Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1058642
PARTNER Creative Bloke INDUSTRY Media & Entertainment CHALLENGES To enable a small independent visual effects facility, Creative Bloke, with a versatile GPU that contains a combination of portability and performance to cater to their wide and varied portfolio of clients. SOLUTION Creative Bloke utilized the AMD Radeon Pro WX 9100 graphics card in the Apple- recommended Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box 650W, with Sonnet connected to an AMD FreeSync 1 -enabled 4K display. RESULTS Enhanced performance, power, and speed enabled Creative Bloke artists to work faster and more efficiently. For a Radeon™ ProRender scene he created, the Radeon Pro WX 9100 eGPU took 10 minutes and 8 seconds to render the scene compared to more than 42 minutes for the laptop's internal Radeon Pro 560X. 2 SOFTWARE USED After Effects I Adobe Premiere I Adobe Final Cut Pro X I Apple Cinema 4D I Maxon AMD TECHNOLOGY AT A GLANCE Radeon Pro WX 9100 eGPU AMD + EGPU CASE STUDY DIGITAL ARTIST ACCELERATES WORKFLOW WITH EXTERNAL GRAPHICS (EGPU) From the UK's National Trust to magazine publishers to manufacturers, digital content creator Mike Griggs has a wide and varied portfolio of clients for whom he creates 3D art, motion graphics and multimedia exhibits. A typical day might involve sampling birdsong near Virginia Woolf's country estate or creating 3D animations for VR. To keep on top of these demands, Griggs wanted to take the full power of the GPU computing revolution on the road . "My work is never the same from one day to the next, and I need the power that GPU computing offers for CGI animation and portability — for client visits, working on the go, collating data from photo and video shoots and just exploring ideas while sitting on the sofa," said Griggs, founder of Creative Bloke. However, until recently, Griggs found the combination of portability and performance led to many compromises instead of the optimal "laptop turned desktop workstation" he sought. Then Apple officially rolled out external GPU (eGPU) support for Thunderbolt 3- equipped Macs 3 , only recommending eGPU solutions powered by AMD graphics cards. "I was thrilled," Griggs said. "The eGPUs have long been the grail of modular computing, and staying with the Mac has become so much easier because of the eGPU support." AMD RADEON PRO SUPERPOWERS MAC GRAPHICS An eGPU is a full-sized graphics card installed in an external enclosure with its own power supply that is then connected to the host PC or laptop via a Thunderbolt™ 3 USB Type-C interface. The latest macOS versions robustly integrate eGPU support for Radeon Pro graphics, providing a simple, plug-and-play experience for artists such as Griggs to easily and instantly boost the graphics capabilities of his Mac system. Griggs chose the AMD Radeon Pro WX 9100 graphics card in the Apple-recommended Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box 650W, with the Sonnet connected to an AMD FreeSync 1 -enabled 4K display. The combination overcomes a "frustrating compromise" that Griggs had made for years — that of having to switch between his Apple MacBook Pro and higher-powered Windows-based workstations he custom-built. With the Radeon Pro WX 9100 eGPU, Grigg says his laptop feels like a workstation. "Day-to-day tasks feel quicker with the powerful GPU," he said, adding that "the Radeon Pro WX 9100 throws graphics and UI elements around the screen smoother than a hot knife through butter." He said in his experience, the performance of After Effects and Premiere, both from Adobe, is enhanced by the powerful GPU, while his favorite editing application, Apple Final Cut Pro X, is "a beast" on the eGPU when scrubbing, rendering previews and working with effects and motion graphics. "When the eGPU is working with the Radeon Pro WX 9100 and MacBook Pro, it is truly awesome." Mike Griggs, Founder, Creative Bloke