eGPU & FCP 7

[badawat]

Does anyone know if it is or would be possible to run Final Cut Pro 7 in a VM with Fusion 12 and AMD eGPU?

Up to now whenever I've tried to run FCP 7 in a VM I've always received the following error message:

• Final Cut Pro requires that your system have 128 MB of VRAM; this system has only 0 MB of VRAM.
• Final Cut Pro requires that your system have a Quartz Extreme capable video card.

Would vmware Fusion 12 and following set up work?

• 16" 2019 MacBook Pro (64GB RAM, 2.4Ghz)
• AMD eGPU
• Host: Big Sur running Fusion 12
• Guest: FCP 7 compatible OS such as Snow Leopard Server (10.6.8) through to Sierra (10.12.6)

I don't own an eGPU so would need to buy one to test it but thought I'd ask in case anyone else has been successful or happens to have a similar set up?

In case anyone's wondering why I want to do this, for me, FCP 7 still the best NLE in terms of actually editing with on a timeline for short form projects. Premiere is fantastic in that it doesn't require footage to be trans-coded but the UI and shortcuts aren't as well thought out or as detailed as FCP 7. FCPX has many great features but the again the most important one, interacting withe footage on the timeline just isn't as good. Long form AVID is great but for short form, I'm looking for a long term solution that would allow me to use FCP7 in a VM so that I don't need to hoard old hardware for the next 20 years or however long my working life continues.

What will happen in the future - will M1 macs be able to run Mac OS X in a VM?

I'm pretty new to using VMs so I hope my question is properly phrased.

Maybe hoarding hardware is the best solution?

[wila]

Hi,

There is currently no possibility to pass through a GPU to your VM.
The eGPU support that has been talked about is about the possibility for VMware Fusion to use that eGPU, not for the ability to pass that eGPU to the guest OS.

For macOS VM's there is also NO 3D support for the guest OS.
Shortly there has been new experimental 3D support for macOS guests, but that only works on:

- macOS Big Sur hosts
- macOS Big Sur guests

I do not expect that 3D support to be backported to earlier versions of macOS. It would require to backport a graphical driver to earlier versions of macOS. That driver depends on metal.. so chances are very close to 0 for ever to arrive at macOS 10.12.x

You might be able to pass through a graphics adapter using either KVM or vSphere, but that is a solution that is not exactly aimed at end users and will have more technical challenges.

--
Wil

[badawat]

Hi Wil

thanks for taking the time to response to my question.

That's a shame, looks like hardware hoarding it is then.

Just out of interest, is the lack of passthrough and 3D support down to Apple or vmware? 

Also, why wouldn't the new experimental 3D support for macOS guest be back-ported to all versions of macOS that support Metal: El Capitan 10.11.x onwards? That would seem pretty useful. Is that down to number of users of older OSX VMs?

Thanks for suggestions re KMV and vSphere... I think they might be technically above my ability to implement - then there's usability. 

[wila]

Hi,

Apple does not provide a programming interface to be able to pass through a PCIe device when your host OS is macOS.
Without that... there's no way for VMware (or other companies) to offer such a thing.

The only reason you can do this via KVM or vSphere is because the host OS is not macOS. For KVM you are running on Linux and with vSphere your host OS is ESXi.

re. backporting 3D support.
This is also on apple. The 3D support that is possible now is via a 3D paravirtual adapter from apple, they provide a driver for that.
You can't write your own graphical adapter driver and 3rd party graphical adapters are getting extinct (nvidia and amd/radeon). No public API had been made available to 3rd parties. It never was available and apple has no benefit from backporting that driver, they want you to upgrade to the latest macOS at all times.
I'm suspecting that the paravirtual GPU driver also depends on features made available in the metal API from Big Sur complicating any backporting efforts, even for apple.

--
Wil

[badawat]

So if my host is Linux (running natively on a Mac), could I run 10.12.x as guest and then pass through my GPU to get FCP working?

Would this work on vmware fusion

My MacBook Pro has

AMD Radeon Pro 5500M 8 GB

and

Intel UHD Graphics 630 1536 MB

Thanks again!

[wila]

Hi,

You wouldn't use VMware Fusion for this at all.

You would either use KVM (when running linux directly on the MBP) or vSphere.
William posted an article about doing this with vSphere the other day and I thought about this thread, but forgot, so thanks for reminding me.

See here:
https://www.virtuallyghetto.com/2020/12/gpu-passthrough-with-esxi-on-the-apple-2019-mac-pro-71.html

You can find a bunch of other articles about running vSphere directly on apple hardware on that site.

For links about using KVM I suggest to google on things like "proxmox" + "macOS" and maybe hackintosh.
Not something I can help you out with here, nor do I have experience with this (although it sounds like fun, I do lack the time to look into it)

--
Wil