I posted back in 2017, So here we are again, amidst the pandemic situation, I needed more juice in my system for 4k video editing and mogra. Since my workplace used a mac, I needed to change my old setup which was windows-only. (Im quite surprised that cards in 2021 are soooo pricey & there's no stocks everywhere unless you buy 2nd hand). Since my MBP is dual-gpu(the troublesome kind) and no one uses Amd FE card, I figured this post would prove useful.
*Had to overhaul my old enclosure, gpu & psu coz it was lost when I shifted to a new apartment (had a feeling my siblings sold it!)
System specs
2014 Macbook Pro 15" retina
Intel Core i7-4870HQ @ 2.5GHz
GT750M 2gb -dGPU
AMD Radeon RX Vega FE Air-Cooled 16GB - eGPU
Mac OS 10.15.3(Catalina) & Windows 10 Pro (1903)
eGPU hardware
Mantiz Venus 550w
Apple Tb3 to Tb2 adapter
Apple Tb2 cable
LG IPS FullHD 21" 60Hz monitor
* The amd FE card needed alot of power, hence i needed to upgrade my enclosure
*I replaced the my enclosure's stock PSU to an Enermax revolution SFX 650w(here's the video i found from youtube, thank u egpu.it)
Hardware pictures (Pictures attached)
Installation steps (what did you do to get it all going?)
Installation for Mac OS.
-Disabled SIP(boot into safe mode> csrutil disable>reboot)
-Plugged-in the egpu during the 'purge-wrangler' installation. Reboot.
-Installed 'purge-nvda' for amd cards. Reboot.
-Done. Whenever I need egpu for Mac OS, I just cold-boot into mac with the egpu plugged-in. (There should be an egpu icon on top right of screen bar.(scroll below for my Mac OS optimization)
Installation for Windows 10.
(eGPU disconnected, create restore point after every change)
-Use BCA to install windows 10(1903)
-Download AMD drivers from bootcampdrivers.com
-I basically followed this installation steps from youtube. (Followed it to a tee except using DDU to uninstall Nvidia drivers)
-Done. At this point, windows should be running with egpu attached(with AMD adrenalin installed)!
*Wow I am so surprised at how easy it was to setup my egpu on both OS. I don't even have an error 12. I was planning to use Piperx10's guide in case I had that error.
Benchmarks (Include a CUDA-Z or AIDA64 bandwidth pic. Optional: Valley, 3dmark, noting if it's on internal/external LCD )
(Windows Benchmarks(External LG monitor 60Hz)
Mac Benchmarks:
(Last pic is the benchmark from "Rise of tomb raider", "Very High" preset, Vsync off)
Comments (eg: how has the eGPU improved your workflow or gaming)
-For Mac OS, I find that if you go to display settings and change the default display to your external monitor(system pref> display> drag the white bar from your internal LCD to the external monitor), it made my eGPU run faster.
I prev tried to use ScreenResX but it ONLY increased my macs performance on GAMES. Rendering & playback was super slow(slower than when I used my dGPU). So i reverted back. Money wasted.
-On Windows, Just change display settings to only display on the external monitor. It will increase your performance.
I also used amd adrenalin to "auto-undervolt" whenever I'm attaching usb devices in my enclosure.
Softwares I used this eGPU with:
Adobe Premiere Pro 14.9(Primary, Mac)
Adobe After Effects 14.9(Mac)
Adobe Encoder(Mac)
AVID Media Composer Ultimate(Mac)
Blender 2.9.2(Windows)
*Make sure to enable "Prefer Egpu" on these softwares. Then in settings, set the "rendering & playback" option to Metal(or even OpenCL)
* Playback in software: Previously I had to edit with proxies on 1/4 resolution while not in office. Now I can do 4k native at full resolution with little to no lag even with transitions, grades, gfx dynamic links.
* Export in software: Previously I had to wait 1hour+ to export 4k video with grade & transitions on a 9mins video(GT750). Now its reduced to 9-10mins. (Slightly longer time on MC)
I hope someone saves time and finds this useful. Enjoy the freedom! 