When logging back in I found a little icon that looked like a CPU in my menu bar, showing that I had the card connected. A message popped up that it detected an external GPU, and that I needed to log out to start using it. Replace the outer casing and you’re done.Ĭonnecting the unit to my computer was simple as well. The next step is to insert the card and fasten it in place, connecting the cable from the unit to the card. One thing I must commend OWC on is that you don’t need a screwdriver to remove the screws you simply screw them out with your hands and remove the outer casing by sliding it backwards and up. I just removed the screws from the back of the unit. To play it safe, I went with the official Apple offering. Lastly, I needed a Thunderbolt-3-to-Thunderbolt-2 adapter.

The package comes with a Thunderbolt 3 cable, so you don’t have to go out and get one. When I saw the heft of the fan included in the Helios FX, I was a little concerned that it would be noisy, but it really is whisper-quiet.

My first impression of the Helios FX is that it is very light, which I did not expect. I ended up going with the OWC Mercury Helios FX and the AMD Radeon Pro WX7100. That saved a lot of early guesswork, research and missteps. Through my research, I found it very helpful that OWC offers a very complete list of GPU cards they have tested. So the best way to find out was to test it, but I knew I was jumping head-on into a situation that might not work.įor my test, I wanted to go with a fairly inexpensive graphics card and eGPU unit. With Mac OS High Sierra, Apple introduced connecting eGPUs to Macs via Thunderbolt 3, but my big question was: “Will this work with a Thunderbolt 2 Mac?” Doing a bit of Google research, I couldn’t find any concrete evidence that told me it could work. When I’m on set, I use my MacBook Pro to backup data and do quick edits, but it’s a laptop and lacks the power needed to handle RAW files in that environment.

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