HOW TO USE external GPU ON MAC (solution found)

[microunit]

To those of you looking how to use an external GPU for mac games on steam:

As you may have noticed, steam has destroyed all your hopes and dreams. Is this true? Yes. They suck, life is unfair. There is a solution, go to your steam and game apps in your finder you are looking for. Control click on the application and go under "Get info". Check the box that says prefer external GPU and do this for BOTH steam AND your game. This should force the game to use the eGPU the way you had it before.

Last step: buy a PC because gaming on a mac is like trying to race F1 on a bicycle, but until then, happy gaming.

- Micro

[Satoru]

note that macs or even windows PCS barely support external GPUs. That's not really a 'steam' problem

[MrPotatoBread]

I'm on Mac and I have a Radeon Pro external GPU. I'm unable to see the GPU option in more info. It's infuriating for me because I have no idea why.

[microunit]

that sounds like the same GPU I am using, the actual device the graphics card is in is made by razor though

[Ozymandias1219]

For anyone else who is still having questions like this, I'm going to try this solution tonight to see if it still works (current as of 10/26/2020). Running an AMD 5700 XT in a Razer enclosure using a thunderbolt-3/USB-C port. 2019 MacBook Pro 15", 16GB DDR4, 2.3Ghz 8-core Intel i9 processor, OSX 10.15.6.

[Pilieser]

Is this fix still needed since MacOS 1.15 supports external GPU out of the box? Or at least I remember something from the release notes. I don't have such config but I was just thinking that it just may work since 10.15 is out.

[Ozymandias1219]

Update: I just experimented by running the game Hades, and Hades showed up under both my integrated chipset and the eGPU (for whatever reason, not the dedicated GPU). However, my activity monitor shows that all the work is being done by eGPU, w/ no demand placed on the chipset. Thanks for the solution, Micro.

Also, @UnderYourCloset:

Originally posted by UnderYourCloset:

I'm on Mac and I have a Radeon Pro external GPU. I'm unable to see the GPU option in more info. It's infuriating for me because I have no idea why.

I'm not sure if this will fix the issue for you or if you've already found a solution, but my laptop only shows the eGPU as an option when it is plugged in and turned on.

@Pilieser: MacOS 10.15 does support eGPUs out of the box. It's been extremely easy to use. However, Mac still automatically assigns processes to different graphics cards, so this is a way to guarantee that it uses the correct card.

[Mr. Wick]

nice tips guys. i got Macbook pro but playing games is sucks

[MrPotatoBread]

@Ozymandias1219 The eGPU is "external" but it's actually built into the Macbook Pro along with the IntelCore CPU. So there's no way really for me to mess with it externally, unless I somehow took the laptop apart. It's a Radeon Pro 560 in case you were wondering.

Edit: I do have one external monitor plugged in as well, which of course requires the GPU to run. So I know the GPU is working, I just don't know how to see what is using what, and how to assign the GPU as primary for gaming, like everyone else seems to be able to do.

[Ozymandias1219]

@UnderYourCloset I also have a Radeon Pro 560X (4GB) built into my Macbook Pro - the external graphics card I use is different. If we have the same thing (and I think we probably do), then you have a dedicated, discrete graphics card built-in, but the system will not recognize it as an "external" GPU. Really, it just means your Macbook Pro has 2 graphics processors: the Radeon Pro 560X and and the integrated chipset. If you aren't sure which GPU is being used by a particular program, you can check in Activity Monitor under the GPU tab; it will also show you how much of both GPU's capacity your programs are using. Normally, your computer will assign higher demand programs to the Radeon Pro 560 and less demanding ones to the integrated chipset. Under older versions of MacOs, it was easier to force manual changes for an individual program, but since Catalina, that's been harder. However, you can still do it somewhat easily at a macro level, just not for individual programs. To force a switch between them, here are a few options (you may have already tried all these solutions, but hopefully one can help):

1. Recent Macbook Pro models: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202043
2. Older Macbook Pro models: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201851
3. While I haven't done this personally, some people use programs like GFXCardStatus to switch GPUs for individual programs (cf. this article: https://osxdaily.com/2017/01/08/disable-gpu-switching-macbook-pro/)

Hope that helps.

[microunit]

i am glad there are some resources on this problem now

[RAAZE]

Originally posted by microunit:

To those of you looking how to use an external GPU for mac games on steam:

As you may have noticed, steam has destroyed all your hopes and dreams. Is this true? Yes. They suck, life is unfair. There is a solution, go to your steam and game apps in your finder you are looking for. Control click on the application and go under "Get info". Check the box that says prefer external GPU and do this for BOTH steam AND your game. This should force the game to use the eGPU the way you had it before.

Last step: buy a PC because gaming on a mac is like trying to race F1 on a bicycle, but until then, happy gaming.

- Micro

[MrPotatoBread]

Originally posted by 𝘿 𝘼 𝙉 𝙄 𝙆:

Originally posted by microunit:

To those of you looking how to use an external GPU for mac games on steam:

As you may have noticed, steam has destroyed all your hopes and dreams. Is this true? Yes. They suck, life is unfair. There is a solution, go to your steam and game apps in your finder you are looking for. Control click on the application and go under "Get info". Check the box that says prefer external GPU and do this for BOTH steam AND your game. This should force the game to use the eGPU the way you had it before.

Last step: buy a PC because gaming on a mac is like trying to race F1 on a bicycle, but until then, happy gaming.

- Micro

Yes we know. The issue for some of us is that no "prefer external GPU" option appears. May be missing in Catalina and onward.

[mruxsaksriskul]

Originally posted by microunit:

To those of you looking how to use an external GPU for mac games on steam:

As you may have noticed, steam has destroyed all your hopes and dreams. Is this true? Yes. They suck, life is unfair. There is a solution, go to your steam and game apps in your finder you are looking for. Control click on the application and go under "Get info". Check the box that says prefer external GPU and do this for BOTH steam AND your game. This should force the game to use the eGPU the way you had it before.

Last step: buy a PC because gaming on a mac is like trying to race F1 on a bicycle, but until then, happy gaming.

- Micro

This is late but hope it helps someone. If playing on Mac use this script to set the egpu preference it modifies plists and seems to be more effective than manual setting it. I was having issues with Dying Light on my 2019 MacBook Pro and my dedicated GPU Radeon 5500m was doing better than my eGPU Radeon 580x. The performance has improved all around when applying to all apps you can follow the guide here https://9to5mac.com/2018/07/01/egpu-acceleration-internal-display-mac-apps-macos-video/. 

[microunit]

Thanks!

[Ozymandias1219]

As a side note for other players, after upgrading to Big Sur, I ran into some problems with my eGPU. Specifically, the games would load but the screen would remain black (I would hear the game's sound and see the game's cursor, and if I clicked in the right places, I could enter various menus; however, I could never see anything at all). While trying to solve the problem, I found people encountering similar problems in the forums on Blizzard's website and a couple other places. So, if any of you are having the same problem, I've found a reliable work-around.

The problem solved immediately when I connected to an external monitor (not using mirrored displays - haven't tried that yet). I am not sure why the eGPU no longer will play on my laptops screen, but it works perfectly when connected to an external monitor. Some people have been able to succeed using a "dummy" cable that runs out the box but isn't actually connected to anything (though this hasn't proven as consistent).

Good luck, gamers!