PP24 not utilizing eGPU

Report · Feb 24, 2024

2019 MBP with 32gb, running Monterey: My eGPU (Sonnet breakaway box with AMD 6600 xt) isn't recognized or utilized in PP24 at all. No GPU accelerated effects are being rendered at all (render line stays red, shows no areas of yellow) and time line is extremely chopy and unuseable. It works fine in PP23, and "prefer external GPU" is selected in the "get info" window. anyone else experiencing this? I'd love to upgrade, but certainly not if 24 can't utilize the eGPU- the performance on 24 is absoutely terrible compared to 23- really unuseable.

Report · Mar 01, 2024

The probable reason for this is that Adobe, like most software companies, has been concentrating all or most of its Mac resources almost exclusively to the newer Apple Silicon Macs, which do not support eGPUs at all. The result of this is that support for Intel Macs began to be depreciated, which will continue with successive newer versions of the software until that support is completely discontinued.

Report · Mar 06, 2024

I also have the Sonnet Breakaway Box with a Radeon RX580, but I haven’t used it much since upgrading to an Apple Silicon Mac. But I was curious enough about your question to bring out my old 2018 13" Intel MacBook Pro and connect it to the Breakaway Box again to see what would happen.

First I verified that the eGPU was recognized in macOS System Information. Adobe Lightroom Classic reported it as supported for graphics acceleration.

Then, using a freshly installed Premiere Pro 24.2.1 Build 2 (haven’t used Premiere Pro on it since I got the Apple Silicon Mac):

On first run, Premiere Pro displayed an “Initializing GPU” progress bar I don’t remember seeing before. It took a while to finish, maybe over a minute. Did you see this too?

I created a project and piled several GPU-accelerated effects onto a 1080p clip. It seemed to play back and scrub smoothly. macOS Activity Monitor reported that the RX580 was getting used more than the built-in Intel Integrated graphics. The right half of all graphs was while I was playing back and scrubbing that timeline. The even-numbered cores are probably just hyperthreads since my Core i5 MacBook Pro only has four real cores.

So for my Breakaway Box, Premiere Pro 24 does work with the Sonnet eGPU and my Intel MacBook Pro, and I don’t know why it isn’t working on your Mac.

There are at least three differences between our configurations, although I don’t know if they should affect the results:

My Intel MacBook Pro runs macOS 14, and yours runs macOS 12.

Of course we are using different graphics cards in our eGPUs.

If you have a 16" MacBook Pro, it probably has its own internal discrete graphics card. My 13" does not, it has only Intel integrated graphics. I don’t know if that would cause any difference in how macOS or Premiere Pro would change how the eGPU is recognized in Premiere Pro 24, if it was working in 23.

Report · Mar 06, 2024

Scratch what I said in my previous post. Premiere Pro has trouble with three completely different GPU devices in any system (PC or Mac). It is likely that your MBP has its own discrete GPU in addition to the integrated Intel graphics, both of which are enabled. And in the case of your MacBook Pro, the discrete AMD Radeon graphics chip is of a completely different GPU architecture than your external GPU (in this case, the internal GPU is of either the GCN5 or the RDNA1 architecture while the eGPU is of the RDNA2 architecture - all three of which are completely incompatible with one another hardware-wise). In this instance, the eGPU will not be recognized at all in Premiere Pro. There is absolutely no fix at all whatsoever. Apple does not give you a choice; there is absolutely no way at all to disable either of the internal GPUs.

Report · Mar 06, 2024

Thank you very much for that explanation. It's disappointing, obviously, but at least I can stop going crazy about it. If I were to switch to a card that was RDNA1 architecture, to match my discrete GPU in the mbp, do you suppose it would then be recognized and work properly?

Report · Mar 07, 2024

What is your exact model of MBP? The 15" or 16"? Both of those were 2019 models with discrete Radeon GPUs of different GPU generations.

And what is the exact GPU inside your MBP (not counting the Intel UHD Graphics or your eGPU)?

And by the way, Adobe does not support more than two different GPUs simultaneously in any event. And as I stated, Apple does not allow the user to disable any of the MBP's internal GPUs at all, making any eGPU useless for Premiere Pro in this case.

Report · Mar 07, 2024

15-inch, 2019.

2.4 GHz 8-Core Intel Core i9

AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT 16 GB

Again, thank you for that information. Premier 23 uses the eGPU for most things GPU accelerated, as I can see from the activity monitor, I really wish They would allow the same for Premier 24. (or that Apple had a means of disabling one of their GPUs) I'd love to use some of it's great new features.

Report · Mar 07, 2024

I think I may have found a means to disable one of the GPUs in the macbook pro. I followed this tutorial: https://youtu.be/pFZBgvmZaEw?si=nHXlNEy1sZWcTQ4C and it appears to work- I opened PP24 and loaded a video track up with a ton of GPU accelerated effects and watched the activity through activity monitor and it appears to be using the external GPU. Activity monitor is a bit delayed in showing what's happening at the moment, but eventually it shows the Radeon RX 6800 XT eGPU on top of the GPUs and running the effects as it plays through the timeline. ...I think.