here are some thoughts after doing some gpu benchmark testing Live 10.1.30 on macOS 10.14 with an rx580 egpu, 555x onboard gpu, mbp 15" 2019, 2.6ghz i7 16gb ram with 2x 32" 4k monitors.
been trying to figure out why this machine lags so much even though CPU is hardly used, and GPU performance is looking like the issue here. i'll be turning this into a support request though i'm not expecting much other than to update live and macos, and i can't move beyond 10.14 OS or live 10.1.x for some time due to compatibility issues.
overall conclusion:
gpu issues are bottlenecking this system for no good reason. ableton does not seem optimized to use an egpu on mac.
general observations and tips:
- MaxFpsMac in options.txt only controls the frame rate for native live graphics. maxforlive and plugins still run at their own frame rate and pay the same gpu toll regardless of this setting.
- Even just running a simple m4l lfo with the visualization on shows a small yet noticable gpu hit. i use a ton of m4l stuff so will have to be mindful to minimize the m4l display boxes.
- window re-sizing causes GPU spikes.
- changing the settings in "Get Info" from ableton.app to "Open in Low Resolution" doesn't seem to help. nor does "prefer external gpu"
- live 11 beta performs the same as 10.
- onboard seems to perform better than the external gpu even though the external is way more powerful.
- just launching a blank ableton session full screen in session view on the egpu peaks it. switching the onboard to arrangement view will peak it too, though session view is not peaked when running at 4k on the internal (~40% usage).
- right clicking on a track in a one track project will nearly double GPU usage (using the onboard).