How to Use External GPU with Older Mac Mini

An easy way to boost your graphics performance, on a Mac, is with an external graphics card (or eGPU). This video will show you how to use an external GPU with an older mac mini, macbook, iMac or whatever Thunderbolt 2 device you have.

*UPDATE* One thing I forgot to mention, in the video, is that you need to disable SIP on your Mac to use Purge-Wrangler script.

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☀ Hardware Used:

☀ Gear used for my videos:

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☀ Music Credit:
♫Music by Dj Quads♫
@aka-dj-quads

#egpu #macmini #Apple #Macintosh #macos #TeamUnFiltered

[Eevnos]

*UPDATE*
One thing I forgot to mention, in the video, is that you need to disable SIP on your mac to run the Purge-Wrangler script.
There's a link in the description with instructions on how to do so.

[jsethg]

Great tutorial, works also with Mac Mini (Mid 2011) High Sierra. Thank you very much!

[williamkwok]

@Eevnos
Great thanks for your video. Work excellent on my Mac mini 2012 i7, AMD XFX RX Vega 64 and Akitio Node. Used the apple Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 adapter, apple Thunderbolt cable. It doesn't work at first but after applied force to plug the Thunderbolt cable at the back of Mac mini again. It works perfectly! Fantastic!

[eddradcliffe]

My 2013 trash can would like to say thank you for extending its work life and I would like to say thank you for bringing my IT budget down for the next few years. Very grateful video producer here.

[SHLowlight]

Thanks a ton for this video, I was hesitant to pull the trigger on an eGPU for my 2013 Mac Pro and this helped. I am now up and running and it appears to have breathe new life into the system.

[LevitatedLens]

Awesome thank you ! this worked perfectly Radeon. RX 5700 XT in a Razer Core X enclosure, Late 2014 Mini Mac running BigSur 11.1

[TonyTechBytes]

Oh wow, I didn’t even realize you could use eGPUs on an older Mac Mini. I’d definitely use an eGPU if I ever got a MacBook Pro but I have an Nvidia card so it wouldn’t work that easily lol. Excellent video!

[graxjpg]

great to hear, thanks for commenting.

[jdrtech]

Thank you ..thank you!! your video is very helpful, just install a sonnet breakaway 550 and installed a XFX radeon RX 580 8gb card, really helps my performance on my mac mini 2014, you da man!!

[Syndicate]

Hey man thank you so much for this video, it made it possible for me to be able to create and edit my own music videos! I have been troubleshooting for some time and now it works!

[WarriorsPhoto]

Thank you for sharing this bit of info. I am considering getting an eGPU for the current machine that I use.

[docmdb]

what a great piece of information to post on youtube, thank you

[kingpindave]

Amazing video thank you very much, this has swayed me to getting one, as I love my after effects and fcp but I need more video power.
One thing you said about taking the hdmi out confuses me. Do you connect an hdmi from the egpu to the tv. As that is how my Mac mini is connected.

Though I also want to know if I get the Luma display that streams my Mac to my new iPad Pro, will this work as well with the egpu or will it be too much for my poor little mini Mac :-)

[techtrx]

Hey great video. Wondering if this can work w mini 2012?

[yellowvsred]

works with MacOS 10.15 Catalina? Thanks for the tutorial :D

[mansley]

If you get a cheap thunderbolt dock like Lenovo, you can plug all your peripherals (e.g. mouse/keyboard) into the dock, connect a thunderbolt 3 cable from the front of the dock to the egpu, and then the thunderbolt 2 to 3 from your computer to the back of the dock. This allows you to quickly switch computers (e.g. Mac book pro to mini) and not move everything over.

[icedoc]

Great video. I also liked your comparison one and I subscribed. What software were you using for the testing? I'd like to give it a try on my own machine and do a before and after (I don't make videos or past anything). Thanks so much! UPDATE : I had to install the patch without the eGPU hooked up, but afterward it worked like a charm. My old 2014 mac mini's slogging 18 fps at lowest graphical settings is now blazing at 60 fps with moderate settings (rendered water looks gorgeous now). Thank you so much for this helpful video.

[Parallel_]

Fantastic video dude, will be adding an egpu to my 2014 Mac Mini due to this, thanks :)

[danielZX]

Thank you so much for this! I have a Mac Mini 2012 maxed out and fully upgraded everything including the fan. So the last thing I need is the eGPU! This still works today and would you recommend this still today for Video Editing in adobe Premier Pro plus Live Streaming on Twitch?

[saspry]

Thanks man - answered my BIG question about using such a device with Thunderbolt on a 2011 Macbook Pro :)