I will say I use to have Asus Vega RX56 and Asus enclosure with external power supply. I sold the eGPU setup in plans of updating to the M1, but I did not update and missed the performance. A few months back I got the Sonnet Puck RX5500 XT 4GB version for $600, they have 5700 8GB for a few hundred more. It performs well, it is relatively quiet, I do hear the fans kick on and off now and then but it is not very loud. It attached to my VESA mount on the monitor and I do not even see it with the added bracket.
I have the eGPU connected to the MM via thunderbolt 3 cable, I use the 2 spare USB ports on the eGPU for web cam and the other to charge my wireless keyboard or trackpad. It also has a spare USB-C port which I am not using.
I don't have the eGPU connected to my monitor. My monitor is connected to the MM via HDMi. I initially had the monitor connected to the eGPU via DP cable and the MM connected via HDMi, but performance was less for it showed it was driving 2 monitors. I measured the performance via GeekBench and also FPS on a video game. Then after a power up I would remove the HDMi cable from the MM and just use the DP cable. Performance increased. I got tired of plugging in and out the HDMi from the MM which is on a shelf below my desk and went with the HDMi MM to Monitor and only the Thunderbolt to the MM from the eGPU, performance is the same. I did this with my Vega 56 setup as well that I posted about a few years back.
Long story but my experience is on a power up with File Vault on, you get the black screen when connected only to the eGPU.
My setup performance is the same and no issues with power up, no black screen.
FYI I get 40,000 Compute Geekbench 5 on Metal and 37,000 for CL. I was getting 50,000 Metal on Vega 56. I see the Studio Max 24 GPU is getting 52,000 and Max 32 GPU is getting 58,000 for reference.
