EGPU for imac to edit/watch xavc hs 4k h.265 4:2:2 video? 5700xt working? [FOR A7siii]

[hsiunghsiung]

This might have been brought up somewhere, but I was just wondering if anyone was able to use an egpu for their macbook (pre M1) to allow for playback and final cut smooth scrubbing specifically for xavc hs 4k files from an a7siii?

Im currently on a maxed out imac 2017, and I was looking to get a razer core egpu case + some EGPU (hoping 5700 xt) to be able to edit my xavc hs files from my a7siii without transcoding proxies or play back from VLC/quicktime. I do not want to bootcamp at the moment

I am using my ipad pro 2018 at the moment to edit since the chip has hardware acceleration for it.

If you have tried an 5700xt egpu for your mac and it has not worked (or worked well) for xavc hs files, please let me know. Or similarly, if you have a graphics card that does work with playback, please let me know.

Thank you,
Jeff

 

[Stephen.R]

I have a 5700xt but I have no idea what xavc files are. I’ve had zero issues with the card in an akitio node titan enclosure. I’ll check the specific model of card when I’m at the Mac I think it was a sapphire card

 

[hsiunghsiung]

I'll search up that enclosure too. I was considering the sapphire version of it also if the 5700xt worked. So the xavc-hs is a highly compressed video codec file used in the Sony a7siii. For the most part, it seems a bunch of computers can't play that file in it's highest quality setting since it requires some specific hardware acceleration. Macbook M1s can play it at the moment, but I didn't want to purchase another mac, and was hoping to see if an egpu can handle my situation

 

[Stephen.R]

Is there a sample file I can download somewhere? And what software is used to play it back? Happy to do a trial if it’s not a days work to set it up

 

[hsiunghsiung]

Sorry for the late reply. This is a 6s video clip of the xavc file. My imac 2017 stutters when playing it

C0228

MediaFire is a simple to use free service that lets you put all your photos, documents, music, and video in a single place so you can access them anywhere and share them everywhere.

www.mediafire.com

 

[Stephen.R]

I had a very quick look, but it didn’t seem super smooth. I’ll have some more time tomorrow to fiddle with options and see if I can find anything that improves playback.

 

[hsiunghsiung]

No rush. Thank you for giving it a try. I've watched a few reviews with Max Tech/Yurev, and this file type doesn't play well even with 2020 imac 5k with 5700 xt dedicated gpu and intel mac mini +egpu 5700xt, so I'm going to assume it won't play back well either way on my older imac. So far no supported mac GPUs have hevc h.265 4:2:2 decoding it seems, so I'm going to either wait to see if some new AMD gpu comes out and if apple will support it somehow or just purchase an apple silicon iMac way way down the line after it's more stable.