Mine came out of my 2010 Mac Pro so I figured it was a safe bet, that and Sonnet's old pucks had that series too. I thought about getting something newer but prices are just ridiculous so maybe that ended up saving me some headaches after all.
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Monterey and eGPU
- Thread starter iAssimilated
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So apparently disconnecting the eGPU physically (or powering it down) without using the menu bar icon to "safely" disconnect it leads to another assortment of weirdness.
While disconnecting it doesn't cause a kernel panic, it renders it basically unusable when re-connected. Granted I've only tried this after the Mac has been sleeping for a bit: after re-connecting the eGPU the external display remains unusable (sleeping) and the display and eGPU aren't "fully" recognized. This is what it looks like in System Information screen:
At that point I rebooted the machine. The eGPU / display were once again recognized properly, however the desktop background on the external display (and only that display) was plain black and the menu bar was basically white. I rebooted one more and it was back to normal.
Not sure what's going on over there in Apple land these days. This is kinda hella sloppy. :/
While disconnecting it doesn't cause a kernel panic, it renders it basically unusable when re-connected. Granted I've only tried this after the Mac has been sleeping for a bit: after re-connecting the eGPU the external display remains unusable (sleeping) and the display and eGPU aren't "fully" recognized. This is what it looks like in System Information screen:
At that point I rebooted the machine. The eGPU / display were once again recognized properly, however the desktop background on the external display (and only that display) was plain black and the menu bar was basically white. I rebooted one more and it was back to normal.
Not sure what's going on over there in Apple land these days. This is kinda hella sloppy. :/
Thanks for the info!
Does it "freeze" solid and stay there until you forcibly reboot the Mac?
Or does it freeze for a little bit, spins the fans really fast briefly, panic to a black screen and then spontaneously reboot?
The latter is what happens for me still on 12.2.1, so I just avoid attempting to disconnect the eGPU in any way.
I asked this in a different thread, but if anyone knows:
For someone wanting to upgrade to a RX 6800 XT, is Big Sur or Monterey the best choice? I would be using it in a Razor Core X eGPU connected to a 2018 Mac mini. I am currently using a RX Vega 56 with Big Sur and everything has been great.
For someone wanting to upgrade to a RX 6800 XT, is Big Sur or Monterey the best choice? I would be using it in a Razor Core X eGPU connected to a 2018 Mac mini. I am currently using a RX Vega 56 with Big Sur and everything has been great.
My Radeon 6900XT fails miserably on Monterey.This post is to start a thread similar to the ones below but focusing on eGPU usage with Monterey:
Big Sur and eGPU
This is a continuation of this thread: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/catalina-egpu.2193797/page-16 Currently on Beta 3, after multiple tests, I am able to boot successfully through my eGPU (Mac mini 2018 + Razer Core X + RX 590)! I have tested this through a restart and cold boot, with...forums.macrumors.com
Full disclosure, I have not updated to Monterey because my eGPU is working beautifully in Big Sur, but if the consensus is eGPUs work well in Monterey that might change my mind.
If you are running Monterey and an eGPU:
- What is your overall experience?
- What is you configuration (Mac model, GPU, eGPU enclosure, FileVault on/off, sleep enabled, etc)?
- Does your Mac show the boot screen?
- Anything else?
My Radeon 6900 XT fails totally in my Sonnet eGPU device. Sonnet blames Apple and Radeon for buggy drivers. They will no longer support it. This comes a month after I purchase it. Don’t believe the Sonnet marketing literature where the 6800 and 6900 are concerned. They just don’t work as an eGPU.This post is to start a thread similar to the ones below but focusing on eGPU usage with Monterey:
Big Sur and eGPU
This is a continuation of this thread: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/catalina-egpu.2193797/page-16 Currently on Beta 3, after multiple tests, I am able to boot successfully through my eGPU (Mac mini 2018 + Razer Core X + RX 590)! I have tested this through a restart and cold boot, with...
Full disclosure, I have not updated to Monterey because my eGPU is working beautifully in Big Sur, but if the consensus is eGPUs work well in Monterey that might change my mind.
If you are running Monterey and an eGPU:
- What is your overall experience?
- What is you configuration (Mac model, GPU, eGPU enclosure, FileVault on/off, sleep enabled, etc)?
- Does your Mac show the boot screen?
- Anything else?
2019 MBP, with a Sonnet Breakway 550, with an AMD 5600XT working perfectly with 12.3.1 with multiple Adobe CC apps. Gaming on Bootcamp with Windows 10 - Halo Infinite, Fortnite, Forza 4 and F1 2019.
Can you elaborate on "fails miserably"? As in, does it:
- Not even boot/work?
- Randomly disconnect?
- Application crashes?
- Bad performance?
Thanks for the info!
Does it "freeze" solid and stay there until you forcibly reboot the Mac?
Or does it freeze for a little bit, spins the fans really fast briefly, panic to a black screen and then spontaneously reboot?
The latter is what happens for me still on 12.2.1, so I just avoid attempting to disconnect the eGPU in any way.
Is 12.3.1 doing any better? I am pondering doing the jump at 12.4, since I acquired a RX 6800 XT that has a few anomalies in Big Sur.
The biggest thing holding me back is my RX Vega 56 works perfectly in Big Sur.
eGPU works fine with the Mac mini 2018 on macOS 12.3.1.
Running a Radeon Pro W6600 with both displays connected to the GPU.
There's boot screen, sleeps works? occasionally the Mac wakes up and the GPU fan is spun the max rpm for 1-2 seconds.
Running a Radeon Pro W6600 with both displays connected to the GPU.
There's boot screen, sleeps works? occasionally the Mac wakes up and the GPU fan is spun the max rpm for 1-2 seconds.
That can probably be fixed with the following: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/catalina-egpu.2193797/page-16?post=29003536#post-29003536
Does anybody else also have issue after 12.4 upgrade (even in 12.5 beta) that your eGPU (mine is Vega 56) is not loading (or missing) driver in PCI section of the system report? I have tried it on two macs. It worked flawlessly in 12.3.1. But after 12.4 upgrade. The driver for my gpu-controller is not installed according to System Information.
Here is System Profile screen (its in Czech). I captioned relevant info.
Here is System Profile screen (its in Czech). I captioned relevant info.
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Nope my RX570 is loaded and working here in my Sonnet case.
They better. Some of the 2020 era MacBooks and iMacs use it and those still made the cut.. Sadly its looking like my 2018 Mini might already be getting close to its end, now thats the bare minimum model for Ventura.
I'd beg to differ. The i5 Mini is still for sale on apple.com. And I believe they promise support for several years (4-5?) after it goes discontinued. Even once support is officially discontinued, a modern OS won't just break. I have friend's still successfully using Mini's from like 2010. IMO the 2018 has been a wonderful, budget Mac option.
I run a 2018 Mac mini 6 core 64g ram with Razor chroma Egpu with sapphire 6900xt inside. it runs perfectly in Monterey and windows 11. Only thing I did was update the Razor Chroma PSU as its fan was noisy. replaced the PSU with a corsair SF750 and its near silent.
Never had any issue with this setup, booting both Monterey and win 11 from external TB Samsung 980pro M2 blades. One of the best things about the intel Mac mini's is they have dual TB chips so 4 TB ports. Egpu connected to 1 TB chip and both M2 blades connected to the other. works like a dream and never had a glitch. I also removed bootcamp AMD drivers and now run with official AMD drivers in win 11. works perfectly.
The M1 Mac mini's only have 1 TB chip and as far as I know they don't support Egpu's like the Intel Mac mini's do. and they don't support windows bootcamp only parallels windows.
the intel Mac mini has a lot to offer in expandability that the M1 Mac mini can't do. Egpu for a start, and No the M1 chip can't compete with a 6900xt in a Egpu.
look at this thread for my performance of the Intel Mac mini.
Never had any issue with this setup, booting both Monterey and win 11 from external TB Samsung 980pro M2 blades. One of the best things about the intel Mac mini's is they have dual TB chips so 4 TB ports. Egpu connected to 1 TB chip and both M2 blades connected to the other. works like a dream and never had a glitch. I also removed bootcamp AMD drivers and now run with official AMD drivers in win 11. works perfectly.
The M1 Mac mini's only have 1 TB chip and as far as I know they don't support Egpu's like the Intel Mac mini's do. and they don't support windows bootcamp only parallels windows.
the intel Mac mini has a lot to offer in expandability that the M1 Mac mini can't do. Egpu for a start, and No the M1 chip can't compete with a 6900xt in a Egpu.
look at this thread for my performance of the Intel Mac mini.
Even the spastic Radeon VII with it's max-RPM-fans-on-shutdown is still working lol
No issues with my 2018 Mac Mini using the Razor Core X and a Radeon RX480
I made it work by turning FileVault on and off. Now it does work as intended. Hope it helps others. Thanks for replies guys.
Ahhh Filevault will cause issues with an eGPU from what I remember. I never use it, so mines just worked from day 1, but I seem to remember you get black boot screens if Filevault is enabled?? Kinda like we used to get with unsupported cards in our Mac Pros back in the day..
No issues if you plug eGPU only after login to my knowledge. But if you want to boot up with eGPU on desktop Mac without built in screen, you must turn it off. I had it turned off tho. Renabled it and then disabled again, now it works flawlessly.
After a long repair of my 2018 mini (which included multiple logic board replacements because of a mistake), I have finally got my mini up and running with Monterey and my RX 6800 XT. I decided to start completely over (ie fresh install of Monterey without restoring from TM). I am happy to report I am no longer getting any kernel panics and so far my steam games have not crashed. With that said, I feel more testing will need to happen before I can claim all is well.
Issues I am still having; not getting the Apple logo on boot up, my monitor not registering the signal when I switch between computers via my KVM (I can make it work after unplugging/plugging in the HDMI on my eGPU after boot), and Mac Fan Control not registering a temperature for the GPU (I know there is a method to make this work with a kext, but don't like the idea of disabling SIP to do so). I know these are small annoyances, but it was not something I had to deal with in Big Sur utilizing my Vega 56.
I will continue to monitor my issues as Monterey gets its next two point releases, but unfortunately after the above mentioned repair mistakes I have since switched to my 2013 Pro as my daily driver. Thus, I will not have the benefit of using this system everyday to vet problems.
Issues I am still having; not getting the Apple logo on boot up, my monitor not registering the signal when I switch between computers via my KVM (I can make it work after unplugging/plugging in the HDMI on my eGPU after boot), and Mac Fan Control not registering a temperature for the GPU (I know there is a method to make this work with a kext, but don't like the idea of disabling SIP to do so). I know these are small annoyances, but it was not something I had to deal with in Big Sur utilizing my Vega 56.
I will continue to monitor my issues as Monterey gets its next two point releases, but unfortunately after the above mentioned repair mistakes I have since switched to my 2013 Pro as my daily driver. Thus, I will not have the benefit of using this system everyday to vet problems.