Hardware: Anyone using eGPU on mac?

Making a small windows machine for rendering using blender cycles, and found out that thunderbolt can be used to connect external GPU using case from BIZON.

It seems a good option if macbookpro or imac can use the eGPU to run Rhino and some rendering engines needing CUDA.

Anyone using eGPU on mac? How’s the experience? setting it up to using it?

Never heard about it but I find it is a very interesting solution. Because I don’t trust the compact unibody case of my mbp an I am scared while every Rendering that my mbp will die a “hot” death :slight_smile:

That’s really interesting. I’m running 2009 imacs and the dollar around here (Brazil) is making a new one more expensive than a compact car. I’d love to get a couple Mac Minis and big screens.

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There are a few people experimenting with this including Dell’s Alienware range, tempting for laptop use, it’s early days though and not without glitches etc…

I opted for a standard desktop box for now. Would love to go back to a mobile workstation once eGPU is refined.

Yeah, I didn’t know till yesterday.
And same here with mbp… I don’t think there’s enough air flow…

I just started looking but, the easiest solution seems to be
from BIZON tech, but it’s quite expensive stuff.
(And it’s just the box!! )
https://bizon-tech.com

Yeah, it seems a bit experimental…
I hope some more hardware vender would go and make a good package…
especially driver support for OS upgrade seems a bit risky now.

yes it is really expensive. about 500$ only for a box without graphic card… .

[quote=“Toshiaki_Takano, post:1, topic:30631, full:true”] and some rendering engines needing CUDA.

[/quote]

http://venturebeat.com/2016/03/09/otoy-breakthrough-lets-game-developers-run-the-best-graphics-software-across-platforms/

“Otoy reverse-engineered Nvidia’s general purpose graphics processing unit (GPGPU) software, known as CUDA, to run on non-Nvidia hardware. That means that programs written in the CUDA language are no longer exclusive to Nvidia graphics chips. Now they can run on GPUs from Advanced Micro Devices, ARM, and Intel. That means a CUDA program written for the PC could run on a PlayStation 4 or an Apple iPad.”

nice!
haven’t yet had the chance to use Octane yet, but if it starts to support Intel it’s a big game changer.

Yes, but it’s something you can put in your luggage and bring in to Brazil. Just consider anything we bring from the U.S. will cost roughly 1/3 compared to what one would at a store here.

But there is no Brazil yet for OS X. And also in the near future (I read in the forum brazil, penguin etc. follow the RDK - and this is set to future).

The country.

I see. In that case mac mini’s with the external GPU would be quite a good option.
There were couple of other solutions, but it seems this BIZON is the one stop shop.
Others were a lot of DIYs…

I’m using an DIY eGPU (on Win) setup using suggestion coming from this forum
https://www.techinferno.com/index.php?/forums/forum/83-diy-e-gpu-projects/
The only commercial eGPU solution on TB3 is the Razer Core


All the other such as Alienware Graphic Amplifier or MSI are using proprietary connectors.
About BIZON I did find interesting this thread

Thanks for the info! Razecore sounds good, need to look it up in Japan.
…wait it’s thunderbolt 3… I guess current macbook pros still needs some small changes to OSX side…

damn if that’s so, it’s too expensive… But a proof of demand in the market.

Didn’t have experience on Mac, you need to check on TechInferno forum for advice.
TB3 is back compatible with TB2, so the only eventual pbm will be the USBC format if you didn’t have an USBC port, eventually an USBC/TB adapter will work.

I toyed wth the notion and followed it pretty closely. At the end of the day it was far cheaper to pick up a couple Mac Pro towers and slap a pair of 970’s in each then diddle with the egpu bit

Yeah it seems a bit costly and time consuming at the moment…
Just invested in a small windows machine with 960 as it’s really cheap solution for blender rendering. It’ll suffice until I learn more and get stuck on unbearable performance. Tho macpro with 970s sounds awesome…

@Toshiaki_Takano Any updates on a successful eGPU for Mac for Rhino/Brazil for rendering? Thanks!