Which Graphics card type is best for VUO?

Discussions
1

Will VUO perform better for 2D and 3D graphics on a high-end gaming video card or high-end workstation class video card?

2

I’m not clear on the difference between gaming and workstation cards (and I’m not sure that anybody really is).

But, basically, get something with as much VRAM and the best fillrate you can afford.

Anecdotally, Apple’s NVIDIA GeForce drivers feel, at present, a little more predictable and stable than their drivers for other chipsets.

[Edit: See Which graphics cards / GPUs does Vuo support?]  

3

Has anyone tested Vuo with an eGPU?

https://www.macworld.co.uk/feature/mac/best-egpu-mac-3673105/

https://www.macrumors.com/2018/07/18/blackmagic-egpu-hands-on/

https://barefeats.com/macbook_pro_2018_egpu.html

https://appleinsider.com/articles/18/08/25/testing-the-amd-wx-9100-video-card-with-the-15-inch-i9-macbook-pro

4

I’m also very curious about the black magic egpu. Anyone?

5

@kewl Did you ever get an answer to the benefits of an external egpu? I’m considering getting one and wondering what your thoughts were and if you had a preferred one in mind?

Safeness & greatness
M

6

No, I didn’t have the opportunity of trying out an eGPU yet. If one of my colleagues ever acquire one, I’ll be sure to borrow it to test Vuo with it.

1 Like
7

Today I walked out of the apple store with the cheaper of the 2 blackmagic eGpus.

Compatible with Mac with Thunderbolt 3 ports
Radeon Pro 580 graphics processor with 8GB of GDDR5 memory

At first glance my comps look a bit smoother to the eye, not the mega difference I was expecting but noticeable. Will definitely report back as I play with it a little more. Wondering if I should upgrade to mojave, could I get better results?

I’ll also get a chance to try the more expensive egpu, they don’t keep those in stock unfortunately:( Wonder if I can daisy chain the two? Anyway I’m looking forward to that one even more.

If anyone’s has any interesting tests they’d like me to do let me know. I won’t have long ;)

1 Like
8

Hi Mario,

As far as I know you need at least High Sierra for eGPU’s to work, but much additional work was done in Mojave, so upgrading would probably give the best results.

What Mac are you using? I think the benefits of a eGPU are the highest when you attach an external monitor to the eGPU. Mojave does support eGPU rending on the internal laptop screen, but at a performance penalty (I assume the data has to go back and forth across the PCI-E bus instead of just one way if you hook up a screen to the eGPU box).

I have been thinking and reading about eGPUs for a while now, but haven’t taken the plunge…yet…

Looking forward to hear about your experiences with eGPU(s) and Vuo!  

9

@lechbialek

I’m running a pretty top spec MacBook Pro
High Sierra 10.13.6

MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2018)
2.9 GHz Intel Core i9
32 GB 2400 MHz DDR4
Intel UHD Graphics 630 1536 MB

Interesting point about data transfer and using an external monitor, will check that tomorrow and let you know.
Scared to upgrade to Mojave just yet, has anyone else?

1 Like
10

@marioepsley

You can always run Mojave from an external USB drive and leave your High Sierra install untouched, USB 3.1gen2 is pretty fast, I use a Samsung T5 SSD for this purpose.

I have been looking at this eGPU, same is the Black Magic one but a lot cheaper, although not as quiet and less connectivity.

Around here it sells for 499 euro’s versus 695 euro for the Black Magic one at Apple