DOUBLE eGPU Performance in macOS Catalina with RX 5700XT (Geekbench and Final Cut Pro Results)

#eGPU #2013MacPro #RX5700XT
Do you really get more performance from your RX 5700XT equipped eGPU in macOS Catalina by simply plugging in a second monitor? Let's find out!
I test the eGPU with the 2013 Mac Pro 6,1 Trashcan, a 2019 15" MacBook Pro, and a 2018 13" MacBook Pro - using Geekbench 5 and some real-world Final Cut Pro X tests.
Fascinating results!
Amazon Links - As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases
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4k HDMI Headless Display: amzn.to/3fmdLnn
4k DisplayPort Headless Display: amzn.to/2PeV1LV
Razer Core X Chroma eGPU Enclosure: amzn.to/311C98w
Sapphire RX 5700 XT Nitro+: amzn.to/33heyU4

[@ben_silver]

Great vid man, glad you took the time to cover this. Incredible results in Final Cut pro, not just Geekbench.

[@ConstantGeekery]

Thanks 😊 I wasn’t expecting such a dramatic result!

[@ben_silver]

@@ConstantGeekery Yeh, when I did first tried it I was VERY suprised. It would be nice if the bug allowed for a third dummy adaptor to acheive 3x results HAHA! :P

[@LJC94512]

I have no idea how this video showed up in my recommendation, but I am glad I did. I have the same setup as you and I will want to get a second display now

[@ConstantGeekery]

😁 thank you. You only need a cheap headless dummy display - Amazon sell them for $10 or so... unless you want some extra screen real estate of course!

[@tunnelvision_space]

Wow those were the figures I expected from your first bench testing. So glad you took the time to do this thank you so much 🙏🌹❤️. Waiting for my Chroma & 5700XT Sapphire Pulse. They don’t have such things in Thailand 🇹🇭:(

[@mattmckey5180]

Really enjoying your videos, especially around the Mac Pro 6,1 and eGPUs. Keep ‘em coming!

[@ConstantGeekery]

Thank you.

[@glenmeredith8027]

I love how thorough your videos are!

[@WarriorsPhoto]

I've seen this on other channels. Thus I'll use it on my iMac for a little bit better performance. Thank you sir.

[@theoystercave]

Well.. just stumbled on this and my RX 580 just about doubled its Geekbench score with a ATOMOS monitor plugged in as well as my standard monitor

[@winterkhan]

Very important findings, thank you very much. I think Mac Pro 2013 opens all bandwidth (maybe it limited before for power and heat problems) when it realizes that dual monitors are switched.

[@MrVh78]

Ran this test on my gaming box rx580 connected to a MacBook pro-2013. two monitors 45000 on geekbench5 one monitor 30000. Lol, its true, always run two monitors so didn't realize, removed one and the score dropped bigtime!

[@captaron]

I had a charging issue with my 2015 MacBook pro which was present for at least 5 years and only now it has been fixed. It had something to do with boosting the charging for iPhone's above the 1amp and it would just drop but you could disable this in terminal "sudo killall -STOP -c usbd".

[@saguilar6599]

This could be that thunderbolt card(interface) might do some sort of compression or modification in order and undo once on the dock to transfer at the promised speeds and undo once on the dock side, and once the processing job is done it might does the same job leading to carry the extra load on the cpu and gpu internally (as seen in many videos here). So if you configure the software to use the external gpu to do most hard processing and instead of bring it back to your main computer it renders it at docking station and display its native result in what you might call local resources. I’m no computer geek at all but that’s probably my only logical conclusion I can come with. Peace out.

[@Graphics_PAD]

Maybe Apple is trying to decide whether to fix this in Mac OS 11 or fix the battery icon?

[@ConstantGeekery]

😂

[@AngellaMae23]

I can’t tell you how relieved I am to have found ur channel. After hours, no days lol of this crazy rabbit hole !! Idk if it would h possible to ask u a couple quesito a about my situation and what I’m trying to accomplish. What you say and explain make me feel much more comfortable getting advice from u. If there’s anyway to do this. Please lmk how would be best for you. Sorry to be so forward. :/.

[@ConstantGeekery]

Happy to help if I can, so far as my time permits: [e-mail]

[@AngellaMae23]

I sent an email. It was from my Apple email addresss. Sorry about that.

[@DavidJBradshaw]

Did you ever get the Mac Pro to boot with the eGPU plugged in?

[@ConstantGeekery]

Yes, works fine if you plug into the bottom left Thunderbolt port. I don’t have the onboard GPUs connected at all now - just use the eGPU.

[@AeonSaturnal]

Anyone try this with a Vega 56?

[@ClassicalTechnology]

Great video- I’m testing a 2013 Mac Pro, 12 core with D700s. I already have a core x and 5700xt for another system, do you think it’s worth it to add it for fcpx? Will it use all 3 gpu effectively or I shouldn’t bother?

[@ConstantGeekery]

In my experience it will only use one of the internal cards, but depending on the type of footage you’re working with, the 5700XT can speed things up both in render and timeline performance. Doesn’t fit every workflow, but can’t hurt to try.

[@ClassicalTechnology]

Constant Geekery what footage do you think you could help? Red raw and canon R5 possibly?

[@ConstantGeekery]

Classical Technology I haven’t used either of those. I work in 4K with Blackmagic Raw (converted to ProRes) or ProRes 422 at 600Mbps with my BMPCC 4K, and H.264 10-bit or 8-bit from my Panasonic G9. FCPX works best with ProRes. The eGPU speeds most things up, but I found it doesn’t make much difference background rendering H.264. It does make a big difference to timeline performance with 4K H.264. Bear in mind that my Mac Pro has the D300s. Overall, the eGPU speeds things up, but it’s not always fully utilised. It does improve timeline performance and system stability. Due to the Thunderbolt 2 bandwidth, the performance is not night and day. If you already have the kit, it’s worth giving it a try for your workload, but I wouldn’t recommend going and spending loads of money on it if you already have the D700s.

[@ClassicalTechnology]

Constant Geekery I originally tested the 5700xt egpu with a iMac Pro with Vega 56. In fcpx, it would use the egpu with certain effects like denoise, and a bit when exporting, but it’s likely better in resolve I think for multiple gpu

[@jennifermedia6288]

Does it have to have Catalina?

[@ConstantGeekery]

Yes, if you’re using a RX 5000 series card. You can use Polaris and Vega cards on Mojave.

[@VIBStudio]

Do you see a difference in video encoding in H265 - HEVC if you use eGPU with FCPX or Compressor? What is the difference say at 1080p 50fps with and without eGPU?

[@nessx007]

Is there any chance you use Adobe After Effects on Mac? I'm thinking of adding a eGPU to my set-up and I use AE a lot, but I'm not sure how or if the performance would be worth it. Couldn't find many videos on the topic, most people focus on Premiere for eGPUs. A video on the matter would be incredible!

[@ConstantGeekery]

I don't use After Effects I'm afraid. Sorry 😐

[@learnilluminatedrealitystu5571]

I have a silly question.. is there a performance loss with no monitor or dummy adp. attached in other apps that let you select the egpu directly like davinci and 3d rendering apps? - There seems to be a confusion around "IF" you need to plug anything at all in. other than select get info and set prefer egpu..

[@ConstantGeekery]

In my experience it makes a difference system-wide, but I haven’t retested with the latest OS update. Certainly, eGPU works best when you work on a display attached directly to it (regardless of the Prefer eGPU setting). For the sake of $15 for a dummy plug, I keep that in all the time.

[@naomihalliday-cox6614]

Commented For KZbin History

[@gregoryedwards1422]

I did a ton of research before I got my 5700 XT and Razer Core X to power my MBP 15" 2018.. unforunately no matter how many additional dummy display ports/dummy HDMI heads in addition to my external monitor I can't get above 35,000 on Geekbench :( Major buzzkill after spending all this money.

[@gregoryedwards1422]

Update: After I set my dummy display port resolutions at 4k, the score jumped to 66,000. Unfortunately my monitor is still 1080p so "mirror display trick" won't work. In this case, am I safe to assume that if I invest in a 4k monitor, I will see better performance coming from the egpu?

[@BleedingCrypto]

Could this eGPU solution improve OBS Streaming App running a MBP ?

[@ConstantGeekery]

As far as I’m aware, the only hardware encoder supported by both macOS and OBS is Intel Quick Sync, so I don’t think GPU is used at all. Quick Sync is part of the CPU. (And a note for anyone on 2013 Mac Pro: these Xeons don’t have Quick Sync).

[@mariogonzales5184]

Just got a Radeon RX 5700XT but when I pull up About This Mac the eGPU isn't named in the Graphics area nor is it coming up when I go to Get Info on my fcpx, any suggestions???

[@ConstantGeekery]

If the eGPU is working, you will see an icon on the top right area of the menu bar. If you are using a 2013 Mac Pro (or any Mac with Thunderbolt 2), you need to install purge-wrangler first. If it is a 2013 Mac Pro, use the bottom left Thunderbolt 2 port. You need to be running Catalina to use a 5700XT, as the drivers don’t exist in earlier versions of macOS. Without more information about your equipment it’s difficult to help more.

[@moetarded7757]

What are your thoughts about putting Titan Ridge thunderbolt in Mac Pro 5.1? Currently using Egpu with my 2012.

[@ConstantGeekery]

I haven't personally tried it (because I sold my 5,1 before it became a thing). When you say you are using eGPU with your 2012, do you mean you have it working?

[@moetarded7757]

@@ConstantGeekery Yes. In fact I can use 2 eGPU's with davinci resolve (obviously not FCPX. but I am asking around. (Sorry for late reply. Also looking for a way to do networking between multiple Titan Ridge cards and my fleet of 2009's, not much luck yet)

[@robertsillitoe]

Side question - On the MacPro, can you have two monitors attached to the eGPU and still use the HDMI port - so you can use three monitors? The multiple Thunderbolt bus thingthanks is a pain with the equipment I have, so it would be useful to only use one thunderbolt port for two monitors thanks

[@ConstantGeekery]

You mean the HDMI port on the Mac Pro? Yes, you can do that. Only downside to the onboard HDMI is it can only do 4K at 30Hz, but if you’re running 1080p or 1440p, that should work fine. I’ve had no issues using the DisplayPort at the same time as eGPU also.

[@robertsillitoe]

Constant Geekery okay great, thanks

[@NotAnotherDiet]

Fascinating! MBP15 faster over TB2 compared to MBP13 over TB3, but FCPX faster on MBP13. Any reason why?

[@ConstantGeekery]

I guess you mean Mac Pro and TB2, not MBP15... but yes, benchmarking the card doesn't require massive data throughput, whereas rendering on FCPX does, so the MacBooks with Thunderbolt 3 have an advantage in video editing. Also, the MacBooks have the T2 chip onboard which is used to accelerate encoding and decoding of certain video codecs (like H.264), which is why they are faster to background render the H.264 footage. Hope that all makes sense.

[@MirkoDN]

I have a MacPro 6.1 with 2 x D700, 12 cores XEON, 64 giga ram, thunderbolt display 27'' and Samsung UHD 28''. Which eGPU are you suggesting to me and, in case, which adapter thunderbolt 2 / thunderbolt 3? I'm using it mainly for software like Solidworks which requires nVidia Quadro graphic cards.

[@ConstantGeekery]

There are other videos on my channel showing the setup - I don’t have any recommendations per se, I can only relate my experience with the equipment I have. (Razer Core X with RX5700XT and Apple TB3 to TB2 adapter) According to Solidworks’ support page, it only runs on Windows and they don’t officially support running it under Bootcamp. Likewise, it specifically needs nVidia cards, as you say, which are not supported on the Mac Pro.

[@TheAppleLab]

going to test this on my vega64...

[@ConstantGeekery]

Let us know how you get on. Drivers for Vega architecture are pretty mature, but still, it would be good to know.

[@TheAppleLab]

@@ConstantGeekery : while im really confused about the highly vary results in different combination, i think geekbench is a bit**...scores from 20k to a one timer 50k let me think that the results are not representive. doesnt matter if i connect the main display to HDMI or DP and another one to both of them. in addition i have to say that my LG UW 43" display have 4xHDMI and just one native DP. second display is an old acer 22" with just DVI and VGA, i connect the mac / razer core x with the help of an DVI to DP adapter so far. here are my results at geekbench : browser.geekbench.com/user/241181

[@ConstantGeekery]

Jörg Henninges Interesting. Looks like you are fairly consistently seeing around 40k in Metal - the 50k score is OpenCL, which is always a little different. Before that I see quite a few scores at 20k - did you do something different to get the 40k scores? Either way, 40,000 seems a little low for a Vega64, even taking the Thunderbolt 2 connection into account.

[@TheAppleLab]

@@ConstantGeekery : yes, i always have to restart the mac to get the 40s. the 20s was always one after each other, without restarting. are you familiar with "CL!ng" ? a tool what measure the bandwith between a component and the rest of the system. my TB2 connected vega64 never get more the 10gbit troughput.

[@ConstantGeekery]

Jörg Henninges I got CL!ng a couple of days ago. Seems like an interesting tool but I haven’t played with it much yet. I noticed that my eGPU runs about 11Gbit/sec. Is it measuring both input and output, or just one of those? 🤷🏼‍♂️ Certainly don’t seem to be getting close to the supposed 20Gbit/sec throughput of Thunderbolt 2.

[@MichaelSidneyTimpson]

Was I the first person to suggest it? Also, are you sure this doesn't happen in Windows or Linux too?

[@ConstantGeekery]

😁 I’m not sure - a few folks mentioned it. I haven’t tested in Windows/Linux but I suspect it’s Mac specific. If I get the opportunity to try it, I will.

[@MichaelSidneyTimpson]

@@ConstantGeekery Oh and I really need to request again, when you get the dummy hdmi, can you also please test if it also improves the performance of just using the internal monitor for the laptops? Because A LOT of college students might get an eGPU for gameplay, but can't bring a whole monitor with them. Also, please do this test with bootcamp too....

[@ConstantGeekery]

Michael Timpson yep, video coming on that - been testing today. I’ve not set up boot camp yet, so that may be a while yet.

[@MrOffshorezine]

Since using the MP 6,1 it has the TB2. The EGPU Uses a TB3. How much performance loss is there?

[@ConstantGeekery]

It depends what you are doing. Not always as much as you might think. I’ve made a few different videos exploring this, but certainly you can’t use the full potential of the GPU.

[@ConstantGeekery]

OFFSHORE ZINE As you can see in the tests in this video, performance in Final Cut Pro X is significantly improved. I haven’t specifically tested anything else, but anecdotally the machine feels quicker when image editing too.

[@MrOffshorezine]

Constant Geekery Thank you so much for your replies and all your hard work

[@ConstantGeekery]

OFFSHORE ZINE you’re welcome 😉

[@MrOffshorezine]

Constant Geekery hi... does it matter which 5700 XT model? There are several to choose from. I’m looking at the “thicc lll” model. Thanks

[@TamalCyrus]

i am confused . does single display mean the build-in display on macbooks ? or an external display ? could someone clear this up for me ?

[@ConstantGeekery]

In this case, an external display. Accelerating the internal display with eGPU is certainly possible on Thunderbolt 3 equipped machines, but this does limit performance as you are sending data to the eGPU and then back to the laptop through the Thunderbolt cable. Best performance is always enjoyed when you plug an external display directly into the eGPU. Hope that helps, and thanks for watching 👍🏻

[@TamalCyrus]

@@ConstantGeekery thanks btw..huge fan of ur videos 😍 and thank you for replying 😍

[@ConstantGeekery]

Tamal Chakraborty no problem 😉 and thank you.

[@anthonyverolme]

I have the same configuration on my MBP late 2013, added the headless HDMI (or 4K dummy adapter) and it performs well. Maxtech explained it in their video kzbin.info/www/bejne/aX7agaGZpa-nfJI and you can search the Macrumors website on this topic. has to do with the new architecture of the graphics card, Apple will probably update their driver for the RX5700XT because it is now available in their Mac pro options. see Maxtech video here, it is worth looking at their tests! The part about this topic is around 1:40 min into the video.

[@ThePixelitomedia]

Which egpu case do you use?

[@ConstantGeekery]

Razer Core X Chroma.

[@ThePixelitomedia]

@@ConstantGeekery Is it getting loud on load? I love the silence of my trashcan. Looking for egpu

[@ConstantGeekery]

The fans rarely spin up on my card. The Razer enclosure itself has a fan, but it’s fairly quiet.

[@ThePixelitomedia]

@@ConstantGeekery is the rx5700XT better then the blackmagic egpu with RX pro 580?

[@ConstantGeekery]

ThePixelitomedia the RX5700XT is more powerful than the RX580 (quite a bit more powerful) though you can’t access all the performance via eGPU. The Blackmagic Design eGPU is silent, which may be important to you.

[@arkh1730]

anyway to control the egpu fan speed and monitor temps?!?!?

[@ConstantGeekery]

I use TG Pro, and I haven’t seen any options in there, but it might be possible.

[@arkh1730]

@@ConstantGeekery can't seem to find a way on macOS only windows with the amd software...

[@ConstantGeekery]

@@arkh1730 in fairness, it’s unlikely that the card in the eGPU will ever be maxed out due to the limits of Thunderbolt.

[@arkh1730]

@@ConstantGeekery lol its TB 3 ofc it does...i get 77k geekbench

[@Rudenbehr]

Sounds like a way to get people to buy more dumb stuff because of the currently underpowered Macbooks.