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MBPr + eGPU gaming fan noise?


Dschijn

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How is your experience of a 15" i5 or i7 MBPr during gaming load in Windows? I would guess it get's pretty noisy. Are you running that MacBook on a "stand" for fresh air underneath it or maybe sth like a notebook cooler with a fan underneath the MBP?

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How is your experience of a 15" i5 or i7 MBPr during gaming load in Windows? I would guess it get's pretty noisy. Are you running that MacBook on a "stand" for fresh air underneath it or maybe sth like a notebook cooler with a fan underneath the MBP?

The mid 2014 MacBook Pro 15" Iris only is completely silent during gaming when using power options settings as shown below (disables the Turbo Boost up to 3.4Ghz that causes fan noise on CPU intensive games).

post-28870-14494998197959_thumb.png

Silverstone 450W SFX PSU is a bit noisy. If you use Corsair RM550 (fan don't spin at all), GPU fans are the only part that makes some noise.

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The mid 2014 MacBook Pro 15" Iris only is completely silent during gaming when using power options settings as shown below (disables the Turbo Boost up to 3.4Ghz that causes fan noise on CPU intensive games).

[ATTACH=CONFIG]12306[/ATTACH]

Silverstone 450W SFX PSU is a bit noisy. If you use Corsair RM550 (fan don't spin at all), GPU fans are the only part that makes some noise.

But what about the performance loss ? Is it acceptable ?

On my 13" macbook it's not.

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But what about the performance loss ? Is it acceptable ?

On my 13" macbook it's not.

Performance loss is not a problem with a MacBook Pro 15" 2.2Ghz base clock speed, because it is quad-core i7. Your 13" is dual-core, so there is a performance drop and I guess you cannot play for example BF4 (uses a lot of CPU) very smoothly with the retina display, but external may help. With 15" it is smooth with retina as well (not native resolution however) as I am using EVGA GTX 780 6GB SC. All the demanding tasks are done by the GPU.

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  • 3 weeks later...

When I play games without eGPU on my MBP 15" Iris only, temps eventually go up and fans spin loudly.

With my eGPU, the MBP fans do not spin up during the entire gaming session. I guess that the eGPU is offloading enough power from the computer that it doesn't heat up that much. Depends on the game though I guess. The only thing I hear is the GPU fan, which in itself is extremely quiet (ASUS 750Ti).

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One of the best advantage of eGPU is quiet gaming. I will never buy a gaming laptop, because they are always loud. Trying to combine light portability and fit dGPU or two of them (such as y510p SLI) results in very hot and noisy gaming experience. GTX 980M/970M may change this situation as they offer great performance per watt. My MBPr 15" (Iris only) is so quiet with eGPU, that I don't need a notebook cooler, rather just a stand for better writing angle.

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If you play a very cpu intensive game, the macbook will become very loud.

Disable turboboost is mandatory to keep it silent.

Yes, that is true. BF4 is a good example. One annoying thing in my setup is that EVGA ACX cooler has rattle sound in certain fan speeds. Haven't tried this fix:

ACX rattle / noise problem fix - EVGA Forums

EDIT: I figured out that AKiTiO's 60W power adapter was making this sound... not sure if it was from the beginning. Plugged molex-to-barrel-adapter and now just a little "buzzing" sound from the GPU when gaming.

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EDIT: I figured out that AKiTiO's 60W power adapter was making this sound... not sure if it was from the beginning. Plugged molex-to-barrel-adapter and now just a little "buzzing" sound from the GPU when gaming.

Ohhh? Can you specify that? Ah Humming noise in the AKiTiO PSU? The eletronic parts of the GPU or the fan?

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Here's my observation with AkiTio GTX 780 Ti with PCIe riser. Usually the fan of the PSU RM 450 doesn't spin when used against Sonnet III-D (this Corsair RM version has a feature of silent operation mode, that when under a low or moderate load it won't spin). However, with AkiTio, it spins the whole time during benchmarking and games. After two run of benchmark 2560x1440 with fullscreen mode, I encountered the infamous Kernel Panic (but not with Sonnet) . Any thoughts on this? --

BTW, the AkiTio board and plate's temperature is just normal. GPU is hot as expected, didn't hear any buzzing sound except for the fan.

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Arrrrgh, you are killing me ^^ I am so close getting the AKiTiO… but with with your KPs… :(



I just noticed right now, that my RM 450 has only 37.5A on 12V with Max 450W while the power requirement of the GTX 780 Ti is below. What does this means?

Power Supply Requirements Power Connectors Maximum Graphics Card Power
THERMAL & POWER
600 Watt Power Supply (with 42A on the +12V Rail)
(1) PCI-E 8-pin; (1) PCI-E 6-pin
250 Watts


EDIT. I will try to test this tomorrow with a different PSU that is around 42A or more under +12V Rail.
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Ohhh? Can you specify that? Ah Humming noise in the AKiTiO PSU? The eletronic parts of the GPU or the fan?

I am now sure that the most noisy buzzing sound comes from the AKiTiO PSU (and only when the GPU is doing intensive tasks). I was keeping it close to the eGPU. I thought from the beginning that the reason for the sound was only my GPU. After I attached my molex-to-barrel-adapter, still similar, but not at all disturbing sound for me from the eGPU when doing some graphically demanding tasks. The sound varies and sometimes it is almost nothing. I guess the sound comes from the electronic parts of the EVGA GTX 780, not the fans actually. To be sure that the source is not the AKiTiO's PCIe board, I tried to test with a powered riser, but for some reason the eGPU is not detected... when GPU plugged straight into the x16 slot, it's always detected. I am sure, it was working earlier with a riser, but I tested with a different riser because I modified the original.

mnrc has some kind of noise problem as well here, he is saying that the SEL board makes a strange sound.

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I just noticed right now, that my RM 450 has only 37.5A on 12V with Max 450W while the power requirement of the GTX 780 Ti is below. What does this means?

Power Supply Requirements Power Connectors Maximum Graphics Card Power
THERMAL & POWER
600 Watt Power Supply (with 42A on the +12V Rail)
(1) PCI-E 8-pin; (1) PCI-E 6-pin
250 Watts


EDIT. I will try to test this tomorrow with a different PSU that is around 42A or more under +12V Rail.



Your PSU should be fine! BUT, SmutjeHannes is also using a 780Ti in a AKiTiO. His 780 TI has 2x8-Pin Power Connectors. The power the GPU can get Sonnet: 75W AKiTiO: 25W 6-Pin: 75W 8-Pin: 150W

So, your setup can provide 250W, which might not be enough. Especially when the GPU overclocked (by EVGA) and is getting warm, because warm electronics use more energy. SmutjeHannes setup can provide 325W. Your setup with the Sonnet provides 300W.

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I am now sure that the most noisy buzzing sound comes from the AKiTiO PSU (and only when the GPU is doing intensive tasks). I was keeping it close to the eGPU. I thought from the beginning that the reason for the sound was only my GPU. After I attached my molex-to-barrel-adapter, still similar, but not at all disturbing sound for me from the eGPU when doing some graphically demanding tasks. The sound varies and sometimes it is almost nothing. I guess the sound comes from the electronic parts of the EVGA GTX 780, not the fans actually. To be sure that the source is not the AKiTiO's PCIe board, I tried to test with a powered riser, but for some reason the eGPU is not detected... when GPU plugged straight into the x16 slot, it's always detected. I am sure, it was working earlier with a riser, but I tested with a different riser because I modified the original.

mnrc has some kind of noise problem as well here, he is saying that the SEL board makes a strange sound.



Some GPUs make a humming noise resulting from the capacitors (typical GPU problem). Typically in high FPS scenes (over 100fps). Can you test that in Windows with EVGA Precission X and make a "frame rate target = 60FPS"?
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I am now sure that the most noisy buzzing sound comes from the AKiTiO PSU (and only when the GPU is doing intensive tasks). I was keeping it close to the eGPU. I thought from the beginning that the reason for the sound was only my GPU. After I attached my molex-to-barrel-adapter, still similar, but not at all disturbing sound for me from the eGPU when doing some graphically demanding tasks. The sound varies and sometimes it is almost nothing. I guess the sound comes from the electronic parts of the EVGA GTX 780, not the fans actually. To be sure that the source is not the AKiTiO's PCIe board, I tried to test with a powered riser, but for some reason the eGPU is not detected... when GPU plugged straight into the x16 slot, it's always detected. I am sure, it was working earlier with a riser, but I tested with a different riser because I modified the original.

mnrc has some kind of noise problem as well here, he is saying that the SEL board makes a strange sound.

Same with my 750Ti, but with VSync on everything is fine.

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Some GPUs make a humming noise resulting from the capacitors (typical GPU problem). Typically in high FPS scenes (over 100fps). Can you test that in Windows with EVGA Precission X and make a "frame rate target = 60FPS"?

My other riser was faulty, and that's why eGPU was not detected, now it works fine with a powered riser / molex-to-barrel-plug adapter. AKiTiO's PSU makes the most buzzing sound occasionally. Even though I tested with a riser, I cannot locate the quieter buzzing source very well. I guess it is the feature of the GPU, not much disturbing, and I think when I put eGPU into enclosure, this sound will vanish.

EVGA Precision was not downloadable from their web site at the moment. Setting the target FPS might help, but this is not actually that big issue.

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Hello @goalque. Have you tried playing games straight 2-3 hours? You didn't encounter any freezing or system restart?

I can refer to my previous post. No system restarts. Restarting the game is enough if something rarely occurs. When gaming, I always disable the external monitor and play on retina. I wish there was an interface to just launch Windows DirectX games from the OSX, so that they run at least 60FPS. But what I have read, Parallels is not a solution (and the new version supports only thunderbolt storage devices). I haven't tried much gaming on OSX with my Mac mini, I may try some day with a graphics card that has native support on OSX Yasomite.

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