Seeking help with my Boot Camp gaming setup, please

[RhythmAndBlues]

Hello all,

I'm recently navigating the rocky terrain of running Boot Camp on a Mac mini and trying to force it to behave like a gaming PC. Not a complete failure, but it's not working as I'd like.

I have a top-end 2018/20 mini, maxed-out other than the RAM being only 16GB. It's connected both by HMDI and DisplayPort to an LG-34GN850-B - and it's this ugliness that I'd like to resolve.

For Windows gaming purposes, the mini is connected by USB-C-to-USB-C to a Razer Core X Chroma eGPU enclosure. This contains (don't laugh...) an NVIDIA GeForce 780 GTX, salvaged from an old gaming PC that I broke down for parts last month. This card is connected by DP-to-DP to the monitor.

For macOS purposes, and Windows boot-up purposes, the mini is connected directly by HDMI-to-HDMI to the monitor.

The reason for this setup is that (as I understand it...), macOS won't play nicely with NVIDIA GPUs at all, and Windows gives a black screen when booted with the eGPU already powered on - so, I need a way of using the macOS partition (HDMI), and also a way of booting the Windows partition (HDMI) before the eGPU finally gets involved (DP). And I'm widely informed that using AMD GPUs commonly causes Error 12 misery in Windows, so I don't believe that I can swap out the graphics card for a universal solution.

This is not an ideal setup for two key reasons - firstly, it forces me to use HDMI in macOS where I'd far rather be using DP, and secondly, it occupies an HDMI socket on my monitor that I'd prefer to give to something else.

Can anyone please offer a suggestion re ways to go?

Thanks,




DH.

 

[Irishman]

Hello all,

I'm recently navigating the rocky terrain of running Boot Camp on a Mac mini and trying to force it to behave like a gaming PC. Not a complete failure, but it's not working as I'd like.

I have a top-end 2018/20 mini, maxed-out other than the RAM being only 16GB. It's connected both by HMDI and DisplayPort to an LG-34GN850-B - and it's this ugliness that I'd like to resolve.

For Windows gaming purposes, the mini is connected by USB-C-to-USB-C to a Razer Core X Chroma eGPU enclosure. This contains (don't laugh...) an NVIDIA GeForce 780 GTX, salvaged from an old gaming PC that I broke down for parts last month. This card is connected by DP-to-DP to the monitor.

For macOS purposes, and Windows boot-up purposes, the mini is connected directly by HDMI-to-HDMI to the monitor.

The reason for this setup is that (as I understand it...), macOS won't play nicely with NVIDIA GPUs at all, and Windows gives a black screen when booted with the eGPU already powered on - so, I need a way of using the macOS partition (HDMI), and also a way of booting the Windows partition (HDMI) before the eGPU finally gets involved (DP). And I'm widely informed that using AMD GPUs commonly causes Error 12 misery in Windows, so I don't believe that I can swap out the graphics card for a universal solution.

This is not an ideal setup for two key reasons - firstly, it forces me to use HDMI in macOS where I'd far rather be using DP, and secondly, it occupies an HDMI socket on my monitor that I'd prefer to give to something else.

Can anyone please offer a suggestion re ways to go?

Thanks,




DH.

There’s only two possibilities that I can think of:

1 - find an older version of macOS that still has Nvidia support built in, or, (probably won’t work unless you’re open to going the Hackintosh route).

2 - go with an AMD gpu as an experiment, just to see if you can boot into Windows 10 long enough to install drivers for it (I’m not sure what version the Catalyst drivers are on now, but that will be at least better supported by both OSs than any other solution I can think of).

Or, maybe try this? https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.ma...indows-10-mac-screen-distorted-issue-amd/amp/

hope it works!

 

[RhythmAndBlues]

Thanks for replying, mate.

I bought a Sapphire Nitro+ RX 5700 XT a few days ago. Working very nicely in Catalina. Whether I dare bother with Bootcamp ever again remains to be seen...!!!

 

[Irishman]

Thanks for replying, mate.

I bought a Sapphire Nitro+ RX 5700 XT a few days ago. Working very nicely in Catalina. Whether I dare bother with Bootcamp ever again remains to be seen...!!!

Ooh , great card choice.

i feel you with regard to Bootcamp. I first tried it on my old as dirt 2012 iMac, but over the course of that year, I came to learn that it wouldn’t solve the eventual need to upgrade to a new Mac. Eventually, I had some Windows update issues that I couldn’t solve, and I have found some mixed success with game streaming services.

 

[RhythmAndBlues]

There's just no forcing this thing to be a part-time PC, sadly. It's too unstable.