State of eGPU for Macs – Mojave 10.14 Update  

Posted by: mac_editor

@oliverb I'll send you a kext to try once I have some time. I have to scour into my old backups for a High Sierra install to examine some things. If you're up for some testing and have a High Sierra installation handy, that is.

Of course, I have both High Sierra (on my 15" MPB 2018) and Mojave (on my wife's 13" MPB 2015) and happy to try some things. I don't have the R9 290 (Hawaii) anymore, but all other vintage AMD chips and will get some more.

Hi all, I'm posting a reply here instead of starting a new thread because I think the answers would vary depending on the current State of eGPU for Macs.

I'm in the research and planning phase of buying a GPU and eGPU enclosure for my 2017 13" MacBook Pro w/ TouchBar. I've read most of the main resources and tutorials along with several well-written build guides (shoutout to @itsage and @eightarmedpet). My question is what would be the ideal GPU and eGPU enclosure for my needs?

Current system specs:

• 2017 13" MacBook Pro w/ Touchbar
• 3.5 GHz i7-7567U
• Intel Iris Plus 650
• macOS Mojave (10.14.2)
• currently no bootcamp/Windows

What I'd like:

• One cable to rule them all: an enclosure that can Power Delivery for a 13" MBP (60W) at the very least. Ideally, the enclosure also has a couple USB ports and an ethernet port, maybe audio out and even SATA.
• Can boot up in Bootcamp and macOS while eGPU is plugged in
• Can unplug the eGPU while OS is running
• Can use both the MBP internal display with a 1080 external monitor
• Plays well with sleep mode on both OSes
• Initial setting up can be complicated, but it shouldn't be necessary to keep fiddling around with the setup during normal use. Just simple plug-unplug and any necessary ejecting operations.

I'm currently leaning towards the Vega 56 paired with a Mantiz Venus. I currently have a Mantiz Titan and it works pretty well. I appreciate all feedback, advice, and suggestions. I know what I'd like might not be 100% possible, so I'd also like to hear about where you would compromise if you were in my shoes. Once I've decided and bought everything, I'll be sure to write my own build guide and provide benchmarks. Thanks for reading!

Glad my waffling pseudo guides are of some help!

There are maybe a couple of considerations you've missed off - size and noise. Do either matter to you?

I love the looks and size of my Razer Core but it makes an awful din, same with my Ref Vega card.

Enclosure wise the ASUS could be a good solution as it is quiet, smallish in size, plus has an extra USB C port you could plug a dock into (I believe that would work - haven't done so myself so can't be certain).

I've only ever been able to keep my eGPU plugged in at all times with an Nvidia card, but then it never worked in macOS due to no drivers (but I am very tired of hit plugging which I have to currently do which takes about 15mins to get right).

My problems are compounded by my TB3 display.

@eightarmedpet, when I first started looking into eGPUs, size and noise did matter to me. I initially wanted to try cobbling something together to fit in a Mac Mini case, but have since shelved that idea. I'm surrendered to the fact that I'll need to work with larger enclosures for worthwhile performance gains. The Razer Core V2 does look like a good choice. Significantly smaller than the Mantiz Venus but without a SATA port and having a noisier fATX PSU. But a Vega 56 + Razer Core V2 would run me about $1000 USD here. I may end up getting the Mantiz Venus anyway to save some money at the expense of a larger footprint. Thanks for the advice!

To clarify, you've only been able to get Nvidia cards to work plugged in all the time regarding Bootcamp, but for macOS, you need to hot plug it? Hot plugging meaning to plug it in at the right time when booting up the OS?

I know AMD cards should be perfectly plug-n-play with macOS. And @leoben made it sound like he's able to leave his Vega 64 eGPU plugged in while booting into Bootcamp (Step 7 in this post). Can leoben or anybody else confirm that? eightarmedpet, why do you think you kept getting Error 12 with your Vega 56 while leoben doesn't with his Vega 64? Do you think it's because of your Ultrafine? I'm assuming you have the Windows 10 Fall Creator Update?

@taikuh just did some testing after I had a thought.... and yes, it may be due to my TB3 display.
I tried the EFI boot loader (which I usually use, but built a new USB using @maceditors automated terminal command) and with the TB 3 display UNPLUGGED I could keep the eGPU plugged in while switching OS and no error 12 or need to disable right side thunderbolt ports.
Will try and stress test it and update you.

Edit: Nope... screen didn't make a difference after all, tried subsequent boots from restart and shutdown and the eGPU wasn't recognised once windows loaded if plugged in from boot. God knows why.

Sorry for the absence. I couldn't log into the forums for some reason but everything is magically working again now. After some thought, I decided to just buy the Gigabyte RX 580 Gaming Box. Hopefully the little PSU fan won't bother me too much. I'll post a separate Build thread when I have everything up and running. I also got a AOC 24P1 monitor to go along with it.

I have a question related to this, I am thinking of buying an egpu tb 3 for my mac air 13 inch, 2017, i5 (1.8Ghz, turbo 2.9) and 8 ram but has tb2, I can still install widows and it is compatible with the adapter tb3-tb2?

Update: What does not work: Radeon HD 6950/6970 (Cayman)

is this true and actual?  https://egpu.io/forums/which-gear-should-i-buy/what-is-the-best-graphics-card-and-enclosure-for-macbook-15-2016-macos-bootcamp/#post-53641

Posted by: Balogh Ákos

is this true and actual?  https://egpu.io/forums/which-gear-should-i-buy/what-is-the-best-graphics-card-and-enclosure-for-macbook-15-2016-macos-bootcamp/#post-53641

Your "actual" is a false friend of yours.

The last macOS 10.14.3 update seems to have caused big problems for me.

Running a 2018 Mini with a Mantiz Venus and Vega 64. Everything worked fine until a few days ago - I installed the update, restarted, and during boot the eGPU started loudly clicking on and off, the mac would restart a few times, then turn off. Sometimes I can get to a login screen, but it immediately crashes. Kernel panics.
When this happens, it also screws up the USB hard drives I have connected - Disk Utility shows them connected but unmountable. I have to use Disk Drill to get them working again. 
I was able to get it to boot after resetting PRAM and SMC, but the problem came back after the next boot.

I do not think it's the eGPU - in Boot Camp it works fine, even in VR.

Posted by: OliverB

Posted by: mac_editor

@wondermike The Radeon 5870 does not support Metal. It won't work on Mojave. Originally, the driver responsible for this GPU was the AMD5000Controller, which is absent in Mojave. You might be able get it going on High Sierra. I recommend testing on a separate installation first. You will require purge-wrangler or automate-eGPU EFI.

I wouldn't have too much expectation. I have tried several Vintage AMD chips on High Sierra and everything older than Tahiti (HD 7870, which works perfectly thanks to purge-wrangler on Mojave and HighSierra, using it right now) just doesn't work, e.g. HD 7770 (Cape Verde) doesn't work, nor does 5850, 5670 or 4850. I haven't tried the 5870 yet, so this maybe be interesting.

Edit: If 5870 chip is Cypress like 5850 or 5830, it won't work.

Okay, so what's my options with my 6 screens and a late 2014 Mac mini, which Graphics Adapter Card with which OS version would work? Those screens (DELL U2417H)  have HDMI (MHL), DisplayPort and Mini DisplayPort connectors.

sadly, my computer is the mbp 2016,and the box is the gamingbox 1080....

Posted by: heng

sadly, my computer is the mbp 2016,and the box is the gamingbox 1080....

Works well, but not with Mojave. If you want to use it with Mojave you have to change your eGPU. I wouldn't expect an nVidia Webdriver soon.

Hey. I tested my MacPro 6.1 8/16 core 32GB Ram and Bizon box2 TB2 with AMD RX 580 8GB in MacOS Mojave (10.14.4)  and it works just fine. I have been using MacOs high Sierra because I have heard that TB2 is no go in Mojave??. I have installed purge-wrangler after recovery-boot and  csrutil disable in terminal-rebooted and voila.... it works. I have to say that I did a upgrade from my working MacOS high Sierra, so this is not a clean install.

TB2 is fine in Mojave with AMD - just a no go for Nvidia due to lack of drivers 🙁

Posted by: philw

TB2 is fine in Mojave with AMD - just a no go for Nvidia due to lack of drivers 🙁

Not entirely correct: nVidia card for Mojave

Anyone know if 2015 MacBook Pro (with TB3 <-> TB2 adapter) + Razer Core X (eGPU) + 1660 ti can work? Namely, on windows bootcamp? I’ve been searching everywhere and can’t seem to find anything solid.

I’ve gotten windows to recognize the eGPU by plugging in at windows logo boot screen, but after logging in and trying any game windows is not stable and freezes. 

Posted by: OliverB

Perhaps this may be interestaing: I have a table here of what is working and what is not working from personal experiences:

	Chip	Native	Mojave	High Sierra	OpenCL
Radeon Vega 56	gfx900	****
Radeon RX 580	Ellesmere	****
Radeon R9 Nano	Fiji		***
Radeon HD 7870	Tahiti		***
GeForce GTX 1080 Ti	GP102			**
GeForce GTX 1080	GP104			**
GeForce GTX 1050	GP107			**
GeForce GTX 980 Ti	GM200			**
GeForce GTX 780	GK110		***
GeForce GTX 770	GK104		***
GeForce GTX 680	GK104		***
GeForce GTX 660	GK104		***
GeForce GT 740	GK107		***
GeForce GTX 570	GF110				*
GeForce GTX 465	GF100				*
Quadro 4000	GF100				*
Does not work:
GeForce RTX 2080 Ti	TU102				?
GeForce GT 640 Fermi	GF116				?
GeForce GTS 450	GF106				?
GeForce GT 430	GF108				?
GeForce GTX 285	GT200
GeForce GTS 250	G92
GeForce GT 240	GT215
GeForce 310/Ion	GT218
GeForce 9500 GT	G96
GeForce 8500 GT	G86
Radeon R9 290	Hawaii
Radeon HD 7770	Cape Verde
Radeon HD 6950/6970	Cayman
Radeon HD 5830/5850	Cypress
Radeon HD 5670	Redwood
FirePro 3800	Redwood
Radeon HD 4850	RV770

I have added some more cards to this list, but before overfilling it: Any Kepler card, including GTX Titan (Black), Quadro Kxxxx and Tesla work in mojave. It's just a matter of the chip.

Beware that there a some models of the 600er and 700er series that don't have a Kepler chip (all GT 610/620, some of GT630/640/730, all of GTX745/750/750Ti, Quadro K620,1200,2200). They won't work in Mojave.

Further: Most of the Kepler chips are "MacEFI-friendly", they won't have problems like the "POST Issue" on some models. This is again with exception, GK107 is not MacEFI-friendly for unknown reason. A 13-inch MBP 2015 will not boot with this eGPU attached. (Anyway it's the worst Kepler chip, GK208 is much better in terms of efficiency, all others (GK106, GK104, GK110) are much more powerful)

Posted by: Thomas Cordon

Anyone know if 2015 MacBook Pro (with TB3 <-> TB2 adapter) + Razer Core X (eGPU) + 1660 ti can work? Namely, on windows bootcamp? I’ve been searching everywhere and can’t seem to find anything solid.

I’ve gotten windows to recognize the eGPU by plugging in at windows logo boot screen, but after logging in and trying any game windows is not stable and freezes. 

@thomas_cordon
I had this macbook working with an GTX1080Ti, but it's not a good combination. It's difficult to hot-plug the eGPU at the correct time, sleep won't work, you can't simply reboot and more issues.
Better use an AMD eGPU with this particular macbook, as it works directly out-of-the-box without any problems with AMD in Bootcamp.

I have create an "nVidia for Mojave"-Matrix which explains which nVidia card work with Mojave.
Any nVidia card that is not in this Matrix, won't work!

I have “27-inch iMac with Retina 5K display”, which I purchased in June 2016. Not sure if this is classified as a late 2015 or early 2017.
I’m just wondering whether my Mac would benefit from a eGPU. I don’t have plans to game, rather I was wondering whether the eGPU would help run Unreal Engine, ZBrush, After Effects and other 3D applications?
Thanks

Hello! I have heat and fan noise issues (CPU heating?) with my GTX 1080/eGPU in Bootcamp with my 2019 MacBook Pro 15'' i9. What about you? Also noise and heat issues while playing? If not, did you change any configuration in Windows to avoid these issues? Thanks!

Can we update this guide with the Radeon VII right now? Or is still not supported OOTB? I thought it was fully supported and OOTB as per barefeats comments being the most powerful graphics card in MacOS currently...
Thanks

Posted by: @ed_co

Can we update this guide with the Radeon VII right now? Or is still not supported OOTB? I thought it was fully supported and OOTB as per barefeats comments being the most powerful graphics card in MacOS currently...
Thanks

I am not part of the test team here but I do a lot of testing in general and can tell you starting at 10.14.5 we encountered no problems running the Radeon VII on compatible TB3 MacBook Pros with the Sonnet / OWC boxes. Prior to that I had to modify the kext file identifiers to recognize the card.

That said Apple never updated their eGPU page to include this card, and my guess for the reason is, there is a bug with this configuration where if you sleep the system (Mac or PC - so this is not a Mac thing), the fan in the eGPU spins up to full RPM. Not sure why this happens or who has to fix it but my guess is it's a problem that would have to be resolved in the card's firmware...

...and that's not likely because the card is pretty much EOL / not going to be manufactured much longer, with the new 5700 series cards being released this month. This card sort of a strange scenario. Probably won't get much love from anyone going forward.

@chippy-mcchipset The full RPM fans in suspended mode is due to the Radeon VII board design. It was an oversight and AMD has to come up with a fix. I observed this same behavior in many setups including different enclosures, laptops, desktops, and operating systems. Specifically the culprit has to do with the Radeon VII not able to receive GPIO signal from the enclosure’s USB-C controller [TI65983].

@itsage

Good info / thanks. Not surprising; I heard from other people who had the same problem I did, so I assumed it was not specific to any one eGPU family. Makes complete sense this is an issue onboard the card itself. I don't hold out much hope for a fix though, for reasons stated earlier. Hopefully I'm wrong.

It's actually a really good card / a good performer in my experience. Good all-around card for gaming or compute workflows, basically like a Vega 64 without as much power draw (though I've never measured exactly how much).

I am sure that my input here may be of no use, but I spent the greater part of ... gosh, months, researching.... I can confirm the following works flawlessly... mbp 2019 32 gb ram vega pro 20 card on 10.14.6 with the core x egpu and the radeon vii (direct from amd, no after market tuner). In boot camp running win pro 10 1903, also works like a charm connected to an aw2518hf... (freesync fires away). I have a fan running on the machine but have seen no thermal throttling whatsoever. I did run ddu, the the appropriate driver setup.exe and the system runs both the eGPU and the dGPU... maybe I got lucky? 

If I have posted this here in error, please delete and let me know where you'd like me to post... I'm happy to try whatever anyone needs within reason... a lot cheaper than buying a gaming rig separate from my daily driver... (i use my mbp for 90% of my work, so a small investment to do more was awesome sauce)

@ux4all are you seeing your card in Mojave or is it only visible in Windows? I cannot see my card in Mojave when I plug it in without any hacks.

Hi there, I am running Macbook Pro Retina 13 "2013 with macOS Mojave 10.14.2 A graphics card Vega 64 is in the AKiTiO Node Thunderbolt 3 box. How can I use the egpu as a preferred graphics card. Is there a process? Switch on the Macbook then boot up the eGPU or it doesn't matter. The internal one is always used. Thank you for the tips. Greeting Jürgen from Germany I use Googel to translate, I hope you can see my problem.

@jurgen_w_de

https://support.apple.com/HT208544#apps

@mac_editor

Hi there,

thanks for the tip, that's it.

The card is now used.

Greeting Jürgen

from Germany