Mackbook Pro eGPU AMD vs Nvidia

[Lucas Wilkinson]

I'm currently in the market for an eGPU for my MBP. I've been looking at getting the Razer Core X or Sonnet Breakout. And then pairing either of these with a Vega 64 or a RTX 2080. With Jarred's announcement regarding full GPU debayering with Nvidia cards, what would be my best option? AMD will work better with Mac OSX, yeah? But Nvidia will be better for dealing with .r3d files, but the drivers working with OSX are an issue. That's what I understand, roughly. Any advice from some tech savvy Redusers would be great.

 

[Brandon Veen]

For now, I'd recommend sticking with something AMD until more details come out on Nvidia Cards and debayering R3D.

And that's mainly due to the unknowns that come with it, the biggest being if the R3D debayering functionality would work on MacOS or not, since it looks like it's up to the NLE's have to incorporate it into their code via Jarred's Announcement.

When can I have it?

The target release is December 2018 to NLEs for incorporation

That probably means that Final Cut X wouldn't support Nvidia cards any better than AMD since unless Apple adds native support they probably wouldn't code it in.
And it's hard to say if Adobe, Blackmagic, and the rest would program in unofficial support for it on MacOS (but it could be worth asking once the updates come out).

I'm sure once the update comes out somebody could test out the functionality of this though (who already has an RTX Workstation and eGPU MacOS setup for travelling).

 

[Blair S. Paulsen]

Wait if you can. Unless Apple decides to quit punishing it's own user base out of spite for nVidia, any CUDA dependent solution may be worthless on OSX going forward...

Cheers - #19

 

[Lucas Wilkinson]

I can definitely wait. At least until the new year. I'm running Premiere BTW, hopefully Apple and Adobe play ball. I think it will be worth it. r3d playback is my main concern.

 

[Misha Engel]

Try to sell the MBP or try bootcamp and run Windows on it.

 

[Blair S. Paulsen]

It does appear that Apple is all about AMD/Metal. Adobe has placed their bet on CUDA/nVidia. I still consider Windows virus prone bloatware that wants to install crap you don't need at every update, but it's a lot better than it used to be (faint praise). I'd rather be in OSX on the UNIX kernel, but is working in the media creation space without nVidia/CUDA/Adobe going to remain viable for heavy duty workflows? Especially with R3D files...

Cheers - #19

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

NVidia doesn't work as eGPU on OSX at this time. Apple and NVidia are not getting along and we don't even have recent updated OSX drivers anymore. And don't plan on any resolution to this anytime soon. There's a lot more going on here than most realize and it's only going to escalate as Apple and NVidia are going head to head in terms of machine learning and automation. It's not just the little spat over which GPUs are being used in Apple products as many like to talk about.

 

[Lucas Wilkinson]

NVidia doesn't work as eGPU on OSX at this time. Apple and NVidia are not getting along and we don't even have recent updated OSX drivers anymore. And don't plan on any resolution to this anytime soon. There's a lot more going on here than most realize and it's only going to escalate as Apple and NVidia are going head to head in terms of machine learning and automation. It's not just the little spat over which GPUs are being used in Apple products as many like to talk about.

So....Vega 64 it is?

Anyone have any word on updated AMD cards? Are they coming?

 

[Blair S. Paulsen]

Whether Apple and nVidia are still miffed about past issues, or girding for direct competition, or something else entirely - the impact on this community is the same. Jeff suggests that resolution is unlikely, I believe him.

So which do you want more: OSX on the UNIX kernel or nVidia/CUDA on Windows? The days of having both may be over...

Cheers - #19

 

[Lucas Wilkinson]

Whether Apple and nVidia are still miffed about past issues, or girding for direct competition, or something else entirely - the impact on this community is the same. Jeff suggests that resolution is unlikely, I believe him.

So which do you want more: OSX on the UNIX kernel or nVidia/CUDA on Windows? The days of having both may be over...

Cheers - #19

To be honest I've been contemplating dropping Red lately, which would solve the AMD vs nVidia problem. I got kinda screwed by their new CS team and it's left a bitter taste. Unfortunately, the only alternative is Arri, and it's just prohibitively, expensive for what it is. The cameras are great, but, I feel I'm being treated like a number more and more as time goes on. Plus, I'm not sure whether I should use my Hydrogen as a paperweight or keep it in my top pocket in case I'm victim of an assignation attempt.

I'll leave it as long as I possibly can, but I guess it looks like I'll settle for an AMD solution. It's a shame AMD and Red can't nut out a similar deal with regard to GPU processing. I guess you can't have your cake and eat it too.

 

[Misha Engel]

So....Vega 64 it is?

Anyone have any word on updated AMD cards? Are they coming?

https://www.umart.com.au/goods.php?id=39657

We have 3 of them and are happy with it.

When you want to spend less try a VEGA 64

https://au.pcpartpicker.com/product/7nYWGX/asus-radeon-rx-vega-64-8gb-rog-strix-video-card-rog-strix-rxvega64-o8g-gaming

For performance numbers check pugetsystems and look at the performance of the VEGA64

Barefeats.com can give you some perfomance numbers on MacOS.

 

[Lucas Wilkinson]

I just stumbled across this comparison. It looked favourable until the last graph....

http://barefeats.com/macbook_pro_2018_egpu.html

Is .r3d playback so CPU heavy that a beefed up graphics card makes no difference? It seems incredible that it makes no impact at all. Am I right in assuming that I shouldn’t even bother with an eGPU solution, given this information.

 

[Giles Harvey]

I just stumbled across this comparison. It looked favourable until the last graph....

http://barefeats.com/macbook_pro_2018_egpu.html

Is .r3d playback so CPU heavy that a beefed up graphics card makes no difference? It seems incredible that it makes no impact at all. Am I right in assuming that I shouldn’t even bother with an eGPU solution, given this information.

Hmmm disappointing. I was hoping for more here.

 

[Misha Engel]

I just stumbled across this comparison. It looked favourable until the last graph....

http://barefeats.com/macbook_pro_2018_egpu.html

Is .r3d playback so CPU heavy that a beefed up graphics card makes no difference? It seems incredible that it makes no impact at all. Am I right in assuming that I shouldn’t even bother with an eGPU solution, given this information.

.R3D is so heavily encrypted that it bottle necks the CPU, CineformRAW 8k (also wavelet codec) runs on the most powerfull MacBook CPU, but then the TB3 will be the bottle neck.

 

[DJ Meyer]

If you're wedded to OSX laptop and your primary reason for wanting eGPU is .r3d, you may want to try to score a used Rocket-X.

Red isn't actively developing for them anymore by the looks of it (switching to GPU and CUDA) but right now they still alleviate a lot of work from the CPU in RedCineX and apps that use it.

Rocket-X is not the future but in CPU-constrained scenarios right now it is still a help. Just know that it may not support future sensors.

We have one attached to a iMac Pro and when activated it drops the CPU usage to around 3-4 cores during Full Debayer playback of 8K.