eGPU and Mac crypto mining
Posted: Tue Mar 30, 2021 2:30 am
I have a 2018 Mac mini (6-core i7) with a Blackmagic eGPU (AMD RX580).
So far, I've been completely unsuccessful getting anything mining on it. I've tried several of the apps and several command line miners, but nothing seems to be able to see the eGPU. I've also tried Parallels/Windows, and like your articles note, that doesn't work either.
What brought me to this site via search was the following article:
*macOS Cryptocurrency Software Miner List 2021*
where it says:
"At this time, you can only use NHOS (Nicehash OS) to mine from eGPUs on Apple Macs."
Well, I've tried that too, with no luck. I can't get my Mac to boot from the flash drive (which I've tried making a few different ways), and for which Nicehash support/forum seems to have no ideas either. What I can't discern is if anyone is actually doing this, or if it should work 'in theory'. I've run across lots of people saying eGPUs should work, but this was the first line I've run across that seems to indicated it has been done.
I turned off the boot protection and the methods seem in line with other articles I've read about creating a bootable USB flash drive (ie. Ubuntu instructions, etc.), but I just (after picking the EFI Boot) end up on a black screen with some white text... like about 2 paragraphs worth that doesn't make any sense and it just sits there (it doesn't look like it has anything to do with NHOS, and I tried TinyCore unix directly and same screen.
I'd *love* to get my eGPU mining away, especially if it could somehow be done while I'm running MacOS. But, that seems unlikely, so I'm down the path of Linux boot like NHOS (which I could run overnight plus some other times). I'll also consider BootCamp, though I'm not 100% sure that would actually work either, as the eGPU aspect seems iffy even on Windows.
Any ideas? Thanks!
So far, I've been completely unsuccessful getting anything mining on it. I've tried several of the apps and several command line miners, but nothing seems to be able to see the eGPU. I've also tried Parallels/Windows, and like your articles note, that doesn't work either.
What brought me to this site via search was the following article:
*macOS Cryptocurrency Software Miner List 2021*
where it says:
"At this time, you can only use NHOS (Nicehash OS) to mine from eGPUs on Apple Macs."
Well, I've tried that too, with no luck. I can't get my Mac to boot from the flash drive (which I've tried making a few different ways), and for which Nicehash support/forum seems to have no ideas either. What I can't discern is if anyone is actually doing this, or if it should work 'in theory'. I've run across lots of people saying eGPUs should work, but this was the first line I've run across that seems to indicated it has been done.
I turned off the boot protection and the methods seem in line with other articles I've read about creating a bootable USB flash drive (ie. Ubuntu instructions, etc.), but I just (after picking the EFI Boot) end up on a black screen with some white text... like about 2 paragraphs worth that doesn't make any sense and it just sits there (it doesn't look like it has anything to do with NHOS, and I tried TinyCore unix directly and same screen.
I'd *love* to get my eGPU mining away, especially if it could somehow be done while I'm running MacOS. But, that seems unlikely, so I'm down the path of Linux boot like NHOS (which I could run overnight plus some other times). I'll also consider BootCamp, though I'm not 100% sure that would actually work either, as the eGPU aspect seems iffy even on Windows.
Any ideas? Thanks!