First of all thank you @Brice_Reul, for your build, as well as @itsage for your build and @Ritero for your build. You guys helped a lot and let me say that setting up such a build with two small kids running around is not at all easy, especially for a first timer.
Let’s start with the System specs of my MacBook:
- Late-2016 15" MacBook Pro Intel i7-6820HQ @ 2.9 GHz
- 16GB LPDDR3 RAM
- Radeon Pro 460 4GB dGPU
- Intel HD Graphics 530 iGPU
- macOS 10.15.5
- Windows 10 1909
- External monitor: Acer 28“ 4K-display KG281K
eGPU hardware:
- Razer Core X
- Asus AMD Radeon RX 5700 OC
Hardware pictures:
- Graphic Card Enclosure
- Before the construction
3. After the construction
Installation steps:
macOS: Plug in and play. Until now no problems registered.
Windows:
As I read the three builds named above before setting up my build, I did a few things in another sequence.
To begin I already had a Windows 10 System set up a few weeks before and I also had installed steam, a few games and security software. However that did not affect the function of the eGPU or any other step of the build.
Bootcamp partition: 100 GB + external Drive with a partition of 800 GB, Windows 10 installed (1909)
- First I did all the Updates on Windows and Bootcamp
- Install DDU and Visual C++ 2013
- Restart in Windows Safe mode after activating the safe mode restart in Windows Settings
- Run DDU in safe mode to remove Intel and AMD-Drivers + deactivate automatic driver update in Windows 10
- Create a new partition in Windows 10 with 150 MB size, formatted in FAT32 (On APFS in macOS I was not able to create another FAT-partition)
- Boot into macOS to copy goalques automate-eGPU-EFI and mgear1981’s2016 15“ MacBook Pro RP460 dsdt-modified.aml to EFI-partition
- Follow goalques temporary fix for macOS Catalina to edit config.plist
- Restart into EFI-Partition, hit „q“ and select „Load Windows“
- Install iGPU drivers from Intel
- Install and run „gpu-switch integrated.bat“ as Admin
- Search and disable internal AMD-GPU on PCIe x16-controller 1901
- Shut down, connect eGPU and boot into Windows via EFI-Partition
- Wait for System info on a new VGA-Device and Install Bootcampdrivers Radeon Drivers
- Disable Windows Updates for as long as possible
- Test the performance in Games (Battlefleet Gothic Armada 2) and run benchmarks (after a restart of the system)
In Windows, the internal display is deactivated after booting with EFI, but as long as the external display works fine, I don’t care at all.
Benchmarks
I did several Benchmarks in macOS and Windows and I found out that it made a difference if I had the Geekbench-Window open on the MacBook-Screen, driven by the iGPU or on the external display driven by the eGPU.
I will include all scores here, starting with the better one (running the GB5-on the other display).
MacBook Pro CPU:
MacOS: Single Core: 902, MultiCore: 3664
Win10: Single Core: 858, MultiCore: 3641
macOS with Metal:
dGPU AMD Radeon Pro 460
16236 and 16161
iGPU Intel 530
4309 and 4298
eGPU Asus AMD Radeon RX 5700 OC
31573 and 31385
macOS with OpenCL:
GB5 did not offer the test for the iGPU or the dGPU, only the eGPU was tested
29669 and 29291
Windows 10 with OpenCL:
iGPU Intel 530: 5448
eGPU Asus AMD Radeon RX 5700 OC: 57954
Comments
That means that OpenCL runs nearly twice as fast on Windows as it does on macOS and also more than 1.5 times as fast as Metal on macOS on my machine.
For my gaming purposes the performance is sufficient, but the Score for the eGPU in macOS is way lower than I expected and I will stay on the topic and post the news if I can find out why.
@benkenoefsen, thanks for your build. I have the exact same setup except I have the 5700xt
I've tried a more straight forward build and i get error 12.
I'm hoping yours does the trick.
That being said this is also my first time and I can't make any sense of steps 6 and 7. I thought I did it but I think i'm a bit out of my league here.
Any resources you can point me to on how to create this bootable EFI. I literally copied the file onto a usb stick formatted to fat 32 but it appears that doesn't do it.
Cheers,
To do: Create my signature with system and expected eGPU configuration information to give context to my posts. I have no builds.
.Hi @patrickjustin,
perhaps these two screenshots can help you with steps 6 and 7 of my build. They are on the EFI-partition and show which files are stored where:
1. storage location of the file "automate e-GPU.efi"
2. storage location of the modified "config.plist"-file
I hope that can help you. I don't know if a USB-Drive works here but I can confirm that with the extra Partition I created in Windows, I could get it working.
But to reassure you, the creation of the EFI-Drive was also the most time-consuming step for me. 😉
Best,
Ben
@benkenoefsen, thanks heaps Ben.
I appreciate the screenshots. How do you make an efi partition? I know how to partition a drive but is it drag and drop for the files ?
To do: Create my signature with system and expected eGPU configuration information to give context to my posts. I have no builds.
.@benkenoefsen, I managed to make the EFI partition however now i'm stuck on getting the GPU switch to work. I'm getting error 1300.
Also when I boot with the EFI it says it recognises my macbook pro as a 13" not a 15" is that the same for you?
Also doesn't recognise my eGPU either.
I got windows to see my eGPU once and it didn't have error 12 but that only lasted a little and now I can't get it to boot with EFI. (I didn't change anything) Just hangs on the spinning windows screen at bootup.
To do: Create my signature with system and expected eGPU configuration information to give context to my posts. I have no builds.
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@patrickjustin, every disk formatted as GPT in macOS has an EFI partition.
The easiest way to mount the EFI partition is like this:
diskutil list
diskutil mount disk0s1
open /Volumes/EFI*
mount | grep EFI
The first command shows which disks have an EFI partition.
The second command mounts the EFI partition of disk0.
The third command shows the EFI partitions in the Finder.
The last command shows where the EFi partitions are mounted.
Mac mini (2018), Mac Pro (Early 2008), MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015), GA-Z170X-Gaming 7, Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 580 8GB GDDR5, Sonnet Echo Express III-D, Trebleet Thunderbolt 3 to NVMe M.2 case
@joevt, thanks heaps buddy.
very helpful.
ive got it all up and running with no error 12!
benchmarking now 🙂
@benkenoefsen, this build works!!!
got it up and running with no error 12!!!
amazing.
To do: Create my signature with system and expected eGPU configuration information to give context to my posts. I have no builds.
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