The 5700 XT will work in the 350w Sonnet? I was looking into get one for mine to replace an RX 580. Their compatibility documents say that it will only support the 5700.
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External GPU (eGPU) Resources
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The 5700 XT will work in the 350w Sonnet? I was looking into get one for mine to replace an RX 580. Their compatibility documents say that it will only support the 5700.
I can only say that the PowerColor Red Dragon 5700 XT does. But I can tell you that it works 100% and it is rock solid. I too read the compatibility doc but chose to ignore as technically there is enough power there, Sonnet were just being over cautious and blanket marking the entire XT range as not working.
There are two key points to note however:
One, your Sonnet must NOT be the Apple one that they sold to devs. This delivers more power over the TB3 cable and consequently doesn’t have enough for the card. You need the retail Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box with 350W as bought from Amazon,etc. This one only delivers 15W over the TB3 cable, meaning there is more of that 350W for the card.
Two, you likely need to use the ‘Silent Mode’ switch on the Red Dragon. Not only does this mean that the card runs silent (0 dB mode) at idle but it also means it draws a bit less power.
UPDATE: Running the latest Adrenalin 2020 19.12.3 drivers with the card maxed out running Unigine Heaven it pulls a maximum of 172W when in 'Silent mode' BIOS setting and hits 74 degrees C. Clock speed is 1975MHz and fan 1325RPM which is quite noisy but expected at maximum load. As I said, at idle it is totally silent (0dB).
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I often use lots of tracks and lots of effects. The extra GPU horsepower makes that run smoother on the Mini.
i mean, i do to, but I see absolutely no load on the GPU while i do so, while CPU sometimes maxes out
From what I've read, Logic has begun offloading some processing work onto the GPU. I certainly could be wrong about that. But I need the GPU for my Final Cut work anyway.
Well aside metal accelerated spectrum display in ChromaVerb... I dont know what else is GPU accellerated
Does silent mode reduce its performance at all? Does it simply not work if you don't have silent mode turned on? From what I'm seeing others discuss online the 5700 XT should work in the Sonnet 350 as it would provide enough power.
I genuinely haven’t tried the OC mode as I value how silent my system is now. I am sure it would be fine however as the Sonnet seems to handle it with ease and Wattage readings tend to be around 172W max in silent mode.
You lose 15W for power delivery over TB3 so you’re left with 335W for the card which should be plenty for any XT, even with peaks.
Thank you for sharing your experience. I think I'm going to pull the trigger on an XT. I'll let you know my results when I try the card.
I have a 2018 Mini w/ 32GB running 10.15.2 attached to an Asus eGpu with the Asus Vega 56. USB-C/TB from the Mini to the egpu and HDMI to the ViewSonic 32" display.
Up until recently, booting the mini would give the blank screen and eventual login screen. Now though, I cannot complete a boot up with the eGpu attached. I suspect an issue with the cable - USB-C/TB is fairly loose on the mini and the gpu enclosure. It's the active cable supplied with the Asus enclosure.
I use it mostly for editing photos, so no 'heavy' work. In fact, with the eGpu, I only notice a little to moderate improvement in the photo editing workflow.
I'm looking for recommendations for a new cable setup.
Any recommendations ?
Up until recently, booting the mini would give the blank screen and eventual login screen. Now though, I cannot complete a boot up with the eGpu attached. I suspect an issue with the cable - USB-C/TB is fairly loose on the mini and the gpu enclosure. It's the active cable supplied with the Asus enclosure.
I use it mostly for editing photos, so no 'heavy' work. In fact, with the eGpu, I only notice a little to moderate improvement in the photo editing workflow.
I'm looking for recommendations for a new cable setup.
Any recommendations ?
A few of us in this thread had issues with the cable provided by ASUS, most of us bought this cable:
The TB connection is definitely more snug compared to the ASUS cable and most of us saw an increase in reliability with our eGPU. Although it depends on how far away you have your eGPU (since this is a pretty short cable). I got lucky, Apple sent me two for the price of one!
You are using Catalina, I am not, but I have seen posts where people are having issues with their eGPUs and booting.
The TB connection is definitely more snug compared to the ASUS cable and most of us saw an increase in reliability with our eGPU. Although it depends on how far away you have your eGPU (since this is a pretty short cable). I got lucky, Apple sent me two for the price of one!
You are using Catalina, I am not, but I have seen posts where people are having issues with their eGPUs and booting.
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I have a similar issue. I have to unplug my Sonnet 350 eGPU before starting my Mini or I just get a black screen as well. After I've logged in and plug the eGPU back in everything works perfectly. I've noticed this started happening after the 10.15.2 update.
See the link below to a discussion about how 10.15.2 actually breaks the eGPU setup. If you are running two monitors, have one connected to the eGPU (DP cable for instance) and the other connected directly to the Mac mini via an HDMI cable (with no cable connecting it to the eGPU). That way, you'll be able to login without the black screen or needing to unplug/pluging in the cables.
Edit... also take a look at this thread as well
Catalina & eGPU...
Yes I can. I currently have my 2nd monitor (27Cintiq) attached by DP to the eGPU and my main monitor is attached directly to the Mac mini via an HDMI cable. With this setup I have no problems booting up.
forums.macrumors.com
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See the link below to a discussion about how 10.15.2 actually breaks the eGPU setup. If you are running two monitors, have one connected to the eGPU (DP cable for instance) and the other connected directly to the Mac mini via an HDMI cable (with no cable connecting it to the eGPU). That way, you'll be able to login without the black screen or needing to unplug/pluging in the cables.
Edit... also take a look at this thread as well
Catalina & eGPU...
Yes I can. I currently have my 2nd monitor (27Cintiq) attached by DP to the eGPU and my main monitor is attached directly to the Mac mini via an HDMI cable. With this setup I have no problems booting up.
Thank you for pointing me to this. Unfortunately, I use a single ultra wide monitor so I can't use your workaround. You would think issues like this would get caught before an update is released!
So, yesterday the cables I had ordered arrived - 1 DP1.4 and 1 Apple TB3 .8m.
I connected the HDMI cable direct from the Mini to the monitor. I then replaced the Asus cable with the much better fitting Apple one. Then I connected the DP1.4 cable from the eGpu to the monitor.
Booted the Mini up - with both cables active. It did boot all the way with no black screen. However, having two active connections on one monitor can get a bit crazy. So, I disconnected the HDMI after boot up.
As an alternative - I can leave the HDMI and TB3 cables attached and just power off the eGpu. Works fine if I don't need the gpu for basic uses.
Now I have my eGpu back in service.
I connected the HDMI cable direct from the Mini to the monitor. I then replaced the Asus cable with the much better fitting Apple one. Then I connected the DP1.4 cable from the eGpu to the monitor.
Booted the Mini up - with both cables active. It did boot all the way with no black screen. However, having two active connections on one monitor can get a bit crazy. So, I disconnected the HDMI after boot up.
As an alternative - I can leave the HDMI and TB3 cables attached and just power off the eGpu. Works fine if I don't need the gpu for basic uses.
Now I have my eGpu back in service.
I ordered a Moshi USB-C to Display Port adapter on the advice of an Apple tech. It hasn't arrived yet, but the theory is that it will give me the 4k 60 fps throughput I've been after (as opposed to the HDMI cable I've been using). I've unplugged my Radeon 5700 from my monitor. It doesn't need to be attached to the monitor at all; it's just used for extra graphics horsepower through the TB3 cable.
Something that surprised me though is when I installed the Unreal Engine to do some game programming: it first asked me to install X Code, which I had on my old Mac Pro but rarely used. I hadn't installed it on my mini until that point. What I discovered is that X Code seems to improve the overall graphics responsiveness on my Steam games that I play on Windows through Fusion. I have no clue why. But games that were unplayable before I installed X Code now run at a decent frame rate.
Update: That Moshi cable did the trick. Games are running quite a bit smoother now. The System Report still says "UI looks like 1920 x1080" but it's saying 60 hz instead of 30. I'm still going to try to tweak some settings, but overall I'm much happier with how the mini is performing now.
Something that surprised me though is when I installed the Unreal Engine to do some game programming: it first asked me to install X Code, which I had on my old Mac Pro but rarely used. I hadn't installed it on my mini until that point. What I discovered is that X Code seems to improve the overall graphics responsiveness on my Steam games that I play on Windows through Fusion. I have no clue why. But games that were unplayable before I installed X Code now run at a decent frame rate.
Update: That Moshi cable did the trick. Games are running quite a bit smoother now. The System Report still says "UI looks like 1920 x1080" but it's saying 60 hz instead of 30. I'm still going to try to tweak some settings, but overall I'm much happier with how the mini is performing now.
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Has anyone tried using HDMI Headless 4K Video Accelerator. I ordered one from OWC. Thinking it might be a work around for me. Have a ultra-wide monitor, Mini and Helios box and don't like the cable swap. Should have it tomorrow. Will report back. Ignore this if this has been discussed and I missed it
Well got the HDMI headless adapter. Didn't work. Back to the cable swap.Has anyone tried using HDMI Headless 4K Video Accelerator. I ordered one from OWC. Thinking it might be a work around for me. Have a ultra-wide monitor, Mini and Helios box and don't like the cable swap. Should have it tomorrow. Will report back. Ignore this if this has been discussed and I missed it
Humm... mine did. However, I had to turn on the Mac first with one monitor attached via the HDMI to the mini and the other to the eGPU.
I then disconnected the HDMI cable and popped the HDMI headless plug in and went into "Displays" in system preferences and made sure (under arrangement) that the menu header bar (white line/block) was attached to the main monitor. At the same time arranging the monitors correctly. Saved and exited.
If you don't do this I think your password box will be hidden on the "Fake Screen" of the headless HDMI monitor and when you boot up, you end up with two screens with nowhere to enter the password.
Now when I hit restart, I get a blank screen (monitors off) until it boots up. Once the password box appears both monitors come on and I can enter the password.
Finally some progress. 10.15.4 b2 updated all the way to login with the eGPU on. I haven't been able to do that since 10.15.3.x something. I haven't rebooted yet though.
Beta 2 doesn't fix the problem for me and there are still strange colors on my LG Monitor since upgrading to 10.15.4.
Razer Core X + RX 590
Edit: Seems that the strange colors and boot problems only occur if the eGPU is connected via DisplayPort. Now with connected over HDMI, eGPU only boot works fine and colors are normal.
Razer Core X + RX 590
Edit: Seems that the strange colors and boot problems only occur if the eGPU is connected via DisplayPort. Now with connected over HDMI, eGPU only boot works fine and colors are normal.
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My Mac mini eGPU: OWC Mercury Helios FX 650 with Sapphire RX580
I find it a nice unit, except for:
Randomly the RX580 fans spin up a little bit. Then, a few minutes later the OWC’s fans spin up… and stay spinning. Fast. Noisy.
The only ‘fix’ is to disconnect the Thunderbolt 3 cable until the next time it goes crazy. I’ve tried different display connections (DisplayPort, HDMI, DVI), base software and all sorts of other variations.
Questions:
1: Are other users on Mac minis with this eGPU/Graphics Card experiencing the same issue?
2: Any users with different eGPU/Graphics Cards experiencing this issue, or similar?
PS: Boot Screen –
I’m using a Display Emulator Plug plugged into the mini’s HDMI port.
When I start the mini I get neither boot nor login screens – just both displays with the Catalina image on them.
I ‘blindly’ hit the correct keyboard letter to select the required user account and type my password. In a few seconds the screens flash and I get normal desktops and menu bars. Not optimal, but at least I don’t have to pull cables!
I find it a nice unit, except for:
Randomly the RX580 fans spin up a little bit. Then, a few minutes later the OWC’s fans spin up… and stay spinning. Fast. Noisy.
The only ‘fix’ is to disconnect the Thunderbolt 3 cable until the next time it goes crazy. I’ve tried different display connections (DisplayPort, HDMI, DVI), base software and all sorts of other variations.
Questions:
1: Are other users on Mac minis with this eGPU/Graphics Card experiencing the same issue?
2: Any users with different eGPU/Graphics Cards experiencing this issue, or similar?
PS: Boot Screen –
I’m using a Display Emulator Plug plugged into the mini’s HDMI port.
When I start the mini I get neither boot nor login screens – just both displays with the Catalina image on them.
I ‘blindly’ hit the correct keyboard letter to select the required user account and type my password. In a few seconds the screens flash and I get normal desktops and menu bars. Not optimal, but at least I don’t have to pull cables!
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Asus Pro and Vega 56 here. Its been a while I needed the eGPU, I was using it for Bootcamp and Windows games but the Windows updates killed the start up one too many times and I was tired of trying to figure it out. So I VM Windows now when I need it.
Yesterday I downloaded Mac Shadow Tombraider, and its running very well on Catalina. Im getting 60 FPS on benchmarks and it runs smooth enough for me.
I hardly notice the eGPU fans which I have under my desk.
Yesterday I downloaded Mac Shadow Tombraider, and its running very well on Catalina. Im getting 60 FPS on benchmarks and it runs smooth enough for me.
I hardly notice the eGPU fans which I have under my desk.
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