2018 AMD X399 Threadripper 1950X [R1K,16C,X] + Radeon VII @ 32Gbps-TB3 (Mantiz Venus) + Win10 1809 [itsage] // Radeon VII vs RTX 2080 Ti performance  

I had planned to redo dGPU vs. eGPU using newer and more powerful graphics cards. Last time I did it was nearly two years ago using GTX 980 Ti and RX 580. Intel certified Thunderbolt 3 platform such as my X99 build was actually not reliable at all for TB3 eGPU usage. After two different X99 motherboards and different BIOS versions, I have not been able to get Thunderbolt 3 running consistently. Fortunately the GC-Titan-Ridge AIC allows Thunderbolt 3 connectivity on many platforms (unofficially). Therefore I'm using my AMD X399 build for this test. You can read more details on my Thunderbolt 3 + Ryzen Threadripper build.

System specs:

ASRock X399M/Ryzen Threadripper 1950x/Radeon VII/32GB RAM/1TB SSD/GC-Titan-Ridge AIC

eGPU hardware:

Mantiz Venus + Radeon VII + 2m Thunderbolt 3 cable

Hardware pictures:

Installation steps:

There's no Thunderbolt header on the ASRock X399M motherboard so I shorted pin 3 & 5 on one end of the TB3 header cable. This forces the GC-Titan-Ridge to stay activated from a cold boot. Hot-plugging allows expansion ports to work but not the eGPU. A warm boot is required to get the eGPU going. Another crucial piece is Intel Thunderbolt Software version [17.4.77.400]. In AIDA64 other than bandwidth throughput, look at how closely matched the rest of the numbers are.

Benchmarks:

In order to test the Radeon VII in eGPU mode, I used an RX Vega 56 as dGPU. Adrenalin driver version was 19.3.1.

Radeon VII dGPU	Radeon VII eGPU

dGPU Mode	eGPU External Monitor	eGPU Loopback

Comments:

Thunderbolt 3 has its limits. Computing tasks are the most appropriate use for TB3 eGPU technology. Gaming would depend on many factors. Of the four games I chose, three are not Thunderbolt 3 friendly. I will be testing the RTX 2080 Ti on this X399 next. Results would likely be similar in terms of dGPU vs. eGPU performance.