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External GPU (eGPU) Resources
- Thread starter F-Train
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Just placed my order with Newegg - for the Asus Station Pro and the Vega 56. Ships after Christmas.
You'll love that combo. ANOTHER awesome hidden feature - a POWER BUTTON. Amazing how many enclosures don't have one, and suck up power all night long...
Unless I am mistaken I cannot find it on th ASU's site...
EDIt. Ok i finally found it under GPU accessories. Only vendor is Amazon. Not ideal for a work purchase...
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0794ZN...ve=22374&creativeASIN=B0794ZNS5H&linkCode=df0
£400 seems a bit steep for an enclosure, would put it at a very similar cost (or higher) than the Black Magic option.
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
Products > Graphics Cards > External Graphics Dock
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Look again. It is available via at least one shop/supplier in London (Tottenham Court Road). Also, I wouldn’t assume that that list is exhaustive. You can probably order it from at least some vendors of Asus graphics cards, and there appear to be a number of on-line vendors in the E.U.
For reference, the U.S. price, before tax, is $330.
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I just read through 15 pages of this post; thank you so much for your hard work and extremely comprehensive manner in which you approached the problem and documented what/how/when/where/how much/why. It is very rare to see that kind of thorough follow up on a very niche/specific problem.
I'm an amateur photographer that uses the last standalone Lightroom right now on my 2012 mini. I know upgrading to the newest 2018 + LR CC will make a world of difference but I was curious how much a difference the eGPU would on top of that. (When I upgrade, I usually go big). I shoot with an A7RIII and my raw files are roughly around 80-100megs a piece with a normal set of around 100 photos. I was wondering, if you ever had the spare time, to see how long the 1:1 preview render (be sure to clear the cache!) takes and how long an export to full rez jpg on a 100 photograph set takes between the Intel v. egpu.
Thank you again for all your hard work.
Hi,
I've never processed 100 photos at once, but this is an interesting question.
Let's suppose that I was prepared to use a full frame digital camera (it would be a Leica M 240) to take 100 RAW colour photos.
I would process them with Lightroom Classic CC. Tell me precisely what you want me to do with them.
Also, does it matter whether I have 8GB or 32GB of RAM in the mini? I ask because I still have 8GB in the computer, but will be making the change this weekend. Indeed, because of the timing, I could probably do this twice, once with 8GB and once with 32GB.
Cheers
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Thanks for the quick reply. The ram isn't an issue, at least I don't think. I think the biggest difference will be the combination of faster CPU + NvME SSD as a scratch disk.
If you haven't done so, raise your Cache settings. This can be done by going to Preferences > File Handling > Camera Raw Cache Settings. I have mine set to 30.0 gigs. For the sake of science, go ahead and Purge Cache as well.
I'm not sure of your settings but I'm going to assume that once you've imported the 100 that smart previews are set as your default but this should not matter. Select the 100 photographs on the filmstrip below. Then you will need to be on the Library Pane on the top right, click Library on the Menubar above > Previews > Build 1:1 Previews. After you've timed it, please go through the same options and Discard 1:1 Previews and repeat with the other card.
(For those who don't use Lightroom, the 1:1 Preview is basically zooming into the file at 100% instead of the scaled version you normally based on your monitor's resolution. This zooming is necessary sometimes to verify critical sharpness. If I don't build a 1:1 preview, the computer hangs about 2-3 seconds when I try to realtime click and zoom in.)
Finally, if you could just time the 100 photograph export to jpeg at 100% quality on both cards, that would be great.
If the first part is too annoying, you can just do the this last step with an existing batch of 100 photos. Hope this helps.
Thanks!
I’ll be interested in know those results as well since I use LR on a daily basis. From what I’m aware, LR and many other Adobe apps are very CPU/RAM heavy. Not sure if the eGPU will make a significant difference. The more resources you give LR (cache, ram, etc) the faster it becomes. The problem is, the more you give it, the more it will want 
Here is Adobe’s page on how Lightroom uses a video card: https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom/kb/lightroom-gpu-faq.html
As I read this, @crazeazn ’s proposed tests* shouldn’t show much of a difference between the built-in graphics card and an external card. Regardless, they are simple enough tests to do.
In general, what I’m seeing is that an external card mostly makes a difference on rendering tasks. This is really apparent with games and simulators, such as X-Plane. With the mini’s built-in video card, X-Plane does not run very well. An RX 590 is a significant improvement, and with a Vega 56 X-Plane flies.
However, I’m finding that this is application specific. In Final Cut Pro X, the built-in video card is quite capable on most rendering tasks during editing, including 3840x2160 editing. On Final Cut exports (“shares”), using an external Vega 56 is twice as fast, but if you have Compressor this is academic. The new 64-bit Compressor is significantly faster than Final Cut on exports, and will not currently even use an external video card. Indeed, if you edit video, spending US$50 on Compressor is probably the single best investment you could make at the moment.
*See posts 359-62 immediately above.
As I read this, @crazeazn ’s proposed tests* shouldn’t show much of a difference between the built-in graphics card and an external card. Regardless, they are simple enough tests to do.
In general, what I’m seeing is that an external card mostly makes a difference on rendering tasks. This is really apparent with games and simulators, such as X-Plane. With the mini’s built-in video card, X-Plane does not run very well. An RX 590 is a significant improvement, and with a Vega 56 X-Plane flies.
However, I’m finding that this is application specific. In Final Cut Pro X, the built-in video card is quite capable on most rendering tasks during editing, including 3840x2160 editing. On Final Cut exports (“shares”), using an external Vega 56 is twice as fast, but if you have Compressor this is academic. The new 64-bit Compressor is significantly faster than Final Cut on exports, and will not currently even use an external video card. Indeed, if you edit video, spending US$50 on Compressor is probably the single best investment you could make at the moment.
*See posts 359-62 immediately above.
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Received the Asus Vega 56 card yesterday. The Asus Station Pro is on the Fedex truck for delivery today. Looking forward to setting this up and seeing what improvements it offers to my work flow.
On a side note - I've been using my 32" ViewSonic at full res 3840x2160. Not sure I'm as comfortable with this res. I believe scaling it might be a better option - with the eGPU of course.
We shall see.
*Edit - "Today" (Saturday) means next business day - Monday. Fedex Ground doesn't work weekends :/
On a side note - I've been using my 32" ViewSonic at full res 3840x2160. Not sure I'm as comfortable with this res. I believe scaling it might be a better option - with the eGPU of course.
We shall see.
*Edit - "Today" (Saturday) means next business day - Monday. Fedex Ground doesn't work weekends :/
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Vega 64 needs a TON of power, at least 500 watts, so a lot of enclosures don't support it. I know the ASUS doesn't. You'll need something like the Razer Core X, the Sonnet Breakaway 550 or Mantiz Venus.
Here's the definitive list of the enclosures, and how much power they can push...
https://egpu.io/external-gpu-buyers-guide-2018/
Here's the definitive list of the enclosures, and how much power they can push...
https://egpu.io/external-gpu-buyers-guide-2018/
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I know this is not a straight use of an eGPU but since I got my Akitio Node super cheap ($130) then I bought too an Enermax SFX Revolution 650watt ($100)
it has been running since I bought the new Mac mini and tested almost everyday playing World of Warcraft without any problem whatsoever.
for the GPU I'm using a Sapphire RX Vega64 Nitro+
with my native resolution 3440x1440 WoW played almost steady at 100 for the FPS (maybe capped since my monitor is 100Hz) with graphics setting to 9 (but shadow at low)
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Asus says explicitly that its enclosure will support a Vega 64. Also, a Vega 64 clearly does not need “at least 500 watts”.
I do think that a 64 may be pushing it with some of the enclosures available, including the Asus, but this is something that I’d like to see tested, especially since Asus has stated specifically that its power supply is up to the job, presumably with Asus’s own Vega 64.
I think that the real question is whether the 64 confers enough of a benefit to make the trade offs worthwhile. For some gamers, the answer is probably yes, but the answer is less obvious for things like video production.
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I have tested Vega 64 using 400w eGPU enclosure not enough while gaming (All tested under MacOS), after around 25-30 second of gaming connection is shut off between my Mac mini and external monitor (tested also with my MacBook Pro 15" i7 mid 2018 and same result, shut off between MBP with external monitor and lost connection with eGPU)
Also make sure using Thunderbolt 3 cable that has 40Gbs bandwidth because I also tested using thunderbolt 3 cable that only has 20Gbs it makes extreme frame rate dropping while gaming.
I have sonnet 350 and nvidia nitro rx580.
When I started boot camp first time, Windows has installed the drivers and all worked great .
My mini is i7+512gbssd +16 gm ram
Installation is straightforward, except that seating the pins can be a bit tricky. I think that it’s like seating the pins when one adds RAM to the mini, which is something that a number of people have gotten wrong and have had to redo.
See this post about halfway down: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/external-gpu-egpu-resources.2154653/page-12#post-26905048
Do yourself a favour and confirm that the card, not just the enclosure, is getting power before you start putting the two screws in that hold the card. Lining up the bracket parts that those screws hold together is a bit finicky. Note that if you have seated the card properly, the bracket parts will be completely flush and properly aligned. You will need to use one hand to guide the card to keep the brackets flush and aligned, but this should not require force. This is not something you want to have to do twice
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Asus Station Pro and Asus Vega 56 installed.
Putting it together was very easy.
Might have to re-route cables after testing.
Putting it together was very easy.
Might have to re-route cables after testing.
Looking good!
If you haven't already done so, you can confirm that Lightroom is using the card by going to Lightroom > Preferences > Performance.
In Mac OS, you have to go to the info panel and select the external GPU for each application you want to use it with. However, this registers a "preference" and is not necessarily determinative. For Compressor, I checked the info panel box, but Compressor will not currently use an external card.
You can always determine whether an application is using the card via Activity Monitor > Window > GPU History.
If you haven't already done so, you can confirm that Lightroom is using the card by going to Lightroom > Preferences > Performance.
In Mac OS, you have to go to the info panel and select the external GPU for each application you want to use it with. However, this registers a "preference" and is not necessarily determinative. For Compressor, I checked the info panel box, but Compressor will not currently use an external card.
You can always determine whether an application is using the card via Activity Monitor > Window > GPU History.
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