Designed for architecture, construction, urban planning, and landscaping professionals, Twinmotion is a rare real-time visualization software compatible with both Windows and macOS. However, Mac users sometimes experience a lesser performance in Twinmotion due to the graphics processing ability of their Macs. Can the emergence of eGPU technology change this?

We tested Twinmotion with eGPU on a MacBook Pro 2017. In this article, we’ll share with you the performance comparison results in terms of FPS and rendering times of different media, between a MacBook Pro 2017 built-in graphics card Radeon Pro 560 and the eGPU Radeon RX 580.

What’s an eGPU and why use it?

The eGPU is an external graphics card that provides additional graphics processing power to boost your workstation’s performance for graphics-intensive applications. It can accelerate applications on both Windows and MacOS machines that GPU-based real-time applications like Twinmotion stand to benefit from. An eGPU actually contains two components: the graphics card itself and an external box called an “Enclosure” where you install the graphics card.

Why use an eGPU on a Mac? One of the greatest advantages is that you can carry a lightweight laptop with you when you’re out, and then plug it into an eGPU when you get back home or to the office, instantly turning your Mac into a high performance machine capable of running high-end graphics applications or even VR exploration. In addition, an eGPU also makes it possible to connect one or multiple external high-resolution monitors to your Mac.

Running Twinmotion on MacBook Pro with eGPU

Does eGPU really accelerate Twinmotion on Mac? We ran the tests for you.

Here is our configuration:

1. Twinmotion 2019 macOS version
2. MacBook Pro 2017 (macOS Mojave), RAM 16 GB, Radeon Pro 560, VRAM 4 GB
3. The Razer Core X eGPU enclosure
4. AMD Radeon RX 580 graphics card
5. A second monitor

Apple has provided a list of recommended enclosures and graphics cards that support eGPU as well as compatible Mac models. AMD graphics cards in eGPU are supported in macOS High Sierra, while Nvidia cards are not officially supported at this time.

The set up

The eGPU is a true plug & play system. Users don’t need to dig for the set up instructions.

Step 1/3: Plug the eGPU into your Mac through the Thunderbolt 3 port. Your Mac will immediately recognize the eGPU. The enclosure is used to power the Mac, too.

Step 2/3: Plug the second monitor into the eGPU and define it as the principal monitor in the Mac settings.

Step 3/3: Launch or restart Twinmotion. You can now run Twinmotion on the second monitor.

Results

Tests were run on two projects of different sizes. The small-sized Project A contains 3.5M polygons, 3.7K objects, and 1.0GB textures. The medium-sized Project B contains 14.9M polygons, 16.4K objects, and 1.6GB textures.

Here are the results:

Conclusion:

The eGPU significantly boosted Twinmotion performance on the MacBook Pro compared to its built-in graphics card. With the Radeon RX 580, Twinmotion exports around 3 times faster when rendering an image or a 360° panorama, and 2 times faster when calculating a video. In short, if you would like to boost Twinmotion on your MacBook Pro with all the benefits of a desktop computer, equipping your MacBook Pro with an eGPU is definitely a good choice.