FCPX 10.4.7. egpu problem

"seems like a bizarre oversight to not let the eGPU just do all exporting on any setting..."

Agreed. Or to have the workload be shared. But yeah, no one is going to have an eGPU that is less powerful.

"Meaning when setting up monitors you have the white bar on the eGPU monitor?"

Meaning that is FCP X interface is running on the display attached to the eGPU, that's what will be used.

FCP X will start on whatever display is currently "active".

My preferred way to make sure that FCP X starts on the display I want:

1) click the menu bar on that display

2) launch FCP X using only Spotlight: command-space, start typing Final, press enter

Cedric I only have one monitor attached to my Mac mini via the Vega 56 eGPU. No way FCPX isn't running on just that display since there is only one.

This may be true of playback performance and in general performance will always be better anyway with a monitor attached directly to the eGPU.

The share issue does not seem to be related to any of this since share to a Master format will use the eGPU for all of us and will be used by FCPX during a background render since that is also based on ProRes. It is every other Apple Devices or Compressor based option that defaults to the internal GPU no matter what we do.

Interesting... https://www.cultofmac.com/658768/macos-catalina-egpu-issues/

I'm on a 2017 MBP and it's using my Vega64 eGPU (along with interval discrete) when playing back and rendering FCPX now. No external monitor.

njovusann wrote:

Ok guys i think i figured it out. In order for render/share/playback to work with the eGPU, Final Cut needs to be open in the monitor connected to the eGPU.

What is your set up? Which Mac and what version of FCPX? Can you attach a photo of the activity monitor for the eGPU. Is it making a massive difference or is it just firing? The problem I keep seeing is not getting it to fire, but for it to be really utilised to the fullest ability, rather than using both a bit. Could you time a comparison of rendering the same clip when plugged directly into Mac and then again directly into Monitor. This would be so helpful!! Thank you!

Great information however that's only a fix IF you have an external monitor. The person who started this post and others sharing the problem they have don't use external monitors and the post is about Macbook Pros. Great there is external monitor support for eGPU but that doesn't help those who travel and edit on the move.

wmsc wrote:

@itsKeef - I have the exact same problem as you are describing on my MacBookPro 15" 2013... I thought it's just my graphic card but maybe there are more people with the same problem?

Yup, with the FCPX 10.4.7 update you now need an external monitor for an egpu to be used properly..

wmsc, your problem is a different one, covered in a few threads in this forum.

You have to go to System Preferences->Accessibility and turn OFF "reduce transparency" and "increase contrast".

(of course, a 2013 mac cannot use an egpu).

This is a nightmare for me as i went down the mac mini route. the internal eGPU is useless but the radeon 570 was a great combo. Now I can not barley playback proxy when I have added a load of effects. This irresponsible and apple need to get this sorted now. I don't have a copy of the previous fcpx so I'm screwed. Shocking especially as they have been selling these eGPUs in their stores. It seems they only work for rendering and sharing anyway.

Everyone with a weak internal gpu and egpu has got screwed. I’m using a 2012 mbp with two internal gpu one nvdia that’s redundant thanks to Apple war with nvdia and the weak intel one, been using an amd 580 eGPU with great success 4k smooth as butter till this 10.4.7 massacre, nothing works the weak intel barely does anything, eGPU is useless. If fcpx doesn’t fix this resolve here I come

[Edited by Moderator]

I am surprised that an egpu would have even worked on your mac - unless there was a typo.

You say you have a 2012 MBP? Are you sure? This only has Thunderbolt 1. Even if the egpu works, the bottleneck will be the bus, and it will probably end up not being much faster than the internal.

Please clarify.

The NVIDIA card works just fine in Catalina with FCP X. I have one (2014 MBP).

There is no CUDA driver for it, but FCP X does not use CUDA at all; it uses Metal.

This whole Finalcut thing is a mess. Even if you have an old Finalcut version sitting somewhere, it won't help you the moment you already updated your library.

Also it looks like some GPUs are better supported than others. My Radeon VII is not even utilised while exporting. No matter if it's selected in settings or not. You can see in the activity viewer that it does nothing and even worse, it's even unloading certain tasks to my internal Intel GPU (MB Late 2016 with Radeon 460)

Hopefully we'll see an update after FCPX Summit this week.

Even if monitor is connected and all the boxes are checked, certain tasks of FCPX such as "sharing" in certain format are using only the Built-in card... Ex: Playback is using eGPU and rendering is done on Built-in.

Yes; I actually just got off an Apple Support call describing the issue. It was escalated to be reviewed by developers, so I guess we'll get an answer as to if this is changed functionality in the FCPX update.

For the record, I've narrowed down the issue to this: if I don't use Apple ProRes as the codec when exporting, then my integrated graphics are used instead of my eGPU.

My gut feeling is that this is a purposeful change. I'm not sure what the solution for exporting videos for YouTube and such are supposed to be though. Do I have to buy Compressor now in order to export videos small enough to share? Will Compressor even use my eGPU?

Just want to add that proxy generation does not use the eGPU anymore under 10.4.7 (reverts to built-in). Monitor connected to eGPU or not. Works perfectly in 10.4.6.

If this whole thread of issues is not seen as a bug by Apple, they need to be absolutely clear what exactly is accelerated by the eGPU and for which you need to actually work off of an external monitor as a primary display. But I really hope that's not the case.