AMD has started sending out e-mails on activation of the three games that recent purchasers of its GPUs are getting. First up is Resident Evil 2. Devil May Cry 5 and Tom Clancey's The Division 2 are still to come.
I guess it's time to decide whether to install Boot Camp and Windows 10 (US$140), seeing as how these games don't work on macOS.
This post is not about eGPUs, but may be of interest to people who have purchased one and are considering a Boot Camp installation of Windows.
Using Boot Camp Assistant from macOS Utilities, I installed Windows 10 Home, 64-bit, from the ISO file here:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/windows10ISO The ISO file can be downloaded to the usual download folder. There is no need for a USB flash drive.
I installed the October 2018 rather than April 2018 build. Because there were apparently issues with installing the October build via Boot Camp, several recent videos and sites recommend against it. However, the issues, whatever they were, appear to have been fixed. I had no problem.
During Windows 10 setup, I said that I would input an activation key later. Several hours later, a watermark has appeared in the computer’s lower right corner saying “Activate Windows. Go to Settings to activate Windows.” Apparently this will appear indefinitely. Activation is US$140, although there is no end of internet articles on ways to get around paying, or to pay less. I’ve looked at these alternatives, and the result is that I’ll be purchasing a full license if I keep Windows on the computer.
When Boot Camp partitioned my 512GB drive, I set aside 100GB for Windows. The operating system is about 20GB. Apple says that one should set aside at least 64GB, and recommends 128GB. Now that I’ve had a few hours with Windows on the mini, I am seriously considering using less than 100GB. There is very little that I want on the computer in the way of Windows apps, and I need very little in the way of storage.
As I’ve done with Mac games, I’ll be putting Windows games on an external drive. Resident Evil 2 (the first of the free AMD games) is alone 23GB. This means purchasing a separate solid state external drive for Windows, formatting it NTFS.
The game is running fine on my monitor, which is an Asus ProArt 32”, 3840x2160.
I’m afraid that a five year absence from the Windows operating system hasn’t reduced my dislike for Microsoft’s intrusive approach to marketing nor my dislike for Windows itself. I have a couple of uses for Windows apart from gaming, but if I keep it, it will be despite the fact that I find using it a nuisance.
P.S. I initially ran Boot Camp and tried to install Windows while my eGPU was running. I should have known better. My monitor was not happy about this and I wound up starting over. Best to keep your eGPU on the sidelines for this task
