2011 13" MBP + GTX660@10Gbps-TB1 (Sonnet EE Pro) + Win8.1/OSX10.9.1 [floppah]

[MaximMaxim]

Hello! I have macbook mid 2012. And i use egpu pcie adapter pe4h v3.2 (without container and built-in power supply). Also i use Echo ExpressCard/34 TB and video card Nvidea geforce 460. The second screenshot with the video card, you can see that the connected monitor is not defined. I'm trying to use the monitor by connecting the vga, but as you can see, it does not work. Monitor is connected via an adapter DVI to VGA. any ideas? Sorry for my english, I hope you can understand what I wrote.

[Tech Inferno Fan]

2013 11" Macbook Air 1.7Ghz 8GB + GTX650@10Gbps (Sonnet) OSX 10.9.4 environment

Kryzaach demostrates how OSX 10.9.4 effortless handles the eGPU attached to his MBA:

[Joec]

Does it show as "Monitor" or whats the actuall problem. I know some GTX 770 cards with 4GB RAM produce errors in OSX because of their high TPD (like 230-250W)

Drivers are included in Mavericks and the GPU should show up as Nvidia GK104.

Hi,

I setup this exact same configuration (GTX 770 4Go), edited every kext required, with a black screen as a result. :-(

Mavericks 10.9.3 + latest nvidia drivers, Thunderbolt 1 with a Macbook Pro early 2011.

The Video Card/monitor info says:

Jeu de composants : NVIDIA Chip Model

Type : Processeur graphique (GPU)

Bus : PCIe

Longueur de la voie PCIe : x8

VRAM (totale) : 128 Mo

Fournisseur : NVIDIA (0x10de)

Identifiant du périphérique : 0x1184

Identifiant de révision : 0x00a2

Révision de la ROM : preset 1.0.0

Version gMux : 1.9.23

Any ideas to make it work?

Thanks.

[Mark]

Hey guys, I've tried to get my 780 Ti to work on 10.9.4 but although it was detected on the Video Card info in System Information, I have a black screen on my external monitor and nothing is displaying at all.

I've done the following:

- Installed a fresh copy of Mavericks

- Followed the instructions on this thread

- Installed the latest NVIDIA drivers for 10.9.4 (334.01.02f02), apparently this fixes the 780 Ti compatibility issue

- Plugged the monitor directly to the graphics card via DVI and then tried using HDMI

- Repaired the kext cache several times, using both Terminal and Kext Wizard

And none of it still works, I feel like giving up

If I'm allowed to, can I copy what I have on my .kexts? It might be that I have the locations wrong. And is there anything that I've missed/done wrong?

[Mark]

Okay, never mind, I actually got this to work by chance!

This is what I've done since my last post (in order)

- Reinstalled the NVIDIA driver

- Edited and checked the three .kext files (Reinstalling the driver resets one of them)

- Ran Kext Wizard

- Restarted the computer

And it worked! My external monitor is now running off the 780Ti! To make sure that it wasn't just me getting lucky, I unplugged everything and turned off the eGPU completely (from the power socket), turned on the laptop on its own and shut it down. I plugged everything again while it was off and it didn't work. However, I restarted the computer without doing anything else and the eGPU is working again! So this is how to use the eGPU in Mavericks when plugging it in:

- Turn off the MacBook

- Plug in the eGPU

- Power on the PSU for the eGPU

- Turn on the MacBook. The eGPU won't output anything on the external monitor at this stage.

- Restart the MacBook.

For the record, I was using an MSI GTX 780Ti and a Sonnet Echo Express SEL. The MacBook I'm using is the Late 2013 model with the GT 750M dGPU.

[entzoe]

Hi, were you able to implement a eGPU with your Mac Mini? I have a mac mini with Thunderbolt Display, I wonder where do I start...... Thanks.

Great Job! I've had my Mac Mini running in Windows 8 and OS X for a few months now and it has worked perfectly. Did you have 10.9 then upgrade to 10.9.1? I'm still on 10.9 but I've here 10.9.1 improves performance. I saw quite a dip in performance upgrading to 10.9 from previously having 10.8.3.

I'd also like to add that multiple monitors work in OS X with an egpu. I have a 27inch HDMI and a VGA monitor plugged in and both are working properly.

[Mr._Moal]

Awsome walk thrus in this thread for getting the eGPU up and running.

Currently I got a ThunderTek TB1 plugged into a 760 GTX into my early 2013 mbp (dedicated graphics). All wrapped up in a mini ATX case (how did this spontaneously get a link, and the link is wrong anyways). It's gorgeous.

* Can anyone suggest a good mac graphics benchmarking program I could use to compare to other people's set up? * (since windows refuses to work for me right now)

- only thing of note so far was that I got a strange freeze on wake up this evening, I use my computer regularly for work or classes, and put it to sleep regularly by closing the lid (parallels programs running too) and have not had any problems on wake up until today (day after doing the plist modifications described in this section). Have other people experience problems on their mbp after running an eGPU on their mac?

-- edit. Further instabilities experienced. After closing the lid to put the computer to sleep, it is un responsive (even the apple logo will not light up when the computer is opened). Only way to get the computer to respond is the ”hold power button and nope you don't loose too much data” option. -- thank god for time machine I guess --

[Dschijn]

Try "Unigine Valley".

[Mr._Moal]

Unigine valley tool was rather nice to watch. At a resolution of 1600x1200 and everything maxed, managed to scrap a score of 1161 (Mac OS ).

My brother with his PC and a AMD Radion R9 280X got a 1363.

to get such a similar score on (reasonably/relatively) similar performing cards is not half bad.

Now getting my set up to work on bootcamps been another matter. Once that happens I'll be very interested to see how the mac compares to the windows in boot camp.

All in all, thanks for the walk thrus, and all the work people have done to allow us less teck savy foke get set up and running.

Incidentally, after breaking things, I re install maveriks and did an update today, and when I followed the instructions on editing the plist, I found the the last item (.../AppleHDAController.key/.../Info.plist) did not exist. When I entered the path (both by copying and carefully typing out) I get an empty file, with [ New File ] across the bottom of the terminal. That file existed and I edited it the first time I modified stuff. Maybe the recent update removed it?

[Hien Van]

Btw, here is an amazing news for who wanna to upgrade to Nvidia's newest GPU - GTX 980

Nvidia hasn't forgotten us - GTX 980 drivers already in Yose Betas !!! - MacRumors Forums

[Morty]

Hi Mark,

I´m new here and I´m not an expert, but I have a little question for you. Do you use the Sonnet Echo express SEL without any aditional power adapter? just as it comes? Did the internal screen works or only an external monitor?

I´m a videogame artist with a macbookpro retina 15" early 2013 and I want more graphic power.

Thanks very much.

[jordan8anthony]

Thank you for the share! Definitely useful information =)

[chrisprabhu]

I've tried following Shelltoe's walkthrough twice now and still no luck. (Thanks for such a clear walkthrough btw!)

My Sonnet Echo Pro is recognized under thunderboldt adapters but not the graphics card.

I have a mid 2011 Macbook Air 13in.

OSX 10.9.5

GTX 650 Ti

ViDock 3

External power supply for the 6-pin

_____________________________________________________

Just to confirm you need one

<key></key>

<key>IOPCITunnelCompatible</key> 
<true/>

only for each CFBundleidentifier where it's the FIRST < key > under the < dict >, correct? I see CFBundleidentifier in other places but there are other < key >s before it. .

Example:

Does this need one?

And yes I'm sure I refreshed the cache!

Any suggestions? Thanks, Chris!

[jfraser]

Hi everyone,

Granted, I am not the first one to set up a native Thunderbolt eGPU system, but so far I have not come across a solder-free solution that works in OSX as well as Windows, so I wanted to write a little tutorial how I got my system running.

[ATTACH]10927[/ATTACH]

My Setup

Early 2011 13” MBP

Sonnet Echo Express Pro (x16 mechanical interface and 150W internal PSU (including 75W aux connector)

GTX 660

Not that it is particularly important which Thunderbolt extension bay is used, but the Sonnet pro line has got a couple of advantages:

• It has got two x16 pci-e slots, so there is no need to void your brand new enclosure’s warranty just to fit in your graphics card.
  
• It comes with a 75W auxiliary connector and 150W internal supply, so no extra psus, cables or whatnot scattered around, it’s a very neat and tidy solution
  
• It is recently discontinued which means you can get them for a fraction of the ridiculous price tag on ebay
  

Disadvantages that I noticed: The thermal design is terrible, fans spin up quite loud early on and the ones it comes with as standard are very loud and annoying in particular (I hate you Sunon!). I fitted mine with Gelid Silent 5s as these are the only decent silent fans that come in 50mm. Overall noise is now acceptable and free from high pitched screeching even under hard gaming.

To get it to work under OSX

Nothing easier than that! All you have to do is tell OSX that the drivers are Thunderbolt enabled. This requires you to edit two kernel extensions:

/System/Library/Extensions/NVDAStartup.kext


/System/Library/Extensions/IONDRVSupport.kext

In these files (use terminal command “sudo nano” to edit) look for sections beginning with <key><key><key>CFBundleIdentifier</key> </key></key> and just before this section is closed with </dict> add the two following lines:

<true><true><key>IOPCITunnelCompatible</key>


<true/>

then close and save. Note that there are multiple of these entries in IONDRVSupport.kext.

Here is an example of how the section in NVDAStartup.kext should look like:

<key>NVDAStartup</key>

<dict>

<key>CFBundleIdentifier</key>

[…]

<key>NVDAType</key>

<string>Official</string>

<key>IOPCITunnelCompatible</key>

<true/>

</dict>

After that just reboot and you should be golden.

Things that don’t work so well: Clamshell mode is a bit messed up now as the internal display cannot be switched off anymore. I got around the issue by installing NoSleep that prevents the system from going to sleep and just ignoring the ‘extra’ display.

To get it to work under Windows

Nobody likes Windows 8. But unfortunately unless you want to start fiddling about with extender cables, delay lines and extra boot loaders and make everything messy you need to run Windows in EFI mode which is very poor in Windows 7. So what you need is Windows 8 or 8.1 64 bit (32 bit has no EFI support). There are one or two tutorials on how to install Win8EFI on a MacBook out there, but it is pretty straight forward anyways:

1. Go through initial bootcamp process: Create Windows USB installer, download bootcamp drivers and have them copied on the USB stick as well.
   
2. Abort bootcamp after 1 is done, don’t let it create a partition.
   
3. Open Disk Utility and create a partition for windows manually
   
4. Reboot and hold option/alt. The windows USB drive should show in the bootable devices list.
   
5. Install Windows and bootcamp drivers. Spend hours waiting for all Windows updates to install
   

Once Windows is installed all that is left to do is download and install the newest Geforce drivers from NVidia.

Here you go, native eGPU support in Windows as well!

Things that don’t work so well: For some reason I did not manage to get the MBPs sound chip recognized in Windows. But do not worry, you have got two options: 1. Use a monitor that supports HDMI audio. 2. Use a USB sound card (‘cause it sounds better anyways, allegedly).

Benchmarks:

Don’t care about numbers

Gaming experience:

Superb. Games suddenly look good again!

Concluding remarks:

Is it worth it? Probably not.

Would you do it again knowing that it’s not worth it? Definitely.

[ATTACH]10928[/ATTACH]</true></true>

Did you have to change the kext files to make the graphics card Thunderbolt-Aware/Hot-Pluggable or simply to make it work with OS X?

Part of the reason why I ask is because I'll need clamshell mode to work because I play StarCraft II on an external monitor.

By the way, due to cost, I won't be using a Sonnet enclosure, but rather I'll use the Firmtek Thundertek enclosure.

[ncliam]

Problem solved!

I followed a similar fix someone else used with the same problem here: A Thunderbolt GPU on a Mac : How-to | Le journal du lapin

I'm not sure why it works but apparently after these steps all that was needed was to reset the extension cache which I did using the sudo command referenced in Marc's comment within the page linked to above.

Next boot up the monitor flickered out of hibernation and the card was recognized.

Thanks a ton!

I used Terminal to execute "sudo touch /System/Library/Extensions".

This command seems take no time to be done.

But problem is not solved, PCI card still could not be gathering information (my card is Nvidia GT740)

[jjasonlam]

To use egpu in windows all I need to do is those steps right?

I read about DIY eGPU Setup 1.x and I am really confused by it.

What's the difference between your setup and his?

[Dschijn]

To use egpu in windows all I need to do is those steps right?

I read about DIY eGPU Setup 1.x and I am really confused by it.

What's the difference between your setup and his?

If you are going to use Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 you will not need to worry about the DIY eGPU Setup.

[ctugino]

I have a old early 2011 13'' MBP, and recently had 2 SSDs in it (1 in where the optical driver used to be), I have windows 10 installed on that SSD (not EFI) and Mac OS X 10.11 on another, do I need the DIY eGPU Setup? Thanks a lot.