Reader Comment: 2018 Mac mini with macOS Catalina Will Not Boot with eGPU

Reader Krishna M writes:

I’m a regular reader of your blog and echo your frustrations with Catalina and the general lack of quality releases Apple has been providing over the past several years. Thank you for all your hard work. You call it like it is and you don’t pull any punches. Thanks!

Sadly, Apple’s quality control (if there is such a thing) hasn’t been evident in quite some time.

I’m writing this note to let your readers know of another Catalina issue that has yet to be addressed by Apple (surprise!). Specifically, it’s a problem with the 2018 Mac mini and Polaris based Radeon cards (i.e. the Radeon 580x). Under Catalina, it is impossible to boot the Mac mini with the eGPU plugged in. The Mac will hang at a green screen. The only workaround that I’ve found is to unplug the eGPU from the Mac mini and reboot, with a display connected to the Mac mini’s built-in HDMI port. This is absolutely unacceptable. I’ve filed bug reports after bug reports since I moved over to Catalina (a BIG mistake) with no response.

Based on my research, other users are having the same issue. It’s infuriating and I have no other recourse but to wait it out and hope that Apple will fix the bug.

MPG: Sounds very similar to the display syncing issue I have with the Apple Mac mini.