2018 Mac Mini and Davinci Resolve Lagging w/ External GPU

[doobybiggs]

I am running Davinci Resolve on my 2018 Mini .. It lags pretty bad through the editing process and just playing the video in general in there.

The Mini stats while working in Davinci:

It is like neither the mini, nor my external GPU want to take over and fire up to run Davinci better. Also, with the lag for whatever reason it doesnt want to play the sound correctly either. Like it could go for about a full minute without hearing any sound .. not even laggy sound. Not sure if that is from the mini struggling or a davinci/mini issue ...

Now, I know the mini is not realistically designed for video editing, but I got the external GPU to help with this. I figured it could handle it if the GPU took most the load off the mini. It just does not seem to be sharing the load like one would expect.


Here is my current laptop I use as well, it doesnt lag as bad, but still annoying to work with ...

Thoughts? Outside building an actual PC or buying a MBP/Studio for editing? Did I expect too much from this setup and the external GPU is just for show and apple hasnt integrated it well enough to actually take advantage of it and make it worth it?

 

[carylee2002]

Is it normal that your setup is using both the internal gpu and your external gpu at the same time? Also how is your external gpu setup to your mini? You might have to use a different cord all together. More info will help.

 

[doobybiggs]

Is it normal that your setup is using both the internal gpu and your external gpu at the same time? Also how is your external gpu setup to your mini? You might have to use a different cord all together. More info will help.

No, I wouldnt think so. Although from all the reading and everything I did to get this setup going ... Apple doesnt fully support external GPU's so it is always tricky. So the coding might not be the best and every now and then both are going ??? I set most programs to 'use external GPU' in the app get info section.

External GPU is hooked up through a lightning cable ...

This is the external GPU:

Razer Core X Aluminum External GPU Enclosure (eGPU): Compatible with Windows & MacOS Thunderbolt 3 Laptops, NVIDIA/AMD PCIe Support, 650W PSU, Classic Black

The Razer Core x Thunderbolt 3 external desktop graphics enclosure enables full transformation of your compatible laptop into a desktop-class gaming or workstation setup. The Thunderbolt 3 design provides dedicated lanes for both graphics and I/O ensuring fluid gameplay. Connect to the future wit...

www.amazon.com

With this GPU:

XFX RX 5700 Xt Thicc III Ultra 8GB Boost Up to 2025MHz GDDR6 3xDP HDMI Graphics Card (Rx-57XT8TBD8)

Introducing the new XFX thicc III ultra 5700 XT. Built with style and dynamic cooling power in mind to yield lower temperatures and heightened performance that adapt to the intensity of the moment.

www.amazon.com

 

[The_Interloper]

Have you gone into DaVinci's preferences and changed GPU & Memory? Select Metal and uncheck "Auto" then check your Radeon.

 

[doobybiggs]

Have you gone into DaVinci's preferences and changed GPU & Memory? Select Metal and uncheck "Auto" then check your Radeon.

I did not have metal selected, but did have the other ... So I updated to metal and restarted. Seems a touch better ?? Stilly really laggy though and GPU still not working hard enough to need to turn its fans on

 

[The_Interloper]

I had an eGPU (only with an RX480) and found it pretty underwhelming. On the whole, I found performance way below the same card in a PC's PCIe slot.

 

[doobybiggs]

I had an eGPU (only with an RX480) and found it pretty underwhelming. On the whole, I found performance way below the same card in a PC's PCIe slot.

completely agree .. especially since its not fully supported by Apple. To me it just seems like a gimmick that works in some scenarios and fails miserably in other scenarios. Like this one haha. My card should be able to handle this a lot better, but the transfer to the card to handle the effort isnt working like it should as the GPU is chilling at 43* C and never gets stressed, which isnt right if it was actually performing these tasks it should.

pretty sure I will be selling this entire setup because it sucks

 

[carylee2002]

I was looking at my current 2014 macmini to my old HP LP2480zx dreamcolor monitor setup. I had to do a hack via this youtube setup but it works flawlessly. I did connect my monitor directly to my sonnet 750 box using a third party displayport cable vs the slower hdmi cable, and not to my Macmini. But my rig is using USB2-USB3 with adapter between my Mini and eGPU. It did work no problem when using Mojave OS...but since then I switched this rig out as a purely Windows 10 machine for gaming and twitch. Maybe this setup is best for windows based machine and apple OS is handicapping the capability, but it works great using Windows platform.