Late 2012 MacBook Pro eGPU recommendation request

Hello all,

I know there are several posts related to external graphics cards and Macs already, but the information is a bit scattered and I was hoping to get specifics related to my specific machine before purchasing anything.

I have a late 2012 MacBook Pro Retina 13", 8 GB RAM, 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5, Intel HD Graphics 4000 1536 MB, running El Capitain with Davinci Resolve 12.5 (free version).

I am currently in the learning stage and only use my setup for that and personal projects, therefore real-time playback is not a necessity for me. However, I have included some Open FX bundles and while trying to experiment with them Davinci freezes up on me (with the spinning color wheel). I'm assuming the problem is that my machine is too slow, therefore I would like to upgrade with an external GPU, I assume via one of the Thunderbolt 1 ports.

Does anyone have any suggestions that they are confident will work with my machine? For example, would an AKiTiO box with an EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Ti work, or is there a compatibility issue of which I'm not aware?

Thank you.

Super interested in an answer I have the same issue!

I'm not totally sure about this but I believe that there are several restrictions on eGPU's
Of course there are restrictions that's Apples middle name!!!!

As far as I know eGPU's only work on machines equipped with Thunderbolt 3 and High Sierra or newer.
It's also possible that only AMD GPU's are supported as Apple still seems to be at war with Nvidia.

Restrictions outlined in Apple's “Use an external graphics processor with your Mac” support document:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208544

There are hacks to make eGFX run on older Macs and with Nvidia too. A nice proof of concept, but nothing else (see egpu.io)

Even TB-3 is just barely enough to run an external GPU. Maybe BM is using the 580 and not the Vega64 just because of that, it might already get throttled if you have a 5K screen and some fast media attached to it.

TB-2 will rob you most of the performance of that GPU. It's OK for sending some numbers over for Cryptomining, but not for passing images back and forth at 24 fps or more.

Get the new MBP 13" and the eGPU and have fun. I wrote about it in English here: https://www.personal-view.com/talks/dis ... pu-#Item_9

Does anyone have any suggestions that they are confident will work with my machine?

Coming around to the short answer "no." Unless...

[add a long list of caveats here]

eGPU is probably something that will have to be built-out, but for the moment its a bit of a hack. Plenty of Terminal and screwdriver input to get things to work with most of the third-party frames. And still, the data-throughput is not inspiring - the 580 may be the easiest GPU to maintain a consistent handshake with over Thunderbolt 3. Looking at the numbers, TB1 is a non-starter; TB2, if you can get it to talk through a TB3 adapter is not going to run at TB3 speeds. You know, USB2 talking through USB3? Bigger, faster cards have bigger needs - power, cooling (as if Apple doesn't have problems enough with hot chips) -- the BMD eGPU is a field unit for Video Villages (on-set monitoring and DITs). The real issue is that macOS is just coming around to supporting external GPU's... really, the PCIe cages are just barely functioning as a sideshow and can cause some issues even with desktops not quite sure how to register them in the configuration.
Windows PCs, now... don't you just add more cards to the chassis?

jPo, CSI

Maybe it was a wise decision by BM to use a middle of the road GPU, together with the very capable Titan Ridge controller. The only other box I know of with that chip is the Razer core V2, and that doesn't come cheap even without the card. At least BM's eGPU was very stable even with a hi-res screen and a SSD-RAID attached. I can't say that about all the eGFX I tried before.

Regarding upgradeability: maybe those with such a PCIe enclosure will find that there's already TB-4 around the corner when they want to buy a new card.That much regarding anything being 'future proof' in this area of technology. If you can't make the money with the eGPU before it's outdated, you probably didn't need it in the first place.