Slovedon

Isn't that roughly the performance loss for Thunderbolt 2? I thought TB2 was ~15% for external monitor, but I could be wrong

Thanks for the heads up. I never got that memo :/ Good to know, I'll give it a try if I have any driver problems in the future. I did a clean install of the desktop drivers, so hopefully that removed the original drivers completely

Success! My Akitio Thunder2 + 980 setup is working fine (so far) with the 592G's Thunderbolt 3 connection and Akitio T3T adapter. Now I'm just waiting on Akitio to release the Node for full Thunderbolt 3 speeds Windows 10 will get confused with the 960M/980 combo and install the notebook and desktop Nvidia drivers repeatedly, so you have to disable device driver updates. The 980 showed in device manager after installing all the Acer driver & firmware updates from their website (most importantly the TB3 firmware) which let me install the desktop Nvidia drivers. After reboot, device manager gave a "OS could not find enough resources" error for the 980 (not uncommon when setting up eGPUs) but disabling, reenabling, and another reboot fixed it. Now the 960M and 980 are working perfectly for 10+ reboots, with and without eGPU connected. The eGPU compatibility section isn't showing for me, but like @bloodhawk said, that "no" is meaningless anyways

I have the 15" version of this system ordered (Aspire V15 Nitro Black Edition aka Aspire VN7-592G) along with a Akitio T3T Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 adapter. Assuming that the T3T adapter works perfectly, I'll be able to test the 592G/792G's eGPU combatibility with my Akitio Thunder2 + GTX 980 setup

I would much rather have them focus on making the simplest, most reliable, and most inexpensive TB3 graphics solution possible. Adding ports just adds more potential complications for the user and more potential scenarios for Akitio to test, no matter if those ports cause performance problems or not. It just doesn't seem worth it, especially when you can just use another hub to add more ports.

Edit: Didn't see this thread. Hopefully this works!

Every powered riser I've used for my eGPU setup has had the following pin layout- But the one I just received looks like this, with the black and yellow right next to each other- Will this be an issue? I'm not sure if this changes how much power it can provide or not, so I thought I'd ask the experts before testing (don't want to risk damage, even though it probably wouldn't cause damage)

I'm actually looking to use a TB2 port as an input, so that I don't lose performance (which, as you say, happens with Optimus) when I'm using the internal LCD. Yes, but we lose performance when using Optimus. If I can use Thunderbolt2 as an input, I can use the internal LCD with eGPU without the Optimus performance loss

My 16x - 16x powered riser (for my Akitio Thunder2 + 980 setup) went bad, and I'm hoping to replace it ASAP. Price doesn't matter. Is there anywhere that sells these with overnight shipping to the U.S (midwest)?

Is there any product out there that would allow us to use the second Thunderbolt 2 port on our Macbook Pro's as a video input? This would be a really nice boost to performance compared to using Optimus on the internal LCD. Even if there is minor input delay, I think it would still be worth it, considering the overall gaming experience is so much better when using an external monitor directly from GPU vs. using Optimus.

Awesome. I'm glad to see more laptops getting Thunderbolt 2.

I've been using the 1 ft Thunderbolt cable that came with the Akitio Thunder2, but I'm looking to buy a longer one. My question is: Is it possible that the much longer 9 foot cable affect eGPU performance at all? (overall performance/latency)

I just completed this setup with the same 15" rMBP Iris Pro (i7-4750HQ) and Zotac 970 with the help of your guide. Thanks for posting. I'm actually glad my previously planned Asus G46vw Thunderbolt mobo upgrade didn't work out, because it let me find Apple's awesome refurbished offer, plus no more TB1. This is a helluva machine, and the ultimate eGPU system with 2xThunderbolt 2, and with that 1800p screen! Main downsides are non upgradeable CPU, and cooling isn't an issue (which it is for many) since we aren't using internal graphics. Hell, I may even use it with SLI eventually. How consistently does Optimus boot work for you? Are you turning it on before startup or at the boot menu? With my Zotac, I have to restart twice, and the second time occasionally fails for some reason, meaning 4x restarts to get Optimus going. tIt happens about 1 in 10 times, so not really much of a problem, but I might as well try to figure out why. I'm starting it up at the boot menu. I'm also on a standard Bootcamp setup of 8.1. Other than that, everything works perfectly fine for me, and the reference Zotac 970 gets a solid +210 core +110 memory overlock, while even boosting further past its stated limit.

The GE60 apache pro can be used with an mPCIe E-GPU? This is news to me, I didn't think it was a candidate system.

Regardless of the system I'm using, it looks like I will need to use a riser with the Akitio. As for what I actually end up using it on, rMBP's seem to be coming down to a reasonable price

I actually gave them images of the chip and it's location on the board before purchasing, but it sounds like they just compared it to their image on the site instead of actually checking the mobo itself. Their defense was that they were giving me a "newer, more expensive board" Unfortunately, they don't have any x.2 mobos either.

The motherboard from AliExpress got here, and unfortunately it isn't working. The listing pictured a rev 2.2 mobo that clearly showed the Thunderbolt chip, but they sent me a rev 2.0 without the chip - return in progress. Unless I can find a source that can guarantee a Thunderbolt mobo for a reasonable price (<$200) I may be holding off on an eGPU solution until I upgrade to a TB2 laptop.

While I sit here looking at my unusable 970+Akitio setup - waiting for my Thunderbolt mobo, which finally has been sent from Aliexpress - I'm wondering if there is a good way to get the unfinished metal inside of the inner case to match the nice black outside. Any thoughts on painting/dying/etc. the inner portion of the Akitio case?

Actually, I have not been able to test this setup yet. I'm waiting on my TB-enabled G46VW motherboard to arrive. It may very well need a powered riser, but I know that people have gotten a 760, 780 Ti, and other cards to work without a riser. Also, what do you mean by "recommended" EVGA cards?

@Tech Inferno Fan @jacobsson Indeed it does! The shroud slides off easily after removing those 4 screws. You can see how the Akitio had to be bent slightly outward to accomodate the card with the shroud on, but it would have clearly fit comfortably without any alterations.

They can also be fixed by not using the outer enclosure altogether That's my plan at least. I'll just use the outer enclosure for protecting the GPU while transporting it, since it slides in very easily, even with the slightly bent back plate to accommodate GPU length. - - - Updated - - - @jacobsson That's disappointing to hear. I'll be able to test and compare on my setup soon though. The TB mobo should be here in a week

Are you running this off of the 220W DA-2 PSU? If so, have you tried using a higher wattage ATX PSU?

And I thought my negotiating B&H from $270 to $240 was a good deal. Well done! It makes sense for them business-wise too, since that makes them the automatic choice for TB1 or TB2 enclosures in that price range.

So if we judge by that last result in 3DMark11, we can say that a GTX 970 on TB2 performs 18% faster than a GTX 970 on TB1. Although as Nando said, there could be other power limitations factoring in. And that's only a one test comparison. I'll be interested to see how my and other's 970s compare.

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.