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eGPU is the problem

jayducharme

jayducharme

macrumors 601
Original poster
Jun 22, 2006
4,759
6,871
The thick of it
Though my 2018 mini system with the Razer Core X and Radeon RX 5700 was generally working (and nearly doubles the speed of FCPX work), I've been experiencing increasing system crashes. Catalina will seemingly randomly freeze up, requiring a hard reboot. It didn't seem to matter what app I was using or how long I'd been running. So I disconnected the Razer and for the past week I've been running without it, and my system is now rock-solid stable. I suspect since Radeon RX 5700 support is so new, there might be bugs in Catalina. It might also be the Intel TB3 bus system. I've sent multiple reports to Apple. I'm hoping that all this will be ironed out with Big Sur. 🤞
 
eGPU is simply not there yet, some configs will work well but it's a chore to find the right ones.
 
had an egpu with my Mac mini (razor chroma + w5700) and with my Mac mini it was stable, however, it still required me to boot from the igpu/hdmi before the egpu.

however I ultimately returned the egpu and w5700 when I realized it was randomly rebooting when plugged to my 2017 15 mbp with a Radeon 560.
 
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I have a eGPU 2018 MM setup and I must say it’s not all been smooth for the last plus year. I gave up on Windows boot camp. On my next refresh if they have a reasonable priced 34” iMac. I might jump back to that again. I had a 2007 iMac then a 2015. Never had to tinker with those. They just worked.
 
weaztek said:
I'm running a Sonnet eGFX Breakaway puck (Radeon RX 570 MXM) on a 2018 Mini i5 in HDMI Port 2 with no problems so far.

There is a huge user base at https://egpu.io/forums/ who might be able to help.
Click to expand...

Ive had my eye on one of those or the Razor Core X but Im seeing less and less trouble with the Sonnet's (as its always been pretty much). Ive got an MSI Armor edition 570 in my Mac Pro that will be going in it, so looks like Im steering towards the right setup hehe.
 
oneafour said:
had an egpu with my Mac mini (razor chroma + w5700) and with my Mac mini it was stable, however, it still required me to boot from the igpu/hdmi before the egpu.

however I ultimately returned the egpu and w5700 when I realized it was randomly rebooting when plugged to my 2017 15 mbp with a Radeon 560.
Click to expand...

I also have a W5700 and Razer and although it reduced the fan noise down on my 16” MBP the difference and hassle didnt warrant using it.

However this happened :

I put a 2080 super into the razer core, and hooked it up in bootcamp. It is rock solid performance, no issues with sleep, and not a single crash in the last few months of using it.
Previous to this I had read it can be flakey and difficult, but I have had the opposite experience as long as it is set up properly when booting up. After that, I barely know it is there until I disconnect.

I will add I bought the W5700 first as i thought it would be far more stable.......... anothEr $1500 wasted on Apple.
 
I have been running my MacMini 2018 for a year without and several months with the Sonnett Puck and it has worked great. I have not had a crash on the Mac Mini either before or after getting the Puck. I have been very happy with the set-up.
 
jayducharme said:
I suspect since Radeon RX 5700 support is so new, there might be bugs in Catalina. It might also be the Intel TB3 bus system. I've sent multiple reports to Apple. I'm hoping that all this will be ironed out with Big Sur. 🤞
Click to expand...
The good news is that the new 2020 iMac can be upgraded to 5700 (and 5700 XT). So I suspect the drivers will be well-supported for you moving forward.


LeeW said:
eGPU is simply not there yet, some configs will work well but it's a chore to find the right ones.
Click to expand...
I'd guess this is due to whether Apple decides to build good drivers for each graphics card or doesn't. I really don't think the issue is the gpu/enclosure hardware in most cases.

Thankfully, the Mini runs really, really nicely when an eGPU is working well. It's literally the piece of the puzzle the Mini was missing.
 
weaztek said:
I suspect the drivers will be well-supported for you moving forward.
Click to expand...
I hope you're right.

Thankfully, the Mini runs really, really nicely when an eGPU is working well. It's literally the piece of the puzzle the Mini was missing.
Click to expand...
The problem is I've never been able to get my mini to run well with the eGPU. I probably should have gotten one of the older video cards Apple recommended, then perhaps I wouldn't have had problems.

Does anyone know if the manufacturer makes a difference? My Radeon was made by MSI. Would Sapphire or Asus have been any better?
 
Thanks for the link. I've been that route and it didn't work for me. But maybe after this current OS update, I'll give it a try again and see what happens.

UPDATE: I now have my monitor directly connected to the Radeon via DP. When I first connected it and rebooted, my mini got into a reboot loop, crashing itself and restarting. The third time it seemed to work. I'll see how long this lasts.
 
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I'm using Big Sur public beta and I'm having very little issues with my eGPU (I have it hooked up to displayport to displayport). I am able to boot with it. Lets just hope it continues.
 
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Had (have) similar issues with my Vega Frontier. Everything now works apart from sleeping if I have a monitor attached to the eGPU.

Doesn't really bother me, but it's an annoyance.
 
Wel, that didn't last long. Today when I booted my mini, I got nothing but a black screen. I tried a hard reboot three times, but still nothing. So I've gone back to my previous setup, disconnecting the eGPU and going from the mini to the monitor with a TB3-DP cable. I hope Apple straightens this out.
 
jayducharme said:
Wel, that didn't last long. Today when I booted my mini, I got nothing but a black screen. I tried a hard reboot three times, but still nothing. So I've gone back to my previous setup, disconnecting the eGPU and going from the mini to the monitor with a TB3-DP cable. I hope Apple straightens this out.
Click to expand...
Keep chipping away. Here's a troubleshooting guide for Macs:

[GUIDE] Troubleshooting eGPUs on macOS

Troubleshooting eGPUs on macOS eGPU support has gained a ton of traction in the past year, but we are not out of the woods yet. It's always a challen...
egpu.io egpu.io
 
forums.macrumors.com

Post your Mac mini setups

Mac mini 2018 - Version 10.15.6 Processor : 3.2 GHz 6-Core Intel Core i7 Memory : 64 GB 2667 MHz DDR4 Graphics : Razer Core X + Sapphire Radeon NITRO+ RX 5700 XT 8G GDDR6 Storage : Internal : 2TB Externla : 2TB Solid State PCI-Express Drive(TB3 connect) Rode MIni USB M-Audio...
forums.macrumors.com forums.macrumors.com

My setup almost 2 months, for the first months i have same situation like you ,the finder suddenly no respond...
hard time ....

After surfing many forum talk about this issues , and now i have no more finder hanged or screen freeze .
I did few things hope may help you out.

1 . before the 10.15.6 supported update release ,i go download this :
https://support.apple.com/kb/DL2048?locale=nl_NL
after this , go install the 10.15.6 supported update

2 . My CoreX display port to my first LCD screen , 2nd screen from Mac mini HDMI
3 . turn on mac mini first until you see the apple logo is running then turn on your Egpu

4. I rarely turn off my mac mini, so when iam not using the mac , I click the right upper corner to disconnect the Egpu then power off the coreX , you can turn on CoreX anytime becasue my first screen will auto on again.

this setup for gaming and Audio & video edit have no problem so far....


p.s If you install any update ,power off the EGPU , just let mac mini doing this only
 
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I agree. Never have your eGPU plugged into your computer when you do any OS update/upgrade.
 
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hagjohn said:
I agree. Never have your eGPU plugged into your computer when you do any OS update/upgrade.
Click to expand...
I wish I would have seen this yesterday morning 😂

Although I did do the 10.15.6 supplemental update yesterday afternoon and it went fine with the eGPU plugged in.
 
I'll give the combo updater a try. Today my mini booted up with no eGPU problem. But I'll update with the mini's HDMI plugged in, the eGPU disconnected and I'll see what happens.

Update: It didn't work. The mini kept booting to a black screen. The only way around it was to simultaneously connect the mini's HDMI to my monitor while the eGPU was connected to the DP input. And then, OS X insisted on making HDMI dominant. No matter how I fiddled with the settings, I was stuck with the Intel GPU at 1080p 30 hz. The way around that of course is to simply unplug the HDMI after I've booted. But that's a pain and shouldn't be necessary for something that Apple is supposed to be supporting.
 
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Do you have a DP to DP cable to use instead of the HDMI? You may have tried it already. I didn't look back to see what you did. I'm running DP to DP and I'm running fine.
 
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