Straight-up eGPU question to end them all

[Erehy Dobon]

The bad news is I don't like my computers to be composed mostly of expensive glass. So, I am going to try a Razor Core X (ordered) with some variant of a Sapphire RX5700 (not ordered; currently shopping) with a 3.2GHz 6‑core 8th‑generation Intel Core i7 (in cart, with the Late-2012 as a trade-in discount of $160; not ordered, in cart). We'll see how it turns out.

If you can wait, you are better off waiting until 2021 to buy your Radeon card, i.e., once Navi 2 (RX 6000-series cards) are plentiful in the marketplace.

Today, quality Radeon RX 5700 XT cards (like the Sapphire Pulse) are about $430 street price which is way overpriced. I expect their prices to plummet $100-150 after the 6000-series cards hit the market in quantity.

Even the older-generation Polaris cards (like RX 580) are still overpriced because demand outstrips supply. GPU bargains have been very hard to come by for the past 4-5 months.

I bought an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER reference card in early July for the MSRP price of $499; I knew that I was paying top dollar for a one-year-old design. Today that same card is going for $799 on the street right now which is utterly stupid.

 

[arctair]

If you can wait, you are better off waiting until 2021 to buy your Radeon card, i.e., once Navi 2 (RX 6000-series cards) are plentiful in the marketplace.

Today, quality Radeon RX 5700 XT cards (like the Sapphire Pulse) are about $430 street price which is way overpriced. I expect their prices to plummet $100-150 after the 6000-series cards hit the market in quantity.

Even the older-generation Polaris cards (like RX 580) are still overpriced because demand outstrips supply. GPU bargains have been very hard to come by for the past 4-5 months.

I bought an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER reference card in early July for the MSRP price of $499; I knew that I was paying top dollar for a one-year-old design. Today that same card is going for $799 on the street right now which is utterly stupid.

Well, we’re rounding the corner to 2021 (plus the # of months it might take for Navi 2 to come out, then for 5700 prices to adjust down) like we’re rounding the corner to a Covid vaccine — not soon enough, unfortunately. I needed a replacement setup like yesterday. Maybe I’ll stumble on an “underpriced” card deal.

 

[arctair]

That sounds like a very good robust system. The only problem you might find, and a small problem is file vault on and power up. Its not huge pain. Its an easy work around. But it is a work around. Congrats.

First I'm hearing of any disk/file vault issues... any quick overview of what's happening?

 

[Erehy Dobon]

The eGPU boot issue with FileVault turned on is a topic that has been mercilessly beaten like a dead horse.

I believe Apple has an official support document that acknowledges it. A quick Internet search should uncover this.

If you are unable to STFW, I'm sure I or someone else can locate this document very quickly.

 

[weaztek]

I'm looking for a stable eGPU configuration now I will go only for brand and model suggested by Apple.

Have you visited https://egpu.io/ with your issue? There is a lot of eGPU knowledge over there and they're quite helpful.

 

[arctair]

The eGPU boot issue with FileVault turned on is a topic that has been mercilessly beaten like a dead horse.

I believe Apple has an official support document that acknowledges it. A quick Internet search should uncover this.

If you are unable to STFW, I'm sure I or someone else can locate this document very quickly.

Dang Erehy, we were doing so well. What happened? But I knew someone would respond this way. Why, I ask the universe rhetorically, is there always that one person? I'm quite capable of searching the f**k**g web, thanks. It was tough, but after a few community college classes, I finally got the hang of it.

Sometimes, instead of the hundreds of search responses — or even just those found on the first returned page — it's nice to get a one or two sentence answer from someone who's a been part of the thread, and can bring that simple answer right into the current context. I could go into more detail of the benefits of this, but I'm sure you're already well aware of them.

 

[MevetS]

... [snip] Have you ever noticed that 80% of the answers to questions about products on Amazon are "I don't know." The irony and insanity of this always makes me laugh, but the point is two-fold: ... [snip] ...

Going off topic ...

I often wondered about this. People aren’t that stupid, are they? And then I received an email from Amazon asking if I could answer a question about a product I purchased as a gift, and was not in a position to answer.

Had I answered the email stating simply that I didn’t know the answer, then that non-answer would have added to the noise.

So it seams many of the nonsense answers are by people who are giving honest answers to emails not realizing that answer will then be published.

 

[arctair]

Going off topic ...

I often wondered about this. People aren’t that stupid, are they? And then I received an email from Amazon asking if I could answer a question about a product I purchased as a gift, and was not in a position to answer.

Had I answered the email stating simply that I didn’t know the answer, then that non-answer would have added to the noise.

So it seams many of the nonsense answers are by people who are giving honest answers to emails not realizing that answer will then be published.

They really do. I think it's the manifestation of some-sort of mental disorder, and it's way worse than asking blatantly Googleable questions (I think mine had the relative merit I mentioned; it wasn't "what colors are the new iPhone?" level). It especially sucks when you have a really specific question that *only* an owner could answer.

Going further off topic, I recently needed to know if an amp had a smooth or notched pot for the volume control — I despise the latter (outside of cars, where it serves an actual purpose). Not only does/did no one seem to know or care about this issue besides me, I had to wade through a bunch of insane "I don't know"s. Thank god for Amazon's return a.k.a. home testing/review policy: I ordered it, found out it was indeed notched (and tiny — the volume knob should be the largest control on a simple audio amp), and I had it packed up and relabeled in less time than it took me to originally ask the question and wade through the worthless answers.

I don't think that portion of their website is a high business priority -- there are too many thousands of new variations of the Echo Dot to design ?

 

[arctair]

Have you visited https://egpu.io/ with your issue? There is a lot of eGPU knowledge over there and they're quite helpful.

Not at all — thanks for the heads-up

 

[CC88]

Have you visited https://egpu.io/ with your issue? There is a lot of eGPU knowledge over there and they're quite helpful.

No, onestly I'm an eGPU user from time but I didn't ask.

I have ordered a brand new Core X from Amazon (the previous one from warehouse came without original TB3 cable) and a brand new Sapphire Pulse RX580.

The doubt is both on cable (had to buy a 'compatible' one) and Nitro+ GPU not mentioned in Apple support site.

I'll be back to tell you how it goes once the new setup arrives.

 

[watakoola]

Dang Erehy, we were doing so well. What happened? But I knew someone would respond this way. Why, I ask the universe rhetorically, is there always that one person? I'm quite capable of searching the f**k**g web, thanks. It was tough, but after a few community college classes, I finally got the hang of it.

Sometimes, instead of the hundreds of search responses — or even just those found on the first returned page — it's nice to get a one or two sentence answer from someone who's a been part of the thread, and can bring that simple answer right into the current context. I could go into more detail of the benefits of this, but I'm sure you're already well aware of them.

Have you ever noticed that 80% of the answers to questions about products on Amazon are "I don't know." The irony and insanity of this always makes me laugh, but the point is two-fold: The first is that the SNR of the Internet is high, so a short, 99%-signal response — even to a question that's been asked, or a topic that's been discussed a thousand times — can really make the asker's day. The second is that if you're going to get a kick out of providing 100% noise as an answer, maybe (to end where we started, with a four-letter acronym) you should just ST*U.

Y'know, I'm not sure Erehy Dobin said that with any malice. In the very least it didn't deserve a lecture and a final insult. If you want to show you have better manners than other people maybe don't play the insult game.

 

[arctair]

Y'know, I'm not sure Erehy Dobin said that with any malice. In the very least it didn't deserve a lecture and a final insult. If you want to show you have better manners than other people maybe don't play the insult game.

You could very well be correct, which is even though I can't find a way to delete the post, I have removed the last paragraph. Maybe you could do me a favor and do the same in your quote block.

No politics here, except to say I've been a little on edge, and communication types and styles with (former?) friends has bled over into other areas of my life. My apologies to Erehy and other forum members.

 

[arctair]

I think I've lost it with this one. May be tabling the decision (despite having a $150 Razor Core case on my doorstep any day now) -- especially given we could have A14 Minis in three weeks, with no clue as to what they might offer in capability and price. I kept thinking that if I ever wanted a 5K display (or maybe soon, a reasonably-priced 6K) I could add it via the eGPU (maybe -- they're sold out everywhere) an LG, but the iMac is the only place you can now or ever get a glossy (and after my terrible Nano glass experience, it's appealing) 5K Retina monitor. I also checked the 5700 3rd-party pricing, and... yea. And if you price the LG at $2K, and subtract that from the iMAc price, you're getting a heck of a machine (3.8 Ghz 8-core 10th Gen i7, 1 TB SSD, 1GB Eth, Pro 5700 XT 16 GB) for $1039. With no tech issues to deal with. The only thing I dislike (besides the "computer inside monitor" I've already said enough about) is the fewer TB3 ports (which sort-of makes sense, given one isn't immediately lost to the monitor/eGPU connection), and the location of the SD card reader (but at least they included one).

But when you look at it from this value perspective, the Mini gets harder to come out on top.

Speaking of coming out on top, "enjoy" the election y'all. And thanks for putting up with all my indecisive nonsense.

I'll check back in when Apple actually has my money, in some form or another.