MBP Retina 13" 2015 with GTX 970

[darwin86]

Hi all,

 

I've been following and reading this forum for weeks planning my big build date. Last week my kit arrived and the setup is now done, as follows:

 

Akitio Thunderbolt 2 PCI Express Chassis (Not powered directly from supplied PSU, all power from Corsair supply)

Corsair VS550 PSU

EVGA GTX 970 (1 DVI monitor, 1 HDMI monitor)

PCI express 16x riser with molex

MacBook Pro 2015 Retina 13" (i5, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD - 1 monitor connected via DisplayPort to VGA adapter - this allows me to clamshell the MacBook whilst in OS X)

 

Unfortunately the somewhat "plug and play" experience most users seem to get from earlier generations is not what I have encountered. Ironically OS X was a doddle however Windows is a whole other kettle of fish. By installing automate-egpu and the Nvidia web drivers I can get to OS X and use gaming reliably by plugging the Thunderbolt cable in as the chime occurs and Apple icon appears. If the chassis is plugged in when the MBP is turned on it'll only boot successfully 10-20% of the time, the rest the screen stays blank and no chime is heard. So I have my GTX 970 in OS X which is great; however as you all know any kind of serious gaming has to be done in Windows due to lack of OS X ports.

 

I installed Windows 10 via bootcamp (and later using VMware Fusion with the physical disk mounted as a VM) both instances the OS will start and when I hotplug the eGPU it sees a GTX 970 however when I install drivers and reboot the OS will never boot. It gets permanently stuck at the boot splash with a pending load. Later I installed Windows 8.1 to try that instead however despite a couple of successes (absolutely no idea what variables caused it) last night, I now can't get into Windows 8.1 again.

 

I donated to receive a copy of eGPU setup 1.3 however from any documentation I've found this seems to only benefit MBR/legacy users. This generation of MacBook Pro is UEFI exclusively so not quite sure how to proceed.

 

On the bright side I do have World of Warcraft running in OS X at 1920x1080 with every setting at ultra including AA and post AA. It looks stunning and is very reliable, running for several hours. My CPU temps are far lower than before too.

 

Anyone have any suggestions?

 

Many thanks

David

[varyl]

Alright, so I have nearly the exact same build as you, the only notable difference is my 970 is asus brand. MacOS works exactly as you describe, I will note that another method for boot that I have found is to boot fully into MacOS and then plug in, then restart the computer, if the first boot was a cold boot then I get 100% consistent restart with no issues, now with the eGPU coming on, this is with the laptop closed and exclusively using external keyboard, mouse, and monitor. Restarts thereafter have a ~10% success rate, I usually shut down and do cold boots from there, I note that sometimes when it shuts down it will not actually do so, black screen, but the trackpad still clicks and I have to hold power until it stops, I warn that my machine rapidly heats up and stays very hot while in this state.

 

Now for Windows, if you can get Windows 10 to boot and recognize the gpu then you're almost there. I believe I did the dsdt override but I am not sure if it was necessary. Once you get it setup, the boot time is very variable. In my experience it can take anywhere between 20 seconds and a full 4 minutes to boot into Windows, no idea why, but I just walk away while it's at the loading screen because it will drive me crazy to stare at it. I initially thought I had a bad setup because of the occasional hanging before I realized that eventually it always gets through, as long as I hear that initial bootup tone.

 

When planning to go into windows mode I cold boot the computer as a laptop, I then close the lid and plug it into my Henge dock, tap a key on my external keyboard to wake it up, I click restart and begin holding the boot options key, select windows and begin the boot, walking away and coming back. Once in it works fantastic, I play Overwatch with everything set to ultra and it looks and plays great. I have noted an issue when setting a website to full screen(like netflix or youtube) on the monitor that is plugged directly into the laptop, gets a little funky, flashes black across all screens for a moment and seems unstable, so I avoid it.

 

There may be a better way to do this, I'd love to hear if there is, but that's how I've done it. I note as well that I did install Windows 10 via bootcamp.

[darwin86]

Hey Varyl,

 

My results are very, very different from yours. The DSDT override is potentially the reason why.

 

In Windows 10, I can get device manager to see the eGPU (first connection, no drivers) however the driver install procedure never completes and the OS goes haywire with processes freezing. Windows 8.1 actually allows the install and very, very rarely (no common denominators identified yet) boots up with the eGPU accessible. I tried bouncing it with closed however same results - on the rare occasion it would actually chime I'd sit for 10 minutes+ waiting with no joy.

 

I'm going to do the DSDT override and see if that corrects the issue tomorrow.

 

Many thanks

David

[darwin86]

Further to my last post, I rebuilt my Windows installation and performed the DSDT ACPI procedure prior to installing the eGPU. I've had it reboot 5 times now and come up every single time - as Varyl says with varying loading times. Whoopee!

 

I'll post more information after a few days of testing. Right now I'm using Windows 8.1 on an external HDD. I'll boot camp Win10 and see if I can get that working properly.

[darwin86]

So further testing complete, fairly unusual results:

 

Fresh Win10 in boot camp: Won't boot even with DSDT override after graphics drivers are installed

Win8.1 in boot camp: Won't boot more than once after graphics drivers are installed

 

So I tried another clean build of Windows 8.1 on a different external HDD - works perfectly. Testing continues.

[normansdog]

Hi

I have the same issued running win8.1 on an external USB 3.0 SSD - it worked initially bit then after a couple of reboots stopped working. There was a big windows "update" in there somewhere so perhaps that didn't help. The guys over at Bizon box seem to think that the 13" 2015 macbook pro is simply not compatible with an eGPU - seems to be unstable.

I wonder whether this problem can actually be solved with this hardware.

OSX runs fine with the 970  - Windows simply will not boot.

 

Edited October 3, 2016 by normansdog
update

[normansdog]

Ah, having said that, I just finished the windows update marathon, restarted - waited for 10 minute while the spinning balls rotated and lo and behold, win8.1 running on the external monitor and the eGPU working fine.

 

Who knows.

 

I am afraid to turn it off!

 

[varyl]

On 9/28/2016 at 11:35 PM, darwin86 said:

So further testing complete, fairly unusual results:

 

Fresh Win10 in boot camp: Won't boot even with DSDT override after graphics drivers are installed

Win8.1 in boot camp: Won't boot more than once after graphics drivers are installed

 

So I tried another clean build of Windows 8.1 on a different external HDD - works perfectly. Testing continues.

 

Sorry I missed this one last week, that's really strange. I remember going through quite a few different solutions before finally finding one that worked, when I get home I'll track down the particular one I used and post a link here.

[darwin86]

So I just wrote a quoted reply to this thread which evidently went straight into $null :/

 

Long story short - external USB 3.0 HDD Win8.1 working reliably now. Will try 10 when I have some time.

normansdog - did you apply the ACPI DSDT fix?

[normansdog]

hmmm not sure - I downloaded and ran a script from Bizbox which may have done the same thing - I will check.

 

[devild]

There is no any Bizon script. They just simplified Goalque's procedure and put Terminal commands for script to .command files so even very stupid end-user could run it. And i know even with that simplified procedure there are plenty many noobs who bungle it.

[normansdog]

On 03/10/2016 at 5:50 PM, darwin86 said:

So I just wrote a quoted reply to this thread which evidently went straight into $null :/

 

Long story short - external USB 3.0 HDD Win8.1 working reliably now. Will try 10 when I have some time.

normansdog - did you apply the ACPI DSDT fix?

Hi darwin86 - it doesn't appear to be the same thing - where can I find the fabled ACPI DSDT fix?

 

[normansdog]

30 minutes ago, devild said:

There is no any Bizon script. They just simplified Goalque's procedure and put Terminal commands for script to .command files so even very stupid end-user could run it. And i know even with that simplified procedure there are plenty many noobs who bungle it.

Yes, I see that now - although they do credit this forum for the information - which is how I found it.

 

[varyl]

On 10/3/2016 at 8:50 AM, darwin86 said:

So I just wrote a quoted reply to this thread which evidently went straight into $null :/

 

Long story short - external USB 3.0 HDD Win8.1 working reliably now. Will try 10 when I have some time.

normansdog - did you apply the ACPI DSDT fix?

Found it! I was incorrect in remembering having done the DSDT, I think that was one of my earlier steps that didn't produce results. It was this rEFInd process that finally did the trick, you have to go through and set up a special boot option that then loads up windows, you do this once, and then later you can remove that boot option.

Here's the guide I followed:

It was strange, but it works, going to have to bookmark this now to make sure I don't forget should I ever have to redo my install from scratch.

[darwin86]

12 hours ago, normansdog said:

Hi darwin86 - it doesn't appear to be the same thing - where can I find the fabled ACPI DSDT fix?

 

 

If you're working without it that would seem to suggest we don't actually need it on the 2015 rMBP 13.

 

varyl - I'll have a look over this and give it a bash tonight. Thanks!

[normansdog]

13 hours ago, darwin86 said:

 

If you're working without it that would seem to suggest we don't actually need it on the 2015 rMBP 13.

 

varyl - I'll have a look over this and give it a bash tonight. Thanks!

Hi darwin86 - I did read somewhere that the rMBP 2015 did not need the rEFInd mod - I think it was a comment by goalque.  My setup does work - but boots somewhat unreliably into windows. It may though have something to do with windows wanting to install millions of updates at each re-start - I have now disabled that feature and had 2 good starts (the mac belongs to my daughter so I can only get to run tests when she doesn't need/want it which makes the whole process rather sloooow).  

btw I am running a 980 card not 970.

 

[normansdog]

Hi, 

I have been reading recently about the possibility of a new 5k Thunderbolt display using Thunderbolt 3 but with an integrated GPU to allow it to be used with older macs with poor graphic capabilities. If this were true, then would we not see some sort of support for the eGPU in Sierra ?

  

[darwin86]

Hi guys,

 

So after weeks of testing I can summarise:

* OS X works perfectly and boots every time by using the method of power on, pause at boot menu (alt), turn on eGPU then continue

* Windows on the internal SSD will not work, in any edition.

* Windows 8.1 UEFI installed on an external HDD will boot with varying lengths of boot time - the DSDT override doesn't seem to be necessary.

 

On the whole, to use in OS X to boost the internal GFX and add more monitors it's a great solution. In hindsight had I to do it over again I'd have swapped the £250 chassis purchase for a half decent AMD FX processor and motherboard. The truth is for what I'm using this for a gaming PC build would have made more sense - I did it because I could.

 

Many thanks

David

[narin]

On 9/26/2016 at 0:03 PM, varyl said:

Alright, so I have nearly the exact same build as you, the only notable difference is my 970 is asus brand. MacOS works exactly as you describe, I will note that another method for boot that I have found is to boot fully into MacOS and then plug in, then restart the computer, if the first boot was a cold boot then I get 100% consistent restart with no issues, now with the eGPU coming on, this is with the laptop closed and exclusively using external keyboard, mouse, and monitor. Restarts thereafter have a ~10% success rate, I usually shut down and do cold boots from there, I note that sometimes when it shuts down it will not actually do so, black screen, but the trackpad still clicks and I have to hold power until it stops, I warn that my machine rapidly heats up and stays very hot while in this state.

 

Now for Windows, if you can get Windows 10 to boot and recognize the gpu then you're almost there. I believe I did the dsdt override but I am not sure if it was necessary. Once you get it setup, the boot time is very variable. In my experience it can take anywhere between 20 seconds and a full 4 minutes to boot into Windows, no idea why, but I just walk away while it's at the loading screen because it will drive me crazy to stare at it. I initially thought I had a bad setup because of the occasional hanging before I realized that eventually it always gets through, as long as I hear that initial bootup tone.

 

When planning to go into windows mode I cold boot the computer as a laptop, I then close the lid and plug it into my Henge dock, tap a key on my external keyboard to wake it up, I click restart and begin holding the boot options key, select windows and begin the boot, walking away and coming back. Once in it works fantastic, I play Overwatch with everything set to ultra and it looks and plays great. I have noted an issue when setting a website to full screen(like netflix or youtube) on the monitor that is plugged directly into the laptop, gets a little funky, flashes black across all screens for a moment and seems unstable, so I avoid it.

 

There may be a better way to do this, I'd love to hear if there is, but that's how I've done it. I note as well that I did install Windows 10 via bootcamp.

 

Hey man.  I know this thread is very old, but I noticed you have a henge dock.  I just got my rMBP 15" working with the Akitio, but only when I connect the Akitio directly to the laptop.  When I try to have it connected through the henge dock and boot to windows, my computer doesn't detect the eGPU.  Did you ever run into this?  How are you able to get it to work with the dock?  I have the vertical one by the way.  Thanks for your help!