Timestamps for my fellow viewers: 0:25 - Who can benefit from an eGPU? 2:59 - Use EveryMac to verify system parts 4:20 - Compare GPUs with UserBenchmark 5:15 - Addressing comments from previous video 9:43 - Windows Laptop recommendations 10:08 - Reviewing the updated results! 10:32 - Reviewing Project 'Act Right' 12:01 - Reviewing Project 'Go Away' 12:17 - Reviewing OBS Performance 14:53 - Reviewing Temperature results
I can't thank you enough man. I thought streaming on a mac was over for making music... I thought I was going to have to go back to the dreaded PC but this is the light that I needed. time to get an eGPU!!!
Javier Letosa Oh I see. No I wasn’t streaming to any platform like twitch or RUclips, but I assume the results would be the same. I was “recording” within OBS, not “streaming”.
Im late to the party but i wanted to thank you for your video. It has been difficult to troubleshoot. With very little information out there and so many differing opinions, it's difficult to know what to do or what options. My wife bought me a gaming monitor Samsung G9 49" oddissy and all hell broke loose when i plugged it into my MacBook pro 2017 i7 running a Intel HD Graphics 630. logic started giving me buffer errors or overloads the laptop was sluggish when running the MacBook screen and the G9.. I have found some workarounds but im in the process of getting a eGPU Razor core x and RX6900 XT graphics card. not sure if the graphics card is overkill but it's what apple recommended on the graphics thread about external graphics and my operating system. thanks for this video it has been super helpful.
Hey David, thanks for the comment! Have you considered selling your MacBook Pro and buying one of the newer M1 based models? I assume the cost may be similar, since you would need to spend money on an eGPU anyways. Also, did you get a chance to watch my part 2 of this?
@@JBehrMusic Hey j , yes that's a great idea but i really want to get out of the laptop world and get a tower. im waiting for mac chip Mac pro to come out. thinking with a eGPU I can use the macbook for another 2 years if need be. i ordered a razor core x chroma and a Radeon RX 6800 st 16g which is probably over kill .. way over kill :) but should hold me over for a while.
@@DavidAnthonymix I assume you have already looked at the mac studio? The base model is $1,999 and comes with the M1 Max chip, which should be plenty enough GPU power for music production and streaming.
Thanks for the video! Great information to know. I've just got an eGPU for MacBook Pro and it really makes sense for decreasing CPU load and processing plugins UI & sounds on GPU. But for Logic it only works on external screen - prefer eGPU is checked in Logic prefs but that's how it works (not works, to be clear) with all Apple apps incl. Final Cut & stock apps on internal display. So I'll be getting an ext. display soon to experience my eGPU in full.
Having asked developers through emails (from DAW dev to plugin dev) the consensus seems to be that we're not dealing with GPU acceleration. Instead we're talking about the toll that integrated graphics adds onto the CPU. As you probably know, the CPU is usually overworked as it is, but by forcing the CPU to also process graphics (as is the case with integrated graphics) you get very inefficient outcomes. From my honest experience, it's still mostly graphics that the GPU is responsible for. Real life example: Project in Logic Pro X, practically maxed out (EDM producer here). 100+ tracks of EXS24, Serum, Massive, Sylenth, Synthmaster, and many of the key sounds having more than 5 effect plugins from side-chain compressor into EQ, reverb and double OTT. The project would consistently result in an audio engine overload and pause when I have the Pro Q2 (Fabfilter's EQ plugin) or Isotope enabled; basically any plugin with some sort of visual animation, that include's Logic's own metering plugins when my project is being packed to the max. Attempting to edit parameters in real time gets me those overloads and stutters. However, playback gets by if I close the window, even though the plugin is still enabled, with the same settings as before. We've come a long way, but music technology still has a longer way to go (in optimisation, and general advancements in CPU design). Honestly, musicians should just stop buying Macs, we struggle enough as it is (yeah, even before COVID-19)... but I personally speak from experience... Mac's just don't provide any real value anymore, if ever. Take my thoughts with a grain of salt (I am a specific type of producer), but I always wonder... if all you do is play a guitar and record a basic beat over 20 tracks, it makes absolutely no sense to spend $2000+ AU dollars (or something like 1500+ USD) on a glorified Facebook machine. Just about every major DAW runs on Windows nowadays, and many millionaire celebrity DJ/producers buy a frickin' Macbook Pro just to run it in Bootcamp and use FL Studio on it. Like... WTF? So if these people are saying that they're ok not making music on Mac OS and just buy MacBooks for the looks, and not hardware (well, they have money I guess). What does that make us, yet to be famous, hustlers?
I tried a windows machine for years, but had nothing but ASIO driver issues. The sound drivers in windows are inferior to macOS, simply put. I even had a 1-2 month long open ticket with UAD, trying to trouble shoot my audio issues on Windows for my Apollo Twin, with no resolution. I switched to my mac mini and haven't had a single problem.
Thanks for the videos, great knowledge. Been having some issues with my mac mini 2018 running projects smoothly, especially noticeable when I have the plugin gui's open during playback. Im thinking about getting the same eGPU setup. My question for you is, will a RX 580 card be plenty sufficient to run a single 4k 43" LG monitor or will I gain additional benefits from a higher graphics card?
You should be fine. I assume you won't be doing gaming right? If you're doing gaming, maybe go with the RX 5700, or the Vega 64. But those are a bit more pricey.
@@jcwolinsky You should be fine then, especially since you're only using 1 monitor. After you have everything setup, I'd be curious to know your results. Report back here if possible. GL :)
veeery late to the party, but as i still need to stay on monterey, the options for getting a new mac mini "M2" are null at the time (i would have a major breakdown using ventura with tons of my 3rd party plugs in my Studio). sure i could risk a backstepping procedure on a macstudio, but i invested already in a duomodo Sonnet with superfast external SSD's, which is compatible with an "M2" mac mini. the point is: i get a Razor x and a Radeon 6600 XT für 300.($) bucks, hoping delivering and relieving me from some PITA CPU/GPU hungry Plugins that i love overall (sorry Avenger: you're one of them ;-)
Another year gone by and Mac OS X Big Sur 11.1, does this all work with OS X 11.1? I am considering for increasing performance of Logic Pro X using 10.6
I’m not sure how compatible Big Sur is with eGPUs. I know the new M1 chips aren’t eGPU friendly. I haven’t done much research into eGPU compatibility with Big Sur.
@@JBehrMusic Thanks, I am in Thailand and trying to buy any of the kit is a nightmare. To buy the Sonnet is like $599 on Amazon as they charge the same as. the product for shipping whereas the Razor Core X is available with cheaper shipping. So works out $200 cheaper. The boards are around $600. Combined Razor / R580 is $965 for Thailand and Blackmagic is $799. Doesnt make sense here. I shall hold off given my performance is OK, I have a fully configured Mac mini CPU/Ram. 4.7/64gb.
It should give you a performance increase, just make sure that you have an adapter for your Thunderbolt 2 port, since most eGPU enclosures are Thunderbolt 3. I would stick with the one from apple: www.apple.com/shop/product/MMEL2AM/A/thunderbolt-3-usb-c-to-thunderbolt-2-adapter
@@BobbyWashingtonvlog I'm not sure how big the increase in productivity would be, as it depends on your specific system. Depends on how much money you have to spend.
I think the RX 580 will do just fine, unless you're planning to play games or something more graphically intensive. If you really want to go all out, you can get one of the newer radeon cards, such as the RX 5700 XT. But that card is double the price of the RX 580
For the most part, yes it won’t help that much. But it depends on the differences between the GPUs. Some laptops have a dedicated video card that’s average, but with an eGPU you aren’t that limited. You can buy a more powerful ( but much more expensive) GPU and use it as an eGPU.
Thanks for the videos. Do you use an HDMI dummy plug on the macmini? I don't do streaming but my CPU temps in Logic and Digital Performer seem high (90-95 C). I'm hoping an egpu will help alleviate that.
Philip Thi I believe the dummy plug is only useful for machines you’re going to access remotely. I don’t ever access my Mac mini remotely, so I don’t have a need for it.
Great video man, so glad I found this. Been freaking out because I can't stream OBS and a full Ableton session on my MBP full Spec 2015. Just finished watching this and going down the rabbit hole. Can you tell me which is the best EGPU to get to solve this issue?
Hi there, I am trying to live streaming with Rekordbox and OBS in the same machine. Should I buy and EGPU like like Blackmagic EGPU? What setup or configuration do you recommend? Dedicated computer for OBS? Which price? I have a MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2016) 2,6 GHz Intel Core i7 16 GB 2133 MHz LPDDR3 Radeon Pro 450 2 GB Intel HD Graphics 530 1536 MB Pioneer DDJ-1000 THANKS!
In my opinion, the Blackmagic eGPU is way overpriced. I believe it's $699, and comes with a Radeon Pro 580, which actually has the same performance as an RX 580. The RX 580, on Amazon, is a $165 card. You can buy an enclosure for $245. Combined, that's only $410, compared to Blackmagic's $699 price. The only "benefit" of the Blackmagic eGPU, is the USB Hub on the back of the unit. But is a USB hub worth $300 to you? Probably not, and nor should it be. You could find a sufficient USB hub for $50 or less, if you really need extra ports. You don't need a dedicated computer for OBS necessarily, unless your CPU simply cannot handle it. But based on your specs, I think you should be fine. Your Radeon Pro 450 is a bit underpowered, especially if you're running an external monitor connected to your MacBook Pro. You could benefit from an eGPU, but you should buy the GPU (card) and Enclosure separately, so you can save a few hundred dollars. Depending on your price range, I would recommend the same setup I have. The Sapphire Radeon Pulse RX 580, and the Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box 550. After tax, you're looking at around $450, depending on where you buy each product. I bought the video card from Amazon, and the Breakaway Box from B&H.
as a guy who knows nothing about audio production and uses Graphics cards for Games and Blender, I never knew that a GPU would be very useful for audio producers. It makes sense, the GPU is a processing unit after all.
Hello, Behr. I own a 2018 Mac Mini and was trying to record my webcam video onto another video for commentary. Shocked to see that there was so much lag. Do you think an eGPU will be able to fix this problem? I don't know why in one of the forums, someone mentioned that MacOS is unable to use hardware encoder ie. GPU or eGPU well so the bulk of the load must go to the CPU instead. "On a Mac? You can't. First of all, of the hardware encoders supported by OBS, only one-- QuickSync-- is supported at all on MacOS, and that uses the capabilities of an Intel CPU, not an external GPU. The GPU based encoders, NVENC and AMF, aren't supported on MacOS at all because the vendor software required for them don't exist on MacOS at all." - obsproject.com/forum/threads/egpu-with-obs-as-encoder.113032/ Is this true? My activity monitor showed CPU working at 100%+ but the internal GPU 60%. Lastly, at this current period which GPU would you recommend? Vega 56, 64 or 5700XT?
Melvin Lim Have you tried turning off the preview in OBS? And/or minimizing OBS once you start recording? This helps your computer process less. As far as the GPU, are you only using this for steaming and music production? Or will you play games as well.
@@JBehrMusic I have tried turning off preview and minimizing OBS but it still lagged. Then I switch my resolution from 1440p to 1080p. Now the lag is not present. If an eGPU were to be present, do you think it can help handle it in 1440p? I am mostly doing light video recording, 1080p only. Play games like dota only but most games still lag actually.
Melvin Lim I use an eGPU with 2 monitors, 1 of which is 1440. I have no problems at all, and I’m using an RX580. I believe the 5700XT is based on a newer architecture, but it’s quite expensive compared to something like the RX580.
While on the first video you were specific and limited to your mac mini experience, you failed to understand the reasons you had those results - without understanding, the fact that you take your single experience and make a video about the importance of having a dGpu in your DAW computer is just terribly wrong and will lead many people to make very bad decisions on their purchases. Please understand that the mac mini is running its CPU with thermal and power limitations imposed by apple design. This is why taking out the gpu processing helps performance: you are taking the processing OUTSIDE, in a dedicated box, with dedicated cooling and power supply. Now, on laptops, having the dGpu will actually cause TERRIBLE performance issues. Take the macbook pro 2018 for example: it runs on a 87w power brick that powers a 10/20w screen and a 60w cpu when the computer is running the internal screen only. This is fine as long as the DAW is not using the dedicated gpu. As soon as you plug the external monitor, the 50w dGpu kicks in, and both the power brick and the cooling system are overwhelmed, causing massive audio dropouts making the machine WORTHLESS for any actual audio work. If they just kept running the iGpu only, wich uses less than 10w, the performance hit of the external monitor would have been maybe around 10% overhead. In windows, you also run into drivers issues with nVidia gpus, wich cause DPC latency problem. And laptops with dgpu will usually cost and weight much more aswell. Now some gaming laptops have good cooling and power adapters to run these dGpus without the issues described with the macbook pro, but others like the dell Xps don't, and will throttle in the same way. In fact, one of the first things i do when i optimize their windows laptops for audio production is to disable the nvidia card from the device manager, it improves their ableton performance all the time. Some of them even have the HDMI out routed through the igpu; when i build Hp Zbook workstations for audio i take the dGpu MXM out whenever i can. In my testing with desktop hackintosh, z490 vision d and i9 10900es, i had 130 tracks with the logic benchmark running off igpu and 135 running with a dGpu rx570. Definitely not worth the cost, power and noise added to the build. An iGpu DOES NOT USE THE CPU PROCESSING POWER! What it actually share is the power delivery and RAM bandwith; the former is not an issue at all on desktops wich will not have any issue providing the extra 5/10w, and will actually be a benefit on a laptop that will save a lot of energy compared to a dGpu that would have to be a couple of cm from the cpu anyway and share the same limited laptop power budget. The latter, bandwith, is a very small problem as audio processing is latency bound, not bandwith bound, so the actual hit is going to be incredibly small - as my testing shown, around 3%, in a synthetic stress test with all cores running at 100%. My clients produce mix and master tracks with hundred of millions views on youtube using iGpu only systems.
![Как работает Графика в Видеоиграх? [Branch Education на русском]](/img/1.gif)
Timestamps for my fellow viewers:
0:25 - Who can benefit from an eGPU?
2:59 - Use EveryMac to verify system parts
4:20 - Compare GPUs with UserBenchmark
5:15 - Addressing comments from previous video
9:43 - Windows Laptop recommendations
10:08 - Reviewing the updated results!
10:32 - Reviewing Project 'Act Right'
12:01 - Reviewing Project 'Go Away'
12:17 - Reviewing OBS Performance
14:53 - Reviewing Temperature results
I can't thank you enough man. I thought streaming on a mac was over for making music... I thought I was going to have to go back to the dreaded PC but this is the light that I needed. time to get an eGPU!!!
No problem! Hope it works out for you. I'd be curious to see your results after you get an eGPU!
@@JBehrMusic It's working a dream! I went for this option in the end - ruclips.net/video/3MwPncpJtF0/видео.html Thanks for everything
Thanks for taking the time to make this really informative video. :)
No problem, glad it helped :)
You are the GOAT for making this video
Appreciate it :)
Thank you so much from this video and the previous one. This has helped me out tremendously to decide to get an eGPU. 🙏
thanks for the videos, well-presented and saved me hours of research.
Thank you so much for making this video so specific it was really helpful thank you much man
hi! great video! just a question, Did you start transmmiting when checking OBS performance / temperature? thank you so much, keep on creating!
Hey there Javier. I'm not exactly sure what you mean by transmitting? Could you maybe rephrase the question.
@@JBehrMusic I mean if you were streaming with OBS on a platform like RUclips/twitch or just capturing the screen. Thank you so much!
Javier Letosa Oh I see. No I wasn’t streaming to any platform like twitch or RUclips, but I assume the results would be the same. I was “recording” within OBS, not “streaming”.
J. Behr thank you so much! 👍
Im late to the party but i wanted to thank you for your video. It has been difficult to troubleshoot. With very little information out there and so many differing opinions, it's difficult to know what to do or what options. My wife bought me a gaming monitor Samsung G9 49" oddissy and all hell broke loose when i plugged it into my MacBook pro 2017 i7 running a Intel HD Graphics 630. logic started giving me buffer errors or overloads the laptop was sluggish when running the MacBook screen and the G9.. I have found some workarounds but im in the process of getting a eGPU Razor core x and RX6900 XT graphics card. not sure if the graphics card is overkill but it's what apple recommended on the graphics thread about external graphics and my operating system. thanks for this video it has been super helpful.
Hey David, thanks for the comment! Have you considered selling your MacBook Pro and buying one of the newer M1 based models? I assume the cost may be similar, since you would need to spend money on an eGPU anyways. Also, did you get a chance to watch my part 2 of this?
@@JBehrMusic Hey j , yes that's a great idea but i really want to get out of the laptop world and get a tower. im waiting for mac chip Mac pro to come out. thinking with a eGPU I can use the macbook for another 2 years if need be. i ordered a razor core x chroma and a Radeon RX 6800 st 16g which is probably over kill .. way over kill :) but should hold me over for a while.
@@DavidAnthonymix I assume you have already looked at the mac studio? The base model is $1,999 and comes with the M1 Max chip, which should be plenty enough GPU power for music production and streaming.
Thanks for the video! Great information to know. I've just got an eGPU for MacBook Pro and it really makes sense for decreasing CPU load and processing plugins UI & sounds on GPU.
But for Logic it only works on external screen - prefer eGPU is checked in Logic prefs but that's how it works (not works, to be clear) with all Apple apps incl. Final Cut & stock apps on internal display. So I'll be getting an ext. display soon to experience my eGPU in full.
Awesome. What type of GPU did you buy?
J. Behr my setup is Razer Core V1 + AMD Radeon RX 580 + external display 34”. working great in macOS and Bootcamp :)
@@torresautobotsoldier it rather did not than did. But for Ableton it worked great.
Having asked developers through emails (from DAW dev to plugin dev) the consensus seems to be that we're not dealing with GPU acceleration. Instead we're talking about the toll that integrated graphics adds onto the CPU. As you probably know, the CPU is usually overworked as it is, but by forcing the CPU to also process graphics (as is the case with integrated graphics) you get very inefficient outcomes. From my honest experience, it's still mostly graphics that the GPU is responsible for.
Real life example: Project in Logic Pro X, practically maxed out (EDM producer here). 100+ tracks of EXS24, Serum, Massive, Sylenth, Synthmaster, and many of the key sounds having more than 5 effect plugins from side-chain compressor into EQ, reverb and double OTT. The project would consistently result in an audio engine overload and pause when I have the Pro Q2 (Fabfilter's EQ plugin) or Isotope enabled; basically any plugin with some sort of visual animation, that include's Logic's own metering plugins when my project is being packed to the max. Attempting to edit parameters in real time gets me those overloads and stutters. However, playback gets by if I close the window, even though the plugin is still enabled, with the same settings as before.
We've come a long way, but music technology still has a longer way to go (in optimisation, and general advancements in CPU design). Honestly, musicians should just stop buying Macs, we struggle enough as it is (yeah, even before COVID-19)... but I personally speak from experience... Mac's just don't provide any real value anymore, if ever. Take my thoughts with a grain of salt (I am a specific type of producer), but I always wonder... if all you do is play a guitar and record a basic beat over 20 tracks, it makes absolutely no sense to spend $2000+ AU dollars (or something like 1500+ USD) on a glorified Facebook machine. Just about every major DAW runs on Windows nowadays, and many millionaire celebrity DJ/producers buy a frickin' Macbook Pro just to run it in Bootcamp and use FL Studio on it. Like... WTF? So if these people are saying that they're ok not making music on Mac OS and just buy MacBooks for the looks, and not hardware (well, they have money I guess). What does that make us, yet to be famous, hustlers?
I tried a windows machine for years, but had nothing but ASIO driver issues. The sound drivers in windows are inferior to macOS, simply put. I even had a 1-2 month long open ticket with UAD, trying to trouble shoot my audio issues on Windows for my Apollo Twin, with no resolution. I switched to my mac mini and haven't had a single problem.
Thanks!!! It helped me a lot
Great guide
Thanks for the videos, great knowledge. Been having some issues with my mac mini 2018 running projects smoothly, especially noticeable when I have the plugin gui's open during playback. Im thinking about getting the same eGPU setup. My question for you is, will a RX 580 card be plenty sufficient to run a single 4k 43" LG monitor or will I gain additional benefits from a higher graphics card?
You should be fine. I assume you won't be doing gaming right? If you're doing gaming, maybe go with the RX 5700, or the Vega 64. But those are a bit more pricey.
@@JBehrMusic No gaming, just need to run smoothly with dynamic windows open such as izotope metering etc
@@jcwolinsky You should be fine then, especially since you're only using 1 monitor. After you have everything setup, I'd be curious to know your results. Report back here if possible. GL :)
What r the specs on your Mac mini?
veeery late to the party, but as i still need to stay on monterey, the options for getting a new mac mini "M2" are null at the time (i would have a major breakdown using ventura with tons of my 3rd party plugs in my Studio). sure i could risk a backstepping procedure on a macstudio, but i invested already in a duomodo Sonnet with superfast external SSD's, which is compatible with an "M2" mac mini. the point is: i get a Razor x and a Radeon 6600 XT für 300.($) bucks, hoping delivering and relieving me from some PITA CPU/GPU hungry Plugins that i love overall (sorry Avenger: you're one of them ;-)
Another year gone by and Mac OS X Big Sur 11.1, does this all work with OS X 11.1? I am considering for increasing performance of Logic Pro X using 10.6
I’m not sure how compatible Big Sur is with eGPUs. I know the new M1 chips aren’t eGPU friendly. I haven’t done much research into eGPU compatibility with Big Sur.
@@JBehrMusic Thanks, I am in Thailand and trying to buy any of the kit is a nightmare. To buy the Sonnet is like $599 on Amazon as they charge the same as. the product for shipping whereas the Razor Core X is available with cheaper shipping. So works out $200 cheaper. The boards are around $600. Combined Razor / R580 is $965 for Thailand and Blackmagic is $799. Doesnt make sense here. I shall hold off given my performance is OK, I have a fully configured Mac mini CPU/Ram. 4.7/64gb.
I have late 2015 iMac with a graphics card with 2gb... Will a EGPU with 8gb enable me editing 4 k video in adobe smoothly?
It should give you a performance increase, just make sure that you have an adapter for your Thunderbolt 2 port, since most eGPU enclosures are Thunderbolt 3. I would stick with the one from apple: www.apple.com/shop/product/MMEL2AM/A/thunderbolt-3-usb-c-to-thunderbolt-2-adapter
J. Behr will it be a big increase productivity should I build an i9 12 core PC?
@@BobbyWashingtonvlog I'm not sure how big the increase in productivity would be, as it depends on your specific system. Depends on how much money you have to spend.
J. Behr think I’ll just stick to proxies....
Thanks! What eGPU would you recommend for maxed out Mac Mini? I use wavelab which is all about metering and it's currently unworkable!
I think the RX 580 will do just fine, unless you're planning to play games or something more graphically intensive. If you really want to go all out, you can get one of the newer radeon cards, such as the RX 5700 XT. But that card is double the price of the RX 580
@@JBehrMusic Thanks a lot!!
So if you have a dedicated video card in your laptop then getting an eGPU won't help performance?
For the most part, yes it won’t help that much. But it depends on the differences between the GPUs. Some laptops have a dedicated video card that’s average, but with an eGPU you aren’t that limited. You can buy a more powerful ( but much more expensive) GPU and use it as an eGPU.
Thanks for the videos. Do you use an HDMI dummy plug on the macmini? I don't do streaming but my CPU temps in Logic and Digital Performer seem high (90-95 C). I'm hoping an egpu will help alleviate that.
Philip Thi I believe the dummy plug is only useful for machines you’re going to access remotely. I don’t ever access my Mac mini remotely, so I don’t have a need for it.
Great video man, so glad I found this. Been freaking out because I can't stream OBS and a full Ableton session on my MBP full Spec 2015. Just finished watching this and going down the rabbit hole. Can you tell me which is the best EGPU to get to solve this issue?
I'd recommend the one I purchased, since it is a bit cheaper than alternative options. I got the RX 580
Hi there,
I am trying to live streaming with Rekordbox and OBS in the same machine.
Should I buy and EGPU like like Blackmagic EGPU?
What setup or configuration do you recommend?
Dedicated computer for OBS? Which price?
I have a
MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2016)
2,6 GHz Intel Core i7
16 GB 2133 MHz LPDDR3
Radeon Pro 450 2 GB
Intel HD Graphics 530 1536 MB
Pioneer DDJ-1000
THANKS!
In my opinion, the Blackmagic eGPU is way overpriced. I believe it's $699, and comes with a Radeon Pro 580, which actually has the same performance as an RX 580. The RX 580, on Amazon, is a $165 card. You can buy an enclosure for $245. Combined, that's only $410, compared to Blackmagic's $699 price. The only "benefit" of the Blackmagic eGPU, is the USB Hub on the back of the unit. But is a USB hub worth $300 to you? Probably not, and nor should it be. You could find a sufficient USB hub for $50 or less, if you really need extra ports.
You don't need a dedicated computer for OBS necessarily, unless your CPU simply cannot handle it. But based on your specs, I think you should be fine. Your Radeon Pro 450 is a bit underpowered, especially if you're running an external monitor connected to your MacBook Pro. You could benefit from an eGPU, but you should buy the GPU (card) and Enclosure separately, so you can save a few hundred dollars. Depending on your price range, I would recommend the same setup I have. The Sapphire Radeon Pulse RX 580, and the Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box 550. After tax, you're looking at around $450, depending on where you buy each product. I bought the video card from Amazon, and the Breakaway Box from B&H.
So if I select "Prefer eGPU" on OBS will the VST plugins also use the eGPU? (One of the plugins has a checkbox for using GPU acceleration.).
That is correct. Your DAW (and VSTs running within it) should run on the eGPU.
as a guy who knows nothing about audio production and uses Graphics cards for Games and Blender, I never knew that a GPU would be very useful for audio producers. It makes sense, the GPU is a processing unit after all.
Hello, Behr. I own a 2018 Mac Mini and was trying to record my webcam video onto another video for commentary. Shocked to see that there was so much lag. Do you think an eGPU will be able to fix this problem? I don't know why in one of the forums, someone mentioned that MacOS is unable to use hardware encoder ie. GPU or eGPU well so the bulk of the load must go to the CPU instead.
"On a Mac? You can't. First of all, of the hardware encoders supported by OBS, only one-- QuickSync-- is supported at all on MacOS, and that uses the capabilities of an Intel CPU, not an external GPU. The GPU based encoders, NVENC and AMF, aren't supported on MacOS at all because the vendor software required for them don't exist on MacOS at all." - obsproject.com/forum/threads/egpu-with-obs-as-encoder.113032/
Is this true? My activity monitor showed CPU working at 100%+ but the internal GPU 60%.
Lastly, at this current period which GPU would you recommend? Vega 56, 64 or 5700XT?
Melvin Lim Have you tried turning off the preview in OBS? And/or minimizing OBS once you start recording? This helps your computer process less.
As far as the GPU, are you only using this for steaming and music production? Or will you play games as well.
@@JBehrMusic I have tried turning off preview and minimizing OBS but it still lagged. Then I switch my resolution from 1440p to 1080p. Now the lag is not present. If an eGPU were to be present, do you think it can help handle it in 1440p? I am mostly doing light video recording, 1080p only. Play games like dota only but most games still lag actually.
Melvin Lim I use an eGPU with 2 monitors, 1 of which is 1440. I have no problems at all, and I’m using an RX580. I believe the 5700XT is based on a newer architecture, but it’s quite expensive compared to something like the RX580.
While on the first video you were specific and limited to your mac mini experience, you failed to understand the reasons you had those results - without understanding, the fact that you take your single experience and make a video about the importance of having a dGpu in your DAW computer is just terribly wrong and will lead many people to make very bad decisions on their purchases.
Please understand that the mac mini is running its CPU with thermal and power limitations imposed by apple design. This is why taking out the gpu processing helps performance: you are taking the processing OUTSIDE, in a dedicated box, with dedicated cooling and power supply.
Now, on laptops, having the dGpu will actually cause TERRIBLE performance issues. Take the macbook pro 2018 for example: it runs on a 87w power brick that powers a 10/20w screen and a 60w cpu when the computer is running the internal screen only. This is fine as long as the DAW is not using the dedicated gpu. As soon as you plug the external monitor, the 50w dGpu kicks in, and both the power brick and the cooling system are overwhelmed, causing massive audio dropouts making the machine WORTHLESS for any actual audio work.
If they just kept running the iGpu only, wich uses less than 10w, the performance hit of the external monitor would have been maybe around 10% overhead.
In windows, you also run into drivers issues with nVidia gpus, wich cause DPC latency problem. And laptops with dgpu will usually cost and weight much more aswell. Now some gaming laptops have good cooling and power adapters to run these dGpus without the issues described with the macbook pro, but others like the dell Xps don't, and will throttle in the same way.
In fact, one of the first things i do when i optimize their windows laptops for audio production is to disable the nvidia card from the device manager, it improves their ableton performance all the time. Some of them even have the HDMI out routed through the igpu; when i build Hp Zbook workstations for audio i take the dGpu MXM out whenever i can.
In my testing with desktop hackintosh, z490 vision d and i9 10900es, i had 130 tracks with the logic benchmark running off igpu and 135 running with a dGpu rx570. Definitely not worth the cost, power and noise added to the build.
An iGpu DOES NOT USE THE CPU PROCESSING POWER! What it actually share is the power delivery and RAM bandwith; the former is not an issue at all on desktops wich will not have any issue providing the extra 5/10w, and will actually be a benefit on a laptop that will save a lot of energy compared to a dGpu that would have to be a couple of cm from the cpu anyway and share the same limited laptop power budget. The latter, bandwith, is a very small problem as audio processing is latency bound, not bandwith bound, so the actual hit is going to be incredibly small - as my testing shown, around 3%, in a synthetic stress test with all cores running at 100%. My clients produce mix and master tracks with hundred of millions views on youtube using iGpu only systems.