M1 MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Mac Mini Not Compatible With eGPUs

[dannys1]

But here’s the rub - how long will Apple write Mac OS that will support Intel? Will they drop it in a year? Two? I’ve never spec’d lower than an upper mid tier build, and as a result usually ended up with builds that exceed $2k. I’m not willing to spend that much money on a box that won’t be upgradable after a couple years. My builds typically last 5-7 years before obsolescence. If I bought the Mac Mini that I feel like meets my current needs, it would cost a little over $2k with an egpu. Now I have no idea how long it would be supported.

Well OS X for PPC saw three major updates and then support for the last update for 5 years. So that's 8 years in total and then it's not like the thing stopped working, it worked exactly the same way as when you had it first. 3rd parties will continue to release universal binary apps for as long as it's financially viable for them, which considering the amount of Intel Macs compared to PPC, will be a long time.

Anyone buying a 16" MBP today could expect at least 5 years macOS updates I think, which in my opinion is more than enough, 7 years is too long to run the same system. I draw the line at 3, but will upgrade yearly if I feel like it as it means you lose a lot less money than running the same system until it has no resale value.

 

[Janichsan]

Well OS X for PPC saw three major updates ...

What's your definition of "major updates"? The first Intel Macs were shipped with OS X 10.4.something, and the last version of OS X to support PPC was 10.5.8. In my count, that's precisely one (1) major update in between the last PPC Macs and the last PPC compatible OS X version.

It was about three years before the last version of OS X for PPC was released.

 

[mrhick01]

I take it you didn't know Nvidia bought ARM a few months ago.

I was aware, but I also understood that Apple has a license to use the architecture.

 

[lxmeta]

What's your definition of "major updates"? The first Intel Macs were shipped with OS X 10.4.something, and the last version of OS X to support PPC was 10.5.8. In my count, that's precisely one (1) major update in between the last PPC Macs and the last PPC compatible OS X version.

It was about three years before the last version of OS X for PPC was released.

That’s indeed interesting! Back then the move to Intel saw quite a dramatic improvement on the high end. Let’s see how that looks like with Apple silicon in 3 years. Will Apple silicon make the current pro obsolete by then?

 

[cba20k]

Fortunately for those of us with intel macs, with the MacOS Big Sur update, at least apple made a point of not fixing the all the crashes and lockup’s that occurred in Catalina with egpus as well as the inability to boot with egpu attached. I was worried for a sec that things might get better. 🤦‍♂️

 

[IceStormNG]

It was pretty clear from the get-go that eGPU won't be supported very well and for a long time.
And as Apple announced Apple Silicon, it was pretty clear the eGPUs (at least on Macs) will die. Windows never really supported them and macOS only supports a few selected GPUs (and only Team Red).

Well.. I'm not surprised at all.

 

[torncanvas]

Windows supports them very well. By now they’re plug-and-play for most systems, and they’re legitimately useful for some professional use cases as well (rendering and AI are good examples).

It’s ironic, for some time MBPs have actually been among the best laptops for an eGPU because Thunderbolt was wired directly to the CPU just like with the M1, instead of going through the PCH. So quite a few folks own a MBP and have Windows installed and use the eGPU there.

 

[applefan69]

Windows supports them very well. By now they’re plug-and-play for most systems, and they’re legitimately useful for some professional use cases as well (rendering and AI are good examples).

It’s ironic, for some time MBPs have actually been among the best laptops for an eGPU because Thunderbolt was wired directly to the CPU just like with the M1, instead of going through the PCH. So quite a few folks own a MBP and have Windows installed and use the eGPU there.

Can confirm using windows through bootcamp with an eGPU works great. My mac mini the only glitch is windows wont support use of the internal integrated graphics running parallel with the external graphics. So you have start the computer up with the only displays attached to the computer running through the egpu. I dont know how but windows/bootcamp efi manages to avoid "activating" the internal graphics, and then it runs as though it only has the external graphics the same as any computer.

I was advised to run the "windows development version" or something too fyi. Not sure if this part is still necessary.