AMD GPU on Mac not working: poor FPS

Question

Hello I'm using x-plane 11.30r3on a Mac mini with external AMD EGPU running on 10.14.2.

I'm aware of the problems with external GPU but I would like to add a piece of information.

Even using only external AMD card as the only available GPU (ie with the internal Mac connected to nothing) the FPS is still really poor.

As a test in a 2009 MacPro I did install the very same card a Saphire Pulse RX 580 (taking away the original one) which Apple from 10.13 supports and again as the only GPU the FPS are still very poor.

Naturally on both Macs if you use standard AMD cards you do not see the Apple splash screen neither the process bar until you reach the desktop, but they both have really nice performances using the usual GPU tests. Only X-plane suffer of this problem.

So probably x-plane does not support at all AMD cards (while Apple does if you test performances FPS very similar to windows ones).

I have tried even a Radeon RX Vega 56 on both Macs with no luck. FPS retail always around 20/25.

There will be a forecast when this problem (was the same on XP10) will be solved?

Thank you

Comments

From the Usage Survey it seems we "crazy Mac flyers" are 30-40% of the past financials of LR, and crazy Mac w/eGPU flyers may be only half that.  I'm not optimistic "this problem" even has a plan with dates on it.

Answer 1

Hi karterilla,

I am not with Laminar Research; just a flight simmer.

Does your Mac meet the system requirements found at https://www.x-plane.com/kb/x-plane-11-system-requirements/     Many flight simmers have a purpose built unit equal to or of higher specs than the recommended specs.

AMD cards are known to provide a lesser performance than NVidia cards.  X-Plane is resource hungry so you need top end components.

Good luck

Glenn