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Recommended egpu enclosures?

A

archer75

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Jan 26, 2005
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Oregon
What are the recommended, by the community, egpu enclosures to use with macs? I'm told that while nvidia cards are not supported officially it's possible to get them working. Does anyone have a resource for this they can point me to? Is this still valid?: https://theunlockr.com/2018/07/27/how-to-use-nvidia-cards-with-your-mac-egpu/

I plan on using a Nvidia 980ti if possible.
I have seen a list of officially supported enclosures but i'm curious what people think the best one is. Razer?
 
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I’m using a Mantiz Venus. Internal connection for SATA Drive is nice, beefy power and extra USB ports.

Why are you using such an old card? Nvidia is still not supported for Mojave. Of course you’re good if you just want the egpu for Windows.
 
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Spankey said:
I’m using a Mantiz Venus. Internal connection for SCSI Drive is nice, beefy power and extra USB ports.

Why are you using such an old card? Nvidia is still not supported for Mojave. Of course you’re good if you just want the egpu for Windows.
Click to expand...
It's not that old. Only just 2 generations. To get a worthwhile performance jump over that would cost me a fortune and isn't worth it. And it works just fine for everything I throw at it.
 
Sonnet eGPU enclosure, the one included with the official eGPU kit, is now $200. Of course, the bigger issue is no Mac drivers for the 980ti are not available. The Nvidia cards are unusable on Mojave until they are released as mentioned on page 1.
 
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Aesthetic should not be the main point but all of the custom eGPU enclosures look like aluminium carry on luggage. Some even come with retractable handles...
Designers should get inspired by the Blackmagic looks and come up with their own vertical layout, possibly in space gray...
 
I'm very much a function over form kind of person. I don't care what anything looks like. Only how it performs.
 
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Only the first two revisions of the Sapphire Pulse RX580 8GB card have full macOS support with Orinoco RadeonFramebuffer, (i.e. HEVC hardware acceleration): https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...x580-pulse-into-the-mac-edition-card.2101909/

Safest way is the officially Apple supported eGPU: https://www.sonnetstore.com/collect...ystems/products/egfx-breakawaybox-radeonrx580 or https://www.sonnetstore.com/collect...ystems/products/egfx-breakaway-box-550-bundle Cheaper and faster than the Blackmagic eGPU with Radeon Pro 580.

If the Sapphire Pulse RX580 has Samsung RAM (indicated in Windows with GPU-Z) here is a optimised ROM with Orinoco RadeonFramebuffer: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/sapphire-pulse-rx580-8gb-vbios-study.2133607/#post-26395634
 
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I wish there was an egpu that was a companion to the mac mini... sort of like the mac mini chassis with the same power supply and cooling, but inside it was just gpu. I could see OWC doing something like this, like they did with the ministack storage solution.
 
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Snappers said:
I wish there was an egpu that was a companion to the mac mini... sort of like the mac mini chassis with the same power supply and cooling, but inside it was just gpu. I could see OWC doing something like this, like they did with the ministack storage solution.
Click to expand...

Sonnet has a small eGPU but its only a RX 560 or something. Not the greatest but it's there.
 
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killawat said:
Sonnet has a small eGPU but its only a RX 560 or something. Not the greatest but it's there.
Click to expand...

RX 560 eGPUs are not supported by Mojave. Yes there is a fan/community kernel extension that enables it, but there is a risk that could break with any given OS update and the shinny new T2 secure boot feature would need to be disabled.

Unless you are extremely price sensitive I'd suggest paying extra for the RX 570 breakaway puck which does have Apple's blessing or else going with one of the full-sized enclosures anyway.
 
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padams35 said:
RX 560 eGPUs are not supported by Mojave. Yes there is a fan/community kernel extension that enables it, but there is a risk that could break with any given OS update and the shinny new T2 secure boot feature would need to be disabled.

Unless you are extremely price sensitive I'd suggest paying extra for the RX 570 breakaway puck which does have Apple's blessing or else going with one of the full-sized enclosures anyway.
Click to expand...

I don't think "Apple's blessing" means anything in the eGPU world. These are promotional ad dollars speaking. There is nothing magical about the Sonnet. In fact, it is pretty damn large for an enclosure.

An enclosure with card combo is still not a great deal. Better cards and enclosures to be had...even if you have to pay a bit more for a card with some staying power.
 
Synchro3 said:
https://www.sonnetstore.com/collections/egpu-expansion-systems/products/egfx-breakaway-puck-560

$399. Quiet expensive for a very weak card. https://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/AMD-RX-580-vs-AMD-RX-560/3923vs3926

The RX 580 EGFX Breakaway Box Developer Edition costs only $30 more.
Click to expand...

Right, it's all about the size, the Breakaway Puck is about the size of an AppleTV, the regular box is close to the size of a Suburban ...
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jrlcopy said:
I went with the sexy
https://www.razer.com/gaming-laptops/razer-core-x

If you use ebates you get 10% off, and razer offers you a $10 coupon off of that.

So $260'ish + tax. Mine arrives tomorrow.
Click to expand...

They're nice, I've seen them in person. What card are you going to use?
 
Snappers said:
I wish there was an egpu that was a companion to the mac mini... sort of like the mac mini chassis with the same power supply and cooling, but inside it was just gpu. I could see OWC doing something like this, like they did with the ministack storage solution.
Click to expand...

Yeah, there seems to be a gap with only high and low, not much middle. Hopefully the new mini sells enough to make such a thing a reality. $200 for a ready box and handles most tasks should do nicely. Though mini shaped would also demand extra ports, making that $300.
 
Graham King said:
Is there an egpu that will support vega 64 and is bootcamp compatible?
Click to expand...
From how I understand it (looking into buying my first eGPU aswell) I think if the eGPU is supported by Windows and Mac and the GPU is supported by Mac you should be fine as most GPU's work on Windows. So a Razor Core with a Vega 64 should work I think...
 
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Does anyone have AKiTiO Node? How does it perform? I see good reviews on Amazon.

I see they are considerably less expensive than others, but is that just a case of "you get what you pay for"?
 
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Snappers said:
I wish there was an egpu that was a companion to the mac mini...
Click to expand...

Given Apple's clear tilt on this machine towards 'pro' usage, I'd be surprised if someone doesn't come out with something, either to stack on top/below, or sit next to, the mini.

I have no interest in an eGPU (unless it turns out the integrated won't run 2 x 4k@60hz smoothly) but I'm hoping/expecting someone like OWC will produce multiple stackable 'components' using (potentially multiple) daisy chained TB3
 
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jrlcopy said:
I went with the sexy
https://www.razer.com/gaming-laptops/razer-core-x

If you use ebates you get 10% off, and razer offers you a $10 coupon off of that.

So $260'ish + tax. Mine arrives tomorrow.
Click to expand...

Can you play games with 2018 Mac mini via Botcamp with that ?

Does it also work in MacOS Mojave ?

I have a PC for gaming and VR development and a Mac for everything else. Being able to do everything with a Mac mini would save a good chunk of cash on pc upgrades.
 
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