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DIY eGPU Macbook experiences


oripash

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If you are in the USA then you might be able to contact Sonnet and request the newer board for the Echo Express with the 16x slot:

I see you have received the Echo Express SE II with a x16 slot. Who did you contact?

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  • 2 months later...

Hey I wouldnt try either of those guides, they are extremely overcomplicated for the technology that is currently available. I suggest buying an nividia gpu that does not have the maxwell chipset, and the akitio enclosure from BH. I could try to help you get it working both on osx and windows. (msg me for details)

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I see. For a minute there I thought you meant that they were incompatible with Mac hardware in general, which is weird.

It really depends on how the OP defines "plug and play" since he also uses Windows 8 in OSX via Bootcamp. Maybe a disclaimer noting the OSX/Linux incompatibility (for now) would've been a better way to phrase it.

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Thank you for taking a look at my problem personally Nando4!

Alright I figured out that the PE4H adapter was bad and replaced it, and that fixed the fan problem, and the rest of your input especially the boot order was very helpful in detecting the eGPU. However, things aren't quite working yet.

The Problem:

Although the card properly is identified and the drivers are up to date the card is unable to run any real computations like OpenCL.

What I Have Tried:

After the card was detected I reinstalled the AMD Catalyst Suite this allowed the graphics card to be specifically identified.

Played around with component power up and boot order.

Alternatives I'm Playing With:

I obtained a PE4L 2.1b as well to see if that would help, and so far I haven't been able to get that to work either.

Problem With Alternative So Far:

If I try to power things up in the above order that worked for the PE4H the screen goes to the first white screen and never loads the OS. If I try to change the boot order the system loads but the card is not detected.

Thanks again any help you can offer would be appreciated!

[ATTACH=CONFIG]9017[/ATTACH]

I know its way back 2013, but have you managed to address this issue? I encountered this issue too. If you look at the image your GPU didn't show the 2gb VRAM value.

With my setup I thought it was the issue of the GPU being not compatible ( I used GT 750 ti Maxwell) . So I replaced it with GT 610. Now with GT 610, its not being detected.

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  • 3 weeks later...
@squinks, @ReaverM1

I see you guys have GT750M. I also have the rMBP with GT750 and was really excited about eGPU-ing it. However the inability to use rMBPs LCS might halt my efforts (I actually do not own an LCD). There is absolutely no chance to use internal LCD? No workarounds, no hot-swaps, no special Window boot schemes / builds?

Really interesting question. I'd add another point : is that at least possible in OSX (no one talks about gaming with eGPU in OSX, dont know why?) ?

"Sadly" i bought an Iris mid 2014 rMBP and the vendor sent me a dGPU model (with 1Tb SSD and boosted i7 o_O), and now it seems i'm stuck with this low pef 750m :/

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  • 3 weeks later...
I was running a 550RM in
<--Video no hiccups!

I was able to make my setup stable (in windows) with a single GPU. It seems the cores were thrashing for bandwidth on the thunderbolt bus (could be the pci-e bus as well I suppose, but I doubt it).

Now I am in this shitty situation where Mavericks tries to start both the cores, and fails. I am not 'nix savvy enough to figure out how to disable 1 of the cores. So the hardware never loads.

Also I tried installing the Nvidia Driver Manager. I guess that is not kosher on 10.9.4+

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  • 2 weeks later...
It appears only 2013 MBPs w/newer PCIe flash storage defaults to UEFI/GPT-based windows installation with Bootcamp 5.1 .. 2012 rMBP (and possibly other macs/notebooks) will not format to GPT and therefore no plug and play

I have a 2012 retina Macbook Pro with 650M, which I'm trying to get working with an Akitio Thunder2 enclosure. However, it has BIOS Windows 8.1 installed. You seem to imply that it is possible to use an E GPU on my system, but it just won't have plug and play functionality. That's fine with me, but how would I go about getting this combination to work? I'm sure I'm missing something, but I can't find much on getting an EGPU to work with a non-Iris 2012 rMBP without UEFI Windows8.

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On a 2012 MBP, you'll most likely have to use nando's eGPU software. I never used it and don't know much about it. Search the forums to find others who have done this. Your Akitio chassis is also another factor that I don't know anything about. Hopefully there's a way to make it all work.

- - - Updated - - -

@squinks, @ReaverM1

I see you guys have GT750M. I also have the rMBP with GT750 and was really excited about eGPU-ing it. However the inability to use rMBPs LCS might halt my efforts (I actually do not own an LCD). There is absolutely no chance to use internal LCD? No workarounds, no hot-swaps, no special Window boot schemes / builds?

Unfortunately, no. It's not possible. At least, not one has found a way yet. When Windows sees the dGPU, it completely disables the iGPU, thus, no Optimus.

- - - Updated - - -

@squinks I have a mid 2014 Macbook Pro 15" 2.8GHz (4.0Ghz Turbo Boost) 16GB Ram GT 750M 1TB PCI SSD + (External GPU) GTX 780 Ti SC + Sonnet Thunderbolt 2 III-D Chassis. Im getting the same +/- scores as you with and without external PSU (Corsair RM 550). So my question is do I really need lug around my 550 Watt PSU when clearly its not a factor in stability or benchmarks? Will or can I damage the GTX 780 Ti by not using the external PSU?

How are you powering the eGPU without a PSU?

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On a 2012 MBP, you'll most likely have to use nando's eGPU software. I never used it and don't know much about it. Search the forums to find others who have done this. Your Akitio chassis is also another factor that I don't know anything about. Hopefully there's a way to make it all work.

What will I likely need to use setup 1.3 for? I actually have it already, but I'm waiting on a part for my main machine that I have the E GPU for, so I haven't used it yet. Just trying to get any information that helps, while I keep searching

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What will I likely need to use setup 1.3 for? I actually have it already, but I'm waiting on a part for my main machine that I have the E GPU for, so I haven't used it yet. Just trying to get any information that helps, while I keep searching

Well, without a 2013 or newer MBP, you will not be able to just install windows and expect things to work. The hardware won't support it. Your only alternative on a 2012 rMBP is eGPU 1.3 - From what I understand, this will allow you to create a boot option that allows you to configure the PCIe interfaces. I takes some know how and that's why I'm glad I never had to mess with any of that.

You want my real advice? Sell your MBP and get a newer model. It will save you from what I can only predict will be serious headaches. Unless you enjoy that sort of thing. I like to hack, shoot I even persisted until I solved and created the world's first eGPU SLI solution which took months of revisions to do, that was a massive pain but I had the right hardware. Furthermore, why would you want an eGPU @10Gbps anyway. That's a really crappy bottleneck that limits you to nothing more than a GTX 760. Anyway, just my 2 cents. Best of luck!

- - - Updated - - -

Yes the higher the load the less stable and eventually crash. Also I'm only referring to Windows 8.1 didn't figure out how to get it working on OSX. Also no longer have the setup.

I see. Yeah I'm the same, sold everything. I have yet to see OSX gaming with an eGPU

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Well, without a 2013 or newer MBP, you will not be able to just install windows and expect things to work. The hardware won't support it. Your only alternative on a 2012 rMBP is eGPU 1.3 - From what I understand, this will allow you to create a boot option that allows you to configure the PCIe interfaces. I takes some know how and that's why I'm glad I never had to mess with any of that.

This is actually just a temporary testing system while I wait for a part for my main system that the setup is for (G46VW), and I'm not much of a Mac guy. I'm okay with TB1, 970 minus 15% performance is still very fast :)

I'll try to get some advice from Nando for setup 1.3, although I've made progress. Connecting the box at the boot screen got it detected as a generic video device. I then installed the Nvidia drivers you recommended. Now it shows the Windows 7 boot screen on the external monitor for a split second and then goes black/freezes, and the internal goes black as soon as I select Windows boot.

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Hi everyone,

I am Johnny. I have read through some of the pages in this thread, however I couldn't find anyone has the same problem as mine. I have a:

13 Macbook pro R 2014,

with Intel Iris,

2.6 Ghz Intel core i5,

8gb ddr3

running windows 7 64

EXP GDC v7

eGPU evga gtx770

sonnet expresscard pro thunderbolt adapter

My problem is after I have install everything, my macbook shows that gtx 770 " code 12, does not have enough resources". I don't know what can I do to fix this problem.

Thank you for reading my post

Johnny

P.S. I am not an computer expert.

Hi Johnny, welcome to the EXP GDC thread!

Your is issue seems to be more of a PCI space / compation problem, the good thing here is that it seems like your EXP GDC is working.

Now since I don't have any first hand experience of Macbook eGPU my self I would recommend you to ask the question in the main thread:

http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/2109-diy-egpu-experiences-%5Bversion-2-0%5D.html

I assume you've already looked in the troubleshooting guide here?

The first thing to test is to make a DSDT override, it also well described in the link above.

Worst case scenario might be that you need the Setup 1.x from @Tech Inferno Fan to overcome this error.

I hope this can help you get started!

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Hi everyone,

I am Johnny. I have read through some of the pages in this thread, however I couldn't find anyone has the same problem as mine. I have a:

13 Macbook pro R 2014,

with Intel Iris,

2.6 Ghz Intel core i5,

8gb ddr3

running windows 7 64

EXP GDC v7

eGPU evga gtx770

sonnet expresscard pro thunderbolt adapter

My problem is after I have install everything, my macbook shows that gtx 770 " code 12, does not have enough resources". I don't know what can I do to fix this problem.

Thank you for reading my post

Johnny

P.S. I am not an computer expert.

Existing Thunderbolt eGPU implementations are linked at http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/6578-implementations-hub-tb-ec-mpcie.html#Thunderbolt . They can give invaluable information on what to do to help here.

In this case, the solution would be to install Windows 8.1 in UEFI mode. These instructions making it very easy to do that: http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/7607-%5Bguide%5D-2011-mac-mini-gtx780%4010gbps-tb1-akitio-thunder2-win8-1-a.html#post104479

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Hi all I'm wanting to create a system with an e-GPU and have decided this would be best for me.

An apple laptop with retina display paired with the Akitio Thunder2 PCIe Box and GTX750TI.

Before I get started I want some feedback to know if this is optimal or a good idea.

Can this build play directly from the screen at the retina resolution?

Will the Akitio Thunder2 PCIe Box be compatible with a GTX750TI without the need for an external PSU (I just want the case and the cable running to the laptop)?

What model of apple laptop would be the best for this? My understanding is that the best is latest intel processor and integrated graphics.

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Hi all I'm wanting to create a system with an e-GPU and have decided this would be best for me.

An apple laptop with retina display paired with the Akitio Thunder2 PCIe Box and GTX750TI.

Before I get started I want some feedback to know if this is optimal or a good idea.

Can this build play directly from the screen at the retina resolution?

Will the Akitio Thunder2 PCIe Box be compatible with a GTX750TI without the need for an external PSU (I just want the case and the cable running to the laptop)?

What model of apple laptop would be the best for this? My understanding is that the best is latest intel processor and integrated graphics.

Please read header at http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/7205-us%24270-akitio-thunder2-pcie-box-16gbps-tb2.html#post98210 and review http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/6578-implementations-hub-tb-ec-mpcie.html#Thunderbolt .

The desirable highest bandwidth 16Gbps Thunderbolt2 is currently only available in 13" or 15" 2013-2014 Macbook Pros or HP ZBook 15/17 G2. You'd want the Iris Pro 15" Macbook Pro instead of the GT750M one if want NVidia Optimus acceelerated internal LCD mode. That's because NVidia Optimus requires an active Intel graphics adapter in Windows. Something the GT750M model does not provide.

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Please read header at http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/7205-us%24270-akitio-thunder2-pcie-box-16gbps-tb2.html#post98210 and review http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/6578-implementations-hub-tb-ec-mpcie.html#Thunderbolt .

The desirable highest bandwidth 16Gbps Thunderbolt2 is currently only available in 13" or 15" 2013-2014 Macbook Pros or HP ZBook 15/17 G2. You'd want the Iris Pro 15" Macbook Pro if want NVidia Optimus acceelerated internal LCD mode, since that must have an active Intel graphics adapter in Windows. Something the GT750M model does not provide.

Thanks and about the other questions can you answer those for me too?

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I tested the PSU of the AKiTiO and it was able to provide even 80W, but:

- the AKiTiO PSU is specified to provide max 60W

- AKiTiO itself is only mentioning 25W

I would recommend to be extra careful and not to use the AKiTiO beyond its specifications. A molex powered PCIe riser will provide enough power to the graphics card (75w) and can power the AKiTiO.

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