External GPU (eGPU) Resources

[F-Train]

Big is something you want, some cards are quite long. It gives you more options. The asus XG pro 2 also has a small(low power) power supply. Having an external supply does keep the noise down but limits your upgrade options. It will work but you have to be aware of the limitations(power and length) when shopping for a video card.

Thanks, I already identified this issue in the first two bullets of the post that started this thread. I am aware of the tradeoffs, and I have decided that big is not what I want. Earlier today, I sent an e-mail to Asus asking what their view is on using a Vega 56 in that enclosure (that question has been discussed by two other people in this thread), and I am awaiting a response. When I get an answer, I'll make a decision

 

[rmdeluca]

The asus XG pro 2 also has a small(low power) power supply. Having an external supply does keep the noise down but limits your upgrade options.

Upon further reflection, I think the Asus XG Station Pro is the way I'm going to go too - specifically because the external power supply obviates me of ever having to replace the Sonnet or Razer's PSU with a silent one. I'll likely never stick more than an RTX2080 in this generation of eGPU anyhow.

 

[F-Train]

In hindsight, I think the Asus XG Station Pro is the way I'm going to go too - specifically because the external power supply obviates me of ever having to replace the Sonnet or Razer's PSU with a silent one. I'll likely never stick more than an RTX2080 in this generation of eGPU anyhow.

I realise that a lot of people think that an internal power supply is a good thing, presumably because it puts everything in one box, but as I said a few posts up, for me one of the attractions of the Asus is that the power supply is external. I think that it was a clever design decision.

 

[rmdeluca]

So my Asus XG Station Pro will be here Saturday. I'll let you know how it goes if you're curious. It's going to be Bootcamp and gaming/ML only though.

 

[F-Train]

So my Asus XG Station Pro will be here Saturday. I'll let you know how it goes if you're curious. It's going to be Bootcamp and gaming/ML only though.

I am extremely curious I'll post Asus's response on installing a Vega 56, although I'm not holding my breath on that one. Apparently it has been done, but advisability is a different matter. If you're interested, two people discussed this earlier in the thread.

 

[F-Train]

I just want to give a heads up to anyone thinking of purchasing an AMD Radeon RX 580 card to use as an external GPU with their Mac mini...

Apple has certified this card for use with Mac OS. It is a mid-market card, the same card used in the Blackmagic eGPU, although that card has apparently been tweaked in some way.

AMD is introducing an updated card today called the RX 590. AMD gave very little notice of this, and over the last day prices for the RX 580 appear to be coming down on online sites.

Just be aware that the MSRP for the RX 580, when it was released in April of 2017, was US$230. However, prices have been much higher because of demand by cryptocurrency miners for GPUs. As of writing this (Thursday, 0530 GMT), there appear to be significant discounts, but in fact the discounted prices are thus far close to or above the original MSRP.

Cheers

 

[rmdeluca]

Yeah I've been watching with glee as the RX 580 plummets in price. At $210 out the door today from Amazon I'll probably get one after I've had a little bit of fun in Bootcamp with my GTX 1080. A RX 580 is *plenty* for accelerating basic 2D tasks until Navi comes out.

The RX 590 is just an up clocked RX 580 on a 12nm process. What we really want is Navi so we can be totally done with the absurdly inefficient and costly Vega 56/64.

 

[StellarVixen]

RX590 will be pretty good for 1080p gaming.

Nice card for for the money and you do not need to be anxious if Apple and NVIDIA will ever get along again or not. For now, like it or not, using Apple products means sticking with AMD. I hope that this will change, but for now, it’s how it is.

 

[nampramos]

I've seen a few price drops/sales on the RX 580 in Sweden as well. As low as $180 (need to add 25% VAT on it, but to make it comparable to USA).

I was going to pull the trigger but I think I'll wait until Black Friday and see if other retailers join in the party.

Vega 56 refurbished for $350 (plus 25% VAT) with 2 year warranty.

 

[Spectrum]

I'd just be happy (for now) with a cheap integrated box that supports something like a 560. Price point around 200.
Why, exactly, are TB3 enclosures so costly? What is the big deal, the cards come with their own cooling fans, so literally all you are paying for is a box and the TB3 to PCIe interface, and PSU (which seems logical to me to be kept external).

This would be fine for most users running predominantly 2D apps, and would free up CPU resources (wattage and heat) used by the internal GPU.

 

[nampramos]

Shall we all try to figure out how to create a DIY enclosure? Can't be that hard and pretty sure all the hardware is available to purchase individually?

 

[Spectrum]

I realise that a lot of people think that an internal power supply is a good thing, presumably because it puts everything in one box, but as I said a few posts up, for me one of the attractions of the Asus is that the power supply is external. I think that it was a clever design decision.

Yeah, I see no benefit to an internal PSU. Keep the box small quiet and simple. The PSU can go under on the floor. Kind of a shame the Mac mini doesn't also have an external PSU...similar to a MBPro charger.
[doublepost=1542277738][/doublepost]

Shall we all try to figure out how to create a DIY enclosure? Can't be that hard and pretty sure all the hardware is available to purchase individually?

Sourcing the TB3 to PCIe bridge might be the challenge. But in principle that is all you need, then stick the eGPU on the back of a monitor with some Velcro.

 

[Spectrum]

Yeah, I see no benefit to an internal PSU. Keep the box small quiet and simple. The PSU can go under on the floor. Kind of a shame the Mac mini doesn't also have an external PSU...similar to a MBPro charger.
[doublepost=1542277738][/doublepost]
Sourcing the TB3 to PCIe bridge might be the challenge. But in principle that is all you need, then stick the eGPU on the back of a monitor with some Velcro.

According to this thread, the problem is Intel restricts licensing for TB3 adapters/enclosures...
https://www.reddit.com/r/eGPU/comments/82zyx9/any_pcie_x16_to_usbc_tb3_adapter_cards/

Makes me wonder that for a basic eGPU setup (think Radeon 560), wouldn't a non-TB3 solution provide sufficient bandwidth?

 

[ElectronGuru]

Why, exactly, are TB3 enclosures so costly?

Theres a general rule for most enclosures, including drives. Apple split off against USB so you could get usb2 or fw1, usb2 or fw2, usb3 or TB1. In each pairing, usb had commodity pricing and apples option was a special deep pocket high speed option.

My hope is that Apple embracing usbc means the world goes usbc/usbc. But usb3 will linger and TB3 versions may remain at a premium.

 

[F-Train]

Here is AnandTech's review of the Radeon RX 590 card, which AMD released today. The review is worth reading if you are in the market for an RX 580, which unlike the RX 590 has been certified for use with Mojave: https://www.anandtech.com/show/13570/the-amd-radeon-rx-590-review

AnandTech concludes its review with this comment on whether the RX 590 will be a success:

much depends on the pricing of top-end RX 580s.​

The RX 590 is starting to appear on Amazon US. Sapphire and others are offering it for the MSRP of US$279, which includes three free games: https://www.amazon.com/Sapphire-Bac...&qid=1542306150&sr=8-5&keywords=radeon+rx+590

Right now, Sapphire wants $260 for the equivalent version of the RX 580, which I suspect is unsustainable. I have seen pricing today as low as $200, but most pricing is still above the original MSRP of $230.

Given some of what I'm reading, I'm beginning to wonder whether the RX 580 will perform any better, as a practical matter, than the less expensive RX 480 as an eGPU for the mini. Can anyone comment on that?

 

[PJivan]

Why, exactly, are TB3 enclosures so costly?

I’m not sure you realise what intel has achieved and why amd or Apple didn’t came up with a proprietary solution, what they have done it’s incredible, data integrity to insane levels on a small lighting like cable...
maybe if egpu will become extremely popular price may go down a third but I don’t think we will ever see egpu box for less than 200

 

[rmdeluca]

Given some of what I'm reading, I'm beginning to wonder whether the RX 580 will perform any better, as a practical matter, than the less expensive RX 480 as an eGPU for the mini. Can anyone comment on that?

The difference between an RX590 and RX480 at their default clocks is roughly 22-30%. The eGPU bandwidth tax you'll pay is about 20% @ 1080p. This tax generally decreases as you go up in resolution from there. So putting an RX590 in an eGPU should give you better than native RX480 or RX570 performance in most 3D tasks.

Practically speaking, I'd put as much GPU in your enclosure as you can afford and not be annoyed by fan noise. I'm not sure though how you would find a new RX480 cheaper than a new RX580 now?

Personally, now that the RX590 is out I'll probably get one instead of the RX580 I talked about yesterday. That's it though, out of principle I really don't want to buy expensive AMD cards because they are so far behind the curve right now :/

 

[F-Train]

Personally, now that the RX590 is out I'll probably get one instead of the RX580 I talked about yesterday. That's it though, out of principal I really don't want to buy expensive AMD cards because they are so far behind the curve right now :/

I would consider that too, except for the fact that Apple has not approved it yet for use with Mojave. I assume that this is a matter of making a driver for it, which would presumably be made available for download or included in a Mojave update.

Are you thinking of the RX 590 because you think it will be approved quickly, or because you want it for gaming?

 

[rmdeluca]

I would consider that too, except for the fact that Apple has not approved it yet (which I assume is a matter of making a driver for it) for use with Mojave.

Are you thinking of the RX 590 because you think it will be approved quickly, or because you would want it for gaming?

The RX590 at most will need a tweak or two to run in Mojave, so I'm not worried about it being supported. I'm good waiting for a few weeks - I don't NEED it right now, my video editing workload will be nil until next year. I'll be putzing around in Windows with my GTX1080 for a little while anyhow just to get a "feel" for where eGPU is at in late 2018.

My thoughts on the RX590 are that it's a low-hassle holdover until we get NVIDIA back or Navi. It should be able to run some modern games that I like (like Doom 2016) just fine under Bootcamp which is a plus, and why I'm not considering cards like the RX560 or RX570. Getting a Vega 64 makes no sense because my GTX1080 is faster and I'm sitting 2 feet away from a Skylake-X workstation with TB3 support that will happily dual boot into Windows if I must have gaming in this room.

TBH, this is 50% R&D and 50% a toy. We're early adopters w/r to the 2018 Mini and eGPU. I think the real magic will happen sometime next year.

 

[PJivan]

The RX590 is already supported in the latest Mojave beta. I'm good waiting for a few weeks - I don't NEED it right now, my video editing workload will be nil until next year. I'll be putzing around in Windows with my GTX1080 for a little while anyhow just to get a "feel" for where eGPU is at in late 2018.

My thoughts on the RX590 are that it's a low-hassle holdover until we get NVIDIA back or Navi. It should be able to run some modern games that I like (like Doom 2016) just fine under Bootcamp which is a plus, and why I'm not considering cards like the RX560 or RX570. Getting a Vega 64 makes no sense because my GTX1080 is faster and I'm sitting 2 feet away from a Skylake-X workstation with TB3 support that will happily dual boot into Windows if I must have gaming in this room.

TBH, this is 50% R&D and 50% a toy. We're early adopters w/r to the 2018 Mini and eGPU. I think the real magic will happen sometime next year.

I was thinking the same if I get a decent enough deal I may stick with 590 until navi is out and skip vega all together

 

[F-Train]

The RX590 is already supported in the latest Mojave beta.

...

TBH, this is 50% R&D and 50% a toy. We're early adopters w/r to the 2018 Mini and eGPU. I think the real magic will happen sometime next year.

Perfect, just what I needed to know.

Unlike you, I have zero expertise when it comes to external GPUs, but I certainly feel a bit like a guinea pig in this mini/egpu exercise. Interesting, though, and I'm learning a bit.

I'm looking forward to your comments on the Asus enclosure.

 

[rmdeluca]

Perfect, just what I needed to know.

Unlike you, I have zero expertise when it comes to external GPUs, but I certainly feel a bit like a guinea pig in this mini/egpu exercise. Interesting, though, and I'm learning a bit.

I'm looking forward to your comments on the Asus enclosure.

Don't quote me on the Mojave beta support because I've not been able to personally test this yet. I've altered the wording in my post.

I'll keep you posted on how things go this weekend.

 

[F-Train]

Don't quote me on the Mojave beta support because I've not been able to personally test this yet. I've altered the wording in my post.

I'll keep you posted on how things go this weekend.

I've ordered Sapphire Technology's Nitro+ version: https://www.amazon.com/Sapphire-Backplate-Special-Graphic-11289-01-20G/dp/B07K12KNHG/

I'm not worried about it. I can't imagine it not being supported. Arrives Tuesday.

Seeing as how it comes with three games, I guess I'm going to try my hand at gaming

 

[jrholt]

I've ordered Sapphire's Nitro+ version: https://www.amazon.com/Sapphire-Backplate-Special-Graphic-11289-01-20G/dp/B07K12KNHG/

I'm not worried about it. I can't imagine it not being supported. Arrives Tuesday.

Seeing as how it comes with three games, I guess I'm going to try my hand at gaming

Thanks for the update and for all the super helpful information you've been posting throughout the forums. I might have missed it but did you also decide on an external monitor(s)? I recall you were borrowing a friend's but I might have missed the post when you decided on what you were going to buy for yourself.

 

[LeeW]

I am curious to see how this plays out for some of you so I can piggy back on the results

Like others I have no idea on eGPU but I would like to extend my new MM to save having to switch between my PC for gaming (light needs).

What I have been seeing though is that the difference it makes in terms of FPS is negligible, can't see how that would be but there are so little reviews at the moment.