Are EGPU issues fixed in 10.15.2 Catalina

Unfortunately the latest 10.115.2 BREAKS the eGPU support which was introduced with 10.15.1

I'm using the ASUS XG-Station-Pro eGPU with MSI RX 5700 Mech OC + Mac Mini 2018.

I had to go back to doing what worked with the original Catalina release. Make sure the eGPU is turned off. Now turn on the 2018 Mac mini. Wait a minute or so for it to start up, THEN turn on the eGPU. The user login screen will then show and you can use the screen as normal.

Do not have the eGPU running when restarting the Mac mini - all you get is a "black screen of death". There might be a signal, but no image. Very frustrating. Consequently there is no Apple startup logo or progress bar.

Sheesh - does anyone bother to test these things?

I have the 2018 Mac mini with the Razor Core X & AMD Radeon RX Vega 56. It worked flawless in 10.15 & 10.15.1. Using Final Cut everything was great. However updating to 10.15.2 caused the monitor to boot to a black screen. I had to unplug the monitor from the eGPU and plug in directly to the Mac mini. Then I reset the PRAM and NVRAM and have connected the monitor back to the eGPU and it is working normal now. 10.15.2 is buggy. I would not update to that if I could go back. 10.15.1 was pretty stable and my 2018 Mac Mini was singing. I hope an update comes soon. Hope this helps.

It's not just Catalina 10.15.2. The Mojave 10.14.6 Security Update 2019-002 contains the same bad firmware update that is in 10.15.2 and wrecks (some) eGPUs. So if you want to keep your working eGPU, don't install that Mojave update either (I did, and you can't revert).

Workarounds: in MacOS, boot with eGPU disconnected and monitor connected directly via HDMI. At desktop, hot plug eGPU.

In Windows: install rEFInd and the modified apple_set_os discussed at egpu.io. This will allow you to boot into Windows and plug eGPU, but you will still need to disable resources in Device Manager to get around error 12. Another user reported using a USB-C to HDMI converter to boot with display connected directly to Mini, then hot plugging eGPU at Windows desktop, but I haven't tested that approach.

No difference here. Still must boot with eGPU off. Wait ~20-30sec. Turn eGPU on. See login screen.

Have signed up for the Apple beta program (beta.apple.com). Will send feedback via their 'Feedback Assistant' app.

Will look at Intel NUCs.

The blind 4K HDMI plug finally arrived and I've had a couple of days to try it out.

Fingers X'ed, this the best solution so far. You can restart the Mac Mini without problems and you will get the log-in screen every time, although not the Apple Logo + progress bar.

I found the best settings to be to have the HDMI on a separate screen (on System Preferences Display Arrangement) and just run it as is. Tried the mirrored displays option, which worked, but ended up with black vertical bands on either side of my 30 inch screen.

So… until Apple get around to fixing the Mac Mini BIOS they messed up with Catalina 10.15, a blind HDMI plug is the best workaround for a single monitor eGPU solution. Thanks to "aaquino3" and "MichaelV" for the suggestions.

I bought my HDMI plug(s) from Amazon USA at:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07C4TWZRM/

> I believe the black screen results from the GPU card lacking Apple boot ROMs.

Everything worked fine when I had the RX580 in the XG-Station-Pro and the Mac Mini running 10.14.x Mojave. Things have been seriously broken/ weird since Catalina came along.

Oddly enough, 10.15.1 was actually workable with the new RX5700 (broken with the RX580), although there was no booting progress bar. 10.15.2 killed this. It never loads a viewable screen no matter how long you wait, just the "black screen of death".

So it isn't just a case of be-patient and the login screen will show. It doesn't. Like I said earlier, you have to start the computer with the eGPU turned off, wait a minute or so and then turn the eGPU on. You won't get the start-up sequence, but you'll get the login screen. SNAFU

I'm on the mac mini 2018, razer core x, rx580.

No problems on 10.15.1 but encounter blank screen on bootup right after upgrading to 10.15.2.

My display settings is already set to "Default for display" and i still encounter the same problem. I'm too lazy to power off the eGPU, wait 30sec etc. What i have done is i force shutdown the mac, turn it on again. Sometimes it works on 2nd try. Sometimes on the 3rd. But the display will come up.

Avoid 10.15.2 if you are using eGPU.

I have the same configuration (Mac Mini 2018 6-core, Razer Core X with a Vega 56) and can confirm that resetting the PRAM also solved the problem for me. The functionality is now the same as in 10.15.1, where there is only black screen until the login, but that screen appears in the normal amount of time. Thank you for the fix!

Seems to be stable. Heaven benchmarked at 44fps at 4K. Not awesome, but better than the builtin graphics.

Shut down and powered back up with only the Core X connected to the display via DisplayPort and ... black screen. Waited a minute or so and then plugged the HDMI cable back in and switch the display to use the HDMI port. There was the login screen. Unplugged the HDMI cable and switched the display to the DisplayPort port and everything was still working.

So... It appears that you need two monitors (speculation since I only have the one) or one monitor capable of supporting two connections. I couldn't get this to work using the monitor connected to the mini until login and switching the cable to the Core X though I've seen others stating this works.

My setup is mini -> display via HDMI

mini -> Core X via Thunderbolt 3 -> display via DisplayPort

Switch the display to HDMI input and power on the mini and Core X. Wait for the login screen. Login and pull the HDMI cable. Switch the display to DisplayPort input. And shake your head that something the should 'just work' requires so many hoops to jump through. And cause so much aggravation. OH ... and still haven't tried scaled video (text is tiny). But my nerves are shot. <shrug/>

EGPU support has been an absolute joke!

Apple are insanely slow at giving support for newer Radeon cards, and you can only use Radeon cards. Catalina 10.15.1 seemed to sort out most of the problems but 10.15.2 has just brought them back.

I cannot start up with the EGPU connected, so I start up with EGPU turned off and with the mac mini connected directly to screen via usb-c, then I turn on the EGPU and connect via displayport and...................

Oh wait no, still doesn't work!

The mac recognises the right card, the home screen is on, BUT I see no mouse cursor, keyboard functions don't do anything, nightmare! Apparently HDMI should work so I will try that but displayport doesn't work.

I am a photography geek and wanted to maximise lightroom performance so, given apple said they added support for EGPUs over a year ago, I spent a lot of money on the following:

Mac mini 2018 - 3,2 GHz 6-Core Intel Core i7 with 2TB Flash Storage - 2449€

Add 64GB OWC RAM - 487.96€

Apple mouse + keyboard - 180€

Razer Chroma X + Radeon RX5700XT - 900€

BenQ SW271 - 1110.94€

Mac mini speaker is beyond useless so added speakers - 125€

TOTAL - 5253€ !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I did this because I thought I would have had an editing monster but, for the price, I should have just bought the imac pro and been done with it. I have a 2011 imac that has worked perfectly since day 1. In 2015 I changed the HDD drives for Samsung SSD and it has not only worked perfectly, but been incredibly fast. The only thing that was slow was lightroom. I have had 10 times more issues with the mac mini + EGPU in 3 months, than I had with the imac in 9 years! I am so ****** because Im stuck with my choice, I cant send the screen, egpu etc back!

If you want an editing station, go with imac or imac pro, DO NOT go the EGPU route. At least wait many more months until apple has sorted out all these issues.

I will also say that because Apple has removed support for 32bit apps, there are still a ton that don't work in Catalina. Notably the Palette Master app which is used by Benq for calibrating their screens (there is no workaround, it just doesn't work), and the HP easy scan which works with my printer/scanner (there is a workaround but its pain in the ***). So for me, this very expensive investment has been an unmitigated disaster. Thanks Apple!

I have to retract my claim of "fixed" here, and add a caution.

The fix lasted about a day like most others. I had my Mini set to scheduled start up just before before I normally get to work. The day it broke again, I happened to be running about 1/2 hour behind schedule. Arrived to find the black screen, with the Mini and the GPU running full throttle and COOKING. The Mini was so hot to the touch I was concerned it would be damaged. That turned out to not be the case, but I turned off the auto-scheduled startup right away.

The advice still stands: Boot the mini with the eGPU off. Wait ~30 seconds. Turn the eGPU on. You should be looking at the login screen. (mini connected to eGPU connected to the display -- I prefer the DisplayPort over HDMI.)

Depending on your usage, you can go all day if the eGPU doesn't overheat (seems to be a recurring issue here and there's no AMD/aftermarket Mac support -- e.g., no way to control fans on the card or the box.) You may want to try an SMC reset if you can't get past the black screen (pull the plug on the mini, hold the power button in for 15 sec, release and plug the mini in, power on Garth).

I've been having reasonably good luck including restarts without having to power down/up the Core X. Some nights I forget to turn it off after shutting down the mini and it boots fine the next morning <shrug/>.

I've installed windows via bootcamp: not much better there. I get Error 207 when trying to install the AMD drivers. There's some dance involving pulling a file from a previous window's installer and inserting it in the appropriate place in the bowels of the current system ... an exercise for another day.

Mac mini 2018

Sonet Breakaway box

5700 XT

Just installed 10.15.3 this morning and the EGPU issues are gone!

I can boot up with the EGPU connected, no issues at all!

Happy to finally see this working after so many months

Without taking a poll, I wonder how many people are affected. To be more precise, how many people are driving a mini with only one display connected to an eGPU. The only other Mac without a display is the MacPro. Multiple monitors there most likely. Laptops and iMacs have a builtin monitor. So that leaves this community who don't have a second monitor plugged in. I offer this up because ...

I've found a cheap solution. I was about to drag out an old 1080p LCD TV and hook it up to the HDMI port on the mini (two displays: 1 through the eGPU and 1 directly connected via HDMI). I was curious to see what exactly was going on when I attempted keying in my login credentials when the mini booted to a black screen: I could hear the 'boink' of the keystrokes. I don't have desk real estate for 2 monitors, but then remembered that I'd purchased an HDMI plug that tricked my old mini into thinking it had a screen attached (let me screen share that box which is doing duty as a file server).

In a nutshell, the mini boots looking for an HDMI connection. If it can't find one for some reason it doesn't failover to the eGPU. The plug tricks it into thinking there is an HDMI connection and lights up the eGPU connected screen. I still have to blindly type in my username/password (login takes place on the HDMI phantom screen), but then shifts to the eGPU. YOU WILL have to fiddle with the 'Displays' preferences to get the menu bar to appear on the eGPU display, but that sticks across boots.

Bottom line is it seems to be the way Apple mashed Displays/Spaces together in Catalina.

I'm running Catalina 10.15.3 on my Mac Mini 2018. I have an eGPU (AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 running inside a Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box 650. It boots up with a blank screen. So far I've been unplugging the USC-C to the eGPU unit and connecting the HDMI cable between the Mac Mini and monitor to get the log in prompt. Once I log in and it finishes loading, disconnect the HDMI and then reconnect the USB-C. Quite a pain. I will try some of the recommends I've read about keeping the eGPU off for a few minutes after start up and then turning it on. That will be a little better work around until they fix this. Hope they fix this soon. Thanks.