only its internal video card, be superior for WOW than a MacBook Air, using the support for eGPU.
  2. What kind of video card supported by eGPU would give me the best performance (or be most priceworthy), and
  3. What kind of configuration of the MacBook Air (intel core processor and memory) would it require.

Looking for Mac player out there.

2

The quad core models have Intel Iris Pro graphics. It should be enough to run WoW. Some MBP have dgpu like RX 560X which is better but not by much. eGPU will cost you extra for the eGPU “adapter”.

Most MB Air have dual core low clock CPUs. That’s very poor for WoW and gaming in general. Look for the quad core (or even 6-core?) MBP or maybe some Air models too. SSD, not HDD, 8GB+ RAM. If you end up with a lowly CPU laptop then eGPU won’t be worth it.

3

I own a macbook air as a spare machine and it runs wow in 1152x720 (40% render scale) at quality setting 3. If you play wow on a monitor that will draw more power. Overall it’s somewhat playable on a macbook air but I personally would advise against it. I sometimes do some low level leveling on it but apart from that, bad idea.
Speakers and screen are great though :smiley:

5

Sorry for this late thank you note. Your replies help a lot. I know what to look for now. I can’t find any MacBook Air with anything more than dual core, so I guess that decides it for MacBook Pro. But have started worrying for overheating when using a MacBook Pro for playing WoW. Is that still a problem?

Another thing. For almost the same price as a 6-core MacBook Pro + an external screen I could get a 27" 6-core iMac+MB Air in its least expensive version. Would the performance differ much between the iMac and the MacBook Pro? Again, thinking of overheating.

6

Then buy a laptop without a flawed cooling system. WoW won’t put load on all cores so the thermals should be in reasonable levels but still you are willing to buy an expensive laptop that can’t handle full capabilities of included components while also being far away from gaming laptops with Nvidia GPUs.

Top specs for iMacs include RX 580X and Vega 48. The first one is ok-ish, while the Vega is “ok” - but do note the high resolution of iMac displays which will lower the FPS. Not great, good for 1080p, not something recommended for 4k and 5k displays. For gaming, especially for the asked price the hardware is severely underwhelming. iMac will have better thermals than a much smaller laptop.

7

I play wow on a 2017 imac with 580 video card. I’ve found that playing at 50% render scale at setting 5 is best. I can put it up to max but it tends to get hot. The 2019 imacs have much better cooling than the older imacs though so I’m looking at getting one of those.
I can play at ultra settings on an external 4k screen at 50% render scale but I prefer the imac screen as the colours are better and everything is more visible in dark places. The screen on the imac is very bright which makes a ton of difference.
My gpu usually sits around 80 degrees while my cpu tends to be around 70 degrees at these settings.
With the new imacs the cooling is better so you might be able to play at higher settings.
I am very happy with most of the imac, just not the cooling but it seems to have been fixed in the new models. If anyone knows how wow performs on the new imacs, I’d like to read about it.
I don’t really like playing on a laptop as my hands block my view of the screen. :stuck_out_tongue: