Mac Mini with eGPU? Do NOT install 10.13.4!

[ziggy29]

Fortunately I use CCC religiously. I have an eGPU with my 2012 Mini (a Mantiz Venus with RX 580 graphics) and I do some gaming on it. Today I dutifully downloaded and installed the 10.13.4 update.

Oops. Rebooting did nothing but leave a display that had the power light blinking. I put the HDMI output back into the Mini itself and got the video back. Then I did some googling (should have did that first) and learned that whether intentionally or not (my vote is intentional), the "official" eGPU support in 10.13.4 breaks eGPUs in TB1 and TB2 systems.

Fortunately, CCC to the rescue -- I booted again on a spare, cloned volume and restored last night's backup to my primary boot drive. It's working again, back to 10.13.3.

But if you run an eGPU on less than TB3 hardware -- do not install 10.13.4! Stay tuned to further announcements, both from Apple and from the "community" which finds ways to make things work. Maybe it will work again (apparently, one seeding of a previous HS beta broke that but Apple fixed it), maybe Apple has put their foot down to try to make these folks buy new Macs with TB3 (as an aside, give me a quad-core Mini with TB3 and take my money), but whatever the case, the new 10.13.4 update breaks eGPUs for Macs with TB1 and TB2.

 

[PhiLLoW]

Srsly?
Was kinda happy with my Akitio Thunder2 rig since nvidia released their webdrivers. :-(

 

[toke lahti]

I'm looking for "lowest power" egpu solution for mm2012.
So, I can just keep it running all-day, without eating lot of electricity (why I swapped from mp3,1 to mm2012).

Now that we know for sure, that there will be no official support (just downloaded 10.13.3combo for future use), I'd guess there will be soon lots of unsupported egpu-boxes on 2nd hand market. I don't need 3d-power, I want just push more Mpx in 2d world.

AMD might the wiser choice now, so would it be RX 560 (60-80 W)?
What card model?
And what egpu box would be cheapest but fine?
(It doesn't even have to be closed box, I have mini in a filter ventilated rack, where my mp also lies, now off for 99,9% of time.)

 

[Fozziebear40]

It's a terrible decision by Apple as they still sell TB2 computers in their current line up! Mac Pro's, Mini's and Air's.

 

[sublunar]

It's a terrible decision by Apple as they still sell TB2 computers in their current line up! Mac Pro's, Mini's and Air's.

I suspect that won't be the case by the end of the year though

 

[MysticCow]

Well, 10.13.4 won't install for me anyway, soooooo

 

[ziggy29]

There is a workaround now, posted at (where else?) egpu.io:

https://egpu.io/forums/mac-setup/script-enable-egpu-on-tb1-2-macs-on-macos-10-13-4/paged/1/

 

[sickntired]

I can confirm that the workaround works with my AMD Vega 64 and Mac Mini 2014

 

[ziggy29]

There seems to be a lot of problems with the 2012s. We're still trying to figure it out.

 

[toke lahti]

I suspect that won't be the case by the end of the year though

Apple says that mp is not coming this year, but you suspect something else?

 

[sublunar]

Apple says that mp is not coming this year, but you suspect something else?

I was hinting that TB2 hardware was going to be discontinued this year (with any luck) due to later models superseding. Probably jumped the gun a bit with respect to the (now) 2019 Mac Pro.

 

[ziggy29]

There seems to be a lot of problems with the 2012s. We're still trying to figure it out.

The problem is fixed for the 2012 Minis by a new version of the workaround script (version 2.0.2). I can confirm that it fixed the problem for me, and a lot of other 2012 Mini users have reported the same.