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2013 15" MBP GT750M + GTX980Ti@16Gbps-TB2 (AKiTiO Thunder2) + Win8.1/OSX10.10 [cascas


cascascas

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Although some like to game on OS X, I prefer to have work / play totally separate. I run various design / 3D / video post apps on OS X and them game on the dark side (win). It's currently working out really well with your script @goalque. I need more data to give accurate success rates for automatic boot while plugged but I would say right now it feels like 50% success to not hang at boot. Which is 100% better than 0% chance I was having while plugged in before :) - but once I'm past boot screen it's 100% success rate for OS X to be seamless on eGPU with total stability.

Really amazing to have this 980 Ti screaming on the MacBook Pro. Hopefully TB3 will have more support from various parties.

Cheers!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Wanted to update the thread:

For the last few weeks using the eGPU setup I've had almost 100% stability. I can boot back and forth between Win 8.1 and OX 10.10.4 mostly seamlessly (sometimes stuck at black boot). But once I'm inside an OS It's pretty amazing. Every once in a while on Win 8.1 I get an NVIDIA driver fail but it recovers in a second or two. But this is rare and only under extremely heavy load, perhaps?

Aside from the minor quirks it's insanely awesome and I now am regularly on eGPU even in OS X. The GPU boost in pro apps is especially noticeable. Adobe and Apple pro apps fly. And of course games in both OS is night and day.

Thanks for the crew in this thread for all the advice.

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  • 2 months later...
  • 2 weeks later...
reptilianbrain said:
Hi, wanted to check in - how is the build?

@Dschijn

Here's my update:

I've halted OS X efforts because it's my work environment and, although it does mostly work, it's still too experimental for me. On Windows, I'm still rocking the 980 Ti and it's been great. However (and I'm still investigating this), lately I've been getting huge lag spikes maybe...every 10minutes while gaming. It seems to happen more when I'm playing something that very taxing on the GPU (Battlefront Beta, Battlefield 4 etc). I'll get these hangups for about 20 seconds (not completely frozen, I'm just unable to walk / act but I can see other players moving freely). My hunch is this is due to an updated NVIDIA driver causing a weird graphics and networking hang.

Has anyone else had these kinds of issues on TB2 (rMBP)? Hoping it's driver related.

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I only experienced "hickups" in BF4 with my first eGPU setup (a 13" dual core MBPr). But that was definitely related to the CPU.

Maybe you could try and monitor your CPU in the games regarding load, frequency and temperature.

You could try Intel XTU and lower the boost clock for all cores to 3GHz and lower the voltage a bit. By that you can achieve stable clock speeds during gaming.

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  • 4 weeks later...

@Dschijn Lowering my CPU boost clock to 3ghz with Intel XTU solved the hiccups. Great suggestion! Seems a little silly that this would not be solved by intel. In 2015 seems the CPU should be smart enough to clock itself down if it's lagging!

Lowering the voltage, however, made my system unstable (had some lockups). But simple under clocking worked a charm and I notice zero performance lag whatsoever. Also the laptop fans stay a bit quieter :)

Thanks Again!

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Great news! :D

The problem is that the CPU tries to clock itself at fast/high as possible. If it gets limited by power or heat it clocks down as long as it is over or in that limit.

That clock changes can vary between 2.5 - 4.0GHz which is a huge difference! Giving a lower clock speeds makes everything more consistant!

How much did you try to lower your voltage? Even a bit helps! First I used -100mV, now I am using -55mV since Battlefield 4 is very bitchy about very low volatges.

Another trick that I learned here was to put my MB to hibernate after the boot (only with Optimus EFI applied), let it sleep and wake it up again. By that I could eliminate the system CPU usage by 15% which made my CPU run even cooler.

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@Dschijn

Well, I've just recently started to play Star Wars Battlefront and I'm getting that same weird hiccup! Even throttled down to max 3ghz (30x) with Intel XTU it's causing issues. Almost no matter what voltage I try Windows locks up almost instantly or shortly after adjusting so I have not messed with voltage.

It's so weird in Battlefront / Battlefield because it's only my own character that gets "stuck" or frozen. It's like lag teleport but I can't move from my spot for about 15 seconds. I can turn the mouse 360 and shoot but not move. All other multiplayer characters are all moving perfectly --- it's not the entire game that hiccups just my character / vehicle.

Thoughts?

Almost as if the keyboard driver is wigging out but that seems far-fetched.

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@cascascas: STBF is based on the same engine as BF4 or BF:HL and that one is very sensitive to "unstable" clock speeds or voltages (CPU or GPU).

That you can't undervolt at all is weird, but possible. All CPUs are different and have different a potential.

Please monitor GPU and CPU: clock speeds, power limits, temperatures!

Also try and disable V-Sync in the game (only if you use Optimus and the internal display, but I think you don't so you don't need to try this)!

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Thanks @Dschijn -- turns out, I was under-volting with custom values rather than choosing from the dropdown (which I'm assuming are processor preferred voltages). No crashing with choosing a preset voltage from the dropdown!

I played last night @30x (down from 36x) and -55 voltage. The hiccups were fewer and not as bad but they still happened. I'm going to try 28x and -75 voltage tonight and see if it's better.

UPDATE: The lower settings seems to cause worse lag / input spikes. It's a mystery!

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You shouldn't have to go lower! 3GHz is already pretty low. Your goal should be to get stable clock speeds in the CPU and the GPU. So you should monitor, if the clock speed of any of the both is dropping in load.

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  • 1 year later...

Hello everyone I'm totally new here, i've checking the forum the last days. I would like to ask for advise if someone has time to answer a few questions so that i get things clear.

I have a MBP late 2011 and i want to upgrade my graphics card. I get the feeling that everything leads to the Akitio but is there something else that i should check out? (except the bizon) 
I was thinking of purchasing the gtx 980ti but what kind of power supply will i need for it?

Is it a waste since i don't have thunderbolt 2 or 3?

Is it a problem that the case will be left open?

 

Thank you 
Damien

 

*also i don't plan on using windows. I need it mainly for premiere pro on OS X!

Edited by Damien
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