I'm writing this guide in order to help anyone with kind of the same configuration. Without the other guides out there and some help I wouldn't have made it. Thank's a lot guide guys!
Warning: The following procedure at your own risk. Please be sure to take a backup in case of emergency.
Hardware Configuration:
Apple MacBook Pro 17" late 2011 16 GB with discrete AMD Radeon HD 6770M AND integrated Intel HD Graphics 3000 + Thunderbolt 1 + Mavericks 10.9.4
AKiTiO Thunder 2 PCIe Box
Thermaltake London 550 W (73 € @ Conrad)
Asus GeForce ROG MATRIX GTX 780 Ti Platinum (444 €)
external Display via HDMI
Thunderbolt cable
Preperation: (thanks to entzoe for his guide here)
Step 1 (Note: eGPU setup should be all disconnected)
Download and Install CUDA driver http://tinyurl.com/dxzoaww
Step 2
Download and install a modded NVIDIA Web driver
Usually, NVIDIA's official Web driver will do a system check. Official web driver can only be installed on MacPro 2008, 2009, 2010. If you are using a iMac or Mac Mini or MacBook Pro, you can't even install. But Modified Web driver avoids the system check. Modded Web driver file name is ModdedWebDriver-334.01.02f02.pkg.
File mirror: https://app.box.com/s/wa2tblhb4y5dtd3fgh1z
Step 3
Modify the following KEXT files
/System/Library/Extensions/NVDAStartup.kext
/System/Library/Extensions/IONDRVSupport.kext
/System/Library/Extensions/AppleHDA.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AppleHDAController.kext
[*]look for sections beginning with CFBundleIdentifier and add just before the closing add the two following lines
<key>IOPCITunnelCompatible</key>
<true>
There are several sections OF that CFBundleIdentifier
If you don't know how to modify these files (like me), that's what I did:
download and install Textwrangler
go to the file and right click, open with Textwrangler
in the left tab extend the Contents folder and click on info.plist
in the right hand tab you can do the modifications
Step 4
Every time you upgrade your OS you need to modify these KEXT files
Finally, clear the cache by issuing the following command in the Terminal application “sudo kextcache -system-caches” and shutdown your OS.
Step 5 - Put together your hardware (without anything connected to electricity yet)
connect the eGPU to the PSU via the 8 pin / 2x 2+6 pin cable
dismantle the AKitio and take out the card (actually it’s two)
plug the GTY into the x16 PCIe slot of the AKiTiO card (no PCIe riser needed)
connect the power adaptor of the AKiTiO into the card
to power-on a PSU without a motherboard connection you can use the Paperclip Trick
connect the Thunderbolt cable with your computer
connect the HDMI with you external display
have both, the PSU and the AKiTiO power plugged into a switchboard an turn it on
turn on your MacBook
Step 6 - Software configuration
in System Preferences / Displays / Arrangement make sure that the menu bar is located on your external display
Check Apple / About This Mac / More Info… if the GTX is being used
Pictures:
I'll upload some later when everything is nicely put into an enclosure. The pictures I posted before elsewhere where totaly misleading and just wrong. Did everything wrong... (eGPU and AKiTiO card where touching each other, everything was placed onto a metal board and that caused electric sparks, so don't do that!)
Benchmark:
Conclusion:
It works! I can use my internal screen and the external screen connected via the eGPU.
Concerning stability with my eGPU everything is fine except for Preview and Quicktime (so far). Whenever I try to watch a movie with these programs the screen just freezes, but I can still move the mouse and hear the sound. Also the image is somehow green and distorted but wouldn't actually play for longer than a second. When that happens I have to force shut down and restart.
VLC is fine, no problems there with the same files compared to Preview and Quicktime.
Help anyone?</true>