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Hardwares - 13" Mid-2012 Macbook Pro w/ i7-3520M @ 2.9GHz - Dell U2414H 1080p 23.8" Display - Gigabyte GTX 960 2GB OC ITX - AKiTiO Thunder2 PCIe Box - Corsair RM450 PSU - 1.3m HDMI-HDMI cable Softwares - OSX 10.10.2 (14C1514) - Nvidia CUDA Driver; v7.0.29 - Nvidia Web Driver; v343.02.02f04 Hardware Setup 1. Utilize PSU paperclip trick [tutorial] 2. Build/connect GPU and Akitio Box 2.1. Unscrew the box and put the metal casing away 2.2. Connect the GPU and the Box via PCIe 16x lane 3. Connect/power GPU via PSU 3.1. Find and plug the 6/8 pin connector between PSU and GPU 4. Connect GPU and Display via HDMI 5. Connect Box and Macbook Pro via Thunderbolt 6. Connect the Akitio Box power adapter. Software Setup 1. Download and install (latest) nVidia CUDA Driver [here]. 2. Find and download (latest) nVidia "Quadro and Geforce Mac OSX Driver". 2.1. You can use the search feature on nVidia website [here] 2.2. Modify the search parameters until you found the driver, e.g. like [this] 3. Modify the driver to ignore system check and allow itself to be installed on any (incompatible) systems. 3.1. Unpackage the file with pkgutil, like so: pkgutil --expand WebDriver-343.02.02f04.pkg expanded.pkg 3.2. Navigate into the expanded package and edit a file named Distribution 3.2.1. Find and comment out the following two lines of code, like so: //if (!validateHardware()) return false; //if (!validateSoftware()) return false; 3.3. Repackage the file with pkgutil, like so: pkgutil --flatten expanded.pkg WebDriver-343.02.02f04-nocheck.pkg 3.4. Install the modified driver. 4. Modify several .plist files [tutorial] 5. Add boot parameter to enable the driver 5.1. Run the following code: sudo nvram boot-args="kext-dev-mode=1 nvda_drv=1" 6. Your system should be ready to use the eGPU. Using the eGPU 1. Power up the PSU and Display. 2. Turn on the Macbook Pro Updating Nvidia WebDriver 1. Download the latest version of the driver, unpackage, modify the Distribution file, repackage, and install. See software setup step 3 for details. 2. Modify /System/Library/Extensions/NVDAStartup.kext/Contents/Info.plist as explained [here]. The other .plist files should remain unchanged; check them if you are not sure. 3. (Don't forget to) Run the following command: sudo kextcache -system-caches 4. Reboot and the eGPU should work fine. Performance / Benchmarks Notes - You can normally boot without the eGPU just by turning your Macbook Pro on without powering the PSU/Display. Author Notes - Will be adding photos Credits http://forum.techinferno.com/implementation-guides/8199-2013-13-macbook-pro-gtx980%4016gbps-tb2-netstor-na211tb-win8-1-osx10-10-%5Bgoalque.html http://forum.techinferno.com/implementation-guides/6088-2011-13-macbook-pro-gtx660%4010gbps-tb1-sonnet-ee-pro-win8-1-osx10-9-1-%5Bfloppah%5D-2.html#post87145 http://forum.techinferno.com/implementation-guides/8059-2013-15-macbook-pro-gt750m-gtx780ti%4016gbps-tb2-sonnet-iii-d-osx10-10-%5Bmark%5D.html http://forum.techinferno.com/implementation-guides/7879-2013-13-macbook-pro-gtx970%4016gbps-tb2-akitio-thunder2-win8-1-osx10-10-%5Bdschijn.html http://forum.techinferno.com/implementation-guides/7598-2012-mac-mini-gtx770%4010gbps-tb1-akitio-thunder2-osx10-9-4-%5Bentzoe%5D.html

Hi My Egpu case Xigmatek Octans PE4H 2.4 Lepa 450W GTX 980 Gaming 4Go - - - Updated - - - http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/9637802

@Oscar J informed me that he got the his second Gigabyte 7970 OC working perfectly stable without a powered riser + 650M equipped MBP on OS X. The first Gigabyte 7970 was identical but crashed after 5 minutes with the Indigo renderer. I suspect the reason could be different firmware or BIOS chip. I’ve been tracking down the reason for both the black screen and booting issues of the different architecture GPUs, and I bet that the common factor is EFI version: http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/8619-tb2-macbooks-allow-monitors-used-nvidia-egpus-osx.html#post120215 That’s why some users report black screens with the new 2015 model: http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/7910-diy-egpu-macbook-experiences-57.html#post128390 In order the GPU is able to talk the same language with the host Mac, they need the common protocol. I have tried to hack the Mac firmware, no success. The logic board had to change because there did not exist any tool to rewrite 2014 15” MBP firmware back to original according to discussion with a senior Apple specialist. Also the local Mac service was confused how on earth I was able to make my MBP a brick The only sign of life was a spinning fan, and luckily I had a warranty. Apple’s systems are pretty closed. I have a hunch that they are restricting eGPU use with specific Mac models. MVC may rescue us in the future with those custom flashed Nvidia GPUs, or we could consider AMD’s window of opportunity… AMD Gaming: AMD enables incredible DirectX®... | AMD Blogs And my API Overhead Feature Test under Windows 10 Pro Technical Preview (build 10041), DirectX12 works flawlessly with the AMD engineering sample driver (installed automatically): AMD Radeon R9 280X video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7 4702HQ,Apple Inc. Mac-3CBD00234E554E41 DX12 shows 3X more draw calls per second than DX11! Wow! For me the eGPU screen output is important, I don’t need the full OpenGL performance on OS X because Windows is for gaming, and the OpenCL performance per price is undoubtedly better with the AMDs. And yes, out of the box Crossfire is nice. It’s a pity that some AMDs are unstable with the AKiTiO.

I've had this happen with my wife's optimus-enabled laptop. To fix the problem I needed to go into the global application settings in the NVidia control panel and enable/force dedicated GPU acceleration for all programs, effectively disabling optimus. Otherwise some games/programs just refused to switch to the discrete GPU. This was pretty annoying considering that optimus support was one of the reasons why we picked this particular laptop.