State of eGPU for Macs – Mojave 10.14 Update  

Overview

Today Apple releases Mojave 10.14, one year after the launch of macOS High Sierra 10.13 with eGPU support. We have been following the development of this latest version since WWDC18. During the past six months Apple made significant progress by narrowing their focus to Thunderbolt 3 Macs and select AMD Radeon graphics cards. Support for true hot-plug, internal display acceleration, and multiple eGPUs are the highlights of Mojave 10.14 release for eGPU users.

While these are welcome improvements, Apple excludes users with older Macs and/or Nvidia graphics cards. There's no sign Apple will ever extend eGPU support to Thunderbolt 1 and 2 Macs. Nvidia and Apple remain on unfriendly terms. Fortunately the developers of our community, Goalque, Mac_Editor, and Fr34k have continuously engineered workarounds to keep many Mac users in the game. Boot Camp mode to run Windows shows minor progress however. Does the release of Mojave mean your Mac is ready to adopt external graphics technology? Your particular configuration holds the answer.

2016 15 Macbook Pro with 4x eGPUs in Mojave 10.14

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'd need is a MacOS-certified AMD Radeon graphics card + eGFX enclosure pairing that fits your needs and budget. There are a handful of solutions that come ready-to-go with a graphics card such as the Sonnet Breakaway Puck 570, Gigabyte RX 580 Gaming Box, and Blackmagic eGPU. As of fall 2018, these are Thunderbolt 3 Macs that have native eGPU support in MacOS 10.13.4 and newer.

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 host computer, available expansion I/O ports, 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

new

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

[email protected]

??

50

link

new

AORUS RTX 2080 Ti Gaming Box

RTX2080Ti

$1500

link

link

7.26

3.79/8.34

fATX-int

450W

100W

300W

12.60/32.0

3xDP, HDMI, USB-C

8Gbps

1 & TI83

JHL6340 x2

[email protected]

44.44 ✔

50

link

#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

[email protected]

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

[email protected]

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

[email protected]

F1.1 ✔ F1.0 ✔ F1.0 ✔ F1.0 ✔

50

link link link link

#4

AKiTiO Node

✖

$200

link

link

link

14.09

4.90/10.78

SFX-int

400W

15W

375W

12.60/32.0

✖

✖

1 & TI83

DSL6540

[email protected]

25.1 ✔

50

link

#4

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

[email protected]

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

50

link

#5

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

[email protected]

40.1 ✔

50

link

#5

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

[email protected]

26.1 ✔

50

link

#6

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

[email protected]

25.25 ✔

50

link

#6

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

[email protected]

29.1 ✔

150

link

#6

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

[email protected]

v25 ✔

50

link

#7

ADT-Link R43SG-TB3

✖

$120

discuss

link

✖

GPU

0.1/0.22

ATX-ext or AC-ext

nolimit

15W

nolimit

nolimit

✖

✖

1 & TI83

DSL6540

[email protected]

??

30

link

#7

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

[email protected]

26.1 ✔

50

link

#7

Sonnet Breakaway Puck

RX560 RX570

$399 $499

link

link

link

1.01

2.38/5.25

AC-ext

160W 220W

45W

-

-

3xDP,HDMI

✖

1 & TI83

DSL6540

[email protected]

25.1 ✔

50

link

#7

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

[email protected]

26.3 ✔

50

link 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

[email protected]

B1-25✔

50

link

#8

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

[email protected]

??

50

link

#8

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

[email protected]

✖

50

link

#8

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

[email protected]

23.1 ✔

50

link

#8

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

-

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

[email protected]

??

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

[email protected]

✖

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

[email protected]

41.41 ✔

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

[email protected]

25.101 ✔

50

link

-

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

[email protected]

v003 ✔

50

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

[email protected]

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

[email protected]

25.1 ✔

100

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

[email protected]

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 released in 2018 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 latest generation of Radeon Polaris 10/20 and Vega 56/64 cards. As a precaution, Vega 64 GPUs demand a lot of power and therefore the eGPU enclosure should have at least a 650W power supply. Polaris GPUs such as the RX 570 are more efficient and can work with almost all eGPU enclosures.

Radeon Pro	Radeon RX
Pro WX 9100	RX Vega 64
RX Vega Frontier Edition	RX Vega 56
Pro WX 8200	RX 480 / RX 580
Pro WX 7100	RX 470 / RX 570

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. Occasionally the system may notify you it has to force-eject the eGPU. I've seen less of these notifications in Mojave 10.14. This macOS version 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. macOS Mojave 10.14 raises this multiple eGPU support to four units.

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 in 10.14 regardless of whether an external monitor is attached. This mode forces eGPU loopback to the internal display of a MacBook Pro or iMac. In my opinion, an eGPU pane inside System Preferences would be a better tool.

Community Support

What's the status of native eGPU support in macOS for Nvidia graphics cards? What about those of us with older Macs that are not Thunderbolt 3? Apple's support is dead in the water. As a long-time Mac user and owner of a 2013 Mac Pro trashcan and 2015 15" MacBook Pro, I'm disappointed by this. So are thousands of others in the same situation. Our community has been relentlessly providing unofficial eGPU support for these Macs Apple deemed unworthy. The main developers are Goalque, Mac_Editor, and Fr34k. 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 and Nvidia graphics cards. 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. Thunderbolt 3 Mac users that want to use Nvidia cards can also benefit from these two community solutions. Keep in mind Mac computers with the Apple T2 chip (iMac Pro and 2018 MacBook Pro) 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 Nvidia and older AMD graphics card. The prerequisites are for SIP to be disabled and modifications 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 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.

The table below shows some of Nvidia and unsupported AMD graphics cards that can work in external mode once you implement one of the two community eGPU solutions. While AMD cards have drivers in macOS Mojave 10.14, we still need Nvidia to provide web drivers for their GeForce cards. We have tested these solutions extensively and are confident they will work as long as compatible drivers are available in a timely manner. The typical turnaround for Nvidia web drivers is 24 hours from when Apple releases a new macOS update to the public.

Nvidia GeForce	AMD Radeon
Titan Xp	Pro WX 5100
GTX 1080 Ti	Pro WX 4100
GTX 1080	R9 Fury X
GTX 1070	R9 Fury
GTX 1060	R9 Nano
GTX 1050 Ti	RX 460 / RX 560

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 macOS Mojave 10.14 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 Mojave 10.14 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. My Boot Camp eGPU setup guide provides more technical information and the step-by-step process for Thunderbolt 3 MacBook Pro 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

Microsoft has done Apple a huge favor with Windows 10 Spring Update. Version 1803 introduced Windows Hybrid Graphics 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.

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

Closing Thoughts

Mojave 10.14 has shown positive progress for eGPU Mac users. Hot-plug capability, internal display acceleration, and multiple eGPU support can truly transform an ultra-portable MacBook Pro into a powerful workstation. Our community remains committed to providing eGPU support for Nvidia and older Thunderbolt Mac users. We're also hopeful Apple will improve its Mac firmware to make eGPU in Boot Camp a more straightforward process.