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It's eGPU time!


kye
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Resolve is moving towards GPUs over CPUs, and v16 is absolutely killing my MBP 13" with its 'you-might-as-well-not-have-a-GPU' integrated Intel Iris 550, so it's time to get an eGPU!

I've done a bit of research, but no-where near enough, so I have questions.

  1. I've seen the Razor Core X chassis recommended lots of places, does anyone here use it?
  2. I've heard about bottlenecks due to the Thunderbolt connections, and potentially that it's Mac drivers and might be fixed, so is it worth getting a super-duper card?
  3. The 1080ti was the card to beat for ages, is it still right up there?  or is there another card that is better value?

Who else has taken the plunge?

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I was looking into getting an eGPU, but the cases were expensive and I didn't trust that it would give the full potential of the graphics card. I ended up just getting a desktop computer instead. I figure it cost me about twice what an eGPU system would cost, but also gives me a much faster CPU, RAM and more disc space. If I want to be able to edit on the go I simply keep the whole project folder on my Samsung T5 and I can easily switch between the two computers.

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The entire point of an eGPU is that it's an expansion for someone who needs a laptop (for whatever reason) but wants to edit quickly when they're 'docked'.  I'll use my eGPU to create proxies, and then to do final editing and grading on the original footage when I've finished the edit.  It will also be useful for doing quick edits.

Surely someone here has gone down this path?

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9 hours ago, kye said:

The entire point of an eGPU is that it's an expansion for someone who needs a laptop (for whatever reason) but wants to edit quickly when they're 'docked'.  I'll use my eGPU to create proxies, and then to do final editing and grading on the original footage when I've finished the edit.  It will also be useful for doing quick edits.

Surely someone here has gone down this path?

For those of us who are already editing from an external SSD, it's not really any different to plug the SSD into a desktop computer than it is to plug an eGPU into your laptop computer. It's more of a reverse docking. I keep all auxiliary files in my dropbox folder which are synchronized between my laptop and desktop, so the process is more or less seamless. But I get it that some people don't want to have 2 computers, especially if they're Apple users.

Lately I've been toying with the idea of doing all of my editing remotely by running Premiere on my desktop computer and casting/remote desktop it to my laptop. What would have been even better would be to use a public cloud for editing. Should be possible, and should be able to give performance much higher than what we would get on our personal computers, but I haven't heard of anyone using it or anyone providing good cloud editing solutions.

 

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14 minutes ago, webrunner5 said:

Is it any good? I have the impression that many of these solutions are quite light weight.

It's currently possible to run Adobe Premiere on Azure Cloud/AWS, but I doubt it would give any real performance advantage at the moment.

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15 hours ago, kye said:

The entire point of an eGPU is that it's an expansion for someone who needs a laptop (for whatever reason) but wants to edit quickly when they're 'docked'.  I'll use my eGPU to create proxies, and then to do final editing and grading on the original footage when I've finished the edit.  It will also be useful for doing quick edits.

Surely someone here has gone down this path?

Yeah I was thinking about going this route, but changed my mind. When I figured I could buy a second desktop or ( or a better laptop) for a little more money. 

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What about the new iPads now that they have a decent OIS? I just bought a new 11" iPad Pro for my son. And it has better specs than his 15" 2015 MBP does. Crazy stuff. The thing is a Monster, super thin, super light, the screen is damn near as big as the MBP 15". It has super thin bezels. The new A12 Processor is an ass kicker even in the iPhones.

https://browser.geekbench.com/ios_devices/57

The 12.9" one is just as crazy.

https://www.tomsguide.com/us/new-ipad-pro-benchmarks,news-28453.html

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13 hours ago, webrunner5 said:

What about the new iPads now that they have a decent OIS? I just bought a new 11" iPad Pro for my son. And it has better specs than his 15" 2015 MBP does. Crazy stuff. The thing is a Monster, super thin, super light, the screen is damn near as big as the MBP 15". It has super thin bezels. The new A12 Processor is an ass kicker even in the iPhones.

https://browser.geekbench.com/ios_devices/57

The 12.9" one is just as crazy.

https://www.tomsguide.com/us/new-ipad-pro-benchmarks,news-28453.html

Funny, I tried to give a shot on the RAM thing, but WTH in the Portuguese site there's no a single information about it : X

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Well they are 256gb or 512gb. Ours is 256gb, only one they had in stock. Not sure how much more the 512gb is, probably around 120 dollars extra? We sort of found the 12.9" one was a bit too large. The 11" has no penalty performance wise for being smaller that I know of. The larger screen would be nice for editing though, or Graphic work. We didn't buy the Apple Pen, Christ it is about 125 Dollars or more, Gulp, and sort of too big and long to boot.

The 11" one we have is almost too small size wise to me. It seems closer to the Mini. Never happy lol. ? I love the screen size, just doesn't fit my big hands as well as my son's.

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I haven't used an eGPU but have been looking into them a fair bit recently as I needed a new laptop. I was going to get a 13" MBP to have something small and light for every day use and an eGPU for editing at home/office. In the end, I bought a Razer Blade (Base) 15" with HexaCore i7 and GTX1060 GPU. This machine is fantastic BTW.

Anyway, from what I know, while you don't get the full bandwidth or potential of a desktop GPU once in an enclosure connected via TB3, it is still a massive improvement over not having an eGPU especially when your laptop only has integrated graphics. I would definitely recommend getting one!

Most enclosures should do the job quite well but in terms of GPU's, I would probably recommend getting an AMD one as Apple has abandoned Nvidia GPU support in Mojave (and probably future OS's).  I would look at getting a used RX570 or 580 in an enclosure of your choice.

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7 hours ago, A_Urquhart said:

I haven't used an eGPU but have been looking into them a fair bit recently as I needed a new laptop. I was going to get a 13" MBP to have something small and light for every day use and an eGPU for editing at home/office. In the end, I bought a Razer Blade (Base) 15" with HexaCore i7 and GTX1060 GPU. This machine is fantastic BTW.

Anyway, from what I know, while you don't get the full bandwidth or potential of a desktop GPU once in an enclosure connected via TB3, it is still a massive improvement over not having an eGPU especially when your laptop only has integrated graphics. I would definitely recommend getting one!

Most enclosures should do the job quite well but in terms of GPU's, I would probably recommend getting an AMD one as Apple has abandoned Nvidia GPU support in Mojave (and probably future OS's).  I would look at getting a used RX570 or 580 in an enclosure of your choice.

RX570 is pretty damn slow in this day and age, and even then it has to be overclocked like hell to even be half good. And then you figure they are 25 to 30 % less efficient in the add on box form, hmm.

https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.php?gpu=Radeon+RX+570&id=3741

Maybe the RX580 but..

https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.php?gpu=Radeon+RX+580&id=3736

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