eGPU Question

[techwarrior]

Helping a relative with a purchase decision. I am unfamiliar with high end graphics, I get the gist but don't really know where to start researching the best setup. Hoping someone here has some experience.

She is an award winning photographer\instructor and uses Photoshop and other Adobe products. Currently she is using a 2012 or so MBP and an iMac from the same period, stock, no extra goodies. It is severely underpowered but she gets by.

She is looking to upgrade to a newer Mac setup and needs portability for when she teaches.

The setup I envision is a MBP with a 24" or 27" 4K or 5K monitor. Can she get by with this setup and no iMac? I assume for storage, she will want a Thunderbolt 3 drive\dock with SSD and\or RAID to load large projects faster.

From what I gather, internal graphics upgrades on the MBP offer some pretty good options, but would eGPU help with this type of work?

 

[leman]

Not a photographer here, but looking at the benchmarks I'd say that GPU acceleration is rather situational for photo editing with Photoshop (source: https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Photoshop-CC-2018-NVIDIA-GeForce-GPU-Performance-1139/).

From technical perspective, the issue is that the work item sizes are relatively tiny (for GPU standards), so unless you have an operation that can be properly offloaded to the GPU, you won't get much benefit. In the tests I linked above one such operation is image resizing. And still, looking at the scores, you can notice how GPU scaling is almost non-existent. Video editing would be different, since there you often want operations applied to multiple frames at the same time, which dramatically increases the work item size and allows the GPU to flex its muscle.

Based on all this, no, I don't think that eGPU will make much sense for your relative. A 15" MBP with Vega Pro 20 should be more than fast enough for her editing work. And since Photoshop is such a wasteful RAM hog, maybe getting 32GB of RAM would make more sense...
[doublepost=1547034975][/doublepost]P.S. And anyway, if she works with Photoshop, why not get a Windows workstation instead? In Mac world, there is software much better optimised for Apple's OS that are better at GPU utilisation than Adobe, such as Pixelmator Pro, but I have no idea if they have already caught up to Photoshop in terms of features.

 

[techwarrior]

if she works with Photoshop, why not get a Windows workstation instead?

She is Apple to the core. Our family has been shareholders for 30+ years and step dad even had a few direct interactions with Steve Jobs in his day. The idea of using Windows to her would be blasphemy.

That said, thanks for the thoughts, kind of confirms my thinking. From what I understand, even upgraded internal graphics options on MBP will use the Intel graphics for day to day stuff, and only kick in the Pro graphics if the app demands the additional GPU. Likely same with eGPU, so maybe internal GPU with upgrades might make the most sense, certainly will make it a more portable solution. Given she is coming from 2012 era iMac and MBP, this should be a far better solution than she has now.

 

[CreeptoLoser]

A desktop GPU is really essential for that work. Images will pan and zoom so much quicker and there won't be any throttling to worry about. AMD is releasing the Vega VII in 3 weeks and the price and performance looks amazing. No doubt Apple will include drivers in an update.

 

[techwarrior]

A desktop GPU is really essential for that work.

You mean an eGPU unit? How well do the internal upgraded GPUs available on MBP work for this kind of work?

From what little I have been able to learn, Blackmagic is more of a video and gaming solution? And Razer Core X is a blank slate in which you can drop in whatever card suits the need? So, for top performance she might look at Razer + Vega VII?

 

[CreeptoLoser]

You mean an eGPU unit? How well do the internal upgraded GPUs available on MBP work for this kind of work?

From what little I have been able to learn, Blackmagic is more of a video and gaming solution? And Razer Core X is a blank slate in which you can drop in whatever card suits the need? So, for top performance she might look at Razer + Vega VII?

Depends on how big and complex the files are. If they are complex then laptop will get hot and the internal GPU will throttle. Creative Suite 2019 has been a very big GPU hog. 2017 is better for now.

At this very moment the Razer Core X is the best basic eGPU chassis. There are better options trickling out every month. I'm waiting for one that isn't too big, has manually upgradeable PSU and some USB ports. I'm hoping in 2-3 months to make the decision. I'm really happy that AMD release their new GPU at a great price. It means for $899 you can can everything you need to turn the MBP into a serious beast.

 

[DeepIn2U]

@techwarrior any update on the solution you and relative came up with?

 

[techwarrior]

@techwarrior any update on the solution you and relative came up with?

She got a bit worried about all the peripherals, so she decided to go with a 27" iMac.

She loves it, and it is working really well for her. Next up, a carrying case for the iMac for when she teaches, it will be a bit bulky but for 2-3 times a year, she thinks it will be doable.

Bottom line, larger screen (27" vs 15"), storage (stock PCIe SSD vs HDD), memory (16GB vs 8), and higher end GPU makes her workflow so much better that is was. Next up, memory upgrade to 32GB (maybe), and fast external storage to upgrade from her USB2 devices. But, she is thrilled in the meantime.

 

[duervo]

She got a bit worried about all the peripherals, so she decided to go with a 27" iMac.

She loves it, and it is working really well for her. Next up, a carrying case for the iMac for when she teaches, it will be a bit bulky but for 2-3 times a year, she thinks it will be doable.

Bottom line, larger screen (27" vs 15"), storage (stock PCIe SSD vs HDD), memory (16GB vs 8), and higher end GPU makes her workflow so much better that is was. Next up, memory upgrade to 32GB (maybe), and fast external storage to upgrade from her USB2 devices. But, she is thrilled in the meantime.

This might fit it ... would have to double check iMac dimensions though.

https://www.hardcases.ca/products/nanuk-945

 

[Rockadile]

She got a bit worried about all the peripherals, so she decided to go with a 27" iMac.

She loves it, and it is working really well for her. Next up, a carrying case for the iMac for when she teaches, it will be a bit bulky but for 2-3 times a year, she thinks it will be doable.

Bottom line, larger screen (27" vs 15"), storage (stock PCIe SSD vs HDD), memory (16GB vs 8), and higher end GPU makes her workflow so much better that is was. Next up, memory upgrade to 32GB (maybe), and fast external storage to upgrade from her USB2 devices. But, she is thrilled in the meantime.

I'm sure she's aware of Pelican cases, a photo/video industry standard. That's what I would use to transport the iMac.

 

[DeepIn2U]

She got a bit worried about all the peripherals, so she decided to go with a 27" iMac.

She loves it, and it is working really well for her. Next up, a carrying case for the iMac for when she teaches, it will be a bit bulky but for 2-3 times a year, she thinks it will be doable.

Bottom line, larger screen (27" vs 15"), storage (stock PCIe SSD vs HDD), memory (16GB vs 8), and higher end GPU makes her workflow so much better that is was. Next up, memory upgrade to 32GB (maybe), and fast external storage to upgrade from her USB2 devices. But, she is thrilled in the meantime.

by the tired/sad eyes in your current avatar ... I have a feeling you may end up doing the carrying of the iMac over the long wrong.

PS: You've got a determined and strong lady there ... I grant her big props for not succumbing to the excuse "it's too heavy" !!!

 

[techwarrior]

I have a feeling you may end up doing the carrying of the iMac over the long wrong.

Nope, she is 1500 miles away, she is on her own. But she is a mighty willed lady., I have no doubt she will pull it off. She has overcome 2 bouts with cancer, so if that can't keep her down, carrying a little 27" iMac doesn't stand a chance!

 

[ilikewhey]

i can't imagine vega 20 in the mbp can't handle photoshop, for a desktop the imac is pretty underpowered,

 

[Honumaui]

the new macbook will spank her current iMac with no worries so yes if that is what she is on she will be fine with a macbook ? that said a GPU can and will help sometimes and that depends on what filters and what she is doing in PS ? and as far as LR they are finally doing GPU support that said no idea how much its helping yet as I mostly work with C1 which does take huge advantage of the GPU BUT again that is dependant on workflow

all of the above really is what MP camera ? how many photos a wedding photographer has dif needs then say some nature fine art type who just ends up sorting//culling to a few ?

how much PS ? some large commercial jobs a single image can be HUGE while most find their photoshop file to be quite reasonable again something a laptop could do easily

I agree 32 gigs memory is a must these days for PS and photographers and the GPU is not as needed and can be added on later the monitor IMHO a benQSW2700 is the best bang for the buck you can get very color accurate etc. then NEC then Eizo CG series and the later are not really more accurate just nicer build and nicer features but you pay 2x to 4x more for them ?

for PS and LR even a good $200 radeon $580 in a eGPU case will be a huge help and give you %90 of the speed gains over say a $500 GPU
I say that comparing that radeon 580 in my wifes mac to my workstation that has a nvidia 1080

UNLESS she NEEDS the laptop the new top end mac mini with 32 gigs mem (put in yourself save $) and getting a external 2TB ssd for working files use the internal for boot(get the 512 GB internal) and then also some other spinning externals (new storage depending on what she has going already) and a eGPU and a nice monitor (benQSW2700) is a bit less than the laptop and will maybe be a better overall system for a photographer working from home ?