White screen with EGPU only connected

My Mac Mini 2018, Breakaway Box 550, RX580 with FileVault and 2 monitors connected directly to the RX580 booted with no problem under Mojave at the time Catalina was released. Upgraded to Catalina and the setup no longer booted correctly. A short while later, Apple changed the boot process in Mojave (apparently to what was in Catalina) and systems started having the same issues Catalina users were having. That's my experience and memory, at least.

My experience was identical to @BradDE. The only way I could boot was to completely disconnect the BreakAway Box until the Mac booted then replug it which was a PITA. This is why I am so pleased with the current behavior.

Have 2 monitors, 1 connected directly to the Mac mini via HDMI, and the other connected to the via HDM to the eGpu (RX570).

I decided to leave the 1 monitor connected to the Mac mini, so I how if that is connected and the GPU is switch off I can boot my Mac and login every time.

Does anyone know if there is any GPU that can be connected to the Mac Mini without having to go through this frustrating process every time you power on the computer? I find if I do a restart, most times I can get away with that.

I don't currently use Bootcamp, I use VMWare Fusion instead to access Windows 10 and Linux.

Mine wasn’t, it worked rally well until the Catalina upgrade running the Mac mini into a RX580 then display port into a 4K monitor. Now I can’t and have to keep changing ports around which is stupid and sloppy software design.

The RX570 has never worked properly since I bought it when the Mac mini was released in 2018.

This is the most consistent it's been since I bought it, but thats not good enough really. 'It just works' doesn't apply here unfortunately.

I thought I was playing it safe going with the RX570 as Apple used to offer a developer bundle with the RX570 and a Sonnet eGPU. Not sure if they still do.

Nope, I just turn my eGPU off when I shut down my comp at night and then boot computer, wait for a bit then turn eGPU switch on. This has been the best process for me so I'm not unplugging and replugging eGPU, or HDMI etc.

I haven't tried the new beta yet, but I did just get an official update for 10.15.14

My 580 worked fine I was really happy with it until the update, I never had a problem not one then bam. Now I have to load it with HDMI in my mack mini unplug the HDMI plug in thunderbolt to my eGPU then it works, I don't want to do this every day!

It was great before.

Does anybody know of a GPU that will work with the Mac mini without having to do any work arounds?

I’ve been living with this issue for almost 18 months now and I’m fed up with the situation. If there a graphics card that “just works” I think I’ll buy it to make the problem go away. It’s obvious Apple don’t see it as a priority 😔

I just got the AMD 5700XT card and put it in my sonnet box, I have issues with installs, so I just use the build in port for updates to the OS, but for start up, it just boots like normal. I wonder it is a sonnet box issues or just the cards. I know the 5700XT has to have cata OS to work.

I am having the same issue, and I have had that issues since the beta, and no word if they have fixed for it yet or not. apple needs to release an update.

is there a way of adding the driver into the placeholder???

Interesting. I haven’t heard back from Sonnet yet. Did they give any indication if it’s fixable from their end (rather than Apple)?

The problem affects other eGPU boxes as well. There are reports from Razor, AKiTiO, Zotac users. I think this points to an issue fixable by Apple.

Nope. They couldn't replicate the issue. Recommended reinstalling from scratch or moving back to Mojave. I'm willing to bet they are starting to get more calls about this though. It may change.

I have the problem with Sonnet and rx580