Welcome to Azeroth! In Part 1, I detailed the installation of the eGFX Breakaway Box and verifies that it was being identified by MacOS Mojave. In this part, I will tell you my impressions of the differences between the internal graphics and the eGFX Breakaway Box.
Internal Graphics
World of Warcraft with the internal graphics. The new Mac Mini has an Intel UHD Graphics 630 graphics card integrated into the mainboard. Walking around Zuldazar with the fabulous and frosty Elanesh, I was getting around 60 FPS pretty steady. Graphics settings were on 3. Gameplay was ok…but some components like the portrait mode for Elanesh’s bar were pixelated. So yes on lower settings this is playable and I could get by…but I have a feeling we can do so much better.
eGFX Breakaway Box
Now with the eGFX Breakaway Box installed and set to preferred, I duplicated my previous test running around Zuldazar with the illustrious frost mage Elanesh. I was getting 60 FPS on average on Ultra settings, basically 9/10. Game play was smooth and the graphics rendering was fantastic. I teleported to Dalaran and ran around then flew around. The fps dropped to 58 while I was flying in a crowded area of Dalaran but the depth and detail of the screen did not change.
You might be asking why I did not post the usual benchmarking tests that you see in most sites…I’m a visual person. Seeing benchmarks is ok, that’s how I decided on the Vega 64 graphics card. I thought a better test would be to actually play the game and see how it did.
These screenshots were taken with the settings on 9 going between flight points in Zuldazar. Needless to say I am very happy with how this turned out! While the Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box and the AMD Vega 64 are certainly not inexpensive, I believe that they were a worthwhile addition to my setup that will support not only my gaming habit, but also video editing work.
I hope you found this helpful, if so please leave your comments or questions!
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