Evaluate: Sonnet eGPU Breakaway Puck RX 5700 brings quiet GPU energy to Intel Macs

The eGPU enclosure is an effective way to extend the efficiency of your current Mac or MacBook with out paying to improve the unit for a more recent mannequin. It is cost-effective and will probably lead to a higher-performing Mac than Apple may present for a similar value.

The PCI-e eGPU enclosures nonetheless have one massive subject — they’re hefty packing containers that sit on or close to your desk, taking over a number of desk area, and so they carry out finest with an exterior monitor, as a substitute of looping again to a MacBook Professional’s inside show. Given the designs of some fashions, they’ll additionally stick out like a sore thumb, as a everlasting and unmistakable reminder that you just needed extra GPU efficiency than the Mac may present by itself.

The Sonnet eGPU Breakaway Puck RX 5700 tries to tackle the issue by packing all the primary performance of an eGPU enclosure right into a compact system. As a substitute of an enclosure giant sufficient to carry some small Home windows PCs, the Breakaway Puck is sufficiently small to be hidden on a desk or behind a monitor utilizing a VESA mount, taking over as little room as attainable whereas nonetheless offering the identical energy.

• 6 inches by 5.1 inches by 2 inches.
• Two Thunderbolt 3 ports, 1 DisplayPort 1.4, 1 HDMI 2.0b, 2 USB 3.2 Kind-A
• 60W energy supply
• AMD Radeon RX 5700 GPU

Sonnet declares the Breakaway Puck to be the “smallest moveable all-in-one eGPU dock,” and at a look, that looks like descriptor. Measuring simply 6 inches by 5.1 inches and a couple of inches tall, the puck has a smaller footprint than a Mac mini, and is not a lot taller.

The facility brick is half the dimensions of the Breakaway Puck. (iPhone 11 Professional for scale)

Like different space-saving {hardware}, the ability adapter is a hefty energy brick, transferring the majority of power-related electronics out of the primary physique.

The facility brick alone is 3 inches vast by 6.1 inches lengthy and 1.2 inches thick, making it fairly substantial in measurement in comparison with the system it powers. Since there is a prolonged energy cable in use, this brick could be tucked out of the way in which to attenuate the general look, however it’s nonetheless very a lot one thing to think about. That mentioned, behind-desk area is at a lot much less of a premium than on-desk space.

Like different eGPUs, the Breakaway Puck provides additional connectivity choices past Thunderbolt 3. As soon as linked to a number Mac utilizing Thunderbolt 3, there is a small choice of ports out there, each for video and different functions.

Sonnet included fairly just a few ports on the again of the Breakaway Puck.

There are a complete of two Thunderbolt 3 ports, so the unit can kind a part of a daisy-chain if required. There’s additionally 60W of energy supply over Thunderbolt 3, which can be sufficient to recharge a 13-inch MacBook Pro whereas it’s getting used.

The opposite video choices embody a DisplayPort 1.4 port and an HDMI 2.0b port. A pair of USB 3.2 Kind-A ports spherical out the record, every with a possible information switch fee of 5Gbps.

With these connection choices, you’ll be able to handle many alternative mixtures of shows, relying in your necessities.

The Thunderbolt 3 ports can help a 6K-resolution display screen at 60Hz when utilizing a Thunderbolt 3-compatible show, such because the Pro Display XDR, although it could possibly additionally deal with a 5K-resolution monitor at 60Hz over USB-C. Sonnet additionally claims the Thunderbolt 3 connection helps two 4K shows at 60Hz when utilizing its Thunderbolt 3 to Twin DisplayPort or Twin HDMI 2.0 adapters.

The onboard DisplayPort 1.4 connection can deal with a 4K display screen or a Twin QHD model at a decision of 5,120×1,440, at 60Hz apiece. The HDMI 2.0b port can help a 4K display screen at 60Hz.

There are a number of limitations on what you are able to do with it. At the moment, the Breakaway Puck will work with Intel-based Macs with Thunderbolt 3, as Apple has but to offer any eGPU help on its M1-based Apple Silicon Mac lineup.

It’s attainable to make use of the Breakaway Puck underneath macOS Catalina 10.15.7 or later, with it additionally being suitable with Macs operating macOS Big Sur.

Nevertheless, Sonnet warns it’s not licensed to be used with Home windows. Sonnet’s help web page explains Home windows at present doesn’t help a Thunderbolt 3 or USB-C show linked to a Thunderbolt 3 port, and that eGPU help just isn’t attainable underneath Boot Camp, proper now. Sonnet says that they are ready on a repair from Microsoft, however who is aware of how lengthy that is going to take.

Offering the graphical energy of the Breakaway Puck is an AMD Radeon RX 5700, with 8GB of GDDR6 reminiscence. This not AMD’s “Large Navi,” and there’s no help for that in any respect in macOS but, however it does have 36 compute models, 2,304 stream processors, and 10.3 billion transistors.

It has base and boosted clock speeds of 1.4GHz and 1.7GHz, peak single-precision compute efficiency of seven.95 teraflops, a peak half precision compute efficiency of 15.9 teraflops, and reminiscence velocity and bandwidth of 14Gbps and as much as 448GB/s, respectively.

Geekbench’s Steel benchmarks put the RX 5700 at 42,017 factors, very far forward of the default Radeon Professional 5300M 4GB within the 16-inch MacBook Prowith 24,346 factors, and even pips out the highest tier Radeon Professional 5600M at 40,966.

To check the efficiency, we benchmarked the Breakaway Puck in opposition to different on-hand GPUs. For this, we used the Unigine Haven and GeekBench OpenCL benchmarks.

A lot of the exams have been carried out on a 2018 15-inch MacBook Pro with a Core i9 processor and 32GB of reminiscence. Whereas it has onboard Intel UHD Graphics 630 and Radeon Professional 560X GPUs, we additionally in contrast the Puck in opposition to a Radeon VII in a Razer Core X eGPU case.

We additionally put an M1 Mac mini by way of the identical outcomes to check the Puck in opposition to Apple Silicon.

GeekBench 5 OpenCL benchmark scores.

Underneath GeekBench 5’s OpenCL take a look at, the Breakaway Puck manages to attain 50,290 factors. That is respectable in contrast with the Radeon VII, which has twice the reminiscence and a significantly wider 4096-bit reminiscence bus.

The Breakaway Puck can be a substantial enchancment over the built-in GPUs, with it scoring 9 instances increased than the Intel built-in graphics and greater than double the 18,114 of the discrete Radeon Professional 560X.

The Breakaway Puck scored greater than double the M1 Mac mini’s 19,542 rating. It is a sensible demonstration that the Breakaway Puck might be a possible graphical improve for M1 Macs, assuming Apple ever provides support for eGPUs.

Unigine Heaven benchmark scores.

The Unigine Heaven benchmark provides just about the identical story as GeekBench, with the Radeon VII within the eGPU enclosure taking the lead with 4,128 factors and 163.9 frames per second. Sonnet’s system nonetheless reaches 3,328 factors and 132.1 frames per second.

Within the decrease half of the desk, the M1 Mac mini does not fairly handle to attain half the efficiency of the Breakaway Puck, at 1,604 factors and 63.7frames per second. Lastly, the built-in graphics of the MacBook Professional got here in final at 1,112 factors and 44.1 frames per second.

Throughout all of those exams, which have been carried out in an workplace with a background of 37 dBA, the Razer enclosure hit about 53 dBA, principally because of the fan on the video card. When testing the MacBook Professional by itself, it hit 48 dBA. Testing with the exterior GPU linked to the MacBook Professional peaked at 46 dBA.

The massive takeaway right here is that the Breakaway Puck can present a efficiency enhance when put next in opposition to the built-in graphical choices Apple consists of in its present Intel-based and Apple Silicon Macs. Within the examined examples, the Breakaway Puck offers greater than double the efficiency, making it a viable improve path, when compatibility exists.

One of many most important tradeoffs in utilizing the Breakaway Puck is that it can’t be upgraded. In any respect.

Upgradeability is the primary good thing about bigger and louder eGPU enclosures, because it’s comparatively trivial to interchange the graphics card with a extra highly effective model. There’s additionally the choice with different fashions to purchase the enclosure and set up your individual card — assuming you will get a card at or close to retail pricing.

You do not have the choice to vary the GPU within the Breakaway Puck as a consequence of its measurement (iPhone 11 Professional for scale)

These are stuff you actually can not do with the Breakaway Puck. In order for you one other with a sooner GPU, you don’t have any alternative however to attend for an up to date mannequin to come back out with a greater chipset, and exchange all the unit.

This will not be an enormous deal for anybody who prioritizes area and appearances over utility, however it could appear to be wasteful to these erring in the direction of the latter.

Relying in your priorities and the way typically you plan to improve your graphical capabilities, it could be worthwhile going for an eGPU, albeit with caveats.

If you happen to needed to purchase a Breakaway Puck RX 5700, Sonnet will promote you one for $899.99.

Choosing an exterior method would imply selecting up an enclosure and the eGPU individually. For the enclosure, getting Sonnet’s eGFX Breakaway Field will set you again $299.99, which is able to depart you with $600 to accumulate the comparable RX 5700 as a graphics card.

Given the RX 5700 had an preliminary launch RRP of $349.99, this may appear to be a no brainer for anybody involved with efficiency moderately than aesthetics. This could put the theoretical package deal value at simply shy of $650, saving you $250.

The affect of the continued semiconductor provide chain scarcity, and the calls for of cryptocurrency mining, have severely impacted the high-end graphics card market. So, good luck discovering a card, even an older one, at retail value.

Not solely are you able to not get a graphics card of that caliber simply, however in instances the place you’ll be able to, you may find yourself paying a substantial premium.

For instance, the RX 5700 XT, a slight step up from the RX 5700, had a really helpful retail value at launch of $399.99. Searches for the cardboard by way of on-line retailers in March 2020 reveal value tags of between $1,300 and $1,500 for the cardboard, a number of instances AMD’s supposed promoting value.

Underneath regular video card pricing, happening the route of discrete enclosure and card has its advantages each from an expandability standpoint and a monetary one. However, proper now, there is a monetary penalty, making the Puck extra engaging — right this moment.

Down the road, when the GPU market settles again all the way down to saner value ranges and demand is not an issue, discrete enclosures and graphics playing cards would be the higher strategy to go. However, that day is not right this moment and we aren’t anticipating it any time quickly.

It is not clear what Apple goes to to about PCI-e GPU help. Additionally unclear, is the way forward for all the Thunderbolt eGPU idea.

Clearly, when you’ve got an Intel Mac and freeze your {hardware} right this moment at Large Sur model 11.2.3, and have a RX 5700XT or older in any kind, you are good to go together with an eGPU or Mac Professional. Tomorrow is much less sure.

Within the quick time period, we’re anticipating “Large Navi” help in macOS, if for no different purpose than to offer Mac Professional house owners extra choices with the array of PCI-e slots that it has. Then again, Apple Silicon does not have any help for eGPUs in any respect, and there aren’t any indicators of a M-whatever Mac Professional on the horizon.

An Apple Silicon Mac Professional appears inevitable, and we’re hoping when that day comes it can deliver alongside PCI-e help, and help for GPUs aside from the built-in one. However, we have additionally been hoping the return of Nvidia GPU help for just a few years, and that hasn’t manifested both.

So, for right this moment, the Breakaway Puck RX 5700 is an effective mix of value, efficiency, and availability for Intel Mac house owners. It is quieter than a full-size enclosure and card, matches in a smaller area even contemplating the discrete energy provide, and is cheaper proper now.

So, in brief, in March of 2021, we just like the Breakaway Puck RX 5700 very a lot. The reply to the identical query could also be totally different in two or three years for any certainly one of quite a lot of causes.

• Compact measurement
• Highly effective RX 5700 GPU
• Many video connectivity choices

• No GPU improve choices
• Giant energy brick

The Sonnet eGPU Breakaway Puck RX 5700 could be purchased from B&H Picture for $899.99.