iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2017)

4.1

1.2

iMac (Retina 4K, 21.5-inch, 2017)

4.1

1.2

iMac (21.5-inch, 2017)

Intel Iris Plus Graphics 640

4.1

1.2

iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2015)

4.1

1.2

iMac (Retina 4K, 21.5-inch, Late 2015)

Intel Iris Pro Graphics 6200

4.1

1.2

iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2015)

4.1

1.2

iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Mid 2015)

AMD Radeon R9 M290

4.1

1.2

iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2014)

4.1

1.2

iMac (21.5-inch, Mid 2014)

Intel HD 5000 Graphics

4.1

1.2

iMac (27-inch, Late 2013)

4.1

1.2

iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2013)

4.1

1.2

iMac (21-inch, Early 2013)

Intel HD Graphics 4000

4.1

1.2

iMac (27-inch, Late 2012

4.1

1.2

iMac (21-inch, Late 2012)

4.1

1.2

iMac (21-inch, Late 2011)

ATI Radeon HD 6750M

4.1

1.2

iMac (27-inch, Mid 2011)

4.1

1.2

iMac (21-inch, Mid 2011)

4.1

1.2

iMac (27-inch, Mid 2010)

4.1

1.2

iMac (21-inch, Mid 2010)

3.3

1.0

iMac (27-inch, Late 2009)

3.3

1.0

iMac (21-inch, Late 2009)

3.3

1.0

iMac (20-inch, Late 2009)

NVIDIA GeForce 9400M

3.3

1.0

iMac (24-inch, Early 2009)

3.3

1.0

iMac (20-inch, Early 2009)

NVIDIA GeForce 9400M

3.3

1.0

iMac (Early 2009)

ATI Radeon HD 4850

3.3

1.0

iMac (24-inch, Early 2008)

NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS

3.3

1.0

iMac (20-inch, Early 2008)

ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro

3.3

—

iMac (24-inch, Mid 2007)

3.3

—

iMac (20-inch, Mid 2007)

3.3

—

Mac mini (Late 2014)

4.1

1.2

Mac mini (Mid 2012)

Intel HD 4000

4.1

1.2

Mac mini (Mid 2011)

Intel HD 3000

3.3

—

Mac mini (Mid 2011)

AMD Radeon HD 6630

4.1

1.2

Mac mini (Early 2010)

NVIDIA GeForce 9400M

3.3

1.0

Mac mini (Early 2009)

NVIDIA GeForce 9400M

3.3

1.0

Mac Pro (Late 2013)

4.1

1.2

Mac Pro (Mid 2012)

4.1

1.2

Mac Pro (Mid 2010)

4.1

1.2

Mac Pro (Early 2009)

3.3

1.0

Mac Pro (Early 2008)

3.3

1.0

MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2018)

Intel UHD Graphics 630
Radeon Pro 555X with 4GB GDDR5 memory
Radeon Pro 560X with 4GB GDDR5 memory
Radeon Pro Vega 16 with 4GB HBM2 memory
Radeon Pro Vega 20 with 4GB HBM2 memory

4.1

1.2

MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2018, Four Thunderbolt 3 ports)

Intel Iris Plus Graphics 655

4.1

1.2

MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2017)

4.1

1.2

MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2017, Four Thunderbolt 3 ports)

Intel Iris Plus Graphics 650

4.1

1.2

MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2017, Two Thunderbolt 3 ports)

Intel Iris Plus Graphics 640

4.1

1.2

MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2016)

4.1

1.2

MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2016, Four Thunderbolt 3 ports)

Intel Iris Graphics 550

4.1

1.2

MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2016, Two Thunderbolt 3 ports)

Intel Iris Graphics 540

4.1

1.2

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015)

Intel Iris Pro 5200
AMD Radeon R9 M370X

4.1

1.2

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2015)

Intel Iris Graphics 6100

4.1

1.2

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014)

4.1

1.2

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Mid 2014)

Intel Iris Graphics

4.1

1.2

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013)

4.1

1.2

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2013)

Intel Iris Graphics

4.1

1.2

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Early 2013)

NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M

4.1

1.2

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2012)

NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M

4.1

1.2

MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2012)

Intel HD Graphics 4000

4.1

1.2

MacBook Pro (17-inch, Late 2011)

ATI Radeon HD 6770M

4.1

1.2

MacBook Pro (15-inch, Late 2011)

4.1

1.2

MacBook Pro (13-inch, Late 2011)

Intel HD Graphics 3000

3.3

—

MacBook Pro (17-inch, Early 2011)

ATI Radeon HD 6750M

4.1

1.2

MacBook Pro (15-inch, Early 2011)

4.1

1.2

MacBook Pro (13-inch, Early 2011)

Intel HD Graphics 3000

3.3

—

MacBook Pro (17-inch, Mid 2010)

NVIDIA Geforce GT 330M

3.3

1.0

MacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2010)

NVIDIA Geforce GT 330M

3.3

1.0

MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2010)

NVIDIA Geforce GT 320M

3.3

1.0

MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2009)

NVIDIA GeForce 9400M

3.3

1.0

MacBook Pro (17-inch, Late 2008)

3.3

1.0

MacBook Pro (15-inch, Late 2008)

3.3

1.0

MacBook Pro (17-inch, Early 2008)

NVIDIA Geforce 8600

3.3

1.0

MacBook Pro (15-inch, Early 2008)

NVIDIA Geforce 8600

3.3

1.0

MacBook Pro (17-inch, Mid 2007)

NVIDIA Geforce 8600

3.3

1.0

MacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2007)

NVIDIA Geforce 8600

3.3

1.0

MacBook (Retina, 12-inch, 2017)

Intel HD Graphics 615

4.1

1.2

MacBook (Retina, 12-inch, Early 2016)

Intel HD Graphics 515

4.1

1.2

MacBook (Retina, 12-inch, Early 2015)

Intel HD Graphics 5300

4.1

1.2

MacBook (Mid 2010)

NVIDIA GeForce 320M

3.3

1.0

MacBook (Early 2009)

NVIDIA GeForce 9400M

3.3

1.0

MacBook Air (13-inch, 2016)

Intel HD Graphics 6000

4.1

1.2

MacBook Air (13-inch, Early 2015)

Intel HD Graphics 6000

4.1

1.2

MacBook Air (11-inch, Early 2015)

Intel HD Graphics 6000

4.1

1.2

MacBook Air (13-inch, Mid 2013)

Intel HD Graphics 5000

4.1

1.2

MacBook Air (11-inch, Mid 2013)

Intel HD Graphics 5000

4.1

1.2

MacBook Air (Mid 2012)

Intel HD Graphics 4000

4.1

1.2

MacBook Air (Mid 2011)

Intel HD Graphics 3000

3.3

—

MacBook Air (Late 2010)

NVIDIA GeForce 320M

3.3

1.0

MacBook Air (Mid 2009)

NVIDIA GeForce 9400M

3.3

1.0

AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT GPU connected to an iMac Pro running macOS Catalina versus other GPUs

October 29th, 2019 by rob-ART morgan, mad scientist
Updated November 12th with Blender results

There is much interest in the AMD RX 5700 XT GPU now that it is supported in macOS 10.15 'Catalina.' We connected it to our iMac Pro using an eGPU to see how it compared to a few other AMD GPUs.

GRAPH LEGEND

VII = Radeon VII (16GB HBM2 memory) in eGPU Box
5700 XT = Radeon RX 5700 XT (8GB DDR6 memory) in eGPU Box
Pro Vega 64 = iMac Pro's built-in Radeon Pro Vega 64 (16GB HBM2 memory)
RX 580 = Radeon RX 580 (8GB GDDR5 memory) in eGPU Box

TEST DETAILS: The 2017 iMac Pro 3.2GHz 8-core Xeon, 32GB of ECC memory, 1TB flash storage, running macOS Catalina. We used various eGPU boxes from Other World Computing and Sonnet Technologies.

Blender - OpenCL Render of BMW Demo Scene
(LOWER Time in Seconds = FASTER)

DaVinci Resolve Single Node of Noise Reduction
Using the 1080p Candle Project, we applied the '1NR' preset and started playback. (HIGHER Frames per Second = FASTER)

DaVinci Resolve Triple Nodes of Noise Reduction
(HIGHER Frames per Second = FASTER)

Final Cut Pro X 10.4.7
Exported the BruceX sample 5K project to ProRes 4444 XQ. (LOWER Time in Seconds = FASTER)

Motion 5.4.4
Performed a Render RAM Preview on the 600 frame Atmospheric-Open sample project. (LOWER Time in Seconds = FASTER)

TW: Three Kingdoms
Used the built-in Battle benchmark. The three GPUs connected via Thunderbolt 3 appear to have a disadvantage running this game. (HIGHER Frames per Second = FASTER)

TW: Warhammer II
Used the built-in Skaven benchmark. Notice which GPU dominates the 4K gaming mode. (HIGHER Frames per Second = FASTER)

WHAT DID WE LEARN?

The AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT surprised us. First it beats both the VII and Pro Vega 64 running Blender.

Then it keeps up with the Radeon VII running DaVinci Resolve's real-time rendering of Noise Reduction during looping playback.

On the other hand, the iMac Pro's internal Radeon Pro Vega 64 handled the Final Cut Pro X and Motion tasks faster than any of the external GPUs.

The Three Kingdoms game was frustrating since, as with the Apple pro apps, the external GPU appeared to be at a disadvantage. Could it be a bandwidth issue since the eGPU boxes must 'chatter' over the Thunderbolt 3 bus?

However, as we increased the resolution with Warhammer II, the Radeon VII flexed its muscle when it reached 3840x2160 (aka 4K). And the Radeon RX 5700 XT beat the internal Pro Vega 64.

(NOTE: The external GPUs reported best game frame-rates when connected directly to our Dell UP2715K display.)

I doubt anyone would connect an RX 580 externally to an iMac Pro but they might do so with a lesser Mac. At least it gives you a reference point to see where the RX 5700 XT fits in the GPU hierarchy -- much faster than an RX 580 and often 'nipping at the heels' of the top end Radeon VII.

Comments? Suggestions? Feel free to email me, Follow me on Twitter @barefeats.

WHERE TO BUY APPLE products:
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OTHER GOOD SOURCES
Trans International sells various Mac upgrades

Other World Computing sells memory, eGPUs, storage, and used Macs.

B&H Photo Video sells Apple products, GPUs, eGPUs, displays, storage, etc.

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copyright 2019 Rob Art Morgan
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