2018 15" MacBook Pro (RP560X) [8th,6C,H] + RX 5700 XT @ 32Gbps-TB3 (Mantiz Venus) + macOS 10.15.1 & Win10 [mac_editor]  

Hi I am using Windows To Go (1809), external storage, external monitor, do I have to go through the driver uninstall and install process above as well? Thank you! 

@siyuanchu

Same steps should apply as above [do it if you see error 12]. I have not tested.

Quite amusingly, at least for the Valley benchmark, the 5700 XT performs within margin of error (slightly better) vs. Windows OpenGL. This is very different vs. the Polaris and Vega GPUs, where Windows OpenGL significantly exceeded macOS. Although Apple has deprecated OpenCL, the drivers seem to be well-made.

@mac_editor Can you re-run in Windows. I've observed Unigine benchmarks have a hard time with internal display scaling in the MacBook Pro. Maybe manually set the resolution in Windows to 1920 x 1080 first then set it to Extreme HD? Are both results internal display mode? 

@itsage

The ones I've posted were on external display. I'll test on internal in both macOS and Windows and add those results too.

@mac_editor Does your RX 5700 XT has a vBIOS switch? The performance seems low and possibly due to quiet mode. Here's my build with 2019 13" MacBook Pro + reference RX 5700 XT and external monitor performance in Windows was much higher.

@itsage

I believe it’s on OC mode. Not sure what you mean in terms of lower performance because from what I see my Valley benches are higher vs. your build. The Extreme HD preset runs DX11 1080p 8x Ultra config (same as my custom except I can choose windowed or OpenGL). They are closer to matching your desktop benches. I also ran LuxMark and scored 31K+. Will be adding pics soon.

Could you confirm position of BIOS switch for OC mode? I’ve always assumed OC mode is towards power cables. 

@mac_editor Sorry I missed the important settings "OpenGL" to compare with macOS. I saw "Windowed" mode and wondered it was due to resolution scaling. 

@itsage

Ah ok, I usually run the bench in windowed mode to easily monitor eGPU therm/clocks (I only use 1 display on Win).

@itsage could you help me fix the text alignment with the OpenGL Win bench? Not sure how to do it. Wanted them to side by side.

@mac_editor

Posted by: @mac_editor

Interestingly, OpenGL on Windows performed poorly vs. macOS (OpenGL default). Also note that on Windows, the GPU was overclocked, so the difference is greater:

Additionally, I was unable to test the OpenGL benchmark on the internal display. I experienced some other interesting symptoms: With all displays active, eGPU performance suffered on the internal display and the benchmark lagged. I had to disable the displays connected to the eGPU. After running my benches, I re-enabled my eGPU-connected monitor and tried a game. The game stuttered. Only a restart fixed the issue. Finally, looking at just Valley benches, we see approximately 20% eGPU performance loss by rendering on the internal display. For some other loads and games, this might be higher or lower.

Show Web Inspector in Safari (Command-Option-I), use the cross hairs to select the html element (the table cell containing) then experiment with attributes by turning them off or on, and changing their values.

I added "vertical-align: middle" to the style attribute of the table cell containing the text.

Can someone help me please with this problem? 

https://egpu.io/forums/pc-setup/error-12-2019-15-mbp-razer-core-x-rx-5700-xt/#post-67302

I am totally frustrated about this issue 🙁

Is there anyway I can install the original AMD drivers on bootcamp to work with 5700XT? Since it's a new card and I think it really needs newer versions of driver to work better. Bootcamp.com driver is now still the Sep version.

@florian_sturm

Can you clean up everything and try my steps above exactly as described (no HD Audio Driver, etc.) and report back?

@siyuanchu

It is possible at the cost of disabled internal GPU (if that's ok with you).

@mac_editor

I also tried it step by step with your to do list - also no success

@florian_sturm

Do you have other devices connected to the same TB controller? Disconnect all other devices in case you do. If you've tried these steps too, and looking at the steps you linked, you were doing it right before IMO, there is some other problem. Since the GPU works as expected on macOS for you, we can rule out faulty card. I suggest trying different versions of AMD drivers. The earliest driver to support Navi was 19.7.1 IIRC.

Followed this to a T and it somewhat worked. Everything was all good until I hot plugged the eGPU then I got a blue screen and a driver DMA violation error. After the restart the card is seen by the computer but under device manager it has a little ! In the picture. 

MSI afterburner Sees the card as well but it can’t get information on the card. What did I do wrong? I assume I may not have use a good ISO file. I tried to find the .295 iso but I ended up taking the one I had (.418) and deleting some files like people said too.

Posted by: @beardedbro

I tried to find the .295 iso but I ended up taking the one I had (.418) and deleting some files like people said too.

That won’t work. You need to get 1903 V1 ISO (.30 build) which you can update to .295. If hot plugging gives error, boot with eGPU plugged in. 

Posted by: @mac_editor

Posted by: @beardedbro

I tried to find the .295 iso but I ended up taking the one I had (.418) and deleting some files like people said too.

That won’t work. You need to get 1903 V1 ISO (.30 build) which you can update to .295. If hot plugging gives error, boot with eGPU plugged in. 

Where would I find this? Google doesn’t seem to help much. Total noob here trying to figure all this out.

edit: figured it out, if I kept uninstalling the KB #### then it would download the older one, finally got it to .295 so let’s see if this works.

It works! But I can’t get the eGPU to be utilized above 1%. Even when running BL3 it would rather use the 560 than the 5700.

Thanks to @itsage, my Mantiz Venus now runs at full H2D bandwidth. Discussions on the forum have long busted the myth that we are bandwidth-bound -  we are instead latency-bound. So I was not expecting any performance improvements/changes to my experience - until I tried The Crew 2 (and I'm talking external monitor connected to eGPU). I didn't gain any FPS, but with the half H2D firmware I was experiencing microstuttering enough that I stopped playing (I had to resort to using the 1070 gaming box just for this game - which ran the game just fine). Fast-forward to today. With the new firmware, no change in Windows or in AMD drivers or the GPU in question (5700 XT), the stutters were gone. On the old firmware: graphics settings were the same for both the GTX 1070 and 5700 XT (the latter being far faster of course) - yet the 1070 was more playable (FPS capped at 1080 at 60). This bears some interesting implications regarding enclosure firmware, especially with Mantiz. Their firmwares are inconsistent/vary depending on host computers it seems. In his tests @itsage got about 1100 MB/s with my board, while I was getting about 15/1600 MB/s before I sent it. @eightarmedpet I recall had about 1900 MB/s on his board. These results are hard to swallow. Post H2D firmware flash, I get the expected ~2500 MB/s. I also tested 1440 at 60 with everything else the same - there was no performance loss and no stutter on the 5700 XT.

@mac_editor Glad to hear the new firmware is working well with your 2018 15" MacBook Pro. I recall at one time Mantiz mentioned the firmware can dynamically adjust H2D depending on the host. I really don't know further detail of how it determines at what speed to run.

Life can be cruel. My RX 5700 XT just had to up and die. Fan refuses to spin on plug-in to host and macOS crashes shortly after. To eliminate all variables, I tested my (now dubbed 'trusty') Vega 64 and everything is functional.

Here's the lowdown of the event:

1. Mac + 5700 XT were in sleep mode (not deep sleep as I keep the prevent computer from sleeping automatically on AC power).
2. I decided to do some late night gaming.
3. Woke up the laptop, clicked shutdown.
4. Powered on the laptop, holding option key (hoping to boot into Bootcamp).
5. Got stuck at Apple logo - boot selector did not show.
6. Delaying worked but as soon as I plugged in, boot selector got hung up.
7. Delaying further after selecting Windows - still got stuck.
8. Booted without eGPU into macOS and then hot-plugged.
9. Craaasshes.
10. Tried with Vega 64. Worked.
11. Retried with 5700 XT. Crash.

What happened between 1 and 3? God knows. I swear I didn't do anything besides what I've mentioned. Just a shutdown. Guess I'll be RMAing the GPU. I just hope that the cause of failure was just the GPU itself - otherwise it would affect the Vega too.

I have 10 days to return on Newegg or I could RMA under warranty. Should I just return it and get a different model (Red Devil)? What would you guys recommend?

Edit: RMAing via Newegg replacement. Seemed like the simplest option.

@mac_editor I ended up in the same boat! My 5700xt died one day out of the blue, well, error 43 in windows and kernel panic in macOS. Makes me a bit nervous about Navi cards...

@eightarmedpet

Dang. Which model do you have?

@mac_editor

PowerColor AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT Red Dragon 8GB I am fairly sure it was the card due to it not working in either os but didnt have another machine to test it in. Bit scared of Navi now. I didnt see much of a performance Jump either due to loop back being far worse than Vega. 

@eightarmedpet

That’s exactly the one I have too. Hmm. 

I have build 18362.476. Is there an easy way to roll back to 18362.295 or do I have to do a complete delete and reinstall of windows bootcamp through macOS? I can't use the update recovery in windows because it is more than 10 days ago, it seems.

@sebastian_bracht

Apologies for late response. If the base install of your Windows version was .326 or newer, you will have to clean install. However, if you reached the new build by continuously updating, it might be possible to uninstall those updates manually. If you are unsure, the simplest solution is a clean install with 1903 V1 ISO.

I followed the instructions for the Bootcamp drivers,  the gpu is detected in Device managed post install but I’m getting nothing out the 5700 xt in my Razer core . Using DisplayPort for reference.

any ideas ?

Was the upgraded PSU a necessity for this card or did you just want more overhead while overclocking?

@eparlanax

Sorry for the late response - I only changed PSU for noise reasons.

Posted by: @mac_editor

Life can be cruel. My RX 5700 XT just had to up and die. Fan refuses to spin on plug-in to host and macOS crashes shortly after. To eliminate all variables, I tested my (now dubbed 'trusty') Vega 64 and everything is functional.

Here's the lowdown of the event:

1. Mac + 5700 XT were in sleep mode (not deep sleep as I keep the prevent computer from sleeping automatically on AC power).
2. I decided to do some late night gaming.
3. Woke up the laptop, clicked shutdown.
4. Powered on the laptop, holding option key (hoping to boot into Bootcamp).
5. Got stuck at Apple logo - boot selector did not show.
6. Delaying worked but as soon as I plugged in, boot selector got hung up.
7. Delaying further after selecting Windows - still got stuck.
8. Booted without eGPU into macOS and then hot-plugged.
9. Craaasshes.
10. Tried with Vega 64. Worked.
11. Retried with 5700 XT. Crash.

What happened between 1 and 3? God knows. I swear I didn't do anything besides what I've mentioned. Just a shutdown. Guess I'll be RMAing the GPU. I just hope that the cause of failure was just the GPU itself - otherwise it would affect the Vega too.

I have 10 days to return on Newegg or I could RMA under warranty. Should I just return it and get a different model (Red Devil)? What would you guys recommend?

Edit: RMAing via Newegg replacement. Seemed like the simplest option.

Happened to me again! Same series of steps. Wanted to reboot into Windows so I shut down first. I force-shutdown because macOS was taking too long (happens on Navi it seems) - have done it before countless times. Bam - GPU gone. Tried silent BIOS too - no luck. Vega still works. Could it be a macOS-induced problem?

So Powercolor responded to my email about the problem... with your typical its a driver issue, use DDU, and update BIOS steps. Just sent in a response saying I'm aware of these troubleshooting steps and that most of them don't apply to Mac/macOS. Let's see what they say. It seems they are completely unaware of the concept of eGPU (let alone on macOS) so I don't think I'll be getting anywhere. Sad.

Edit: They just said to RMA it using their website.

Based on all of this information would you recommend buying a 5700 xt for a MacBook Pro egpu setup? If not what would your next top recommendation be?

@luke_limas My recommendation is Vega 56/64 if you can find it cheap/used. The Navi GPU behaves oddly in Windows sometimes as well. Vega on the other hand has worked flawlessly for me.