Are there any eGPUS (besides Blackmagic) that can power the LG Ultrafine 5K?  

@kallaway1

No other solutions yet. If you don't have a Blackmagic eGPU then you need a Thunderbolt 3 add-in card.
https://egpu.io/forums/builds/late-2018-mac-mini-wx-910032gbps-tb3-mantiz-venus-thunderbolt-3-monitor-output-macos-10-14-1-itsage/

The Blackmagic might help with the heat. I don't know for sure. In the 2019 13" MacBook Pro, Both the internal display and any display connected to a Thunderbolt port of the MBP are powered by the iGPU. Connecting an LG 5K display tripples the number of displays (from one to three). I don't know how much that increases heat. There's also the heat of the Thunderbolt controller converting DisplayPort signals to Thunderbolt signals. The Blackmagic eGPU should reduce the heat from both of those sources but I don't know by how much.

I'm running the new LG UltraFine 5K off a Razer Core X with a Radeon VII and a Mac mini 2018.

Connecting the display to the eGPU is a Moshi USB-C to DisplayPort Cable
https://www.moshi.com/en/product/usb-c-to-displayport-cable-5k/white

It works fine (puts out 5k), but I'm not getting the full benefit of the display. Speakers and camera is not working.

@palad20 Good to hear the Moshi cable can power the new LG 5K UltraFine from the eGPU DisplayPort connection.

I wish I had the second gen... le sigh. Good to hear it's power able by the Mooshi cable, V1 defo isn't (have tried).

@palad20

Can you use SwitchResX to verify that the output timing is 900+ MHz? macOS doesn't actually tell the user what the output signal is anywhere. It's possible that you have a 5K frame buffer but are only outputting a 4K signal (533 MHz).

Also, because DisplayPort 1.4 has only 75% the bandwidth of dual DisplayPort 1.2 (what Thunderbolt connection to LG 5K displays uses), the max color depth is reduced from 10 bpc to 8 bpc.

If the Moshi cable works, then maybe the Huawei VR 2 Computer Connection Cable can enable USB functions of the display? The description of the cable says DisplayPort 1.2, but we haven't proven yet that the LG UltraFine 5K gen 2 supports 5K over DisplayPort 1.4, and DisplayPort 1.4 is only 50% faster than DisplayPort 1.2 so the cable might be able to transmit a DisplayPort 1.4 signal. The cable has worked with the LG UltraFine 4K display.

@joevt

You're right. I´m getting the following in SwitchResX

@palad20

I think you're looking at the EDID of the display. Can you post it here? I would like to see if there's any other useful info in there. 522.61 MHz matches CVT-RB v2 timing for 4K.

To see the timing info for the current resolution, double-click the current resolution in the Current Resolutions tab in SwitchResX.

I wonder if you can create a 5K resolution with lower refresh rate such as 30 Hz? SwitchResX lets you create custom timings and scales. Use CVT-RB or CVT-RB v2 timing to create a 5120x2880 30Hz resolution.

EDID report generated by SwitchResX Version 4.9.0  for display LG UltraFine

 

-----------------------------------------------------

------------------- MAIN EDID BLOCK -----------------

-----------------------------------------------------

 

EDID Version........1.4

Manufacturer........GSM (1E6D)

Product ID..........23412 (5B74)

Serial Number.......

 

Manufactured........Week 6 of year 2019

Max H Size..........60 cm

Max V Size..........34 cm

Gamma...............2.20

 

Display Supported Features:

---------------------------

Power Management: Standby

 

 

Display type:

-------------

RGB 4:4:4 Color Encoding Format

Display is non continuous frequency

Default color space is not sRGB standard

 

 

Input signal & sync:

--------------------

Digital Input

10 Bits per Primary Color

DisplayPort interface

 

 

Color info:

-----------

Red x = 0.680  Green x = 0.265  Blue x = 0.150  White x = 0.312

Red y = 0.320  Green y = 0.690  Blue y = 0.060  White y = 0.329

 

Established Timings:

--------------------

640 × 480  @ 60Hz

 

Manufacturer Reserved Timings:

------------------------------

 

Standard Timing Identification:

-------------------------------

 

Monitor Description blocks:

---------------------------

Descriptor #0 - Timing definition:

Mode = 3840 × 2160 @ 59.999Hz

Pixel Clock............. 522.61 MHz Non-Interlaced

 

                       Horizontal Vertical

Active.................. 3840 pixels 2160 lines

Front Porch.............    8 pixels   1 lines

Sync Width..............   32 pixels   8 lines

Back Porch..............   40 pixels  53 lines

Blanking................   80 pixels  62 lines

Total................... 3920 pixels 2222 lines

Scan Rate............... 133.319 kHz 59.999 Hz

 

Image Size..............  600 mm 340 mm

Border..................    0 pixels   0 lines

 

Sync: Digital separate with

* Negative vertical polarity

* Positive horizontal polarity

 

Descriptor #1 - Timing definition:

Mode = 2560 × 1440 @ 60.000Hz

Pixel Clock............. 234.59 MHz Non-Interlaced

 

                       Horizontal Vertical

Active.................. 2560 pixels 1440 lines

Front Porch.............    8 pixels   1 lines

Sync Width..............   32 pixels   8 lines

Back Porch..............   40 pixels  32 lines

Blanking................   80 pixels  41 lines

Total................... 2640 pixels 1481 lines

Scan Rate...............  88.860 kHz 60.000 Hz

 

Image Size..............  600 mm 340 mm

Border..................    0 pixels   0 lines

 

Sync: Digital separate with

* Negative vertical polarity

* Positive horizontal polarity

 

Descriptor #2 - Serial number:

 

 

Descriptor #3 - Monitor name:

LG UltraFine

 

 

-----------------------------------------------------

------------ EXTENSION EDID BLOCK   1 ---------------

-----------------------------------------------------

 

DID-EXT: Display ID Extension:

------------------------------

(only partly interpreted)

DisplayID version........1.2

 

 

 

DisplayID Block Type = Detailed Timing Block type 1:

Detailed Timing #1 in Block

Mode = 3840 × 2160 @ 59.999Hz

Pixel Clock............. 522.61 MHz Non-Interlaced

 

                       Horizontal Vertical

Active.................. 3840 pixels 2160 lines

Front Porch.............    8 pixels   1 lines

Sync Width..............   32 pixels   8 lines

Back Porch..............   40 pixels  53 lines

Blanking................   80 pixels  62 lines

Total................... 3920 pixels 2222 lines

Scan Rate............... 133.319 kHz 59.999 Hz

 

Is default Mode

Sync: Digital separate with

* Negative vertical polarity

* Positive horizontal polarity

 

Detailed Timing #2 in Block

Mode = 3200 × 1800 @ 59.999Hz

Pixel Clock............. 364.47 MHz Non-Interlaced

 

                       Horizontal Vertical

Active.................. 3200 pixels 1800 lines

Front Porch.............    8 pixels   1 lines

Sync Width..............   32 pixels   8 lines

Back Porch..............   40 pixels  43 lines

Blanking................   80 pixels  52 lines

Total................... 3280 pixels 1852 lines

Scan Rate............... 111.119 kHz 59.999 Hz

 

Is non-default Mode

Sync: Digital separate with

* Negative vertical polarity

* Positive horizontal polarity

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

-----------------------------------------------------

------------ EXTENSION EDID BLOCK   2 ---------------

-----------------------------------------------------

 

DID-EXT: Display ID Extension:

------------------------------

(only partly interpreted)

DisplayID version........1.2

 

 

DisplayID Block Type = Detailed Timing Block type 1:

Detailed Timing #1 in Block

Mode = 2560 × 2880 @ 59.996Hz

Pixel Clock............. 483.37 MHz Non-Interlaced

 

                       Horizontal Vertical

Active.................. 2560 pixels 2880 lines

Front Porch.............    8 pixels   1 lines

Sync Width..............   32 pixels   8 lines

Back Porch..............  120 pixels  73 lines

Blanking................  160 pixels  82 lines

Total................... 2720 pixels 2962 lines

Scan Rate............... 177.710 kHz 59.996 Hz

 

Is non-default Mode

Sync: Digital separate with

* Negative vertical polarity

* Positive horizontal polarity

 

5210x2280 at 30 hz

 

-----------------------------------------------------

------------ EXTENSION EDID BLOCK   3 ---------------

-----------------------------------------------------

 

DID-EXT: Display ID Extension:

------------------------------

(only partly interpreted)

DisplayID version........1.1

 

DisplayID Block Type = Detailed Timing Block type 1:

Detailed Timing #1 in Block

Mode = 5120 × 2880 @ 30.000Hz

Pixel Clock............. 455.68 MHz Non-Interlaced

 

                       Horizontal Vertical

Active.................. 5120 pixels 2880 lines

Front Porch.............    8 pixels  27 lines

Sync Width..............   32 pixels   8 lines

Back Porch..............   40 pixels   6 lines

Blanking................   80 pixels  41 lines

Total................... 5200 pixels 2921 lines

Scan Rate...............  87.631 kHz 30.000 Hz

 

Is non-default Mode

Sync: Digital separate with

* Negative vertical polarity

* Positive horizontal polarity

 

DisplayID Block Type = ASCII String:

SwitchResX