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eGPU brand advice/suggestions?

Stephen.R

Stephen.R

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Original poster
Nov 2, 2018
4,356
4,747
Thailand
So, after enduring with the iGPU for a couple of years, and reading some recent positive posts from users about much improved eGPU support in Big Sur, I think I'm going to pull the trigger. But I have one major question: are there any specifically good or specifically bad cards/brands I should look for/avoid? Theoretically I know that any of the various brands with the same AMD GPU on it should work roughly the same, but in reality nothing is ever so clear.

For context: I'm using a 2018 Mini, and 2x Dell 24" 4K displays. They'll connect via DisplayPort.

My entire reason for an eGPU is better "desktop" performance. I prefer the displays at slightly higher than the 'native' @2x resolution, so its more taxing. Disabling transparency helps a lot, but it isn't a complete fix, which an eGPU should be. I don't have any intentions to play games, but I guess my wife might decide she wants to play something on this machine. I definitely don't do any video work.


I'm somewhat restricted in realistic options for products (particularly when it comes to eGPU cases), based on what's available domestically without ridiculous markup. Until recently the Akitio Node (1st gen) and Node Pro were available, now it seems mostly just the Titan is available. I'm not opposed to some other brand, but given availability here, and so far good experience with other Akitio gear, I'd pretty much assumed I'm going to be getting one Akitio or another.

In terms of cards, my guesstimate is that a 5500XT will be more than enough for what I want - even if I wanted to e.g. add a third 4K display or something, and compared to e.g. a 5700XT they seem to be about 1/2 the price. Having said that, it's a business purchase and the money is there if there's some benefit. e.g. will the 5500 end up near thermal peak to drive multiple displays and spin its fans up more than a 5600 or 5700? Is driver support for 5700 (which Apple specifically mention in their eGPU docs) better than the 5500 or 5600?

Separate to all of that, from my regular IT supplier, I see (usable: i.e. more than 1x DisplayPort) 5500XT/5600XT/5700XT options from Sapphire, Gigabyte, MSI, AsRock, ASUS and Powercolor. I notice that Apple don't mention specific brands for the 5700* series on their specs, someone mentioned that they interpreted this to mean AMD reference cards, of which I have zero clue where to source here.

Any advice/recommendations are welcome, if it helps, this is an idea of what's available: https://www.invadeit.co.th/category/video-cards/rx-5700-xt/rx-5500-xt/rx-5600-xt/sort/price/asc/. Those prices are in Baht, so divide by about ~30.2 to get USD.
 
Hi.

I think I can speak based from my personal experience.

I bought a Razer Core X with a Sapphire Nitro+ RX580 initially. After some time I found that I got a huge amount of kernel panic with my MM2018. So I thought I can give a try to a Sapphire Pulse RX580 (it's in the Apple page for supported eGPU - note that the nitro+ it's not there). Same behavior: continuous kernel panic and reboot during restart.

So I changed the GPU with an Asus Rog-Strix-Vega56-O8G-Gaming: the worst case scenario I got from my eGPU experience: kernel panic, monitor glitch, green and magenta flickering all over my monitor.

Not happy (because I need an eGPU for FCP and I bought a MM to attach an eGPU to it) I bought an MSI Radeon RX Vega 56 Air Boost 8G (the one in my sign).

Finally: stable machine, no more kernel panic, work like a charm, I can boot from it, it doesn't have problem after wake up my mini (I always have it in sleep state when not in use)... Now I'm an happy eGPU owner. It has an high Metal and OpenCL score, the interface and use in FCP, LR,Photoshop and Blender is blazing fast. I love it.

So my advice is go for a Vega56 or Vega64 standard GPU (not a nitro, not an OC one).

Read also this (found it after some research, I think the problem is still here):

appleinsider.com

Apple's macOS Catalina causing problems with select eGPU setups | AppleInsider

Despite overall feature and performance improvements for external GPUs, the new macOS Catalina is now failing to work correctly with certain combinations of Mac and GPU card.
appleinsider.com appleinsider.com

I'm on Catalina 10.15.7 and I have no desire to switch to Big Sur as I finally found a very stable setup to work with.

Hope my month experience changing cable, eGPU enclosure and GPU will help you also with Big Sur.

Be sure to speak with people who has the same setup as you in case and also they work like you (macmini in sleep state, reboot only when upgrading or doing security upgrade etc). There are some people out there that use an RX580 but maybe they don't put mini to sleep etc etc
 
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I have a Razor Core X with a Sapphire Pulse RX580 to which I‘ve connected three displays. And while I did have the boot up issues that many have had, to which my solution can be found elsewhere on these forums, l no longer have those problems. It just works. I’m running the latest Catalina. I don’t think I’ve ever heard the fans with my mini (I did hear them when I had it the RX580 installed in my 2010 Mac Pro). Good luck whatever you decide.
 
A lot of people went with the Razer Core X and the Sapphire Vega cards, can't go wrong with that. There were issues with Catalina and later versions of Mojave, but since updating to Big Sur those issues were all gone for me.
 
I started with a Gigabyte RX580 in an OWC Helios FX550. Ran fine in Mojave. Early Catalina was a little tenuous. Wanted more power so I upgraded to Power Color RX5700 XT Red Devil. Running solid now with 10.15.7 with the latest supplemental update. No plans on upgrading to Big Sur anytime soon. Bugs seem to be gone. The GPU is really quiet and you can't beat OWC's customer service.
 
Meatsuit said:
Power Color RX5700 XT Red Devil
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Thanks for confirming. The specs page says it's dual bios, so you can run it in silent or perf optimised modes. I guess because you wanted "more power" you don't run the silent option? Any input on how much it affects it? Like I said I have zero interest in games or video editing, so a silent mode is probably a great option, and would probably justify the more expensive card, so long as silent mode doesn't hobble it to only 1 display or something stupid like that.
 
I'm awaiting a after-market Blackmagic eGPU RX580 in a few days and will briefly report back.

Before, I used a Akitio Node TB3 with RX580 for about a week. This setup did run fine on Mojave (eGPU directly connected to the monitor), except the annoying OS restart every time I disconnected the eGPU via menu. I sold the Akitio due to the ambient noise the case and card produce, which is a problem with all eGPU cases except the Blackmagic that is nearly silent. Could not bare that noise during work.
 
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Stephen.R said:
How much noise are we talking about?
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Hard to describe, I did not measure the noise. But it annoyed me, even though I'm sure not particular about ambient silence. It's OK in standby mode, but as soon as the GPU has work to do the PSU fan plus GPU fan rev up and will stay on constantly, which is very much audible ;) I.e., it sounds like you have a really old desktop server running close to you.
 
My BM 580 is pretty quiet even when gaming playing WOT and Civ 5/6. Driver support has been solid + it provides additional USB ports. I use them for my Logitech G series mouse and KB receivers.
 
QuietGamer said:
My BM 580 is pretty quiet even when gaming playing WOT and Civ 5/6. Driver support has been solid + it provides additional USB ports. I use them for my Logitech G series mouse and KB receivers.
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If the BlackMagic's were actually for sale here, I'd probably just get one, due to their 'most likely to just work' status.

But they aren't, so I can't.
 
I have a Asus Vega 56 and a Asus XG Station Pro. It’s pretty quiet. The Power Supply is not in the box but part of power cord. They have a newer model I seen. I have not had any major issues then the normal black screen reboot with file vault on. Bootcamp is another story. It scores 53000 compute and metal on GB5. It games well.

I figured out a while ago that I view my monitor set on USB-C from the MINI (or HDMI from Mini) but have the eGPU on. It uses the eGPU even though your monitor is set direct to the Mini. This solves the problem on black screen power ups.

Going forward I would rather have a 4 port M1 and no eGPU. But it still has some years of use so I will make do.
 
Apple has published a support document on eGPUs (you can search the Internet for it) and I read it very carefully multiple times.

I ended up with two explicitly recommended devices: a Sonnet eGPU Breakaway Box 550 and a Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 580 which perform consistently with my Mac mini 2018 (running Mojave).

As far as I can tell, both devices are sold out pretty much everywhere and I am hesitant to recommend them today.

Like IngerMan, I have years of usage left on my Mac mini, I will happily use this eGPU during that time.
 
Thanks to those who responded, I've placed an order with my regular supplier. I ended up ordering the Sapphire Pulse RX 5700 XT so that hopefully I can make use of it's silent mode, and obviously the Node Titan, because that's all that's available here.

I'm not yet on Big Sur, so I guess I'll get to see the difference between it and Catalina with an eGPU.
 
I hope that works for you. For the future, and anyone else reading, before you spend hundreds of dollars on an eGPU setup you may want to consider that eGPUs may be a dead-end. It looks like the Apple Silicon Macs won’t support them and they often have issues with Intel Macs as some people in this thread pointed out. I think it would be better to choose a Mac that has the graphics you want built-in, such as an iMac or Mac Pro. The new M1 mini may also provide adequate graphics capability for your uses.
 
MisterAndrew said:
I hope that works for you. For the future, and anyone else reading, before you spend hundreds of dollars on an eGPU setup you may want to consider that eGPUs may be a dead-end. It looks like the Apple Silicon Macs won’t support them and they often have issues with Intel Macs as some people in this thread pointed out. I think it would be better to choose a Mac that has the graphics you want built-in, such as an iMac or Mac Pro. The new M1 mini may also provide adequate graphics capability for your uses.
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I appreciate the input, but for reference, I've been 'considering' this purchase for at least the last 12 months.

But you do raise an interesting point, so let's break it down, at least from my perspective.

I use a 2018 i7 Mac mini, with 64GB of RAM, 512GB internal SSD, 2x 4K displays, and a boat load of external stuff attached - mostly external drives, currently there's about 28.5TB of *usable* space attached, from 38.5TB of *raw* disk/ssd space.

So straight off the bat, noM1 Mac is an an option for me. They've got 1/4 the memory I use right now, and half the the TB3 ports. The M1 Mac mini, is essentially a replacement for the i3 Mac mini, and nothing more.

Ok so what about buying an iMac Pro rather than an eGPU?

Well I just spent 37K THB on the eGPU setup (including a longer TB3 cable, and a HDMI cable for the old "direct input from the Mac mini" trick, in case I have issues). That's about $1225 USD.

An iMac Pro with base everything, but 64GB of memory would be 186.9K THB, or five times the price of the eGPU I just bought, for a computer that was released a year before the one I'm using. Yes, it would have more cores, and it comes with a screen, but if the argument against an eGPU is "it's a dead end", I don't think buying an older model computer than what I already have, for five times the price of the eGPU, is the answer there.

A 2019 Mac Pro is something I considered as an alternative approach. More cores would make building/running VMs faster (and it wouldn't hurt for running IDEA), it's got options for internal PCIe SSDs, better GPU options etc etc. Yeah great. Ok. But what's the cost?
Well a base Mac Pro, with zero upgrades, is 189.9K THB. So also, five times the price of the eGPU, and still with less memory than I have now. If this exercise is about avoiding "dead ends", I'd want to buy a configuration that will last me for a while. So that means at least the 12 core and ideally the 16 core CPU. 96GB of memory. The W5700 (because I want the extra TB3 ports). 1TB boot SSD. So now we're looking at 329.9K THB.. nearly nine times the price I paid for the eGPU. And still an Intel model, and only a year newer than what I have.

Would the Mac Pro be more productive than the Mac mini with eGPU? Undoubtedly. Would the Mac Pro be useful for longer than the Mac mini with eGPU? Almost certainly, due to it's upgradability. Do I (or, my business really) have the money to buy the Mac Pro as specced? Yes.

So why not take the Mac Pro approach? Because there are a lot of unknowns about what is coming down the pipeline from Apple, and how that hardware will enable various software. The eGPU will last at least as long as the Mac mini it's going to be used with, which I'd expect will be usable in some way (e.g. after it's replaced as a daily machine, it'll work fine as a media server, CCTV DVR, etc), so we can consider that a 37K investment in the mini, until it's dead/unusable.

The alternative is to spend 9 times that much, on a machine that has an unknown future, in terms of software support. Yes, I'm sure a 2019 Mac Pro bought today will work just fine in 2030, but what level of software support will it have? Will it be usable as a pro workstation for developing software, or just "usable" as a much bigger media server, CCTV DVR, etc.

Believe me, I have chewed the fat on this topic for a long time. I started chewing said fat, when the 2019 Mac Pro wasn't even available. I literally had a conversation with a friend about whether I should return the mini, and by a 2013 Mac Pro instead. I didn't obviously, but please, don't think that just because someone makes a decision you wouldn't, that they haven't thought it through, at length.
 
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Stephen.R said:
Would the Mac Pro be more productive than the Mac mini with eGPU? Undoubtedly. Would the Mac Pro be useful for longer than the Mac mini with eGPU? Almost certainly, due to it's upgradability. Do I (or, my business really) have the money to buy the Mac Pro as specced? Yes.

So why not take the Mac Pro approach? Because there are a lot of unknowns about what is coming down the pipeline from Apple, and how that hardware will enable various software. The eGPU will last at least as long as the Mac mini it's going to be used with, which I'd expect will be usable in some way (e.g. after it's replaced as a daily machine, it'll work fine as a media server, CCTV DVR, etc), so we can consider that a 37K investment in the mini, until it's dead/unusable.
Click to expand...

Same to me. I bought a mini with eGPU waiting the future...
 
Stephen.R said:
I literally had a conversation with a friend about whether I should return the mini, and by a 2013 Mac Pro instead. I didn't obviously, but please, don't think that just because someone makes a decision you wouldn't, that they haven't thought it through, at length.
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I didn’t assume you didn’t think it through, but you created this thread asking for input. You seem upset that you’re receiving input now that you’ve made a decision. I wasn’t suggesting that you go back on your decision. I offered input for the future and for others reading who are also wondering if an eGPU is right for them.

I also weighed out the options for replacing my 2010 Mac Pro. I considered a 2018 mini with eGPU and a 2019 Mac Pro. I ruled out the mini because I don’t like the idea of soldered storage, the built-in graphics are too weak, and an eGPU didn’t seem like the best solution. I was close to purchasing a new Mac Pro when I began thinking about the 2013 model. It’s older, but it’s still supported since Apple sold them into December last year. I thought would it be enough for me?

I decided the capability is enough for me and I like how the RAM and storage are easily upgraded by just lifting the cover off. It looks like the mini needs much more involved surgery to replace RAM modules. The RAM also costs less since you can find it used, and it’s high-end ECC server memory. I was able to find two 2013s brand new for less than one 2019. One of them is a 2017 model, so pretty new still. The graphics work well for my uses.
 
Sounds like you've made your decision but FWIW I run a 2018 Mac mini w/a Razer Core X Chroma and AMD Radeon VII, and kernel panics have run rampant for me from Catalina all the way into Big Sur. It is bad, real bad, but I grin and bear it because the Radeon VII goes a long way in helping render times in FCPX and Motion, among other things.
 
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MisterAndrew said:
You seem upset that you’re receiving input now that you’ve made a decision.
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No not at all, sorry if my response came off as upset, I just wanted to explain that there was a lot of thought put into this - a lot more probably than is warranted for the eventual cost.

This thread wasn't so much about "is an eGPU right for me?" - it was purely about trying to maximise chance for success/minimise risks as much as that's possible, with the given choices in the local market, that's all. It was about "Should I buy a Toyota or a Nissan", rather than e.g. "Is public transport a better option for me?"

Thanks for your input though. It's a valid point, and if I were making the Mini purchase today, with what I know today, absolutely I'd more likely just get the Mac Pro.
 
Well it arrived, I assembled it, I spent another hour re-arranging (mostly power) cables to various devices, and now it's all plugged in.

I did notice almost immediately the little bios switch - which answered my #1 question: how do you switch between bioses (that can't be the correct plural for bios); I have no idea what setting it's on now. I'll fiddle with that later and see how I get on.

First impressions: holy ****, I guess I've gotten used to the size of the Mac mini (which I often describe as "ham sandwich" sized).... this thing is huge, and that's before it's in the damn case. God damn. If the mini is ham sandwich sized, the case is roast-turkey size. In keeping with this theory, the card is roughly roast duck size, so I guess I'm 66.6% of the way to a technological turducken.

Anyway. I turned it all back on, everything worked pretty much as normal.. I'm still on Catalina so of course, no boot screen, but I ordered a HDMI cable specifically for that purpose, and plugged one display directly into the mini's HDMI port. Got some weird green artefacts after login while on HDMI, but that's really only a fallback anyway. I'm slightly disappointed that the Dell keeps the HDMI port active even when it's set to another input, so the mini sees it as connected, and thus thinks there are 3 screens attached. It's not hard to disconnect it at the back of the mini where it is for now (on the desk), but it'd be a pain if the mini were not on the desk. I've disabled FileVault for now, I guess once I upgrade to Big Sur the HDMI cable may not be required at all, otherwise I'll find a little HDMI switch or something.
 
One more followup: I bought a little HDMI input switcher, and it works a treat. So I don't need to keep unplugging the HDMI cord to get rid of the ghost 3rd display. The thing is tiny, just a little bigger than two HDMI port's to a side, and square.
 
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