Do I need a GPU for MacBook Pro?

Support Basics & Interface
#1

New to Blender and 3D, I’m using a MacBook Pro/macOS Mojave, 2.3 GHz Intel Core i5 Processor, 16GB, Intel Iris Plus Graphics 655 1536 MB…

I’m trying to create some animations that are a few seconds long, like 5 seconds maybe up to a couple minutes when I progress… I was able to make Blender Guru’s donut animation but only did 30 frames total. Then I tried to do a physics particle disintegration and it was so slow it basically froze up.

Just wondering if anyone can give me advice based on my laptop and project goals, would I need to invest in an eGPU? Or is there something else I’m missing? Thanks in advance I am obsessed with blender just have a lot to learn!

#2

You’d better off buying a separate PC for that money and install Linux/Windows. Especially with a nVidia GPU as AMD GPU gets no good support in anything.

RTX card as RTX 2060 super.
16-32 GB Ram
256 SSD
Any CPU will do. 4+ cores with lots of GHz will do.

1 Like
#3

Oh wow ok. Thanks for the reply. So no options with what I have just to animate a few seconds?

#4

Why not just download Blender and try it out. Since 2.80+ EEVEE might cause problems but cycles should work.

#5

Ahh ok I’ll try cycles. I have been using blender 2.8 for 6 months for modeling but maybe the animation I was trying was set to eevee. Thanks!

#6

If it went so far you can continue. If certain things take too long, you can do others. Otherwise you just need a faster machine. EEVEE definitely needs GPU power.

#7

Ok great, good to know. I’m just teaching myself as I go so some of this basic stuff is outside my current scope! Thank you!