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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

BizonBOX 3 for Macbook Pro / Thunderbolt 3

Trevor Meier

Trevor Meier

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This looks interesting: https://bizon-tech.com/us/bizonbox3-egpu.html/

It's an external GPU (eGPU) box designed for the Macbook Pro over Thunderbolt 3, kind of like the Razer Core. I've heard some dubious things about Bizon though, and the page shows a previous-gen MBP so it makes me wonder.

Anybody tried a previous generation BizonBOX? How'd it work performance-wise for R3D decode / Resolve etc.?

Hoping Barefeats will have a full review soon (Rob has a prelim post up but he's still waiting on a machine)
 
I have a bizon box 2. It works perfectly fine in OSX and in Windows bootcamp. Only frustrating thing is that you need to restart the computer when you connect it. Other than that the gpu works fine.
 
I was looking at this option. Some people say you need TB 3 some are using it with TB2. It's tricky to find an informations.
How is your set up Paul ? Do you use laptop or desktop. How is performance in Resolve, before and after you stared to use
eternal GPU?

Ivan Abel
 
According to this message thread on LiftGammaGain, the Bizon box does not work as far as Resolve goes on a Trashcan Mac:

"We bought BizonBox with 980Ti, but unfortunately it wasn't problem solver for MacPro (Late2013) with D700 cards. Render and playing time was same all time with and without box in Davinci Resolve. Their support says Bizon Box works on PCIe 2.0 x4!. Maybe I'm wrong, it is 4 times slower than normal PCIe x16."

http://liftgammagain.com/forum/inde...al-gpu-for-macbook-pro.7283/page-2#post-74889
 
I'd say user error on setup or something. There are reports elsewhere and in that same thread of it working and people getting beneficial results even with Thunderbolt 2. You do need to probably select the GPU you want to use in Resolve preferences, as well as turn off "Use display GPU for compute". I hear there is also a kext edit that needs to be done to get the eGPU to work properly.
 
the problem is lack of pascal support. And also the bizon is claimed to work "out of the box".

not sure if its the same with the akitio.
 
Joel Voelker said:
Thunderbolt 2 isn't fast enough to run an external GPU
Click to expand...

Incorrect.


TB3 only supports 20Gbps (not 40Gbps) for pci-e (yes, even w/ 0.5m cable)

TB2 supports 16Gbps (not 20Gbps) for pci-e


For CUDA acceleration, eGPU is only 3~5% faster on TB3 vs TB2


Why?

Titan X (maxell family) has an onboard ARM processor that makes it less dependent on CPU control.
AND
CUDA compute calculations themselves are intensive (and take place on the GPU), not the problem/answer stream that runs to/from the computer host.


However, TB3 can have two(2) 20Gbps channels per cable, so in theory one may be able to run two eGPUs daisy-chained off a single TB3 port and not effect bandwidth.
 
Mike Halper said:
I'd say user error on setup or something. There are reports elsewhere and in that same thread of it working and people getting beneficial results even with Thunderbolt 2.
Click to expand...

Definitely user error; GTX Titan X (Maxwell) via BB is about 4 times faster then D700.

I just ordered their new 2S model (TB2) mainly for the cleaner aesthetics and easier portability.

I give up on explaining this to folks, but the 4x pci-e issue is NO PROBLEM for CUDA;
The difference between TB2 and TB3 is negligible for CUDA eGPU - about 5% difference at most.

AND TB2 is something like 0 to 10% slower verses a dedicated mobo 16x slot for CUDA;
Gaming is a different story, but that isn't relevant for Macs anyways for the obvious reasons.
 
Thanks Daniel. It'd be sweet if you did a thread here on your setup, benchmarks decoding R3Ds, CPU utilization etc. I think it'd be really helpful and informative for people.

I'm considering a MBP + BB / Titan setup for this reason. Not as much CPU oomph but if the GPU can take care of the heavy lifting for R3D decodes, it could be a great compromise.
 
https://bizon-tech.com/us/bizonbox2s-egpu.html/

I received the new BizonBox 2S today...

Put in a maxwell based Titan X card...

Was curious how well eGPU CUDA acceleration was on older Mac hardware using only Thunderbolt ONE...

12-17 FPS in resolve 12.5.3 with 6K FF Dragon on an iMac 2011 - yes, this is over plain TB1 !!!



EDIT - more info

Resolve was set to a UHD timeline (no studio on this), scale to fit, full debayer



Loaded build 42 of RCX (obviously set to CUDA):
small note: RCX has also in my experience been dramatically slower then resolve.

14 sec clip, 6K FF dragon, w/ viewer set to full with DEB turned on, took about 12 secs to buffer 6 secs, and playback was a bit jerky.

same clip, viewer turned down to 1/2, played back in real-time smoothly (after waiting 2 secs to let it get a little buffer).



The iMac in question has a Sandy Bridge i7 3.4GHz w/ only 16GB of RAM - and all over Thunderbolt One !!!

Resolve was able to run the display in 10-bit color (30bit) mode thanks to switchresx.
RCX still only appears to support 8-bit color (32bit) mode on non-retina iMacs/non-trashcans


Side Note:
I've previously confirmed 10bit color does work on older iMacs such as the one I used for this TB1 eGPU test.
See: http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?140103-is-there-10bit-Mac-support-in-Redcine-X



WARNING - Additional Note:
MUST turn off sleep mode (set to never sleep) when using BizonBox2/2S - or everything goes real real bad.
Once done working I suggest: shut down, detach eGPU, power up Mac, turn sleep back on.

If sleep mode is not turned off, the Mac will crash when it attempts to go to sleep and then go into an endless auto reboot cycle.
Bizon is aware of the issue and working on it, but for now, if this happens to you (and heh, it happened to me again today, I forgot :smash:):
Startup w/out the eGPU, uninstall all drivers, shutdown, reconnect eGPU, reinstall drivers, then reboot one more time.

AKiTiO delays for their "node" eGPU enclosure may also be related to the same inherent thunderbolt GPU sleep issues Bizon is dealing with.
 
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