Daz3d + osX + eGPU, is it possible?
javier-2684100
Posts: 13
Hi!
I've been reading the forum the last months and this is my first post, so hi everybody :)
After a few months doing my first steps on Daz3d, I've decided to go a step further and invest some budget in an external GPU to get better/faster renders. At this point I'm just an enthusiast that wants to take the hobby to a next level.
I've been really surprised about the few (and dark) info on setting up a macbook pro with an external GPU. I've read some articles like the ones below, but I'm not really confident of those solutions. For me is hard to believe that there's not a better solution to integrate a PCI eGPU on thunderbolt . I thought this would be a typical FAQ, but actually I haven't found too much info. So, before spending that amount of money, is there any suggestion to keep working on mac and improve the system performance? Or should I consider get PC for rendering works? How are other mac users working, if may I ask?
I have a 2011 macbook pro i7 15" with 16GB ram and 2013 MBP i5 and I was thinking in acquire a GeForce 970, if it matters.
Any thought is welcome!
Thanks,
Javier
https://odd-one-out.serek.eu/thunderbolt-2-egpu-setup-using-akitio-thunder2/
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Comments
In the interest of keeping information where people can find it, we're pointing people to this thread which takes you to threads where you can get more information and ask questions.
I would look at the first thread listed in this IRAY thread, as it's the official DAZ thread and you may find more information regarding your question if you ask there.
I have to admit, using a Mac, I have been tempted by some of these custom setups myself for an external gpu.
I don't think you're going to find the info you're looking for in the thread that Cris has pointed you to. While the info there is very good in relation to Iray and even graphic cards, I have been following most of these threads and haven't seen any mention of custom GPU setups for Mac.
This is more of a technical setup issue, just getting the card to function with a Mac system and less of an Iray specific question. The issue here is that Mac (Except Mac Pro) was never designed to work with these gpu's so the solutions are unsupported custom builds.
I know they have had success for gaming but it really would be good to find a source as to how well this setup works with a render engine like Iray. Unfortunately that's something I haven't been able to find myself, to go ahead and risk the buy in price of purchasing all the different components to build the setup.
Thanks for the link Javier its more recent than some of the ones I been looking at.
Thanks Cris, but my question is not related to Iray specifically, which of course I'll want to use, but more about hardware setup. A good resource, anyway, I'm very impressed with my firsts tests using Iray and want to learn more ;)
Thanks, at least I do not feel alone ;)
it's not hard to believe, the GPU on a macbook is soldered into the logic board and the thunderbolt is the only thing with enough throughput to be a credible option. All that aside it looks crazy and a PC desktop for rendering is not as crazy as it sounds if you can budget for it. It also gives you a fallback since Apple has been doing a cluster f of a job managing their video drivers and driver tools on their own without any outside input as to how bad they've made them lately.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_wAxRs0YAE
Yeah, I got that point. What is hard to believe for me is that the industry hasn't released a commercial product for mac users! I do not pretend to underestimate at all PCs, as I've been user of them for a lot of years and now I use osx because of my work (and I admit, I love it ;)), and if the best solution is to get a PC for doing 3D, I would consider.
Regards the video, nice one, but the guy is running windows over a mac. And, I have to admit, I don't want to spend 1000$ in the Sonnet enclosure. For that moey I would build myself a good PC
That's what I was going to say...
For the money you'd probably sink into a setup to upgrade the graphics of your Mac, you could probably build a decent graphics box, as a stand alone machine.
Greetings,
I run an iMac as my main box, and I love it, even with CPU rendering. I have a Windows box with half the cores, half the RAM, that sits next to it. Oh, and a GT 740 4GB... :)
My runtime, scene folder, and output folders are all synchronized using Dropbox, which usually means that I can save a scene on my Mac, and within a minute or so pull it up on my Windows box. I do my scene setup, preliminary rendering, etc., all on the Mac. When I've got it how I want it, I save the scene, close DAZ Studio, and go browse the web or program for a few minutes.
Then I pull up DAZ Studio over on the Windows box, and load the scene that's now transferred over. I tweak the render settings a little, usually bumping up the resolution, and/or making sure everything's framed Just So, and then I hit Render. I pull up GPU-Z and watch how much memory I'm using. If I'm over (it falls back to CPU, and the GPU doesn't have any load when iterations are running) then I usually can back off the subdivision on some parts of my scene, or simplify some textures. If I'm significantly under, I can look for places in the scene that could use some more detail, and bump up subdivision, or I can just let it run.
This works for me, because now my Windows box is rendering, and I can program, web browse, watch videos, anything I want without any problem on my Mac.
My experience is that Iray on the 8-core Mac in CPU mode is half the speed of the Windows box just running in GPU mode, and that's with a $120 video card... (I don't bother using the CPU cores on the Windows box; they're worthless, and the communication overhead might actually be making the speed lower than GPU-only.)
If I upgrade to a Big A$$ Card, I expect I'll continue the same process...in fact, my renders will probably take just as long, just at higher resolutions... :)
-- Morgan
the other issue is unless it was a card that came in some stock mac your not going to find outside drivers for it.
If a mac computer came with a 750 card and you went out and bought an external solution and configured with a 750 card it would likely work, if a mac computer with a 970 didn't exist and you bought a 970 it would likely not work
This is provided the chipset differs to point of needing a different driver from Nvidia which Apple would have never made and for the sake of example if the 750 and 970 are indeed independently driver dependent which they may or may not be, I'm too tired to look into it because I switched to decaf.
@ javier, actually TB and even TB2 have more limits for this the more I read about doing it.
@Cypherfox, thanks for answering a question I had about if you go over your RAM limit that I forgot to ask when I came into work today.
While the original point of this thread specifically mentioned Mac OS, I, too, have been reading a few bits here and there about external GPU setups (Nvidia's VCA with 8 M6000s in it seems like a dream setup, aside from the $50K price tag).
What I'm seeing most is the "for use with laptops" articles/threads, and I'm honestly surprised I've not seen anything about desktop use, particularly for rendering.
I'm also not finding too much basic info on the subject, such as what you need (aside from the obvious GPU and an enclosure with some sort of interface to the motherboard), and why you need it (i.e. I see references to certain software packages that may or may not be homebrew).
Aren't there already PCIe add-in cards that allow a fairly direct connection to external devices? And are there not already powered external enclosures that have boards with PCIe slots?
If both of those are true (again, there's info I'm not finding), then would it not be possible to mount a GPU in one of these existing enclosures, connect said enclosure to the internal PCIe card, and then let the OS or app reference the external device, since the OS or app would read it as being the same as if it were directly on the mobo?
It seems to me to be a less expensive alternative to having a rack of full-on PCs networked together, as you'd (theoretically) have multiple GPUs mounted in a single enclosure and being fed to the motherboard via the main PCIe slot, or even multiple internal slots connected to multiple external enclosures.
I guess on desktop should not be any problem, as you just plug the PCI card inside and is done.
I have already bought a 970 GPU, an express card-to-thunderbolt cable and some other cables to have the whole setup, but I was not able to make it work on osx. I'm installing windows over bootcamp in one of the MBP as I type. It is not a good solution for me, but at least it should help me verify that the setup works.
I'll send some pictures and explanations if I finally got some results.
I've also seen other replies that say "just get a mobo that can do 3-way SLI and be done with it" or other suggestions, but I'm looking at it more as a less-expensive alternative to Nvidia's VCA, which can be easily upgraded over time.
After a few more rounds of searching, I'm seeing multi-thousand-dollar units (one empty case that can hold up to 10 cards for $6K), but these are targeted more towards the server-type applications, and I'm not entirely sure these can hold full-size GTX-series cards. From the promo pics, it looks like they're limited to Ethernet or other such utility cards, or smaller Quadro NVS-series cards. Even the included power supplies seem under-powered (350W), so I'm not seeing where the prices are coming from.
Just for laughs, I might contact Nvidia and see if they'll sell an unloaded VCA so I can put my cards of choice in it, though I'm sure they'll offer some spiel about the Linux installation being tailored to take advantage of the M6000's features blah blah.
Actually, as Iray is increasingly used by hobbyists, perhaps NVidia should consider selling a scaled-down version of their appliance. Not production-house speed or capacity, but something bigger than almost any hobbyist already has inside their desktop system.
I found a couple of places that have ready-made boards that are purportedly ideal for building your own external multi-GPU box, but the prices and terms are unreasonable to me, especially when they want you to "call for a quote", and only sell in bulk quantities to system builders/OEMs.
Wouldn't be so bad if I could score 100 boards for $1000 and build an unloaded DIY kit to sell cheap, but if it's going to cost $50K just for a bundle of bare boards, I may as well get the Nvidia unit.
Even the ones that are already available and focused towards serving the e-GPU market are overpriced and under-featured IMO. A single-slot case is not good enough, and the 3-slot units can only handle single-width cards like the K4000, which is sorely out-paced by older double-wide GTX cards (2880 CUDA cores in the 780 Ti vs ~1100 in the K4000 - wish I'da saw that before over-paying for the Quadro).
Hi Javier,
Just found this thread.
As I'm thinking of getting a similar solution I wondered if you ever completed the setup and if yes, what your results were.
Would you go down this road again ?
Thanks & Best regards,
Peter