eGPU >> GeForce RTX 2080 Ti connected to MBP 15" TB3 2019

[Ronny Langer]

Hey Folks,

any recommendations about running a NVIDIA RTX 2080 Ti over TB3 as a external GPU?

- Sonnet Echo Express III a good choice, or is it a bottleneg?
- Resolve 15 running at a Macbook 15", 2.6, 16TB, 2019 for DIT and Dailies Transcodes as a mobile Workstation

Anybody runnig this combination and can provide realworld Resolve fps???

Thanks
Ronny

 

[Misha Engel]

As long as you use MacOS 10.13 or older it might work.
Apple banned NVidia since MacOS 10.14 (GTX680 and older might still work).

When you run windows 10 on your Macbook it also might work.

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Won’t work. Not at all. NVidia GPUs don’t work as eGPUs on Mac... Even with older MacOS... There were a couple hacks possible on some older OS versions, but they were never 100% and often specific to certain GPUs.

Additionally, the NVidia driver base on the Mac is seriously dated and does not support any of the newer GPUs, RTX and all that.

So, the combination will work well if you run Windows. Or get an AMD GPU.

Thunderbolt 3 enclosures are a potential bottleneck, but this is not something that will slow computational tasks, nor many other tasks on such a system as the rest of the system isn’t truly up to snuff for maximizing what you can do with a GPU like that. And that’s not a dig at the MacBook, it’s the same on comparable PC hardware from any system vendor.