eGPU Essentials for MacOS - Why does my eGPU not work?

I still get this questions a lot: "Why does my eGPU not work?"
So its "finally" time to talk about a few essentials and settings that are important when it comes to eGPU and MacOS and Apps... might be a bit too late but for a Mac Mini and MacBooks a eGPU is still a valid option IMO.
here are you can find more about my eGPU Setup: kit.co/urbn.px...
Check out the gear here:
kit.co/urbn.pxl
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my page:
/ urbnpxl
my instagram:
/ urbn.pxl
#eGPU #MacOS
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that earn me a small commission, at no additional cost to you. I only recommend products I personally use and love, or think my readers will find useful.

[@dd4angio204]

Great video quality and sound. ty for your links

[@TheAppleLab]

i must proove you wrong, a TB3 egpu combined with a TB2 adapter does makes sense for a TB2 equipped mac ( nMP6,1 in my case ). performance wise it gains in GB openCL test from 21k with my poor internal dual d300 to 55k with an razer core x + vega64.

[@koenigssss]

Did you change the Power Supply of the Racer Core ? Mine is quiet loud therefore I connect my MacBook to it only when its really necessary.

[@MichaelSchmidt_UrbnPxl]

i did not ... i don't really have a issue with the noice level since i use a longer Thunderbolt cable and the eGPU is placed so that potential noise is no real issue ... also my Raid is louder ;)

[@WarriorsPhoto]

Thank you for sharing your findings with us. I will stay away from eGPU for the time being. (:

[@MichaelSchmidt_UrbnPxl]

ricky v sure thing! while it works great for the MacMini it is has a limited performance for most other machines... it is useful for my workflow for sure but I had more hope for more performance 😅

[@WarriorsPhoto]

Michael P. Schmidt This is what I’ve found by watching your videos mate.

[@atmasinghify]

Hi, great video, keep up the good work. I have a question, You mention that if you have a Macbook Pro 2017 onwards not to get a eGpu ? I have a 2017 Macbook pro 14,2 i5, 4 thunderbolt version with an intel iris 650 and Final Cut pro 10.4.8. I guess that the Intel Iris 650 is NOT a GPU? Should I look at getting and eGpu and if so what differnece in performance do you expect from a Vega 64 over RX 580 8GB when doing background rendering and exporting ?

[@MichaelSchmidt_UrbnPxl]

Sorry for the late reply... kinda missed the comment in my notifications... anyways if you still need some infos ... Iris 650 is the integrated gpu of the CPU some macs only have that but your MacBook Pro should also have a AMD Radeon GPU ... but not that powerful ... so yes a eGPU should give you a bit more performance... RX580 is a good start but a RX 5700xt might be the sweetspot if u can spent the money ...better than the veg64

[@messagedeleted3526]

Damn this was helpful! Thank you!

Thanks for the vid. I was wondering if you could give me some advice? I'm using an iMac (Retina 4K, 21.5-inch, 2017) and it's starting to get a bit painful. Do you think it's not worth buying an eGPU for it? And what if I grab an external monitor to go with it and use that as my primary monitor instead of only the eGPU and iMac? Thanks in advance... I'm new to eGPUs!

[@MichaelSchmidt_UrbnPxl]

Sorry for the late reply... kinda missed the comment in my notifications ... I hope I still can offer some help.... a eGPU might get you some more performance if ur system has thunderbolt 3 and also only if you use a external display on that eGPU with a RX5700XT ... but don’t hope for a magical boost, the thunderbolt 3 bandwidth is not as good as a GPU could use ... so it will not be as fast as a new 2020 iMac with a internal RX5700xt that was just announced 😉😅 ... so keep that in mind

[@btliem]

Dear Michael, May I ask a question ? What happen if I connect both , internet RJ45 to Mac Mini and connect to eGPU Razer Core X Chroma internet RJ45 as well. Will it be a problem ? Loop or something ? Super thanks. BTW, very good explanation on this video. Super thanks

[@frankfeng98]

Hey bro, you vid definitely deserves more views. Can I ask a question though? You talked about the lowest end mbp13 having only two thunderbolt ports, which share the same controller. What’s the disadvantage in that case compared to having 4 thunderbolt ports?

[@frankfeng98]

Btw i have only PCIe x 4 worth of bandwidth when I connect to my eGPU, is this expected?

[@UnExile]

I know you asked this years ago, I just came across this video and thought I’d answer for anyone that comes across here in the future: A shared controller only means the second thunderbolt port won’t be usable while using an eGPU - at least if you want a stable connection & avoid a blue screen because you’re sharing PCIE lanes and bandwidth with the gpu. A GPU can run fine with only 2 pcie lanes if you need the other two lanes for your second thunderbolt port - not under load though such as gaming and trying to use that second port is asking for problems. Hope that helps you & future visitors here - it’s incredible how fast, responsive and stable eGPU’s are folks, don’t even hesitate if you’re looking to breath new life in to an older thunderbolt 3 or 4 equipped machine - which is what brings me here I learned Intel MacBooks support up to the AMD 6900xt in macOS itself, and I’ve been disappointed with my 15” 2018 MacBook Pro with a Vega 20 gpu - I found an Asus liquid cooled 6900 xt on sale for an insanely low price of only $999 cad/$799 USD brand new on Amazon I’ll be chucking in an eGPU enclosure that’ll have my ol machine running like brand new, can’t wait! I’ve already been running a 3090 with it but using bootcamp / windows but Apple’s final gpu they supported from AMD was the 6900 xt natively. The ONLY major difference between thunderbolt 3 and 4 that an end user would care about is the ability now to split a single thunderbolt 4 port in to multiple thunderbolt 3 ports - specifically, you can turn one in to three with some spare bandwidth on top to spare.

[@moetarded7757]

I am using titan ridge on my 5.1 and egpu.

[@moetarded7757]

How are you doing storage for the Mac Mini? If you can not use thunderbolt for external hard drive while using eGPU? Maybe I heard you wrong. LMK

[@MichaelSchmidt_UrbnPxl]

well maybe I did say it a bit comblicated... ;) what I wanted to say is that you should not connect any drives oder storage to the eGPU box if that box has like a USB Hub or USB-Ports that way Thunderbold ban with is "wasted" for Drives and stuff you need all the Bandwidth you can get for the GPU inside of that eGPU box ;) ... Its totally fine to connect drives and such to the Mac itself of course

[@moetarded7757]

No no. Titan ridge thunderbolt hack for 5.1. not hub not storage.

[@martinsawicki2716]

0:28 eGPU with Thunderbolt 2 does not work? Get your facts straight.. it does ;)

[@MichaelSchmidt_UrbnPxl]

technically it does... in terms of real performance it does not or at least makes no sense