Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
External GPU (eGPU) Resources
- Thread starter F-Train
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
As of yesterday, pricing in North America for RX 580 cards was mostly above the April, 2017 launch price, in many cases by a significant amount.
The pricing has been coming down over the last week, in my view as a reaction to the release of the RX 590, and hopefully that trend will continue. Personally, I do not believe that the RX 580 pricing that we saw as recently as yesterday, despite claims of big discounts (these discounts are from prices that were much higher than launch price), is sustainable.
Of course, this assumes that we do not start seeing the RX 590 selling above launch price. The Sapphire Nitro+ RX 590 that I purchased through Amazon U.S. yesterday was sold out in about three hours, although the site says that it will be back in stock on Sunday.
Last edited:
Yes, I did not like the RX 580 prices I was usually seeing lately. RX 570 seemed like the way to go, which were on an opposite trend.
Interesting. At 00:11, the video says specifically that Asus's XG Station Pro will support a Vega 64 GPU.
As I said, I'm awaiting clarification on this from Asus Support.
Last edited:
Let me know please, it would be perfect for the vega 56 pulse as they both shut down the cooling below 50c
The Asus Pro only delivers up to 300W to the GPU, and apparently some Vega 64 cards have peak power draws that exceed that. https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/Radeon_RX_Vega_64/29.html
It does seem odd that Asus hasn't listed the Vega 56 as compatible, unless they later down rated official support to the RTX 2080 (and not 2080 Ti) to maintain a healthy power margin.
It does seem odd that Asus hasn't listed the Vega 56 as compatible, unless they later down rated official support to the RTX 2080 (and not 2080 Ti) to maintain a healthy power margin.
Y'all, the reference Vega 64 board is a 295W TDP design. Out in the real world boards are reaching up to around 330W sustained at clocks slightly below the in-spec maximum. An overclocked Vega 64 is going to run way above that.
If you put that in a chassis with only 300W of continuous power and run it hard it *will* eventually crash. However, if you're willing to tinker you can run the Vega 64 with a lower profile (basically, reduce the maximum boost clock) and then it will work.
The reference Vega 56 board is a 210W TDP design. Out in the real world boards are reaching about 230W-260W depending on whether you use the lower power BIOS or not. However, if you overclock the Vega 56 it can push into 310W.
Thus, a Vega 56 that runs within official specifications will work just fine with a 300W dedicated power supply.
ASUS is supposedly working on an adapter that will let you connect two power bricks to the XG Station Pro, but I've not seen any development on that front in several months.
This is all minutia that basic ASUS marketing & support is unlikely to share because they (understandably) don't want the inevitable can of worms.
TL;DR: don't stick a Vega 64 in the Asus XG Station Pro without researching that specific board's ACTUAL power usage (not system power) or being prepared to tinker. Don't stick a highly overclocked Vega 56 in there either. Stick with reference designs and you should be fine.
If you put that in a chassis with only 300W of continuous power and run it hard it *will* eventually crash. However, if you're willing to tinker you can run the Vega 64 with a lower profile (basically, reduce the maximum boost clock) and then it will work.
The reference Vega 56 board is a 210W TDP design. Out in the real world boards are reaching about 230W-260W depending on whether you use the lower power BIOS or not. However, if you overclock the Vega 56 it can push into 310W.
Thus, a Vega 56 that runs within official specifications will work just fine with a 300W dedicated power supply.
ASUS is supposedly working on an adapter that will let you connect two power bricks to the XG Station Pro, but I've not seen any development on that front in several months.
This is all minutia that basic ASUS marketing & support is unlikely to share because they (understandably) don't want the inevitable can of worms.
TL;DR: don't stick a Vega 64 in the Asus XG Station Pro without researching that specific board's ACTUAL power usage (not system power) or being prepared to tinker. Don't stick a highly overclocked Vega 56 in there either. Stick with reference designs and you should be fine.
I don't blame you. They are obnoxious. I'm considering getting a two fan RX590 and putting resistors on the fans so they remain quiet. I'll let the much larger 2x120mm enclosure fans deal with the heat, replacing them with Noctuas if needed. If that's not quiet enough I'll pull the fans off the card and put a larger heatsink on it.
When gaming it's not a big deal, but when I boot back into OSX to do A/V work I won't tolerate any elevation of the noise floor.
Update: See post #186.
Asus Support has now told me twice, in writing, that the XG Station Pro can be used with Vega 56 and 64 GPUs with Windows computers. This is also what their web site, and the video posted by @DesertSurfer (post #79), say.
I am now trying to get an answer with respect to Mac computers. Based on my exchange with Asus Support, it appears that not everyone at Asus is aware of the fact that Apple now supports the Vega cards. The timing of publication of the XG Station Pro web page may explain the absence of a reference to Vega cards with respect to Mac computers, but the inclusion of Vega cards with respect to Windows computers.
I have politely suggested to the Asus people that I am dealing with that they refer the issue to someone who has specific expertise with the XG Station Pro, in part due to the distinctions between various Vega 56 and Vega 64 cards. Asus Support has given me a telephone number that I may use in the end if an oral discussion seems advisable.
For me personally, this is academic as I have now purchased an RX 590 card, and I am not inclined to worry about what might be available a year from now.
Last edited:
You can get an RX 570 + two 2019 games for $140. That means you're paying $20 for the card.
I'm now set. On Sunday or Monday, I'll visit B&H and pick up either Asus's XG Station Pro or Sonnet's eGFX Breakaway Box. The choice will depend on whether @rmdeluca speaks well of the Asus, which as I understand it he hopes to receive tomorrow. Sapphire Technology's Nitro+ RX 590 GPU arrives Tuesday.
The big question is whether I can get the RX 590 to run on the current Mojave beta. If it's too soon, I have a Windows computer that can fill in for the time being.
Not being a gamer, I guess that I should identify one to try my hand at it, preferably one that will work well on a standard 27", 2560x1440, 60Hz monitor. Time to do a little Google searching on games
The big question is whether I can get the RX 590 to run on the current Mojave beta. If it's too soon, I have a Windows computer that can fill in for the time being.
Not being a gamer, I guess that I should identify one to try my hand at it, preferably one that will work well on a standard 27", 2560x1440, 60Hz monitor. Time to do a little Google searching on games
Last edited:
Not being a gamer, I guess that I should identify one to try my hand at it, preferably one that will work well on a standard 27", 2560x1440, 60Hz monitor. Time to do a little Google searching on games
Without knowing your interests, may I suggest Kerbal Space Program? It runs natively on OSX.
https://www.kerbalspaceprogram.com/en/
Thanks, I'll try it. I'm working on a pilot's license and it has just occurred to me that X-Plane might be a good bet. Apparently some people think that AMD's GPUs are sub-optimal for X-Plane, but it's worth a try.
Have a good weekend.
X-plane 11 will be a great test. I started using it on my 2011 MacBook Pro. With low enough settings, it was playable with HD 3000 graphics (but that was X-plane 10). HD 630 would be a little better, but X-plane can use as much GPU as you can get. I'll be interested to read about your experience.
For anyone in the UK, you can get a Vega 56 from Overlclockers.co.uk for £300 now (includes 3 games) and then pick up a Razer X eGPU case for around £270. The Razer X has a 650W PSU, so should be good for future graphics cards. Looking around the eGPU manufacturers, both Sonnet and Apple are saying that for anything more than a RX580, you need a 500W PSU. So personally I wouldn't want to risk getting one of the 300W cases and find the card starts throttling/crashing because of not enough power.
Referring to the Core X everyone is talking about. Though I read a review on their first model and there was no mention of being hardware limited.
Core X. The review doesn't say they restricted it, only that they could like HP did. Any company could if they so wished. It did mention issues with the drivers. Not that there weren't any, just that they were buggy. I assume it's been worked out by now based upon the review I linked below. They weren't trying to restrict anything.
Here's the Core v2 on a variety of laptops:
https://egpu.io/razer-core-v2-review-think-inside-box/
And the Core X on a couple more:
https://egpu.io/razer-core-x-review-thick-juicy/
Last edited:
I asked if the new case had problems sometimes like the original one.
Based on this, I would not buy any eGPU case that has any other ports besides two Thunderbolt.