State of eGPU for Macs – Catalina 10.15 Update  

Overview

Today Apple releases Catalina 10.15, two years after the launch of macOS High Sierra 10.13 that introduced eGPU functionality. While there were no major changes to external GPU support in macOS, we've seen notable refinements in day-to-day use. Better app-level optimization, improved internal display acceleration, and Boot Screen through eGPU are the highlights of Catalina 10.15 for external graphics card users.

As more users migrate to Thunderbolt 3 Macs, the cries for eGPU support on Thunderbolt 1 & 2 machines are fading away. Thanks to our community support developers, Goalque and Mac_Editor, older Thunderbolt Macs continue to enjoy external graphics in macOS Catalina. What we've heard loud and clear is the omission of Nvidia graphics card support. Nvidia and Apple are acting as if they went through a bitter divorce with no option for shared custody. Users are meant to side with the brand that's most essential to their computing needs. 

2018 Mac Mini with 6 eGPUs - Activity Monitor in Catalina 10.15

Native Support

If you have a Thunderbolt 3 Mac computer, you're in luck because this is the platform on which Apple has been building eGPU support. All you need is a MacOS-certified AMD Radeon graphics card + Thunderbolt 3 enclosure pairing that fits your needs and budget. There are eGFXs that come ready-to-go with a graphics card such as the Sonnet Breakaway Puck 560/570, Gigabyte RX 580 Gaming Box, and Blackmagic eGPU/Pro. As of fall 2019, these are Thunderbolt 3 Macs that have native eGPU support in MacOS 10.15 Catalina.

The 2018 Mac mini received preferential treatment in Catalina 10.15. Apple made changes to its firmware to allow Boot Screen Support through the eGPU-connected monitor. This feature improves usability tremendously. As a headless Mac with iGPU only, the Mac mini is a prime candidate for an external GPU. The challenge for day-to-day use so far is the need to connect a monitor directly to the Mac mini (HDMI or USB-C/Thunderbolt 3) in order to use FileVault or Boot Screen to switch between macOS and Windows. It's reasonable to expect eGPU Boot Screen Support as a standard feature on Thunderbolt 3 and newer headless Macs going forward.

Catalina 10.15 2018 Mac Mini 4 eGPUs + 3 Monitors Boot Screen Support

A more future-proof route is to piece together an eGPU yourself. This process takes more effort but gives you flexibility and upgradability. This is beneficial for both enthusiasts and first-timers. Enthusiasts get to have nearly full control of the features they want out of an eGPU. If you try eGPU out and decide it's not what you expect, the GPU can be repurposed and the enclosure sold.

There is some homework to do in order to understand eGFX technology and what features are available. eGPU.io enclosure reviews go into detail on power delivery to the host computer, available expansion I/O ports, Thunderbolt 3 controller arrangement, power supply capacity and more. The options listed in the table below are currently available and best-suited for Mac computers. The ranking is based on the number of user builds in the past six months.

Rank 6mo

Thunderbolt 3 Enclosure

Design

Included GPU1

Price US$

Review

User builds

User builds macOS

Size (L) compare

Weight (kg/lb)

PSU type2

PSU max power

Power delivery (PD)3

GPU max power4

GPU max length (in/cm)

GPU ports

I/O ports bandwidth5

USB-C ports6 & ctrl

TB3 ctrl7

slots @width

Updated firmware8

Cable cm9

Vendor page

#1

Razer Core X

✖

$300

link

link

link

14.45

6.48/14.29

ATX-int

650W

100W

500W

12.99/33.0

✖

✖

1 & TI83

DSL6540

1@x4

33.1 ✔

50

link

#2

Razer Core X Chroma

✖

$400

link

link

link

14.45

6.91/15.23

ATX-int

700W

100W

500W

12.99/33.0

✖

5Gbps

1 & TI83

JHL6540 x2

1@x4

40.1 ✔

70

link

#3

AORUS/ Gigabyte Gaming Box

RX580 GTX1070 GTX1080 RTX2070

$420 $500 $670 $650

link link link unbox

link

link

3.30

2.35/5.19

fATX-int

450W

100W

225W

6.65/16.9

AMD: 3xDP,HDMI Nvidia: DP, HDMI, 2xDVI-D , USB-C (RTX)

5Gbps

1 & TI83

DSL6540

1@x4

F1.1 ✔ F1.0 ✔ F1.0 ✔ F1.0 ✔

50

link link link link

#3

Mantiz Saturn Pro

✖

$299

link

link

link

14.57

5.70/12.54

ATX-int

750W

100W

550W

12.99/33.0

✖

5Gbps

1 & TI83

JHL6540+ JHL6240

1@x4

44.4 ✔

70

link

#3

Sonnet Breakaway 350|550|650

✖ ✖ ✖ RX580 Vega56 Vega64

$199 $250 $300 $439 $799 $949

link

link

link

12.71

3.20/7.10

SFX-int

350W 550W 650W 350W 550W 650W

15W 87W 87W 60W 87W 87W

300W 375W 475W 225W 375W 475W

12.20/31.0

2xDP, HDMI, DVI-D

✖

1 & TI83

DSL6540

1@x4

25.2 ✔ 25.2 ✔ 25.2 ✔ 25.1 ✔ 25.2 ✔ 25.2 ✔

50

link

#4

AORUS RTX Gaming Box

RTX2080Ti RTX3080

$1500 $1400

link unbox

link

7.26 7.26

3.79/8.34 3.83/8.42

fATX-int fATX-int

450W 550W

100W 100W

300W 375W

12.60/32.0 12.60/32.0

3xDP, HDMI, USB-C

8Gbps 8Gbps

1 & TI83 1 & TI83

JHL6340 x2

1@x4 1@x4

44.44 ✔ 44.44 ✔

50 50

link link

#5

ADT-Link R43SG-TB3

✖

$120

discuss

link

link

GPU

0.1/0.22

ATX-ext or AC-ext

nolimit

15W

nolimit

nolimit

✖

✖

1 & TI83

DSL6540

1@x4

??

30

link

#6

Lenovo Legion BoostStation

✖

$230

discuss

link

link

13.31

8.50/18.74

ATX-int

500W

100W

300W

12.60/32.0

✖

8Gbps x2

1 & TI83

JHL6540+ JHL6240

1@x4

??

70

link

#6

AKiTiO Node Pro

✖

$349

link

link

link

12.82

3.40/7.40

SFX-int

500W

60W x2

400W

12.60/32.0

✖

10Gbps

2 & TI83

DSL6540

1@x4

23.1 ✔

50

link

#7

AKiTiO Node

✖

$200

link

link

link

14.09

4.90/10.78

SFX-int

400W

15W

375W

12.60/32.0

✖

✖

1 & TI83

DSL6540

1@x4

25.1 ✔

50

link

#8

Razer Core V2

✖

$500

link

link

link

7.65

4.95/10.89

fATX-int

500W

65W

375W

11.81/30.0

✖

5Gbps

1 & TI83

DSL6540 x2

1@x4

26.1 ✔

50

link

#8

AKiTiO Node Lite

✖

$190

✖

link link

link link

2.64

2.00/4.39

AC-ext

72W

15W

25W

7.87/20.0

✖

10Gbps

2 & TI83

DSL6540

1@x4

B1-25✔

50

link

#8

HP Omen Accelerator

✖

$300

link

link

link

16.00

5.50/12.10

ATX-int

500W

60W

300W

11.42/29.0

✖

5Gbps

1 & TI83

DSL6540

1@x4

25.25 ✔

50

link

#8

AKiTiO Node Titan

✖ RX580 RX5700XT RPW5700

$330 $550 $750 $1300

discuss

link

link

12.82

3.50/7.72

SFX-int

650W

85W

500W

12.60/32.0

✖ 2xDP, 2xHDMI, DVI-D 3xDP, HDMI 5xDP,USB-C

✖

1 & TI83

JHL7440

1@x4

??

50

link

#8

Lenovo TB3 Graphics Dock

GTX1050

$325

link

link

link

0.74

0.69 / 1.51

AC-ext

170W

65W

-

-

2xDP,HDMI

5Gbps

1 & TI83

JHL6540

1@x4

v003 ✔

50

link

#8

Cooler Master MasterCase EG200

✖

$350

unbox

link

link

9.7

5.20/11.50

SFX-int

550W

60W

375W

12.79/32.5

✖

5Gbps

1 & TI83

JHL7440

1@x4

59.1 ✔

50

link

#8

PowerColor/ VisionTek mini

RX560 RX570

$350 $480

link

link

link

2.30

0.85/1.90

AC-ext

240W

45W

150W

6.89/17.5

2xDP,2xHDMI,DVI-D

5Gbps

1 & TI83

JHL6540+ JHL6240

1@x4

40.1 ✔

50

link

-

Sonnet Breakaway Puck

RX560 RX570 RX5500XT RX5700

$399 $499 $600 $900

link

link

link

1.01

2.38/5.25

AC-ext

160W 220W 220W 220W

45W 45W 60W 60W

-

-

3xDP,HDMI 3xDP,HDMI DP,HDMI DP,HDMI

✖ ✖ 5Gbps 5Gbps

1 & TI83 2 & TI83

DSL6540

1@x4

25.1 ✔

50

link link link link

-

Highpoint Rocketstor 6661A

✖

$175

preview

link

link

2.40

5.18/11.40

AC-ext

60W

15W

25W

8.20/20.8

✖

10Gbps

2 & TI83

DSL6540

1@x4

??

50

link

-

OWC Mercury Helios 3

✖

$200

user

✖

✖

2.69

1.40/3.08

AC-ext

90W

15W

25W

7.75/19.6

✖

10Gbps

2 & TI83

DSL6540

1@x4

✖

50

link

-

Zotac AMP Box Mini

✖

$220

link

link

link

4.17

0.85/1.87

AC-ext

180W

15W

150W

7.87/20.0

✖

5Gbps

1 & TI83

DSL6540

1@x4

26.1 ✔

50

link

-

Sapphire GearBox

✖

$259

link

link

link

8.45

3.30/7.30

fATX-int

500W

60W

300W

10.50/26.6

✖

5Gbps

1 & TI83

JHL6540

1@x4

41.41 ✔

50

link

-

PowerColor Gaming Station

✖

$250

✖

link

link

13.71

3.60/7.92

SFX-int

550W

87W

375W

12.20/31.0

✖

5Gbps

1 & TI83

DSL6540

1@x4

??

50

link

-

AKiTiO Thunder3

✖

$250

✖

link link

link link

2.64

2.00/4.39

AC-ext

72W

15W

25W

7.87/20.0

✖

10Gbps

2 & TI82

DSL6540

1@x4

✖

50

link

-

PowerColor Devil Box

✖

$300

user

link

link

16.65

3.60/7.92

fATX-int

500W

60W

375W

12.20/31.0

✖

5Gbps

1 & TI83

DSL6540

1@x4

25.101 ✔

50

link

-

ASUS XG Station Pro

✖

$330

link

link

link

8.23

2.95 /6.50

AC-ext

330W

15W

300W

12.24/31.1

✖

10Gbps

1 & TI83

JHL6540

1@x4

29.1 ✔

150

link

-

AKiTiO Node Duo

✖

$370

link

link

link

10.54

5.00/11.00

AC-ext

150W

60W+15W

25W x2

8.66/22.0

✖

10Gbps

2 & TI83x2

DSL6540

2@x2

33.3 ✔

200

link

-

Netstor HL23T-Plus

✖

$429

link

link

link

8.98

3.40/7.40

fATX-int

400W

15W

350W

12.60/32.0

✖

✖

1 & TI83

JHL6540

1@x4

33.1 ✔

50

link

-

Netstor Hercules HL23T

✖

$435

link

link

link

8.16

2.70/5.94

fATX-int

300W

15W

300W

12.60/32.0

✖

10Gbps

2 & TI83

DSL6540

1@x4

25.1 ✔

100

link

-

ASUS ROG XG Station 2

✖

$550

link

link

link

20.03

5.10/11.22

fATX-int

680W

100W

500W

12.20/31.0

✖

5Gbps

1 & TI83

DSL6540

1@x4

v25 ✔

50

link

-

Blackmagic eGPU | Pro

RP580 Vega56

$699 $1199

link

link

link

9.64

4.60/10.20

custom-int

400W

85W

✖

✖

HDMI TB3/USB-C

5Gbps

2 & TI83x2

JHL7540

1@x4

26.3 ✔

50

link link

N/A

Mantiz Venus

✖

ended

link

link

link

11.56

3.60/7.92

SFX-int

550W

87W

375W

13.00/33.0

✖

5Gbps

1 & TI83

DSL6540

1@x4

25.1 ✔

50

link

Rank 6mo

Thunderbolt 3 Enclosure

Design

Included GPU1

Price US$

Review

User builds

User builds macOS

Size (L) compare

Weight (kg/lb)

PSU type2

PSU max power

Power delivery (PD)3

GPU max power4

GPU max length (in/cm)

GPU ports

I/O ports bandwidth5

USB-C ports6 & ctrl

TB3 ctrl7

slots @width

Updated firmware8

Cable cm9

Vendor page

[accordion id="my-accordion"] [accordion_item title="Footnotes ^{1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9}" parent_id="my-accordion" class="key" ]

¹ For macOS ≥ 10.13.4: AMD RX480/580 & these are supported. Nvidia 10.13.x support can be added with purge-wrangler.
² Flex-ATX (fATX) PSUs have a tiny 40mm high RPM cooling fan that is noisy under load. Separate external-AC PSUs are not included in product's size.
³ Meet or exceed your TB3 notebook's charger wattage for the TB3 enclosure to be a single-cable solution that includes charging. eg Macbook USB-C chargers.
⁴ Meet or exceed your intended video card's peak power requirements. See TechPowerUp card reviews, eg: GTX1080Ti to find this.
⁵ If used on a TB2/1 system via a US$49 Apple TB3-TB2 adapter, USB ports are not visible in Windows (inc Aorus' fan control). They do appear in macOS. Ref: theitsage.
⁶ 2nd TB3 port can be DP, USB-C or daisy-chain TB3. Note: Intel often disallows a 2nd TB3 port on eGFX enclosures.
⁶ ports' use reduces eGPU bandwidth by up to 31.2% @10Gbps, 15.6% @5Gbps. Except for (i) Displayport devices (ii) XG Station 2 that hosts ports off a separate USB-B cable.
⁷ USB-based enclosure I/O ports exhibit flaky behavior under load as described, except those using a 2nd TB3 controller to host I/O ports.
⁷ Titan Ridge (JHL7540) allows internal routing of onboard GPU DisplayPort signals for Thunderbolt 3 monitor output. Alpine Ridge (DSL6xxx/JHL6xxx) does not.
⁸ Allows eGPU detection in Windows for systems reporting "external GPUs supported: no" in the Intel Thunderbolt software.
⁹ If require a longer TB3 cable, consider these: US$50 AKiTiO 200cm, $50 Cable Matters 100cm.

[/accordion_item]

Reference material

here ◄ eGPU Port Bandwidth Reference Table for CUDA-Z or AIDA64 measured bandwidth

here ◄ TB3 candidate notebooks - set CPU, LCD and/or Brand of interest then view System model dropdown

All Thunderbolt 3 enclosures available on the market are macOS compatible. The bigger compatibility unknown rests on the graphics card. Apple only provides native eGPU support to select AMD GPUs shown below. They are currently the families of Radeon Polaris and Vega cards. Navi cards have yet to receive drivers in the initial release of Catalina 10.15 but we expect support for them soon. As a precaution, Vega 64 GPUs demand a lot of power. Therefore the eGPU enclosure should have at least a 650W power supply. Polaris GPUs such as the RX 580 are more efficient and can work with almost all eGPU enclosures.

Radeon Pro	Radeon RX
Pro WX 9100	Radeon VII
Pro W5700	RX 5700 XT
RX Vega Frontier Edition	RX Vega 64
Pro WX 8200	RX Vega 56
Pro WX 7100	RX 480 / RX 580
Pro WX 5100	RX 470 / RX 570
Pro WX 4100	RX 460 / RX 560

Once you have the whole kit together, it's plug-and-play with a Thunderbolt 3 Mac. Hot-plug and surprise removal of the external GPU has been working since 10.13.4. Catalina 10.15 also has much better support for multiple eGPUs. In High Sierra there appeared to be a limited number of eGPU the system could handle based on the host computer's Thunderbolt 3 controllers. Mojave 10.14 raised this multiple eGPU support to four units. Catalina 10.15 has no set limit in my testing. The bad news is the system and applications can only use up to four eGPUs concurrently.

The most exciting feature is the ability to accelerate a Mac's internal display with the eGPU. In previous macOS builds, the external GPU could only provide acceleration to OpenGL tasks rendered through an external monitor. There's now a checkbox to set the eGPU as the preferred graphics card for all tasks regardless of whether an external monitor is attached. This mode forces eGPU loopback to the internal display of a MacBook Pro or iMac. With that said, not all applications are optimized for eGPU use. Adobe CC 2019 has support for external and multiple GPUs in some of its apps such as Lightroom and Photoshop. As more users adopt external graphics and as drivers mature, we hope third-party software support gets better. 

macOS Catalina 10.15 eGPU acceleration in Lightroom

macOS Catalina 10.15 eGPU acceleration in Photoshop

Community Support

Similar to macOS Mojave 10.14, Apple does not extend eGPU support to users with Thunderbolt 1/2 Macs or Nvidia graphics cards in Catalina 10.15. Our community has been relentlessly providing unofficial eGPU support for these older Macs Apple deemed unworthy. The main developers are Goalque and Mac_Editor. Without their selfless contributions eGPU for Macs would not be as popular as it is today. There are currently two primary approaches to facilitate eGPU support on older Macs. One solution is to make a Thunderbolt 1/2 Mac behave like a Thunderbolt 3 Mac. The other solution is to make an eGPU behave like an internal PCIe graphics card. Keep in mind Mac computers with the Apple T2 chip have tighter security in place. In order to implement these solutions, Secure Boot must be off and external source booting must be enabled.

Purge-Wrangler by Mac_Editor is currently the easiest solution to enable eGPU access to your Thunderbolt 1 or 2 Macs. This workaround also incorporates patches that enable compatibility with older AMD and Nvidia graphics cards as well as TI82 Thunderbolt 3 enclosures. The prerequisites are for SIP to be disabled and patching made to system files. The table below lists the Thunderbolt version of Mac computers built from early 2011 to late 2015. You can either use a Thunderbolt 2 enclosure for external graphics or use a Thunderbolt 3 enclosure via a Thunderbolt 2 cable + Apple Thunderbolt 3/USB-C to Thunderbolt adapter.

EFI automate-eGPU solution by Goalque is a cleaner approach in that all patches happen on the fly during macOS booting process. The software can be installed on an external boot volume such as a USB thumb drive or a small FAT partition of your Mac's internal hard drive. The former is strongly encouraged so that there's no risk of corrupting your drive and losing data. Using an external drive for each boot is not convenient, but it's well worth the effort if you're not willing to disable SIP and modify system files for eGPU support.

A refinement in macOS Catalina is the addition of a GPU tab in Activity Monitor. Not only does it provide a close watch on whether the eGPU is being used, but it also shows other information on the external graphics card such as brand, model, enclosure, and connected Thunderbolt 3 port. While daisy-chaining of external GPU is not recommended due to limited bandwidth through Thunderbolt 3 interface, it works regardless. I have daisy-chained three levels with the Radeon VII being at the end of the chain. For OpenCL task, the performance loss was minimal.

Boot Camp Support

Many Mac users who are interested in eGPU want to use it for gaming in Windows. We were hoping eGPU improvement in Catalina 10.15 would also mean better support for Boot Camp mode. The reality is that Apple still considers eGPU use in Windows a non-priority. We had seen beta builds of macOS Catalina 10.15 directly affect the way eGPU worked in Boot Camp. Unfortunately there's no one clear solution. It's easier to set up an eGPU with Boot Camp in iGPU-only Mac computers; dGPU-equipped Macs such as the 15" MacBook Pro pose a challenge. Our Boot Camp eGPU setup guide provides more technical information and the step-by-step process for Thunderbolt 3 Mac users.

While both AMD and Nvidia have made great strides in eGPU support for Windows, Apple does not adhere to the ways Windows computers interact with Thunderbolt 3 eGPUs. I've been testing the 2018 15" MacBook Pro. The Mac firmware and Apple T2 chip are big hurdles to successfully set up an external GPU in Boot Camp. The only saving grace is that it has Large Memory allocation to help with error 12 when adding an Nvidia eGPU. As seen in the screen capture, adding an AMD eGPU in Boot Camp can wreak serious havoc to the system. Both the Radeon Pro 555X dGPU and RX 580 eGPU got yellow-banged with driver conflict and lack of resource issues.

2018 15 Macbook Pro Error 12 on RX 580 eGPU & Error 43 on Pro 555X dGPU

There are advances and setbacks from Microsoft's Windows 10 Fall Update. Version 1903 continues to improve upon Windows Hybrid Graphics (introduced in 1803) that allows the external GPU to work with a discrete GPU for internal display acceleration. This is beneficial for Mac computers because Apple firmware has a tendency to disable the Intel-integrated GPU in favor of the AMD Radeon discrete GPU. Without an active iGPU, AMD XConnect and Nvidia Optimus can't leverage eGPU acceleration to the internal display. As seen in the Graphics Settings of Windows, you can set your preference for a given software or game to use the higher-performing external graphics card. Boot Camp eGPU users need to be careful of Security Updates which take place automatically. The recommended Windows 10 1903 is OS Build 18362.295. Once your Mac is running this version, make sure to disable Windows Update in Services.

2018 15 Macbook Pro Asus Xg Station Pro Gtx 1080 Ti Egpu Device Manager Large Memory

2018 15 Macbook Pro Asus Xg Station Pro Gtx 1080 Ti Egpu Graphics Settings

Apple has made incremental changes to Mac firmwares in each macOS build. For example Mojave and Catalina improved the 2013 Mac Pro in that they allow more Thunderbolt devices to function in operating systems other than macOS. This is a nice ability for a Mac that received no love from Apple since inception. Although not officially announced or supported, trashcan Mac users have an upgrade path from the outdated FirePro dGPUs through external enclosures in both macOS and Windows.

Closing Thoughts

Catalina 10.15 has shown positive progress for eGPU Mac users. Hot-plug capability, internal display acceleration, and multiple eGPU support can truly transform a seemingly gutless Mac mini into a powerful workstation (an affordable one at that vs. the 2019 Mac Pro). Our community remains committed to providing eGPU support for older Thunderbolt Mac users. We're also hopeful Apple will continue to improve Mac firmwares to make eGPU in Boot Camp a more straightforward process. The jury is still out on who's the bitch in the failed relationship of Apple and Nvidia.

One more Thing

A better-implemented Sidecar in Catalina and future macOS versions can leverage eGPU to make a hybrid touchscreen Mac. Imagine a new iPad Pro lineup that has a matching footprint to the topcase of a new  MacBook Pro lineup. You would then be able to place the iPad Pro on top of the keyboard and trackpad area to use it like a drawing pad (extended display mode). Sidecar can make use of an eGPU to accelerate this drawing pad. There should also be a Sidecar app on iPadOS. This would benefit headless Macs such as the Mac mini (primary display mode). In its current implementation Sidecar display cannot be the primary display. Once we’re able to use a Sidecared-iPad as the primary display, we have ourselves a wireless touchscreen Mac. For users who would not entertain a tablet as their computer replacement, Apple can make its iPads the essential complementary accessories to Macs.