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Can single eGPU be used for both a Mac and PC?


3 years 11 months ago #685012 by MM Images
I have one wide screen monitor that I usually swap out plugging in my Mac, which is what I use for work, and my PC, which is my play computer.  Can a single eGPU be used for both my computers?  Not plugged into at the same time of course.  When I want to do work with my Mac, I plug that in.  Then when I want to play my games, unplug the Mac from the eGPU and plug in my PC.  

Will that work?  
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3 years 11 months ago #685018 by garyrhook
In the same way that a hard drive could be moved from system to system, yes, an eGPU could be shared. All that matters is what the computer sees and supports.
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3 years 11 months ago #685037 by Nikon Shooter
Macs recognise many drives formats… even PC's
Light is free… capturing it is not!
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3 years 11 months ago #685287 by Eric A
True, but this is a video card so more universal than SSDs correct?  
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Canon 7D | 50mm f/1.2 | 17-40mm f/4 | 70-200mm f/2.8 | 320EX | 580EXII
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3 years 11 months ago #685295 by garyrhook

Eric A wrote: True, but this is a video card so more universal than SSDs correct?  


Actually, no. Video cards require a driver for that device. SSDs are designed to standards.

It comes down to: is a driver for that particular eGPU available for your system/OS? If so, plug and unplug all you want.

You might also look into performance specs for an external GPU, and how that may impact your gameplay.
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3 years 11 months ago #685355 by 7Wishes
The default file systems fo Mac (HFS) and Windows (NFTS) are not compatible. For a Windows and Mac system to be able to read and write to the same SSD, the file system would have to be exFAT. 

With regards an egpu to get maximum compatibility between Mac and Windows the card would have to be one supported by Mac, sounds logical but not all are. I believe only AMD are supported. 
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3 years 10 months ago #685477 by garyrhook

7Wishes wrote: The default file systems fo Mac (HFS) and Windows (NFTS) are not compatible. For a Windows and Mac system to be able to read and write to the same SSD, the file system would have to be exFAT.


Just so it's clear, an eGPU is an external graphics device connected through a USB-C / Thunderbolt cable. Filesystems have nothing to do with this.

N.B. MacOS can read NTFS, but not write to it. The only truly universal filesystem remains FAT32/exFat.

With regards an egpu to get maximum compatibility between Mac and Windows the card would have to be one supported by Mac, sounds logical but not all are. I believe only AMD are supported. 


Incorrect. I immediately found an NVidia 2080-based device for Aorus, although most seemed to be Radeon-based. I did not do an exhaustive search.

So, yes, the issue remains: support for the device by both Windows and MacOS.
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3 years 10 months ago #688031 by Ira Weber
So wait, will this lighten the load when doing editing work?  The idea of this will mean more resources for actual computing vs video, right? 
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3 years 10 months ago #688128 by garyrhook

Ira Weber wrote: So wait, will this lighten the load when doing editing work?  The idea of this will mean more resources for actual computing vs video, right? 

]

Being an eGPU vs. a card vs. a built-in adapter is irrelevant. If the software uses (or requires) a GPU for computational purposes, then any of those will (should?) suffice. It's not going to boost anything else. It's not a general-purpose CPU.
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3 years 9 months ago #689280 by Jon East
Did you see that Apple finally upgraded GPU in newer MacBooks?  
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