eGPU question

[jayducharme]

Your Geekbench test caught my eye. My CPU scores are nearly identical. But my Open CL is about 36000, way behind yours even though I supposedly have a more powerful eGPU (the Radeon RX 5700 XT). Maybe the Sonnet with an older card was the way to go after all....

 

[IngerMan]

Seems that card is all over the map for scores. Not sure why?

Mac mini - Geekbench 5 Compute Search - Geekbench

browser.geekbench.com

 

[doobybiggs]

will get my setup done hopefully Thursday night/ Friday and will submit mine to compare as well

 

[frou]

Your Geekbench test caught my eye. My CPU scores are nearly identical. But my Open CL is about 36000, way behind yours even though I supposedly have a more powerful eGPU (the Radeon RX 5700 XT). Maybe the Sonnet with an older card was the way to go after all....

Vega always was a Compute monster. It was just underwhelming for gaming, but AMD didn't have anything anything else to release at the time and so pretended it was a GeForce competitor too.

 

[jayducharme]

I guess my eGPU is doing its job. I just ran a comparison Geekbench for the built-in Intel UHD 630 and my Sapphire Radeon RX 5700 XT eGPU. The Intel is first.

 

[Meatsuit]

Had a few Kernel panics earlier this week forcing me to do a few hard restarts. Looked to be a one or more Third-party kernel extensions causing the problems. Got a little proactive and did a reformat / clean install of Catalina 10.15.6 with the Supplemental Update. All seems better now except that I'm back to using the second monitor for a boot screen. In any case, I'm really happy with the eGPU and the Mini. I on the other hand think Catalina is one of Apple's worse releases of an operating system in a long time. This was my third clean install of Catalina. The amount of time spent on hacking this OS is immense. Hope for greener pastures with Big Sur. Ran Geekbench 5. The results are better after the OS Re-install.

Red Devil RX 5700XT>OWC Helios FX 550

 

[jayducharme]

I need to figure out why other Geekbench eGPU scores are double mine. I'm starting to think it's the cable. My enclosure uses a 6 foot TB3 cable (from OWC) that's supposed to be made for such applications. I'm tempted to splurge on Apple's 6 foot cable and see if there's a difference. If not, that leaves only the Razer Core X enclosure as the problem.

 

[weaztek]

I need to figure out why other Geekbench eGPU scores are double mine. I'm starting to think it's the cable. My enclosure uses a 6 foot TB3 cable (from OWC) that's supposed to be made for such applications. I'm tempted to splurge on Apple's 6 foot cable and see if there's a difference. If not, that leaves only the Razer Core X enclosure as the problem.

I would try a 3-4' TB3 cable instead if you think that's the issue. Shorter is faster.

 

[jayducharme]

There doesn't seem to be that option. The active TB3 cables generally come in .8 ft., 2 ft. or 6 feet. Four feet would be perfect for my needs, but I can't find one.

UPDATE: I found a spare 2-foot active TB3 cable and rearranged my setup to get the mini near the Razer Core X. I ran Geekbench 5 again and this time got slightly worse scores. So the cable wasn't the issue. There's one other thing I could try though it's a long shot: the Razer has four sets of connecting cables to the card, but only two are used and Razer is really vague on which cable set goes where. (There's also one connector left hanging after everything's attached.) I could try a switching connectors and see if that makes a difference.

UPDATE 2: Switching the cables did nothing. I guess the next test would be to order the Sonnet box and see if that makes a difference.

 

[IngerMan]

(There's also one connector left hanging after everything's attached.)

Are you saying you have a hanging connection like this?

If so, that's your problem, Your card is not getting enough power. Which would make sense from your scores.

You should google your setup for some videos and see if that helps.

 

[jayducharme]

That guy just plugged in his card to the Razer and the cabling seemed to fit perfectly. On mine, though, the Razer comes with two cables that each have a 6-pin connector with an attached yet separate 2-pin connector. Both the MSI Radeon card I originally had and my new Sapphire have one 8-pin port and one 6-pin port. That means that there's always that two-connector piece hanging off of one of the cables. I couldn't find much online about that issue, and Razer never responded to my inquiries.

 

[tpivette89]

Some cards have dual 8-pin connections, some have one 8-pin and one 6-pin connections. You only need the extra 2 plugs if your card has a dual 8-pin setup (as my Vega does).

The card in the video had the dual 8-pin setup, and thus, didn't have to separate the 2 extra plugs from the connector as you had to. It sounds as though you have your card plugged in correctly.

 

[jayducharme]

I assume it's in correctly because the card's working. It's just not as speedy as I expected. I did order the Sonnet box, so when that comes in I'll see if it makes any difference. If not, then the only other thing I can think of is that it's a problem with the mini itself.

I have a CalDigit dock connected by TB3 to my mini. The dock in turn is connected to an external drive and various peripherals. The dock is in Bus 1 and the Razer is in Bus 0; those are the only TB3 connections in the mini. I've tried flipping those connections, but it didn't seem to matter.

 

[IngerMan]

Had a few Kernel panics earlier this week forcing me to do a few hard restarts. Looked to be a one or more Third-party kernel extensions causing the problems. Got a little proactive and did a reformat / clean install of Catalina 10.15.6 with the Supplemental Update. All seems better now except that I'm back to using the second monitor for a boot screen. In any case, I'm really happy with the eGPU and the Mini. I on the other hand think Catalina is one of Apple's worse releases of an operating system in a long time. This was my third clean install of Catalina. The amount of time spent on hacking this OS is immense. Hope for greener pastures with Big Sur. Ran Geekbench 5. The results are better after the OS Re-install.

Red Devil RX 5700XT
View attachment 952210View attachment 952211
View attachment 952214View attachment 952215

Those are some nice scores @Meatsuit . I am hitting 52,#### for Open CL and Metal on my Asus RXVega 56 in a Asus Station Pro XG box. Funny how my Metal has never outshined Open CL like some other cards. What eGPU enclosure are you using?

 

[tpivette89]

These posts make me want to remove my Vega 64 from my 5,1 Mac Pro and put it in my Razer Core X box and connect it to my Mac Mini. I haven't benchmarked it since Mojave was relevant. Been looking up comparisons, and I have found that the 5700 XT seems to perform better than the Vega 64 in gaming scenarios.

However, I can't justify the $400+ price tag for the 5700 XT. I would love to add an eGPU to my Mac mini (as I did almost 2 years ago), but I currently have no extra graphics cards to put in my Razer Core X.

 

[MarkC426]

Your Geekbench test caught my eye. My CPU scores are nearly identical. But my Open CL is about 36000, way behind yours even though I supposedly have a more powerful eGPU (the Radeon RX 5700 XT). Maybe the Sonnet with an older card was the way to go after all....

You should definitely be getting higher values.
I get 50000 metal for my RX580 on my macpro.

Sounds like the enclosure plays a big part.

 

[weaztek]

I get 50000 metal for my RX580 on my macpro.

That's a very good number.

My RX570 only gives me 33,000 metal and Open CL. But it's only 4GB VRAM.

 

[IngerMan]

That's a very good number.

My RX570 only gives me 33,000 metal and Open CL. But it's only 4GB VRAM.

Running internal RX580 on the MacPro is why his score is so much better than the enclosure on a Mac Mini. I had the RX580 card in a Sonnet 550 and was not that high. I think the hi 30,000’s.

Running internal like on a iMac or MacPro will yield higher results.

But yes @jayducharme has an issue with his setup obviously. And should be achieving well over 50,000 scores on compute.

 

[Erehy Dobon]

I assume it's in correctly because the card's working. It's just not as speedy as I expected. I did order the Sonnet box, so when that comes in I'll see if it makes any difference. If not, then the only other thing I can think of is that it's a problem with the mini itself.

I have a CalDigit dock connected by TB3 to my mini. The dock in turn is connected to an external drive and various peripherals. The dock is in Bus 1 and the Razer is in Bus 0; those are the only TB3 connections in the mini. I've tried flipping those connections, but it didn't seem to matter.

Sapphire cards often have dual BIOSes including the Pulse Radeon RX 5700 XT. Make sure yours is not in Silent Mode:

https://www.sapphiretech.com/en/consumer/pulse-radeon-rx-5700-xt-8g-gddr6

Silent Mode is to minimize fan noise at the expense of performance since the card will thermal throttle itself.

Also, I suggest you unplug all other TB3 devices from your Mac mini during your troubleshooting apart from the eGPU which I would plug into bus 0, port 0 (TB3 connector #1, the one closest to the Ethernet port) for starters.

 

[jayducharme]

Make sure yours is not in Silent Mode:

I never changed its default setting (Performance).

Also, I suggest you unplug all other TB3 devices from your Mac mini during your troubleshooting apart from the eGPU <

Thanks for the suggestions. I tried that. It made no difference in my scores. And my eGPU has been plugged into that first Bus 0 port.

 

[Meatsuit]

The Catalina 10.15.6 Supplemental Update contained an AMDRadeon kernel extension. Think it could have been what fixed my Kernel panics. I updated it when I did the nuke and clean install the my OS. As with any Catalina updates your milage may very alot...

 

[jayducharme]

I just discovered something peculiar: I'll boot with my mini's HDMI connected to my LG monitor. My eGPU is connected to the LG's display port. After the mini boots, I disconnect the HDMI cable from the monitor. The LG has two HDMI ports. If the mini is connected to port 1, everything works fine every time. If however the HDMI cable is connected to port 2, the mini won't boot.

 

[jayducharme]

Here's yet another update. I just got my Sonnet Breakaway Box 650. I got everything hooked up with the new TB3 cable that came with the Sonnet and ... no change. My Geekbench scores are pretty much the same as before. So either Catalina doesn't like the Radeon RX 5700, or my Mac mini is defective somehow. I know I should be getting better scores than this.

 

[MarkC426]

Was reading a thread in the Macpro section, and someone mentioned you would get a much higher result in Mojave. Apparently the Catalina gpu drivers arn’t too good.

 

[jayducharme]

So in other words, I didn't have to buy a new eGPU enclosure. It was the fault of the OS. Great. 🙄

I like the Razer box a bit more because it's so easy to work on -- one handle opens the entire unit. It's a bit slimmer as well. But the Sonnet has more power, so I guess I'll keep that one for future-proofing (if that's even possible with current tech).