I'm not interested in any ports at all(beyond the obvious ones needed to function). Just the video card.
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External GPU (eGPU) Resources
- Thread starter F-Train
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Then don't buy any case that has anything besides Thunderbolt to insure against problems.
There appears to be something of a consensus in the aviation community that flight simulation games like X-Plane do help learning. I played with it for a bit on an iPad Pro and was skeptical. I guess I'm going to give it another go. The problem, I suspect, is that if one is going to do this, a mouse probably doesn't quite cut it, which means an investment in appropriate controls, probably ones emulating the basic controls in a plane, which means bringing out the credit card and the beginning of a slippery slope.
For me right now, purchasing an external GPU and an enclosure might be enough of a slippery slope
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It's pretty realistic. I have a private pilot's license, but haven't flown for decades. X-plane is pretty close to the real thing, and there is a lot you can learn from it. I suggest getting an inexpensive flight stick (Logitach makes a good one for about $50.There appears to be something of a consensus in the aviation community the flight simulation games like X-Plane do help learning. I played with it for a bit on an iPad Pro and was skeptical. I guess I'm going to give it another go. The problem, I suspect, is that if one is going to do this, a mouse doesn't quite cut it, which means an investment in an appropriate controller, which means the beginning of a slippery slope
Update: See post 186.
Update on post #86...
An Asus Support supervisor has taken over my query about using the XG Station Pro with a Mac computer and Vega 56/64 GPUs.
He says that he will be consulting with the "engineering team".
I think that there's a good chance that the XG Station Pro web page predates Apple support for the Vega GPUs and has not been updated, but that is speculation on my part.
With luck, Asus will clarify the situation soon.
Update on post #86...
An Asus Support supervisor has taken over my query about using the XG Station Pro with a Mac computer and Vega 56/64 GPUs.
He says that he will be consulting with the "engineering team".
I think that there's a good chance that the XG Station Pro web page predates Apple support for the Vega GPUs and has not been updated, but that is speculation on my part.
With luck, Asus will clarify the situation soon.
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Ok, wow. This is almost certainly the future of computing for many of us.
I've installed an NVIDIA GTX 1080 inside an Asus XG Station Pro and performed some game benchmarks in Windows using Boot Camp.
My Mini is a 2018 i7 w/ 16GB of RAM and 512GB internal SSD, however I'm running the games off of a 1TB Samsung T5. I am using a PreSonus Quantum as my audio interface.
I had to install Windows 10 version 1803. Version 1809 (October 2018) would not install using the Boot Camp assistant. Once installed, I updated it to version 1809 because 1803 had some weird bug that was causing the Windows Audio service to use 50% CPU even when idle.
After Windows was setup, I plugged in the GPU and let Windows setup the drivers automatically. After rebooting, no picture on my USB-C->DP connection from the Mini. No picture when I connected the GPU via Display Port. I did a hard reboot and then the picture came right up on the GPU.
The eGPU enclosure is well engineered and nearly silent when at the desktop or putzing around on the web. When gaming, the whole setup is quieter than my gaming PC with this same card (and it has a blower). This is quite tolerable. Now we just need NVIDIA to get Mojave drivers out so I can use this setup in OSX!
Preliminary gaming benchmarks
All benchmarks are done @ 3440x1440 with graphics settings maxed out. The GTX1080 is not what I would consider a 3440x1440 class card, so these numbers are pretty impressive considering they are from an eGPU!
Doom (2016) - lowest I've seen so far is about 57FPS. It's regularly in the 70s-80s.
![20181117162655_1.jpg]( "20181117162655_1.jpg")
Rise of the Tomb Raider - 49.56FPS overall score in the built-in benchmark.
![20181117163147_1.jpg]( "20181117163147_1.jpg")
I've installed an NVIDIA GTX 1080 inside an Asus XG Station Pro and performed some game benchmarks in Windows using Boot Camp.
My Mini is a 2018 i7 w/ 16GB of RAM and 512GB internal SSD, however I'm running the games off of a 1TB Samsung T5. I am using a PreSonus Quantum as my audio interface.
I had to install Windows 10 version 1803. Version 1809 (October 2018) would not install using the Boot Camp assistant. Once installed, I updated it to version 1809 because 1803 had some weird bug that was causing the Windows Audio service to use 50% CPU even when idle.
After Windows was setup, I plugged in the GPU and let Windows setup the drivers automatically. After rebooting, no picture on my USB-C->DP connection from the Mini. No picture when I connected the GPU via Display Port. I did a hard reboot and then the picture came right up on the GPU.
The eGPU enclosure is well engineered and nearly silent when at the desktop or putzing around on the web. When gaming, the whole setup is quieter than my gaming PC with this same card (and it has a blower). This is quite tolerable. Now we just need NVIDIA to get Mojave drivers out so I can use this setup in OSX!
Preliminary gaming benchmarks
All benchmarks are done @ 3440x1440 with graphics settings maxed out. The GTX1080 is not what I would consider a 3440x1440 class card, so these numbers are pretty impressive considering they are from an eGPU!
Doom (2016) - lowest I've seen so far is about 57FPS. It's regularly in the 70s-80s.
Rise of the Tomb Raider - 49.56FPS overall score in the built-in benchmark.
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I confess to not knowing if any of these are good deals but NewEgg has several of the RX 580s (and others) discounted today only, so thought I'd post in case anyone is interested. I learned a lot from this thread but am not in the market to buy an eGPU until proven I'm sure that I need one for my Mac Mini 2018.
https://www.newegg.com/Black-Friday-Deals-Today/EventSaleStore/ID-1164?N=100006662
https://www.newegg.com/Black-Friday-Deals-Today/EventSaleStore/ID-1164?N=100006662
Very interesting.
The April 2017 MSRP/launch price for the RX 580 8GB was US$230. Those Newegg sale prices are $220, $210 and $200.
With the RX 590 launching at $280, I would be inclined to regard those Newegg prices as the emerging normal pricing, with a little testing going on, rather than as sale pricing.
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I know very little about eGPU options in Mojave. Is the lack of NVIDIA drivers the only thing standing in the way of using their PC cards in an eGPU enclosure with Mojave? Would we not still have to hack the system in some other way?
No but even if it was also consider possible future implications when official support is lacking. you can get a Vega for 330 or a cheap 590/580 until Navi is out.
This is a long thread and I’m not sure if this has been mentioned before but I’m considering an eGPU and Mac mini for video editing as I feel it’s more versatile than dropping 5k on a iMac Pro. However what’s the penalty for using eGPU over thunderbolt 3? I use fcpx currently on 5k 2017 iMac and I’m looking at the Razer Core X eGPU enclosure
I've just had a read up. There's no penalty using an eGPU over TB3 - from what I can see you'd struggle to saturate that bandwidth at any point in the near future. The main issue I'm seeing is the relatively poor performance of AMD cards vs NVIDIA*. I can't speak for FCPX as I can't find comparative benchmarks.
*this might change as I find more data.
Not entirely true, for instance the 580/590 is slightly faster than nvidia 1060 but it cost less, same for Vega 56 to be fair, yeah a 1070 is faster but it cost more.
The only issue with AMD is the high consumption and the fact that they don't have high end solution.
Another issue (when we talk beyond just FCPX use) is that the big non-biased 3D GPU renderers like Octane and Redshift don't support AMD cards.
Also, the benchmarks I'm seeing when testing in After Effects CC using the C4D renderer have NVIDIA blowing the AMD cards away - although to be fair, I'm not really sure that many people use the c4D renderer - I think it's a bit of moot point.
As someone who uses both AE and C4D I'm definitely waiting for the NVIDIA drivers and going for their GPU's over AMD for now.
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Apple supports AMD cards in its operating system. It does not support Nvidia cards and there is no reason to believe that that it is going to change in the near future. This has to do with an unresolved issue between Apple and Nvidia. There is speculation on the internet about what that issue is. The speculation doesn’t change the fact that to use an external GPU with Mojave it is necessary to use specific AMD cards.
Whingeing about this on a forum, and debating the relative merits of AMD and Nvidia GPUs, isn’t going to change the situation.
Whingeing about this on a forum, and debating the relative merits of AMD and Nvidia GPUs, isn’t going to change the situation.
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Whingeing? I only whinge when I get something caught under my nutsack.
One could take a moment though and sign this petition
https://www.change.org/p/tim-cook-a...Y9OoeOP2KMaYGSGOrnWPiibBl1WIaYWiO68HeKDH7BqjA
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I now have an Asus XG Station Pro housing in hand, and the AMD Radeon RX 590 GPU is apparently going to arrive a day early:
![Screen Shot 2018-11-19 at 9.40.56 AM.png]( "Screen Shot 2018-11-19 at 9.40.56 AM.png")
The question is whether Mojave is ready for AMD's new GPU
The question is whether Mojave is ready for AMD's new GPU
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The question is whether Mojave is ready for AMD's new GPU
If it doesn't work, the folks over at
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...u-macos-support.2083168/page-41#post-26821349
should be able to help IF you can get one of the real driver hackers to notice.
At most (probably), Apple's driver will need to be patched with the device ID of the RX 590 so that it is recognized as an RX 580 (for now).
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Am I correct that an eGPU can be used to accelerate an MBPro internal display?
If yes: Is it possible to use an external eGPU (not the Black Magic) to accelerate a 5K LG display connected directly via TB3 to the mini?
If yes: Is it possible to use an external eGPU (not the Black Magic) to accelerate a 5K LG display connected directly via TB3 to the mini?
Yes, but there's going to be a performance hit because the completed frames have to be copied back over the TB3 interface into the internal dGPU's frame buffer.
If you're talking about a true TB3 monitor, you might need to look at specific eGPUs like the Blackmagic ones that have two TB3 ports and appear to support TB monitors in their literature. However, don't quote me that these will work!
There is also a way to jerry rig a normal eGPU enclosure so that it can drive a TB3 monitor but you'll need an external part. I have no experience with doing this so I can't vouch for it.
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I know very little about eGPU however I have watched quite a few reviews and they all say there is a penalty, 15-20%. I don't fully understand how it transfers data but appears to get worse the longer the cable between the two devices gets.
This is why I am waiting until I can get more comfortable around the actual difference it will make before jumping in. Waiting to see the feedback From @F-Train as that looks like a pretty nice solution.
Yeah it depends on how the GPU is being utilized. For gaming, the trend will usually be you'll see more relative slowdown as you transition from GPU limited to CPU limited frame rates. In other words, as resolutions and qualities go down and frame rates increase.
If you want to get the equivalent of a GPU's native performance (i.e. if it were seated in an x16 PCIe 3.0 slot in an otherwise equivalent spec PC), the rule of thumb is you need to go up one "class" of GPU. For example, my GTX 1080 as an eGPU is doing almost exactly what a GTX 1070 in a desktop can do at 3440x1440 in Rise of the Tomb Raider with Ultra settings (49.56 vs 49.7FPS).
So, if you want:
Native GTX 1080Ti performance from an eGPU, use an RTX 2080Ti. This is your best shot for 4K@60FPS ultra settings in modern games.
Native GTX 1080 performance from an eGPU, use an RTX 2080 or GTX 1080Ti. This should be good for WQHD (3440x1440) @ 60+FPS ultra settings in modern games. Slightly overkill for 2560x1080 or even QHD (2560x1440).
Native GTX 1070 performance from an eGPU, use a GTX 1080, RTX 2070 or Vega 64. This should be good for 1080p @ 60+FPS ultra settings in modern games.
Native GTX 1060 performance from an eGPU, use a GTX 1070 or Vega 56. This should be fine for 1080p at high settings.
A Radeon RX 590 will be fine for gaming at medium settings @ 1080p.
These are of course just guidelines. Performance in individual titles and vs. different models of GPU cards will vary.
These guidelines do not apply if you're using the eGPU for something else like OpenCL/CUDA.
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