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Bootcamp gaming on a 2018 + eGPU - Drive options

InuNacho

InuNacho

macrumors 68010
Original poster
Apr 24, 2008
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In that one place
I used to Bootcamp my old MP 5,1 and play games every now and then. I have the PC game bug again after a few years and feel like playing some games on my 2018 i7 Mini with RX580 eGPU. Yea its not the newest but I'm not playing anything super new.

I have a couple 256GB M.2 drives lying around, what is the best option for booting into Bootcamp for gaming? 3 of my 4 Thunderbolt ports are being occupied and fully utilized with the final one just being filled by a Dell WD15 USB-C dock with a bunch of older USB 2 attachments connected to it.

Here is my hypothetical setup: attach a faster dock to the last port and chain the Dell WD15 off that but use an open port on the faster dock for the Bootcamp drive.
Now this is where I get confused, are the Thunderbolt ports on the Mini compatible with USB 3.1 Gen.2? Should I buy a Thunderbolt 3 dock or are cheaper USB 3.1 Gen.2 docks a more cost effective solution? Can the Mini easily boot over USB when connected to docks?

Thanks!
 
InuNacho said:
I used to Bootcamp my old MP 5,1 and play games every now and then. I have the PC game bug again after a few years and feel like playing some games on my 2018 i7 Mini with RX580 eGPU. Yea its not the newest but I'm not playing anything super new.
Click to expand...
I am currently using a 2018 Mac mini with BlackMagic RX 580 eGPU, so we're simpatico on this front.
InuNacho said:
I have a couple 256GB M.2 drives lying around, what is the best option for booting into Bootcamp for gaming? 3 of my 4 Thunderbolt ports are being occupied and fully utilized with the final one just being filled by a Dell WD15 USB-C dock with a bunch of older USB 2 attachments connected to it.
Click to expand...
Boot Camp won't allow you to install Windows on an external drive. You can't even have one plugged into the mini when Boot Camp initiates the install process. There are workarounds, but they are unsupported, and I've never gotten one to work properly. I suggest installing Windows on the internal SSD.
InuNacho said:
Now this is where I get confused, are the Thunderbolt ports on the Mini compatible with USB 3.1 Gen.2? Should I buy a Thunderbolt 3 dock or are cheaper USB 3.1 Gen.2 docks a more cost effective solution?
Click to expand...
I use a Samsung T5 USB 3.0 external SSD with both macOS and Windows, and it works fine. Don't worry about SSD bandwidth, because SSD speed doesn't matter when loading games. It has no perceptible impact to the user. Just plug in your choice of SSD, and if it works, use it to store your games. The USB-C ports will work with Thunderbolt and should have no issue with any flavor of USB 3.0+ device.

The biggest issue you will run into with an eGPU and Boot Camp is getting the RX 580 to work properly within Windows. That's a pain in the ass, less so with the 2018 Mac mini, but still troublesome. I suggest looking at the build guides over at egpu.io for some tips. (Their servers are finicky, so try back later if it doesn't load properly.) You may or may not have to use the 0x600 registry hack to get Windows to recognize your eGPU.

Every system is different, and each build of Windows 10 can cause new issues, but it's doable, and the 2018 Mac mini is probably the easiest model to get it working on.

I wish you luck in your Boot Camp endeavors.
 
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Thanks for the response!
Bummer, I only have the internal 256GB version because it was a deal refurbished and I store my terabytes of data on external drives. I'll see what I can rarely used applications and folders I offload on external SSD.

Yea I was doing a little research on eGPUs and it kept leading me back to egpu.io. I've used them before when I used to run a Thunderbolt 1 egpu on my 2012 cMBP.
 
InuNacho said:
Bummer, I only have the internal 256GB version because it was a deal refurbished and I store my terabytes of data on external drives.
Click to expand...
I feel your pain. Back in 2018, I purchased the base model i3 Mac mini, because the rumors of the switch to Arm were strong. This was supposed to be a "stopgap", but I decided to make it last substantially longer, because the transition was taking more time than I had anticipated, particularly with computer games.

I've since upgraded to 64GB of system memory, and added the previously mentioned BlackMagic RX 580 eGPU and 500GB Samsung external SSD to keep it going. However, I'm still stuck with the original 128GB internal SSD, which is really cramped. Had I known I was going to keep it this long then I would have gone with a more advanced model.

Regardless, I wish you good fortune with Boot Camp!
 
I have tried several times to get Windows 10 or 11 to boot from an external drive without success. How did you manage that?
 
Thanks. I tried that one several times and could never boot the external ssd. After selecting the external ssd as boot medium nothing happens.
 
Runsc said:
Thanks. I tried that one several times and could never boot the external ssd. After selecting the external ssd as boot medium nothing happens.
Click to expand...
I have no idea why it does not work for you, i have done this twice now and both work perfectly. have you tried an NVRAM reset. open terminal and type sudo nvram ResetNVRam=1 it will ask for your login password, enter password and push return. then try and select it as boot drive.

Also make sure the T2 chip in mac mini is set to allow external drive to boot. turn T2 security off via CMD/R keys when booting, and in menu disable T2 security from menu at top. then restart your mini.
 
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