Octane for new iMac Pros with eGPU - best setup?

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IronGuy
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat Jan 19, 2019 3:20 am

Hi, I have a new iMac Pro and am looking to start working in Octane (from Modo.) I have yet to buy an eGPU enclosure and card as I am hoping others will have blazed that path before me and worked out the kinks! Is this a stable setup with the new support for Nvidia cards in Mojave? And what do people think are the best choices for eGPU enclosures and cards?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Best,
Phil.

http://www.saunderscreative.com
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bepeg4d
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Hi,
I don’t have an iMac Pro, but I work with an iMac 2017 5k 27", under High Sierra, with this eGPU box:
https://www.sonnettech.com/product/egfx ... y-box.html
and a GTX 1070 in it, and I’m very happy with this solution.
Here is the link for the eGPU script for High Sierra:
https://github.com/learex/macOS-eGPU/tr ... cos-egpush
Your iMac Pro has double Thunderbolt 3 controller, so it will be even better.
ciao Beppe
IronGuy
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Joined: Sat Jan 19, 2019 3:20 am

Thanks for the response, Beppe! Glad to know it's a viable option.
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glimpse
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with eGPu and apple politics the situation now is:

* use thunderbolt3 device,
* do not upgrade to Mojave,
* stick with older cards, like 1080ti for instance.

to explain those. Apple is trying to push users to use latest updates and fastest interface for them to take advantage (even if there is little to no benefit), thus they are disabling older gen devices and You would end up needing more workarounds. As for latest OS version You need to be careful, since driver might not be up to date and You might not be able to install Your new or even older GPU. Regarding to very latest RTX GPUs as well..support should mature and apple seems not be the first to support those until it makes financial sense for them to do this.

all in all take a look at eGPU.io site for more information on this topic, as they tested a lot of devices and have a lot of info on this topic.
IronGuy
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Joined: Sat Jan 19, 2019 3:20 am

Thanks, @glimpse.

Unfortunately (or fortunately!) I was just given a RTX 2080ti from Nvidia and am on an iMac pro pre-loaded with Mojave. Haven't pulled the trigger on an eGPU box yet, but it sounds like the Razor is one of the few that will actually fit the card. With the driver issue I'm not sure if I should try using it as a windows machine under Boot Camp at this point. Has anyone been successful at making that work with Octane?
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bepeg4d
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Hi,
there is not a CUDA version that supports Mojave and/or RTX GPUs under Mac, you need High Sierra and at least Pascal GPUs, so you need Win Boot Camp for that setup.
ciao Beppe
IronGuy
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Thanks for the tip!
mustardseedsg
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Hi Beppe, so to confirm: RTX is not supported on High Sierra?
Mac OSX 10.12.6 / MBP 15" w Touch Bar, 16GB / Mantiz Venus Thunderbolt 3 enclosure with GX1080 / C4d r19 Octane
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bepeg4d
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Unfortunately yes, as far as I know, RTX GPUs are not supported under High Sierra :(
Only with Mojave, but only as display GPU, since there is no CUDA for Mojave :(
ciao Beppe
raphantelow
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Joined: Thu Aug 29, 2019 5:53 pm

Hi Beppe, so to confirm: RTX is not supported on High Sierra?
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