Hey All,
I recently decided to upgrade to an eGPU hoping to improve the performance on my Late 2013 Mac Pro without having to resort to a new system. I do video editing/motion graphics. I got it up and running and renders seem to perform much faster, but playback stutters when I have either software in GPU Acceleration (Metal) mode. In AE at least, it just seems to be the audio playback that stutters video looks fine, but both seem jittery in Premiere.
Have I made a terrible mistake here? Any advice on how best to make use of an eGPU on my system would be greatly appreciated! Details below:
Mac OS Catalina 10.15.5
Mac Pro Late 2013
3.5 GHZ - 6-Core Intel Xeon E5
64 GB 1866 MHz DDr3
Internal GPU Dual AMD FirePro D700
EGPU Setup:
AMD Radeon Pro 5700 XT
Razercore X Enclosure
Apple TB 2 >3 Adapter, and TB2 Cable
UPDATE: I've made some progress routing the monitor through the GPU and also plugging my headphones straight into the monitor. (Had audio running through a usb Scarlett box). But still a little shaky at times, wondering if there's anything else I should be doing to maximize this setup. Thanks for this amazing resource everyone!
To do: Create my signature with system and expected eGPU configuration information to give context to my posts. I have no builds.
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Hi, I'm in the same boat. I just bought a Sapphire RX 5700 XT Nitro+ and an Asus Station Pro Case. Final Cut works well. Unfortunately not Premiere. Not sure, but on the Adobe Homepage they have list of supported cards for the Mac. And the AMD RX 5700 XT is not yet part of it. Even Apple just start supporting it. So I hope with one of the next Premiere Updates it will work for us too.
To do: Create my signature with system and expected eGPU configuration information to give context to my posts. I have no builds.
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@matthew_farrell, I've had some similar experiences with Metal.
I'm a Mac user who purchased an ePGU ( Razer Core X Chroma + Radeon 5700XT ) for use with Premiere. After spending the past few days experimenting with various configurations, I can confirm that I'm having better luck with Premiere 2019 than with 2020, but here's the rub: While using Metal, my eGPU usage when rendering or making H264 exports is ~45% faster (pretty sweet!), BUT my general playback is choppy (big problem!). If I switch to OpenCL, the playback is perfect but the render/export boosts are reduced to ~13%. And to be clear, this is while using Premiere 2019. In Premiere 2020, render/export speeds are comparable to 2019 but playback is choppy regardless of whether I'm using OpenCL or Metal.
I should also mention that I'm using a 2017 iMac in Catalina so sending my primary monitor through the eGPU isn't an option. Also, the playback is unaffected whether or not I have a second monitor connected via HDMI. I don't have any display port monitors around to know whether that has an impact though I ordered some dummy headless display ports to see if they'll make a difference.
Where did you guys net out with this? Has anyone had better luck or any suggestions to improve upon this? It's not practical to keep switching back and forth between OpenCL and Metal and smooth playback is essential. And staying solely within OpenCL for the ~13% boost doesn't really justify the expense of the eGPU + card.
Any thoughts or help is greatly appreciated! Thanks!
Razer Core X Chroma + Radeon 5700XT. iMac 2017, Catalina.