External GPU (eGPU) Resources

[bopheim]

Hi. Eagerly awaiting on your results using the Asus XG Station Pro with a Vega 64 card. Are you able to share yet?

Hello. Just wanted to follow up after a couple of weeks of use. Everything is working perfect, I have had no problems at all with this card and the XG Station Pro. The "problems" I am facing is software problems. I.E. Adobe Illustrator does not support eGpus, but Adobe Photoshop does. I am also having trouble installing Windows 10 via Boot Camp, but I am not alone.. I have not played very much, other than CS and Fortnite. All stresstest I have taken has also been fine. So far sooooo good!

 

[IngerMan]

Hello. Just wanted to follow up after a couple of weeks of use. Everything is working perfect, I have had no problems at all with this card and the XG Station Pro. The "problems" I am facing is software problems. I.E. Adobe Illustrator does not support eGpus, but Adobe Photoshop does. I am also having trouble installing Windows 10 via Boot Camp, but I am not alone.. I have not played very much, other than CS and Fortnite. All stresstest I have taken has also been fine. So far sooooo good!

I installed Windows 10 via Bootcamp a few days ago and I did find disconnecting my eGPU and going straight to the Mini for display was helpful. After it was installed then I hooked back up the eGPU.

There is a video 9to5 mac that I used for help.

 

[bopheim]

I installed Windows 10 via Bootcamp a few days ago and I did find disconnecting my eGPU and going straight to the Mini for display was helpful. After it was installed then I hooked back up the eGPU.

There is a video 9to5 mac that I used for help.

I will definetly try this. Thanks.

 

[F-Train]

Hello. Just wanted to follow up after a couple of weeks of use. Everything is working perfect, I have had no problems at all with this card [Vega 64] and the XG Station Pro.

I have not played very much, other than CS and Fortnite. All stresstest I have taken has also been fine. So far sooooo good!

This is great news. Asus has consistently said that the XG Station Pro can handle a Vega 64, but lots of people have been skeptical. I don't know whether this is true, but I've read a suggestion that the enclosure's ability to handle this card is related to how the power supply handles spikes. Regardless, what matters is that it works.

 

[F-Train]

I installed Windows 10 via Bootcamp a few days ago and I did find disconnecting my eGPU and going straight to the Mini for display was helpful. After it was installed then I hooked back up the eGPU.

There is a video 9to5 mac that I used for help.

Just a comment on the 9 to 5 Mac video. It recommends using the April 2018 rather than October 2018 Windows 10 release. The reason is that some months ago people were reporting issues when they used the October release with Boot Camp. I believe that Microsoft fixed whatever the issue was. In the last six weeks, I have used Boot Camp to install the October release three times, and I have not had any issues. That said, if you run into a problem with the October release, maybe try April.

I can also confirm, having tried it, that using Boot Camp to install Windows while your external video card is connected is a bad idea

 

[Stephen.R]

Just a quick query: is anyone else using the “dual connection” method described a while ago?

I’m referring to connecting your display(s) via your eGPU using eg DisplayPort and also connecting (one of) them to the Mini via HDMI and using the displays’ input switched for situations such as reinstalling the os/windows; login screen with FileVault; etc.

 

[rmdeluca]

This is great news. Asus has consistently said that the XG Station Pro can handle a Vega 64, but lots of people have been skeptical. I don't know whether this is true, but I've read a suggestion that the enclosure's ability to handle this card is related to how the power supply handles spikes. Regardless, what matters is that it works.

I would not consider @bopheim's success to be an empirical affirmation of the enclosure's ability to run all Vega 64s. The enclosure's max GPU power (300W) is too close to the Vega 64's reference TDP (295W) to account for all variability in board design, firmware and driver profiles out in the wild.

The card that he has (an Asus Radeon RX Vega 64 ROG Strix OC) is a non-reference, optimized design that draws less continuous power (~280W) at full load than many stock Vega 64s out in the wild. This is well within the capability of the XG Station Pro's power supply.

I'm not sure if you're including me in the "skeptical" category, but I'll reiterate my original caution about Vega 64s and the XG Station Pro:

"don't stick a Vega 64 in the Asus XG Station Pro without researching that specific board's ACTUAL power usage (not system power) or being prepared to tinker."
[doublepost=1552501516][/doublepost]

Just a quick query: is anyone else using the “dual connection” method described a while ago?

I’m referring to connecting your display(s) via your eGPU using eg DisplayPort and also connecting (one of) them to the Mini via HDMI and using the displays’ input switched for situations such as reinstalling the os/windows; login screen with FileVault; etc.

Not exactly answering your question, but due to the continued lack of Mojave NVIDIA drivers, my requirement to dual connect my monitor to my Mini hasn't gone away :/

 

[IngerMan]

Just a quick query: is anyone else using the “dual connection” method described a while ago?

I’m referring to connecting your display(s) via your eGPU using eg DisplayPort and also connecting (one of) them to the Mini via HDMI and using the displays’ input switched for situations such as reinstalling the os/windows; login screen with FileVault; etc.

I like the idea of using eGPU DP to Monitor DP and then HDMI Mini to Monitor HDMI. But I get weird things happening when I have tried this a few times. Even though I have the monitor selected on eGPU DP some things act like it wants to go through the Mini GPU. I just had this happen when I tried playing Tombraider. Even though I have the monitor on DP, the game was using or just confusing the Mini GPU until I unplugged the HDMI Mini.

I have them mirror,

 

[F-Train]

Just received this e-mail from AMD. Tom Clancy's The Division 2, which is the last of the three free games offered in the current promotion, has been released. I happen to use Steam, not Ubisoft, but neither is required for activation. The game does require Windows.

 

[IngerMan]

Just a FYI NewEgg has dropped the Asus Vega 56 price yet again.

 

[Nihilvor]

I realize that there have been some problems with supplying the power to certain XFX cards in certain cases, but people might be interested in trying these. This is the 8GB XXX RX580, going for only $189 now (only $10 more than the 4gb one on Amazon).

https://www.walmart.com/ip/XFX-GTS-...RX-580P8DFD6-Gaming-Bundle-Included/823253148

 

[dspdoc]

Can anyone give me the lowdown on what video editing apps will fully utilize an eGPU? I would appreciate it. There seems to be much confusion and misinformation on the interwebs about exactly what real world benefit there is to having an eGPU. Thanks!

 

[F-Train]

Just a FYI NewEgg has dropped the Asus Vega 56 price yet again.

View attachment 826839

Newegg is also selling it at that price on eBay. I’m really happy with this card for both productivity (e.g. video) and gaming.

However, had I known that Asus's Vega 64 will work in the XG Station Pro (post #526), I might have gone with the 64 despite the fact that the performance increase is not major (~10%).

 

[IngerMan]

Newegg is also selling it at that price on eBay. I’m really happy with this card for both productivity (e.g. video) and gaming.

However, had I known that Asus's Vega 64 will work in the XG Station Pro (post #526), I might have gone with the 64 despite the fact that the performance increase is not major (~10%).

But the Price difference for the Asus Vega 64 is considerable when you consider the performance increase.

I was looking at averages on Geekbench compute. And I found a small increase from 580 to 56 but not earth shattering and even much less to 64.

RX580 100%
17% increase to Vega 56
6% increase to Vega 64

580RX = 128,000
Vega 56 = 151,000
Vega 64= 160,000


As far as the box I do think the Asus XG Pro station is one of the best and I could see that in the build quality compared to the Sonnet box. I like the power supply is outside the box making the box smaller and better thermals.

For a Asus XG Pro box and Vega 56 Card will run at least $700

You can get a eGPU box and 580RX setup for about $400.

Performance difference will be less then 20%

Those on a more conscious budget or have higher standards on spend per performance will yield to the 580RX version.

My budget is my wife has no interest in the different setups I have on my desk. I swear she did not even notice the first eGPU box so how is she going to recognize the 2nd

 

[F-Train]

For a Asus XG Pro box and Vega 56 Card will run at least $700

You can get a eGPU box and 580RX setup for about $400.

Performance difference will be less then 20%

Those on a more conscious budget or have higher standards on spend per performance will yield to the 580RX version.

I've had an RX 590 and I think that it and the RX 580 are very close. The superiority of the Vega 56 is clear for demanding games (e.g. X-Plane simulator), but for most productivity purposes I think that an RX 580 is probably fine.

 

[rmdeluca]

Can anyone give me the lowdown on what video editing apps will fully utilize an eGPU? I would appreciate it. There seems to be much confusion and misinformation on the interwebs about exactly what real world benefit there is to having an eGPU. Thanks!

On macOS, Final Cut Pro X has the best support for acceleration via Metal. Premiere Pro 2019 was supposed to finally bring Metal support, but even as of last week the Adobe forums have official responses acknowledging there are major problems with fixes in the works.

A lot of the confusion regarding GPU acceleration of pro video editing apps is due to the fact that Adobe originally designed theirs around CUDA and later OpenCL, but those APIs became deprecated in macOS High Sierra and CUDA is currently unsupported in Mojave with modern cards. On the Windows side, nothing seemed to change, but for macOS users on modern NVIDIA cards, they lost hardware acceleration in 10.14.

The result of all of this being we're in a kind of "dark ages" of GPU acceleration on macOS if you're not using Apple's software. The only way you're going to know if your existing workflow will see benefits from GPU acceleration in macOS right now is to test it with your specific editor and codecs.

My opinion is that someone who is committed to Adobe's software stack (or others) should still be prepared to boot into Windows via Boot Camp where driver support is better and there's less pressure from the OS vendor to deprecate older GPU APIs.

Maybe some folks here will chime in with their specific editor and codec experiences both with and without eGPU?

 

[dspdoc]

On macOS, Final Cut Pro X has the best support for acceleration via Metal. Premiere Pro 2019 was supposed to finally bring Metal support, but even as of last week the Adobe forums have official responses acknowledging there are major problems with fixes in the works.

A lot of the confusion regarding GPU acceleration of pro video editing apps is due to the fact that Adobe originally designed theirs around CUDA and later OpenCL, but those APIs became deprecated in macOS High Sierra and CUDA is currently unsupported in Mojave with modern cards. On the Windows side, nothing seemed to change, but for macOS users on modern NVIDIA cards, they lost hardware acceleration in 10.14.

The result of all of this being we're in a kind of "dark ages" of GPU acceleration on macOS if you're not using Apple's software. The only way you're going to know if your existing workflow will see benefits from GPU acceleration in macOS right now is to test it with your specific editor and codecs.

My opinion is that someone who is committed to Adobe's software stack (or others) should still be prepared to boot into Windows via Boot Camp where driver support is better and there's less pressure from the OS vendor to deprecate older GPU APIs.

Maybe some folks here will chime in with their specific editor and codec experiences both with and without eGPU?

Thanks for this. It is really confusing to figure out what apps benefit from an eGPU and what apps do not.

 

[F-Train]

Thanks for this. It is really confusing to figure out what apps benefit from an eGPU and what apps do not.

Apple says how Final Cut benefits from an eGPU on its web site: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT209134

I'd add that Compressor is superior to Final Cut for export/rendering, and Compressor does not use an eGPU. Compressor is US$50 very well spent.

Adobe has web pages that set out the benefits of an eGPU for its applications.

Until Adobe sorts out issues about the performance of Premiere Pro on macOS, which Adobe says it is working on, I would not use it on a Mac.

If you are considering DaVinci Resolve, views on Windows vs macOS are mixed. If I was new to video, and wanted to use the free version of DaVinci, I wouldn't hesitate to use it on either operating system. I currently make limited use of DaVinci Resolve on a Mac and have no complaints.

More generally, if you are doing simple editing in Final Cut of short, 1080p or 2160p, videos, I don’t believe that you need an eGPU in the first place.

 

[IngerMan]

I will say oddly when you use Geekbench Compute score test, the more things you have eGPU doing on the side of the test the better the score. If I am a cold system with nothing running it will score high 140,000's to 150,000. If I am watching video and several apps open it approaches 160,000.

Quite the opposite of CPU testing on Geekbench 4.

 

[yukari]

Anyone running Aorus 1070 eGPU with mac mini?
If so, what script/setup did you use?

 

[F-Train]

Anyone running Aorus 1070 eGPU with mac mini?
If so, what script/setup did you use?

If you are talking about running macOS, you have to use an AMD card. If you are talking about Boot Camp Windows, have a look at post #106 (there may be others) and egpu.io.

 

[yukari]

If you are talking about running macOS, you have to use an AMD card. If you are talking about Boot Camp Windows, have a look at post #106 (there may be others) and egpu.io.

I was hoping to use it with MacOS. It seems you can't run it with Mojave but you can with High Sierra.
Anyone figure out how to use NVIDIA eGPU with Mojave on Mac Mini?

 

[yukari]

all the search of internet leads me to believe there is no work around at this time.
So I ended up purchasing:
MSI Radeon RX 560 Aero ITX 4G OC
I will replace GT1070 board with this in my Aorus gaming box. This will allow a simple plug and play without any modification in Mojave.

 

[CeleryMan]

Hello. Just wanted to follow up after a couple of weeks of use. Everything is working perfect, I have had no problems at all with this card and the XG Station Pro. The "problems" I am facing is software problems. I.E. Adobe Illustrator does not support eGpus, but Adobe Photoshop does. I am also having trouble installing Windows 10 via Boot Camp, but I am not alone.. I have not played very much, other than CS and Fortnite. All stresstest I have taken has also been fine. So far sooooo good!

I'm confused about eGPU and software support. I thought with an eGPU you plug your monitor into it and it uses it for everything? What does it mean when Illustrator doesn't support it? Isn't it already using it because your monitor is connected to the eGPU?

 

[LeeW]

What does it mean when Illustrator doesn't support it? Isn't it already using it because your monitor is connected to the eGPU?

No expert but the issue I believe is that software will automatically pick up the internal GPU, so for a Mac Mini, that is the UHD630, the software needs to be able to identify there is an eGPU plugged in and use it instead. Not all are capable of that yet.