Anyone using an EGPU with MBP ?

Soldato
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As title, is anyone using an EGPU with their MBP 2016/2017 ? When its attached to external monitors does it feel more snappy ? - my 2016 MBP does pretty well on its built in display, but attached to 2 external 4k monitors it does begin to slow abit - I'm wondering if wacking an e-gpu in the line will make it more snappy / responsive ? - does the mac desktop draw direct off the GPU ?

Mainly lightroom and finalcut use - if I got one id prob get a vega 56.
 
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@MacRS4

Fairly sure macrs4 used one, be nice to get his input.

I'm also interested to know. Do you have to use the Blackmagic ones off of the Apple Store, or can you use any enclosure with AMD GPUs? I assume nVidia ones don't work.
 
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@MacRS4

Fairly sure macrs4 used one, be nice to get his input.

I'm also interested to know. Do you have to use the Blackmagic ones off of the Apple Store, or can you use any enclosure with AMD GPUs? I assume nVidia ones don't work.

Yeah any of the apple cert ones work, nearly all available from main computer places will work but yes it does need to be an AMD GPU upto a max of a vega 64, 7 won't work yet.

Id get it if it speeds up my desktop etc, and just makes the system a lot more snappy, also I hope final cut benefits from it, lightroom etc, of course I know games will, but I have only played games 3-4 times in a year so, not a priority.
 
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@MacRS4 could you a general desktop/LR/Final Cut video with EGPU ? There is a lot of videos with gaming benchmarks but I'm more interested in actual day to day use & feel - for example if I plugged in my MBP to a EGPU and sent the signal back to the laptop screen - I know it would be slower than a one way link - but would the laptop perform loads better in LR/FC? - I'd imagine it would absolutely destroy the internal gfx ? Does it 'feel' faster?
 
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Sorry completely missed this. I did a video around this here, and there's also the general Mac Mini performance here. It is a hell of a lot better with the eGPU in for everything, it just feels better. Made using FCPX usable for 4k footage for example, whereas without it's quite clunky.

To be fair though, that may be because I do most of my video editing on an iMac Pro.
 
Soldato
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Sorry completely missed this. I did a video around this here, and there's also the general Mac Mini performance here. It is a hell of a lot better with the eGPU in for everything, it just feels better. Made using FCPX usable for 4k footage for example, whereas without it's quite clunky.

To be fair though, that may be because I do most of my video editing on an iMac Pro.

That's interesting thanks - I also use FCP for video so that's a nice boost - how does other general mac desktop stuff feel? - for example if I have 2 external 4k's running off my MBP - it defo begins to feel sluggish and slows down - does the EGPU affect this ? Will it become snappy again? (If I ran the monitors direct off the graphics card of course) - More interested in general use 'feel' than one specific program - however if you could test Lightroom with an EGPU I'd appreciate that, hope that's ok, but it seems your the only guy on the forum with a EGPU/mac! lol
 
Soldato
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Ah unfortunately the eGPU has gone off to the person it was actually meant for - that's why I was a bit confused as to why it turned up at my house!

I can ask though.
 
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Just bought an eGPU Pro, will let you know how i get on, arrives tomorrow.

Fantastic thank you. I am very interested in 'general responsiveness' LR & Final Cut Pro.

Hopefully apple will work more on EGPU in future OS updates pushing more to the GPU across general programs

Just for the tech nerds, the reason I'm looking is - (read if you like silly projects)

I'm slowly transitioning my office from a home office to a campervan based on the road thing - with my macbook pro 2016 (I'll get a 2019/2020 version when they come out), just so I can see more of the world and still work & enjoy the freedom - my plan is (hopefully you nerds will love this), a small-ish hard case with carry handle containing the following:

E-GPU (if its worth it)
2TB SSD
8TB (maybe 2) General data drive
2x8TB backup drives

In the case will be all the plugs, hubs etc to end up with 2 thunderbolt cables coming out the case (one GPU one hard drives), and a mains plug. I have tons of spare power in my vans electrical system to power all this as well - also its not like the GPU would work full tilt all the time - I'll also have a quiet 120mm fan drilled into the case and holes for airflow.

So that's really - on the road in my van I have a 'suit case' containing all that - ill simply plug into my van & into the MBP when needs be.........or just use the laptop for lighter work when needs be (I'm a photo/video guy), and also have tons of hard drive space to put stuff on the go..........when I'm home I'll just dump it on to my home server as a further backup.

But doing all this means my MBP will become my main machine - hence the GPU thinking.........
 
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It arrived, but not had a play with it yet, its still in the box.
TBH until the CRG9 arrives I doubt I'll take it out.

Shouldn't be long now.

Take it out eyedot, have a playyy, like Xmas morning here :D:D I don't suppose u could plug her in and have a general mess on ur laptop? I'll mostly be using mine with the built in screen so I'm interested to see if it's any different in ur opinion
 
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Take it out eyedot, have a playyy, like Xmas morning here :D:D I don't suppose u could plug her in and have a general mess on ur laptop? I'll mostly be using mine with the built in screen so I'm interested to see if it's any different in ur opinion

Ok in london for a friends Stag, but give me some relative comparisons (benchmarks or whatever) and I'll do them when back, bearing in mind I dont have anything remotely photoshoppy installed, but happy to download some benchmarking software if it helps you.
 
Soldato
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Ok in london for a friends Stag, but give me some relative comparisons (benchmarks or whatever) and I'll do them when back, bearing in mind I dont have anything remotely photoshoppy installed, but happy to download some benchmarking software if it helps you.

Thanks dude, basically I've seen all the benchmarks but im more curious how it 'feels' on the desktop, I guess if you could just see how it runs ? you have anything you do graphics intensive? i guess even a game would be a good bench, in terms of feel n snappyness, what GPU you getting ?

Not sure if you ever used it much but you could try the free install of lightroom on a trial to see how it runs ? Where do you live roughly if you dont me asking ? lol
 
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