A quick public service announcement of sorts…
I happened upon a recent article on Apple Insider that caught my attention. The title said it all – Apple’s macOS Catalina causing problems with select eGPU setups. Yikes. The reason it piqued my interest is that OWC has an eGPU enclosure product line.
“Apple has been clear that not all eGPU cards and enclosures will work with all Macs,” the article states. Double yikes. So I reached out to our Product Development team to make sure that we weren’t going to get sand kicked in our faces. Sure enough, all was well – our enclosures were thoroughly tested with Catalina. (Not that I was doubting PD would be doing their job, I just wanted an official confirmation to share with you, our faithful readers!)
Rather than the simple “duh” I deserved in reply, I graciously received a macOS Compatibility Testing chart with detailed results for all of our products. Now granted, I couldn’t understand most of the information it contained, but I could understand what it meant for a product amidst all the blah, blah, blah when it said:
| Mercury Helios FX 650 | OS Version 10.15 | Pass |
So there you go, OWC eGPU enclosures are in the clear. Of course, if there is a major macOS update, testing will commence once again. And also of course, if any compatibility issues are found, they will be rectified and you will be notified. After all, it’s as important to us as it is to you that everyone plays nice in the sandbox – including our enclosures.
UPDATE
- 10/18/2019 – We found a potential issue that you can read about here: Compatability Test: Helios FX, Mac Mini, and macOS 10.15 Catalina
Mark,
Is there a way for us to get access to that macOS Compatibility Testing chart you mention?
I ask because I had a user update their MBPro 15 to Catalina and now her OWC 14-port TB3 dock doesn’t “see” any peripherals, it only is able to charge her device. She’s getting by with the four built-in ports for now, but that is not an ideal solution.
OWC support chat offered the usual restart/reseat/PRAM/SMC suggestions, which I had her try (she’s remote) with no changes to the dock’s performance.
I don’t dare update any of our production machines on order to recreate her situation for testing, but I might have to, as we have a dozen or so of those units floating around this office right now.
The compatibility chart is an internal doc that I can’t share, but I can look a little deeper for you. Which specific model of the MBP 15 are you having problems with?
Catalina has a finder 10.6 now?