Solved! Does it make sense to buy e-GPU for Adobe Illustrator/Photoshop/DC?

chnapo

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Jan 4, 2018
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I am planning to buy mac without dgpu, either new mini, or 13" pro. My work is mostly simple photoshop, a little bit complex AI and Adobe reader in such complexity that it does not run smoothly. Does it make sense to buy RX 580 e-GPU (with 600USD price incl. box)? Will it make any noticable improvement in these programs? I work in 4k+fhd setup.

EDIT: Guys/girls, please, focus on the question. I know what I am buying and why mac and not hackintosh, not Windows PC, not Linux PC, why not 15" Macbook Pro, why not iMac. I only need to know how much of performance boost in Adobe Acrobat DC and Illustrator (and maybe Photoshop, but this is least important) will e-GPU give me over UHD 630 in Mini 2018 or whatever is in quad-core MBP 13" 2018. Because I want performance boost but it would be stupid to go for e-GPU if these programs are CPU based. Also it would be stupid to go for multi-threaded CPUs if these programs are single-threaded.
 
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jaslion

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Dec 17, 2012
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Depending on the sizes you with your documents it can help however why not go with a macbook that has a dgpu and is a bit larger to be able to have better performance as the inevitable thermal throttling will stay away longer in the bigger macbooks?
 

racksmith101

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Apr 20, 2018
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Why buy an overpriced Mac then spend more money on an egpu? Just buy a decent laptop with a good GPU (1060 or 1070) it'll probably be cheaper and you won't have to cart around a egpu and extra PSU. Or if it's just for home use just get a sff desktop ( probably still be cheaper and upgradable)
 

chnapo

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Jan 4, 2018
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Well I will probably go for the mac mini because of the price, so bigger macbook that costs 3x more is not an option. Macbook 13" is just hypothetical. Also, I am not going to run into thermal throttling, my workload does not utilize so much CPU and even if, then it is more of burst load, rather than stable heavy load.

My biggest issue is work with large PDFs where my Adobe Acrobat is just terrible, it takes seconds to zoom in or scroll.

 

jaslion

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Dec 17, 2012
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That would be the smarter option of course but if it has to be a macbook for some reason then a larger one would be best. An older one would actually be even better since all macbooks since 2015 are using a high failiure rate keyboard that costs a lot to replace (between 400-700$) and then you have another high failiure rate keyboard.
 

chnapo

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Other than mac is not an option (even hackintosh) because of many reasons that are not even important. I am asking if adding GPU (okay, in any system) will help Acrobat DC, Illustrator and maybe Photoshop (but PS is not so important) in any significant way, worthy of 600 USD for RX 580 or these programs do not utilize GPU power to see improvement over UHD 630. Thank you for suggestions, I am not mac fanboy, I am very reasonable when it comes to buying stuff and I have reasons to only want mac. Please, focus on the question instead.
 

jaslion

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Dec 17, 2012
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The mac mini should be avoided. It's running almost 5 year old tech in there, has no upgradeability and is weaker than most options out there.

Extremely large documents will lagg when zooming in/out but having a decent cpu and gpu (the curren intel hd will do) helps a good bit.

On my lenovo yoga 520 I have intel UHD 620 graphics and mx130 graphics and between both the mx130 does help a fair bit with large documents. Compared to my much more powerfull desktop I barely notice a difference.

So an rx 580 will be overkill but will help. Is it worth the 600$ investment? Nope.
 
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chnapo

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Jan 4, 2018
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Dude, thanks but I mean the new mac mini, not the old dual core mobile 28W cpu, but the new which has more powerful CPUs than current iMac, Macbook Pro and other "affordable" macs (literally only iMac pro and Mac pro have better CPUs)
 

jaslion

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I would first wait for some benchmarks and reviews as to see if that mac mini works well since putting a lot of power into a small system doesn't always end well.