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My iMac specs:

  • 3.6 GHz Intel Core i9
  • 40 GB 2667 MHz DDR4
  • Radeon Pro Vega 48 8 GB

My graphics card does not seem to be compatible for GPU rendering with the Cycles engine. I even tried the AMD Radeon ProRender option but it does not seem to work. Some files won't display as I get errors. Can someone please suggest which graphics card and eGPU would be compatible with Blender 2.8 in Mojave? Any feedback is much appreciated.

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Blender has stopped OpenCL (the API AMD uses) support for Mac because the compiler on macOS is very buggy. Apple also hasn't shown any effort to fix it, and instead favored their own API called Metal (which Blender does not support).

Blender does, however, support CUDA on MacOS meaning that if you have an Nvidia GPU that is CUDA capable and has a compute capability of 3.0+, you would be able to render with that card. However, recent macs do not use Nvidia cards anymore, so the only way would be to use an eGPU with an Nvidia card installed. You can also install Windows on your mac and just use the AMD card you have as window's OpenCL compiler has no big issues and is supported by Blender.

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  • $\begingroup$ This is no longer true for future versions. Starting with Blender 2.90 CUDA support for macOS is dropped as well, since Nvidia doesn't release the CUDA Toolkit for current macOS versions anymore (see release notes). There may be support in the future again when the port to Vulkan/MoltenVK/Metal is completed. $\endgroup$
    – Robert Gützkow
    Commented Aug 6, 2020 at 17:53
  • $\begingroup$ Thank you Eric Xue for the detailed information and feedback. @Robert Gützkow: Thank you for the Blender 2.90 related information. To both of your knowledge, would an eGPU with an Nvidia graphics card permit GPU rendering with Cycles in Mojave? Or, would using Windows via Bootcamp permit GPU rending with the Cycles engine? I am trying to find a solution to only using the CPU. $\endgroup$
    – RioCreations
    Commented Aug 6, 2020 at 23:07
  • $\begingroup$ @RioCreations a Blender version prior to 2.90 should allow you to use the eGPU, if it meets the requirements for GPU rendering that Eric Xue has listed (see manual). I think it should work with Bootcamp as well, but I haven't tested it, hence I can't guarantee that it will work. $\endgroup$
    – Robert Gützkow
    Commented Aug 7, 2020 at 8:26

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