Catalina & eGPU...

[RC12]

My hope for this issue (even though it’s been going on since the inception of Catalina) is that Apple is completely aware of it and has implemented a fix in 10.16. It’s possible that this fix can not be implemented into 10.15 for some reason. Wishful thinking, but hopefully we will see true change once WWDC rolls out it’s developer builds.

 

[rake_mistry]

Have you tried this?:

View attachment 924299

Thanks, yes, that was my previous "workaround". Important to note that I do not and have not ever had FileVault turned on. Such a shame that Apple screwed the pooch here and requires a display to be connected directly to the Mac mini during boot (or with my new workaround, prior to shutdown) when it was working perfectly fine without that prior to Catalina and Mojave 10.14.5...

 

[frou]

With the Sonnet enclosure and no FileVault, I:

• Begin with the eGPU turned off
• Turn on the Mini (which never has anything connected to its HDMI port)
• Wait long enough for the boot process to happen blind
• Turn on the eGPU

Actually plugging and unplugging cables should only be a last resort IMO. Don't like putting a lot of wear on ports.

 

[dspdoc]

With the Sonnet enclosure and no FileVault, I:

• Begin with the eGPU turned off
• Turn on the Mini (which never has anything connected to its HDMI port)
• Wait long enough for the boot process to happen blind
• Turn on the eGPU

Actually plugging and unplugging cables should only be a last resort IMO. Don't like putting a lot of wear on ports.

It’s a shame that any of these stupid “workarounds” are needed at all. This eGPU thing seems half baked and Apple should be embarrassed. One should only have to click the power button and get the normal boot, Apple logo and all, but no Apple’s engineers are not paying attention to details. It’s pathetic.

 

[narr]

Ok, I finally found a solution to the black screen boot problem. Someone here in the forum said, that all we have to do is to use a HDMI cable and connect it directly to the monitor instead of using a DP cable from EGPU to the monitor.

This is what you have to do:

- Connect Mac Mini with your monitor using HDMI cable
- Connect EGPU with Mac Mini via USB C

Boot. You will see the boot screen, everything is like it is supposed to be. And you will be able to use the EGPU.

Although it will say in your Apple >About this mac info panel, that the internal GPU is being used, you will still see the egpu icon on the menu bar. Which means, that every app you checked with "prefer egpu" in the info panel will still use the EGPU, apps, games, etc. The only issue is that the UI will not use the EGPU, but you can optimize that by checking "Prefer EGPU" for the finder.app, etc.

For me this solves everything: no need for a headless HDMI dummy, no need to switch on the EGPU after switching on the mac mini, no fiddeling around with cables when updating MacOS, etc. - you will see the boot screen and EGPU is being used (as long as you checked the "prefer egpu" checkbox on every app).
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Some apps like the latest version of Final Cut or Photoshop, etc. have a setting within the preferences where you need to select the egpu. Both apps benefit a lot from switching to egpu use.

 

[frou]

That's a performance killer, since any visuals the graphics card produces have to be fed back over the Thunderbolt bus, instead of going out the back direct to the monitor.

 

[narr]

That's a performance killer, since any visuals the graphics card produces have to be fed back over the Thunderbolt bus, instead of going out the back direct to the monitor.

I noticed no difference in performance yet.
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and even if the performance should decrease a bit...being able to boot normally and everything works fine is worth it (to me).

I played Shadow of the Tombraider and got the same fps. I quickly used Final Cut - all worked as smooth as before.

 

[dspdoc]

Ok, I finally found a solution to the black screen boot problem. Someone here in the forum said, that all we have to do is to use a HDMI cable and connect it directly to the monitor instead of using a DP cable from EGPU to the monitor.

This is what you have to do:

- Connect Mac Mini with your monitor using HDMI cable
- Connect EGPU with Mac Mini via USB C

Boot. You will see the boot screen, everything is like it is supposed to be. And you will be able to use the EGPU.

Although it will say in your Apple >About this mac info panel, that the internal GPU is being used, you will still see the egpu icon on the menu bar. Which means, that every app you checked with "prefer egpu" in the info panel will still use the EGPU, apps, games, etc. The only issue is that the UI will not use the EGPU, but you can optimize that by checking "Prefer EGPU" for the finder.app, etc.

For me this solves everything: no need for a headless HDMI dummy, no need to switch on the EGPU after switching on the mac mini, no fiddeling around with cables when updating MacOS, etc. - you will see the boot screen and EGPU is being used (as long as you checked the "prefer egpu" checkbox on every app).
[automerge]1592291494[/automerge]
Some apps like the latest version of Final Cut or Photoshop, etc. have a setting within the preferences where you need to select the egpu (you cannot select "prefer egpu" in the info panel of these apps). Both apps benefit a lot from switching to egpu use.

Nice find! I wonder why Apple doesn’t have instructions like these on their website? I will investigate this myself. Thanks!

 

[src981]

My hope for this issue (even though it’s been going on since the inception of Catalina) is that Apple is completely aware of it and has implemented a fix in 10.16. It’s possible that this fix can not be implemented into 10.15 for some reason. Wishful thinking, but hopefully we will see true change once WWDC rolls out it’s developer builds.

They are definitely aware of it and you may be right about them fixing it in 10.16 (but I'm not holding my breath). I gave up and sent the Mac Mini back to Apple for credit. I can't help but feel like I've been had by them -- they told me what was supported, I purchased what was supported, and that worked just fine until they broke it, and after fighting with it for months and then logging a ticket, they just put me on ignore. Not the same company they were 10 years ago.

 

[dspdoc]

They are definitely aware of it and you may be right about them fixing it in 10.16 (but I'm not holding my breath). I gave up and sent the Mac Mini back to Apple for credit. I can't help but feel like I've been had by them -- they told me what was supported, I purchased what was supported, and that worked just fine until they broke it, and after fighting with it for months and then logging a ticket, they just put me on ignore. Not the same company they were 10 years ago.

I would tend to agree with you. This is pretty typical Apple behavior as of late. I am not sure what has happened to their QC. It seems they have all their eggs in the iPhone and services basket now days. It is sad to see the “computer company” I once adored transitioning into a consumer phone and portable device company.

 

[hagjohn]

After the last beta 10.15.6 beta 19G46c, I had to get an HDMI cable from eGPU to monitor because the my DP cable wouldn't display anything. Catalina reported it in Systems report fine but just didn't display anything. I wish they would fix this ?. They really do need to stop and just fix bugs for a while.

 

[danmart]

I bought an eGPU for my 2018 Mini a couple of months ago and it has been a pretty rough experience - reminds me of the bad-old-days of 386 PCs and having to manually configure settings!

Thanks to the heads-up on this forum my current work-round is a HDMI switcher box (which I already had in place since I use the same monitor for Mac, Work PC and XB1. I have both the Mini and eGPU attached to the switch box via HDMI, and leave the eGPU off unless I am using it for a specific application (in my case, typically a game that needs it).

The Mini seems a lot happier this way, and since I keep it running 18hrs a day as a media server that is important.

 

[RC12]

Currently downloading 10.16 Big Sur beta. Will report back soon. Let this be the end!!!

 

[RC12]

Sadly friends, the issue still persists. But Big Sur is pretty sweet, otherwise! Attached is a copy of my silentknight readings showing EFI, firmware... etc has not really changed.

 

[MacU!]

Does anybody have information on whether arm CPU Big Sur will support eGPUs?

 

[rake_mistry]

Does anybody have information on whether arm CPU Big Sur will support eGPUs?

Also wondering about this. Looks like the Developer Transition Kits don't have Thunderbolt 3 support, which is concerning: https://www.macrumors.com/2020/06/22/apple-silicon-transition-program/

On the hardware side, participants will receive exclusive access to a Developer Transition Kit (DTK), which resembles a Mac mini but uses Apple's A12Z Bionic chip from the latest iPad Pro as its brains. In addition to the A12Z Bionic, the DTK includes 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, a pair of 10 Gbps USB-C ports, a pair of 5 Gbps USB-A ports, and an HDMI 2.0 port. Thunderbolt 3 support is not included.

Hopefully that's just isolated to the DTK and they aren't planning on dropping TB3 support entirely in the near future.

 

[MacU!]

reached the deals to sell my card and closure. lost 100 usd. not gonna buy another closure.

 

[danmart]

Does anybody have information on whether arm CPU Big Sur will support eGPUs?

This is pure speculation on my part: they made a big deal of the graphics improvement seen on iPad, touting that as one of the benefits of using their own silicon. So I anticipate Apple GPUs with a lot more power, going forwards.

 

[frou]

Not that I'm hoping for this, but once all supported Macs are ARM, there's a certain logic to the only Mac with swappable GPUs being the one with PCIe slots (i.e. the tower).

 

[MacU!]

looks like arm linux will support thunderbolt 3. so technically this could also happen in mac world. source

Linux Thunderbolt Support Can Work On Arm Systems - Phoronix

www.phoronix.com

 

[frou]

10.15.6 is out. Slim chance of a fix?

 

[richinaus]

i was so hoping an egpu would be the answer to my Mac issues, but this simply isn’t the case :

1. Rubbish drivers
2. Flakey
3. Same GPU is difficult to use accross mac and bootcamp
4. Windows runs massively faster with nvidia than macOS and AMD

Loads of reasons right there to just go RTX and windows [if you need games or 3D apps like I do].
I will be staying with apple but not for my business computers anymore - egpu was supposed to be the answer for me but it just hasn’t worked out.

 

[Maccotto]

Ok, I finally found a solution to the black screen boot problem. Someone here in the forum said, that all we have to do is to use a HDMI cable and connect it directly to the monitor instead of using a DP cable from EGPU to the monitor.

This is what you have to do:

- Connect Mac Mini with your monitor using HDMI cable
- Connect EGPU with Mac Mini via USB C

Boot. You will see the boot screen, everything is like it is supposed to be. And you will be able to use the EGPU.

Although it will say in your Apple >About this mac info panel, that the internal GPU is being used, you will still see the egpu icon on the menu bar. Which means, that every app you checked with "prefer egpu" in the info panel will still use the EGPU, apps, games, etc. The only issue is that the UI will not use the EGPU, but you can optimize that by checking "Prefer EGPU" for the finder.app, etc.

For me this solves everything: no need for a headless HDMI dummy, no need to switch on the EGPU after switching on the mac mini, no fiddeling around with cables when updating MacOS, etc. - you will see the boot screen and EGPU is being used (as long as you checked the "prefer egpu" checkbox on every app).
[automerge]1592291494[/automerge]
Some apps like the latest version of Final Cut or Photoshop, etc. have a setting within the preferences where you need to select the egpu. Both apps benefit a lot from switching to egpu use.

This is the solution that i find a lot of months ago.
You Discover the hot water

 

[hagjohn]

i was so hoping an egpu would be the answer to my Mac issues, but this simply isn’t the case :

1. Rubbish drivers
2. Flakey
3. Same GPU is difficult to use accross mac and bootcamp
4. Windows runs massively faster with nvidia than macOS and AMD

Loads of reasons right there to just go RTX and windows [if you need games or 3D apps like I do].
I will be staying with apple but not for my business computers anymore - egpu was supposed to be the answer for me but it just hasn’t worked out.

Yeah, I wouldn't recommend anyone investing in an eGPU at this point.

 

[BeatCrazy]

i was so hoping an egpu would be the answer to my Mac issues, but this simply isn’t the case :

1. Rubbish drivers
2. Flakey
3. Same GPU is difficult to use accross mac and bootcamp
4. Windows runs massively faster with nvidia than macOS and AMD

Loads of reasons right there to just go RTX and windows [if you need games or 3D apps like I do].
I will be staying with apple but not for my business computers anymore - egpu was supposed to be the answer for me but it just hasn’t worked out.

Yeah, I wouldn't recommend anyone investing in an eGPU at this point.

I think for the investment ($600-700+) an eGPU still can make some sense. I personally use the Razer Core X Chroma + 5700XT along with a MacBook Pro and a Lenovo SFF PC (occasional gaming).

I have not had any issues at all with this combo.

I update my Macs fairly often, and when I've moved past needing any eGPU support for my Macs (aka ARM!), I'll drop an Nvidia GPU into the Razer Core X and use it strictly for Windows.