State of eGPU for Macs – Catalina 10.15 Update  

I am using a Windows To Go (with BootCamp drivers) with Mantis Venus, will it continue to work as before? 

@siyuanchu Give it a try and let us know. Some RTX graphics cards have firmware compatibility with Macs which may cause boot loop if you have the eGPU connected at boot.

@itsage

...and now we hope that they will introduce thr NAVI drivers in the next Beta versions!! Finger crossed!

@jefniro Yes, my Razer Core + RX 5700 is ready to go whenever that happens!

Still white screen of death for me upon boot (Mini 2018 + RX570 w/ Zotac Mini). 🙁

@itsage it may be the case that automate-eGPU EFI does not work on macOS Catalina. Hopefully should not be too much trouble to fix for @goalque (might be helpful to check updates to Clover), if he has time.

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/hackintosh/comments/den28t/whats_new_in_macos_catalina/

"Where's the Navi support?

Well just like with Mojave, talks of Navi support is sparce. Within the AMDRadeonX5000HWServices.kext, we can see 3 kexts that hint at full Navi line up support:

AMDRadeonX5100HWLibs.kext

AMDRadeonX5400HWLibs.kext

AMDRadeonX5700HWLibs.kext

When taking a deeper look into these kexts, they show us that the code is only partially there requiring a master kext to handle them like an AMDRadeonX6000HWServices.kext. What early Polaris/Vega drivers have shown us before is that we might be waiting until either the end of this year or early next before we get support for Navi. At that point, we might be seeing Navi 20 which might finally come around to beat the pure compute champ that is Vega 20(Radeon VII). But then there's rumblings of Vega 30 so who knows. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

Wanting to know when Navi support comes? Run the following pointed as S/L/E:

grep -ir "731F" .

This just checks if the 5700XT PCI ID is referenced anywhere, as of the GM there still is nothing that would hook onto a Navi GPU"

Same issue with my ampbox mini +msi rx580 v1 8G

It worked with no problem, but just as I upgrade to catalina,
It shows white screen after Apple logo.
Don't know the reason but, Looks like it's issue with zotac ampbox only. (Identical issue)

So I'm worrying whether Apple gonna fix this...
Not many users would use this egpu box...

But turning on and off the box doesn't take that long..
So I would like to keep using catalina..

@JK Park

"Luckily" several other eGPU models have this problem (there are reports with Razor Core X, Akitio Node, and Sonnet, all with RX570/580 cards). This might not be eGPU box related issue but a problem with the Polaris driver (as @itsage theoretized) and maybe a card firmware compatiblity issue which affects mostly RX570, 580 cards. AFAIK nobody has this issue with Vega cards. Let's hope Apple fixes this soon.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/catalina-egpu.2193797/page-4

Sonnet Breakaway Box + ATi Radeon 580 / MacMini Late 2018 i7.
Same problem. White Screen of Death

Posted by: @itsage

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.

In Catalina, can all the GPUs support a display? Or can displays only work when connected to the working four eGPUs?

Can one app use 4 eGPUs, and another app use a different set of 4 eGPUs, so that more than 4 eGPUs are used?

Great news guys ! Apple just released first beta for 10.15.1 !
According to Apple's release notes, ‌macOS Catalina‌ 10.15.1 introduces support for the AMD Navi RDNA eGPU architecture !!!

So now we have official support for the 5000 series ! Yay !!!

@eyalg Unfortunately Apple screwed up. They either forgot to include Navi drivers or jumped the gun on stating support in the release note.

@itsage

Really !?!? sad to hear that, I was already planning on purchasing a 5700 xt...

you tested the new beta and no go?

At this point I will believe anything about apple... disappointing...

@eyalg

I already purchased one lol. But at least it somewhat guarantees there will be support for RDNA eventually.

@mac_editor

With Apple, all we have left now is hope...

I still have a 1080Ti lying around... still hoping I can use it as a eGpu on Mojave or Catalina one day...

Can anyone say if the 10.15.1 will fix the white screen of death problem with 10.15 and RX570/580 cards? 🙁

It does not seem to fix it according to the Apple Community discussion:

"I have installed the Beta 10.15.1 Beta (19B68f), and I am still having the same issue, apple logo, black screen, sonnet 550 with AMD 580x goes full blast on, then calms down, and does nothing after that. I still have to shut off the EGPU for 5 seconds, and then turn it on, in order to work again."

Also a full reinstall does not seem to help:

"I did a full reinstall from scratch to an empty drive. This does not solve the problem, after installation the first thing I am greeted with was the dreaded white screen of death."

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250714657

Real Bad News. Im Thinking about switching to an iMac. Who knows when this will be fixed. Maybe Never..

Hi there...I have a dual eGPU set up with my Mac Mini 2018 6 core i7 with 32gb of Ram. I have dual Radeon 8gb 470s in a Sonnet 350 and a first gen Razer Core, which I used Purge Wrangler to enable Ti82 support. They are on separate thunderbolt buses as I read this helps bandwidth. 

I also have a Blackmagic Intensity 4k editing playback pci card housed in an external Sonnet thunderbolt 3 expansion chassis.

I have been running this set up throughout all the beta testing of Catalina up to and including the GM/public release and the only time I had problems with was beta 8 recognising the Razer Core. I downgraded then upgraded again when beta 9 was released...with no hitches.

The only slight issue I have is with having to re-plug in the Core after my machine has booted up. This enables my Mac to recognise it. There’s no white screen of death for me and the Sonnet based 470 is recognised at boot with no issues.

Software is hit and miss as far as performance.

After Effects is woeful...Photoshop and Illustrator aren’t too bad, as are Apple’s Final Cut Pro and Motion. I switched to Resolve from FCPX a while ago due to it’s feature set and can playback a few streams of 4K no problem. I know these are subjective opinion and I will run some benchmarks and publish them here when I have some spare time...but it’s quite a fast wee system and I don’t know about other creatives but I have always pushed my Macs to the limit as creativity demands it...so its never as fast and can do as much as we want lol.

I’m an illustrator/designer/filmmaker based in Scotland by the way...😁🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿.

@itsage

It works as before, but I am going to replace the 2060 with a Navi after 10.15.1 anyway. The 2060 caused me too much inconvenience on my Mantiz and macOS. I don't want to deal with them anymore. 

First Catalina Update Released today Does not solve white screen problem. 

@fringedivision

Yeah, it didn't. 🙁 This issue is probably somewhere at the bottom of the priority list or maybe it's not on the list at all. Affecting only some Mac Mini 2018 configs with some RX560/570/580 cards. I am afraid there are about 15-20 or so people complaining about this among millions of users...

Unfortunately, I'm one of those...2018 mini with breakaway 550 + Sapphire Pulse RX580 🙁

Some frustrations on my side. Radeon 570 in visiontek mini on a 2018 MacBook Air. Won’t boot to desktop unless I unplug and replub egpu during loading bar 

@steve4332

you‘re right. 🙁 maybe this will Never ne fixed. Are RX590 Cards Not affected? Then maybe it would be the cheapest solution to switch to one of these..

I donno. Do anybody have an RX590? 🙂 Unfortunatelly I can only upgrade to an other ITX card (the Zotac Mini Box is limited in size). I am thinking about getting an RX 5500 which seems to be ITX by default. Not a very powerful card though. Of course it must be released first and I'll have to wait for OSX support.

Has anyone tried a Mac Pro 5,1 with the Sapphire 580? It looks like most issues being reported are with Mac Mini but I wanted to see if anyone has had experience with Mac Pro before I try to upgrade. 

@steve4332 @fringedivision @shad0wca7 @themadturtle11 I read a recent post from @joevt experiencing the same white screen issue with his 2018 Mac mini + RX 580 eGPU. He provided the connection details which may be helpful to those of us in the same boat. TB3 Port #3 causes this issue for him but Port #2 does not. These two ports belong to different TB3 Controllers. I also found last night my 2018 Mac mini can only provide Boot Selector screen through the eGPU-connected monitor when the connection is through TB3 Controller #1 [TB3 Port #3 & 4]. If I connect the eGPU through TB3 Controller #0 [TB3 Port #1 & 2], it’s a black screen when I hold OPTION at boot. Test these different connection arrangements and see if we can find a workaround until Apple fixes Polaris drivers.

Posted by: @joshtaylor

Has anyone tried a Mac Pro 5,1 with the Sapphire 580? It looks like most issues being reported are with Mac Mini but I wanted to see if anyone has had experience with Mac Pro before I try to upgrade. 

It should work fine. I have a 5,1 running Gigabyte RX 580 and upgrading from Mojave to Catalina went smoothly. Keep in mind the 2009 and 2010 Mac Pro do not have official support for Catalina. Therefore you need to do some prep work. The most important piece is Boot ROM version. The second essential piece is the macOS installer patcher from dosdude1.com.

Posted by: @itsage

@steve4332 @fringedivision @shad0wca7 @themadturtle11 I read a recent post from @joevt experiencing the same white screen issue with his 2018 Mac mini + RX 580 eGPU. He provided the connection details which may be helpful to those of us in the same boat. TB3 Port #3 causes this issue for him but Port #2 does not. These two ports belong to different TB3 Controllers. I also found last night my 2018 Mac mini can only provide Boot Selector screen through the eGPU-connected monitor when the connection is through TB3 Controller #1 [TB3 Port #3 & 4]. If I connect the eGPU through TB3 Controller #0 [TB3 Port #1 & 2], it's a black screen when I hold OPTION at boot. Test these different connection arrangements and see if we can find a workaround until Apple fixes Polaris drivers.

I just tested it with all 4 ports but it's the same problem with every port.. But thanks for the link!

Posted by: @itsage

It should work fine. I have a 5,1 running Gigabyte RX 580 and upgrading from Mojave to Catalina went smoothly. Keep in mind the 2009 and 2010 Mac Pro do not have official support for Catalina. Therefore you need to do some prep work. The most important piece is Boot ROM version. The second essential piece is the macOS installer patcher from dosdude1.com.

Please forgive me, I don't know much about this process. When you say that I need Boot ROM version, what does that mean exactly? Thank you!

Posted by: @fringedivision

Posted by: @itsage

@steve4332 @fringedivision @shad0wca7 @themadturtle11 I read a recent post from @joevt experiencing the same white screen issue with his 2018 Mac mini + RX 580 eGPU. He provided the connection details which may be helpful to those of us in the same boat. TB3 Port #3 causes this issue for him but Port #2 does not. These two ports belong to different TB3 Controllers. I also found last night my 2018 Mac mini can only provide Boot Selector screen through the eGPU-connected monitor when the connection is through TB3 Controller #1 [TB3 Port #3 & 4]. If I connect the eGPU through TB3 Controller #0 [TB3 Port #1 & 2], it's a black screen when I hold OPTION at boot. Test these different connection arrangements and see if we can find a workaround until Apple fixes Polaris drivers.

I just tested it with all 4 ports but it's the same problem with every port.. But thanks for the link!

Interestingly with the two left ports I see a progress bar under the Apple logo during boot and with the two right ports there is no progress bar only the Apple logo. Unfortunatelly the white screen of death is a constant - it happens with all four ports. 🙁

@steve4332

How is the display connected to the eGPU (HDMI/DP)? Does issue occur in either case?

Posted by: @mac_editor

@steve4332

How is the display connected to the eGPU (HDMI/DP)? Does issue occur in either case?

With HDMI attached the screen turns white briefly and then goes black and blanks out, the display goes to sleep. The eGPU spins up to 100%. The same happens with all 4 ports.

With DP attached the screen turns white and remains white. The eGPU spins up to 100%. The same happens with all 4 ports.

Before the screen turns white I see a few magenta lines appear on the top section of the screen for less than half a second (both HDMI and DP).

Either with HDMI or DP the left two ports produce a progress bar upon boot and the right two ports don't. The preboot Apple logo appears in all four ports.

My bootrom version is 1037.0.78.0.0 (iBridge: 17.16.10572.0.0,0)

Posted by: @steve4332

Before the screen turns white I see a few magenta lines appear on the top section of the screen for less than half a second (both HDMI and DP).

Thanks for the detailed response. This happens on my MBP for Vega as well, after which all is well.

Sadly all this sounds like a firmware issue. Apple really messed up the Catalina launch for 2018 mini.