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Very Confused! iMac 2015 & eGPU Setup Advice

slc80

slc80

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 3, 2020
4
1
Scotland
Hi All,

A plethora of information out there but sifting it down to find my ideal setup/specs has been painful and confusing and I'm hoping you can hep!

I ideally want to continue to use my 2015 27" iMac (see pic for specs) to game and stream at the same time, with an additional 1080p monitor to view a game fullscreen while i manage my stream on the built-in monitor. As a bonus, I additionally would like to improve performance in Lightroom and iMovie for my work.

As expected, my system doesn't play very well with even apple arcade games, let alone streaming them at the same time. Forget fortnite!

I'm reading about egpu's and seeing some great things, but also some disturbing accounts of incompatibilities and/or poor results for the investment.

Does anyone have any experience with this or a similar setup?

Which egpu did you buy?

What is your configuration?

Which monitors are going to work best?

Any other tips?

Or should i just keep my mac for work and spend the same money on a half-decent pc?

Thank you, I'd really appreciate any advice.



Screenshot 2020-03-03 at 10.32.03.png
 
slc80 said:
Hi All,

A plethora of information out there but sifting it down to find my ideal setup/specs has been painful and confusing and I'm hoping you can hep!

I ideally want to continue to use my 2015 27" iMac (see pic for specs) to game and stream at the same time, with an additional 1080p monitor to view a game fullscreen while i manage my stream on the built-in monitor. As a bonus, I additionally would like to improve performance in Lightroom and iMovie for my work.

As expected, my system doesn't play very well with even apple arcade games, let alone streaming them at the same time. Forget fortnite!

I'm reading about egpu's and seeing some great things, but also some disturbing accounts of incompatibilities and/or poor results for the investment.

Does anyone have any experience with this or a similar setup?

Which egpu did you buy?

What is your configuration?

Which monitors are going to work best?

Any other tips?

Or should i just keep my mac for work and spend the same money on a half-decent pc?

Thank you, I'd really appreciate any advice.



View attachment 897122
Click to expand...
I've got a mid 2015 27' and have upgraded memory to 32GB and replaced the HDD with a 2TB SSD. The SSD perked up the system. My video card is a 290.

I have an eGPU on order - PowerColor Red Devil 5700XT; it's a beast. I'm hoping to keep the old system going for as long as possible. I got the 5700XT because it should also be useful in the future on another machine (laptop purchase sometime this year). If it was only for my mac, I'm not entirely sure I would have bought it. There are driver issues with this card but I'm counting on Apple updating drivers to fully utilize it. Frankly I don't want to shell out more $ Apple for a new mac. And (only ½ joking), I could always dump Apple and put the card in a Ryzen computer.

For the price of an enclosure and card, you're a good chunk of way to a new computer. So it's tough call.

Because our systems are thunderbolt 2 we can't take full advantage of the eGPU but I'm thinking (hoping) there will be a noticeable improvement. My internet "research" indicates that others have gotten +ve results. I don't know about games, I use FCPX and Davinci Resolve for editing and rendering is slow.

Once it arrives and I've set it up, I'll post on it.
 
Benjamin Disapfectation said:
I've got a mid 2015 27' and have upgraded memory to 32GB and replaced the HDD with a 2TB SSD. The SSD perked up the system. My video card is a 290.

I have an eGPU on order - PowerColor Red Devil 5700XT; it's a beast. I'm hoping to keep the old system going for as long as possible. I got the 5700XT because it should also be useful in the future on another machine (laptop purchase sometime this year). If it was only for my mac, I'm not entirely sure I would have bought it. There are driver issues with this card but I'm counting on Apple updating drivers to fully utilize it. Frankly I don't want to shell out more $ Apple for a new mac. And (only ½ joking), I could always dump Apple and put the card in a Ryzen computer.

For the price of an enclosure and card, you're a good chunk of way to a new computer. So it's tough call.

Because our systems are thunderbolt 2 we can't take full advantage of the eGPU but I'm thinking (hoping) there will be a noticeable improvement. My internet "research" indicates that others have gotten +ve results. I don't know about games, I use FCPX and Davinci Resolve for editing and rendering is slow.

Once it arrives and I've set it up, I'll post on it.
Click to expand...


Benjamin, thank you, that's really interesting about the thunderbolt 2 - i hadn't thought of or come across that as a potential issue.

It'll be interesting to see how this setup works for you. I don't want to fork out for a new mac any time soon either! And I'm 50/50 on going pc if I can't make it work.

Regarding FCPx, i just watched a video which showed how the latest version of FCPx doesn't fully utilise the eGPU, but previous versions work great. Don't know what that might mean for you but defo worth considering. I also want something that works with adobe and native apple apps. Thank you for telling me your setup - it's noted! Cheers
 
I've made a video tutorial if interested.


I've upgraded to a 5700 XT eGPU with a 2019 iMac but previously I benchmarked an RX 580 with 2017 and 2019 iMacs. There was a substantial improvement in performance for the 2017, and a bump with the 2019.

2017

2019
 
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ruslan120 said:
I've made a video tutorial if interested.


I've upgraded to a 5700 XT eGPU with a 2019 iMac but previously I benchmarked an RX 580 with 2017 and 2019 iMacs. There was a substantial improvement in performance for the 2017, and a bump with the 2019.

2017

2019
Click to expand...

Fantastic!
[automerge]1583264677[/automerge]
maflynn said:
egpus are so niche, that volume of such discussions way too low. I think a dedicated site like egpu.io provides exactly what the OP wants.
Click to expand...

It looks like a great resource
 
Razor Core X Chroma and PowerColor Red Devil 5700XT arrived. Recap current: I'm on Catalina 10.15.3, mid 2015 27mac, M290 GPU, 2TB SSD internal, 32GB RAM.

First the Chroma. Absolutely beautiful design (if that means anything) and although Apple users can't control the lights they slowly cycle through colors and it looks fantastic. If you don't care about the colors or USB ports (which don't work in the TB2 config, at least for me) then you could save $100 and get the Razor Core X. The 5700XT is dead quiet but the Chroma is not and its fan is on at all times. It's only slightly audible but just enough to think wtf. Others may not care.

When setting up to run purge-wrangler, if the Chroma was attached, the result was an endless cycle of half booting to get a message saying there is a problem...starts booting, get message...(I found out later this can be a problem for the 5700XT). I tried running purge-wrangler and then plugged in the Chroma after. At that point the 5700XT is not detected in terminal and did not show up in 'about this Mac'. All was not lost though. I noticed the icon for the GPU in the menu bar. In preferences for FCPX and Davinci Resolve the 5700XT is listed and I could select it for use in those programs! Yay. If I'm not using the card for video editing, then I can disconnect via the menu bar and turn it off. When needed I simply turn the Chroma back on and it shows up in the menu bar there again.

Unscientifically: There was a very noticeable improvement in FCPX. For example, when applying effects no more beach ball of death, and much quicker rendering; maybe ¼ the time. I haven't checked Davinci yet but I'm very pleased with the improvement in FCPX.

The only measuring app I have is Geekbench. Interestingly, each time I ran the same configuration the result varied a bit. So, these are the averages.

Open CL
M290
20,250

5700XT
42,000

5700XT with HDMI dummy plug. I don't use or plan to use a separate monitor with this mac. (Display Port plugs I ordered will arrive next week and I'll try them then.)
33,000

Bottom line: I got the 5700XT because I wanted something that I could use now and in the future. If the card was only for the old mac I might get something else. My video editing experience is much better now and it's good to know the 5700XT will be useful for a laptop (to be purchased later this year), and the flexibility of future video card upgrading options. I expect drivers will be updated for the 5700XT and things will get even better.

slc80, I hope the info is useful. Thanks to ruslan120 for the videos and bsbeamer for the info.
 
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Benjamin Disapfectation said:
5700XT
42,000

5700XT with HDMI dummy plug. I don't use or plan to use a separate monitor with this mac. (Display Port plugs I ordered will arrive next week and I'll try them then.)
33,000
Click to expand...

Are these OpenCL or METAL scores?

In all testing with RX 5700 XT in eGPU the score/performance bump only happens with multiple "monitors" connected in some capacity. The dummy plug for DP will be necessary since the majority have DP1, DP2, HDMI, DP3 ports. I still cannot get DP3 to function correctly in eGPU with macOS. System freeze and automatic restart. It's basically a three port GPU at this point.

In brief testing with RX580 using all DP & HDMI ports available and set to mirror was horrendous visual performance with 4th dummy plug connected. Scores were not drastically different with only 3 ports in use.
 
bsbeamer said:
Are these OpenCL or METAL scores?

In all testing with RX 5700 XT in eGPU the score/performance bump only happens with multiple "monitors" connected in some capacity. The dummy plug for DP will be necessary since the majority have DP1, DP2, HDMI, DP3 ports. I still cannot get DP3 to function correctly in eGPU with macOS. System freeze and automatic restart. It's basically a three port GPU at this point.

In brief testing with RX580 using all DP & HDMI ports available and set to mirror was horrendous visual performance with 4th dummy plug connected. Scores were not drastically different with only 3 ports in use.
Click to expand...
They are OpenCL scores for all three configs, according to Geekbench and averaged over three tries each.
Metal scores are 38,500 for 5700XT plus HDMI plug and 45,600 for 5700XT no plug, internal m290 is 22,130.
The only actual use I have done is FCPX which as I said is very much improved. And I've had no freezes or automatic reboots. I don't know why or how but these are the numbers, really.
 
Last edited:
Benjamin Disapfectation said:
Razor Core X Chroma and PowerColor Red Devil 5700XT arrived. Recap current: I'm on Catalina 10.15.3, mid 2015 27mac, M290 GPU, 2TB SSD internal, 32GB RAM.

First the Chroma. Absolutely beautiful design (if that means anything) and although Apple users can't control the lights they slowly cycle through colors and it looks fantastic. If you don't care about the colors or USB ports (which don't work in the TB2 config, at least for me) then you could save $100 and get the Razor Core X. The 5700XT is dead quiet but the Chroma is not and its fan is on at all times. It's only slightly audible but just enough to think wtf. Others may not care.

When setting up to run purge-wrangler, if the Chroma was attached, the result was an endless cycle of half booting to get a message saying there is a problem...starts booting, get message...(I found out later this can be a problem for the 5700XT). I tried running purge-wrangler and then plugged in the Chroma after. At that point the 5700XT is not detected in terminal and did not show up in 'about this Mac'. All was not lost though. I noticed the icon for the GPU in the menu bar. In preferences for FCPX and Davinci Resolve the 5700XT is listed and I could select it for use in those programs! Yay. If I'm not using the card for video editing, then I can disconnect via the menu bar and turn it off. When needed I simply turn the Chroma back on and it shows up in the menu bar there again.

Unscientifically: There was a very noticeable improvement in FCPX. For example, when applying effects no more beach ball of death, and much quicker rendering; maybe ¼ the time. I haven't checked Davinci yet but I'm very pleased with the improvement in FCPX.

The only measuring app I have is Geekbench. Interestingly, each time I ran the same configuration the result varied a bit. So, these are the averages.

Open CL
M290
20,250

5700XT
42,000

5700XT with HDMI dummy plug. I don't use or plan to use a separate monitor with this mac. (Display Port plugs I ordered will arrive next week and I'll try them then.)
33,000

Bottom line: I got the 5700XT because I wanted something that I could use now and in the future. If the card was only for the old mac I might get something else. My video editing experience is much better now and it's good to know the 5700XT will be useful for a laptop (to be purchased later this year), and the flexibility of future video card upgrading options. I expect drivers will be updated for the 5700XT and things will get even better.

slc80, I hope the info is useful. Thanks to ruslan120 for the videos and bsbeamer for the info.
Click to expand...

Yes, extremely useful, thank you! As are Ruslan120's videos. It seems my only barrier is having the confidence to attempt the overrides in order to use the egpu with thunderbold 2. That and the additional cost of decent cables and adaptors! To be safe, i'm inclined to go with a stock Apple-sold egpu and take it from there. Although the reality is that I have a 5 year old computer and do i want to invest upwards of £500 for the pleasure of a what appears to be a small performance boost. I think i'll take my mac into and apple store and see if they can actually plug one in and show me!
 
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slc80 said:
Yes, extremely useful, thank you! As are Ruslan120's videos. It seems my only barrier is having the confidence to attempt the overrides in order to use the egpu with thunderbold 2. That and the additional cost of decent cables and adaptors! To be safe, i'm inclined to go with a stock Apple-sold egpu and take it from there. Although the reality is that I have a 5 year old computer and do i want to invest upwards of £500 for the pleasure of a what appears to be a small performance boost. I think i'll take my mac into and apple store and see if they can actually plug one in and show me!
Click to expand...
Apple does not support using TB1 or 2 machines with an eGPU and you would need to do the procedures (disable and purge-wrangler) before trying an eGPU anyway. I can't see an Apple store letting you try an eGPU; at the very least I'd ask before hauling your computer down there. The Apple (Blackmagic) eGPUs are excellent but very expensive and not upgradeable. And in that case it's an even bigger chunk of the cost of a new computer being spent on a questionable upgrade.
 
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bsbeamer said:
Are these OpenCL or METAL scores?

In all testing with RX 5700 XT in eGPU the score/performance bump only happens with multiple "monitors" connected in some capacity. The dummy plug for DP will be necessary since the majority have DP1, DP2, HDMI, DP3 ports. I still cannot get DP3 to function correctly in eGPU with macOS. System freeze and automatic restart. It's basically a three port GPU at this point.

In brief testing with RX580 using all DP & HDMI ports available and set to mirror was horrendous visual performance with 4th dummy plug connected. Scores were not drastically different with only 3 ports in use.
Click to expand...
I just received and tested with display port plugs. The best numbers were with DP1, DP2, and HDMI plugs in. Open Cl was 61410, Metal 70970
It locked and rebooted with DP3 plugged in.
 
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ruslan120 said:
I've made a video tutorial if interested.


I've upgraded to a 5700 XT eGPU with a 2019 iMac but previously I benchmarked an RX 580 with 2017 and 2019 iMacs. There was a substantial improvement in performance for the 2017, and a bump with the 2019.

2017

2019
Click to expand...

Decent post, Sir.

Azrael.
[automerge]1587231414[/automerge]
slc80 said:
Hi All,

A plethora of information out there but sifting it down to find my ideal setup/specs has been painful and confusing and I'm hoping you can hep!

I ideally want to continue to use my 2015 27" iMac (see pic for specs) to game and stream at the same time, with an additional 1080p monitor to view a game fullscreen while i manage my stream on the built-in monitor. As a bonus, I additionally would like to improve performance in Lightroom and iMovie for my work.

As expected, my system doesn't play very well with even apple arcade games, let alone streaming them at the same time. Forget fortnite!

I'm reading about egpu's and seeing some great things, but also some disturbing accounts of incompatibilities and/or poor results for the investment.

Does anyone have any experience with this or a similar setup?

Which egpu did you buy?

What is your configuration?

Which monitors are going to work best?

Any other tips?

Or should i just keep my mac for work and spend the same money on a half-decent pc?

Thank you, I'd really appreciate any advice.



View attachment 897122
Click to expand...

The simple fact of the matter is that AMD has, for a long time been a punch drunk boxer struggling to stand up.

With Ryzen CPU (not available on Mac...:) they're back in the game. It will give them the funds for the GPU division.

GPU wise. They've been struggling to go toe to toe with NV. And we have meh (if we're being honest) low end to low/middle range gpus from AMD for the Mac. The so called high end option is available for the Mac Pro if you have a kidney to spend.

NV? Not an option. Why? Politics.

But the good news is Apple started the eGPU wagon rolling on the Mac.
Support has improved.
We have a wide range of eGPU boxes. The Sonnet and Razor boxes are good places to start.
In terms of GPU. Radeon 5700XT if you have to guy now.

IF, you can wait.

The Radeon 6900XT, 6800XT and 6700XT will be 4k disruptors.

The GPUs have been in the doldrums for years and only have things improved on the NV side of things in the last year or so. And we're finally, at the end of this year...OCt/DEC(?) set for another big increase.
Ray tracing is also becoming a thing. So that would be significant for games and compute.

In short, we're approaching a significant inflexion point that will make the 580 and the 5700 look like what they are. Two year old and last year's tech'.

Wait if you can. it's only another 6 months. Unless you have money to burn and you don't care.

Azrael.
 
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forums.macrumors.com

Sharing My Experience with eGPU Solution

Hi, I used to read the forum for 2 or 3 years. I never attended to participate in the conversations. However, today I decided to write a post sharing my experience with the eGPU solution. In the past 2 or 3 months, I checked a couple of articles, posts and Youtube videos that promote the eGPU...
forums.macrumors.com forums.macrumors.com

Azrael.
 
Benjamin Disapfectation said:
Razor Core X Chroma and PowerColor Red Devil 5700XT arrived. Recap current: I'm on Catalina 10.15.3, mid 2015 27mac, M290 GPU, 2TB SSD internal, 32GB RAM.

First the Chroma. Absolutely beautiful design (if that means anything) and although Apple users can't control the lights they slowly cycle through colors and it looks fantastic. If you don't care about the colors or USB ports (which don't work in the TB2 config, at least for me) then you could save $100 and get the Razor Core X. The 5700XT is dead quiet but the Chroma is not and its fan is on at all times. It's only slightly audible but just enough to think wtf. Others may not care.

When setting up to run purge-wrangler, if the Chroma was attached, the result was an endless cycle of half booting to get a message saying there is a problem...starts booting, get message...(I found out later this can be a problem for the 5700XT). I tried running purge-wrangler and then plugged in the Chroma after. At that point the 5700XT is not detected in terminal and did not show up in 'about this Mac'. All was not lost though. I noticed the icon for the GPU in the menu bar. In preferences for FCPX and Davinci Resolve the 5700XT is listed and I could select it for use in those programs! Yay. If I'm not using the card for video editing, then I can disconnect via the menu bar and turn it off. When needed I simply turn the Chroma back on and it shows up in the menu bar there again.

Unscientifically: There was a very noticeable improvement in FCPX. For example, when applying effects no more beach ball of death, and much quicker rendering; maybe ¼ the time. I haven't checked Davinci yet but I'm very pleased with the improvement in FCPX.

The only measuring app I have is Geekbench. Interestingly, each time I ran the same configuration the result varied a bit. So, these are the averages.

Open CL
M290
20,250

5700XT
42,000

5700XT with HDMI dummy plug. I don't use or plan to use a separate monitor with this mac. (Display Port plugs I ordered will arrive next week and I'll try them then.)
33,000

Bottom line: I got the 5700XT because I wanted something that I could use now and in the future. If the card was only for the old mac I might get something else. My video editing experience is much better now and it's good to know the 5700XT will be useful for a laptop (to be purchased later this year), and the flexibility of future video card upgrading options. I expect drivers will be updated for the 5700XT and things will get even better.

slc80, I hope the info is useful. Thanks to ruslan120 for the videos and bsbeamer for the info.
Click to expand...
Sounds lke youve had some decent success with this - i'd like to do something similar to my 2015
 
Looks like a couple people have (almost) similar specs to my iMac but have managed to squeeze a bit more out with an eGPU. ive attached my specs as im pretty rubbish at this stuff - does anyone have any advice as to whether i could improve my machines performance (for video editing) without buying a new one?
 

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RAM is possible bottleneck.
Don't know if your startup disk is HDD/SSD or Fusion.
Would look at those two first.
 
Believe this is TB2 ports only? If so, not really worth looking into NVMe as external boot drive.
RAM is likely soldered and cannot be upgraded further.

Personal opinion - if you want to or are even willing to crack this thing open, look into SSD upgrades. If you do not, deal with the "numbers" you're getting now. Your money would be better invested in a machine with TB3.
 
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