As video editors/content editors, having a decent graphics card will make the difference in processing power. This translates to cutting your export time from 1hr to just about 10mins. This also allows you to make your video proxies in a faster timing. Your workflow will thank you for it(and so will your wife! no more late nights in the office!)
It's been awhile since I've last had an entry and I thought that I might kickstart it all with a new EGPU build that I've had success with.
I wanted to switch to an AMD Radeon graphics card as I'd have to shift my mac OS version up from High Sierra(the last OS to allow Nvidia egpu cards). Hence, I bought one and had my setup replaced. But not without hiccups~
I posted my egpu setup back in 2019, 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 uses a mac, I needed to change my old setup which was windows-only. (Im quite surprised that graphics-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...
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)
Here's pictures of the hardware. The AMD radeon frontier edition card is inside the Mantiz Venuz enclosure
Installation steps
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)
Comments (eg: how has the eGPU improved your workflow & games)
-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 15(Primary, Mac)
Adobe After Effects 15(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! 😁
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