Morv

It doesn't have to run and can be closed but after restart the changes are gone as far as I know. As it doens't have a way to load a profile on start(at least I don't know one) you'd better be off with ThrottleStop where you can create profiles and undervolting is possible, too.

Why insist on the internal max. resolution? I am playing Far Cry 4 on Ultra but I needed to lower the resolution to 1366x768 on the external display to have 60 FPS most of the time. It was about 30-40 on FullHD. I have a GTX 780. Sure you'll have some more power with the 970 but I think you should forget about Ultra on Retina resolution on the internal display. I think that the usual resolution of 1440x900 on the internal display would suffice, too, but sure, it's up to you. Maybe someone will provide the benchmarks but I wouldn't hope for a that good result. Connect everything, Akitio to Macbook, Power cables to graphics card, display to graphics card. Power up the PSU, Akitio board should have a green LED active. Turn on your Macbook then and the green light should turn to blue. Done, have fun with your gaming capable Macbook

I've got the same issue with those freezes/crashes since I switched to a Gainward GTX 780 Phantom. Sometimes I can play for a long time and sometimes one round of League of Legends, which really isn't a challenging game for this card, is enough to get a freeze throughout the game or sometimes it stutters and driver gets recovered(w/o bad FPS though). It doesn't seem to be a power problem as my previous GTX 480 never had this issue and both cards drain about the same power at maximum(same pcie power slots(6+8)). I've ordered another powered riser which has yet to arrive because I thought it might have a bad capacitor which may be causing the problems. This was before I read the posts here though. So if the new riser won't help I'll better search for another graphics card, yes? Btw, would it be possible to power a pcie angle adapter the same way like the Akitio board? I'm not that good at soldering so I'd rather screw up a cheap angle than my expensive Akitio board and additionally I'd get rid of the riser cable. I've already got an angle so my card can be placed standing. The bottom soldering points look the same as those marked on the Akitio board in first post of the thread: http://i874.photobucket.com/albums/ab302/myshop123/pci-e%20card/pci-eR1.jpg Is there any documentation where to solder which cable? Or anyone who knows about this might teach me?

So is it the same with 15" MBPr 2014? I'm running my eGPU with GTX 480 fine on Windows but on OS X it simply won't show up any other external screen and the 'About' dialog always shows the Iris Pro GPU. The Kexts have been edited, boot-args are set and they're loaded. WebDriver is loaded too(GeforceWeb) and the GTX 480 is shown in the Hardware section besides the Iris Pro. But yea...nothing works. It's not that important to me but it would have been nice as I was going to do my development stuff on OS X and so the switch from Windows would have been easy.

Well, well, wouldn't have thought that this might be the reason. But good for you it wasn't the eGPU or anything else involved with it, as SODIMM is easy to fix :-)

You buy the adapter there: PE4L: PE4L-EC060A V2.1 PE4C: PE4C V2.0 As you can see, the PE4C is a bit more evolved adapter and is handier if you put the graphics card in. There is no performance difference, though, so it doesn't matter which one you take. I think you don't need Setup 1.3 as you can disable the dGPU in your BIOS like you said. Wait with the purchase until you tried to run it the first time and if it doesn't work you can still get the software, nando is sending it shortly after payment. A good 450-500W PSU should be capable of running your GPU without problems. Check for bequiet or SeaSonic PSUs, they're good but check for ratings on several sites before purchase. Maybe a 400W PSU is enough, too, but I can't tell exactly.

Sounds like your connection "crashes" when it lowers the connection to x1.1 to save energy. If you have stuff running that uses your eGPU you have the x1.2 link and while being idle it turns down to x1.1 which might cause this. Though I don't know a further reason for the BSODs, maybe check the energy settings for pcie in your energy profile.

The Akitio Thunder2 PCIe Box is the way to go. It only offers 25W for the PCIe Slot while most GPUs need the PCIe specified 75W. That's why you have to use a powered riser. EFI or BIOS modifications aren't needed as far as I know. You simply assemble your stuff, e.g. GPU into riser, riser into Akitio Thunder2, then connect the PCIe GPU power cables and the molex plug of the Akitio Thunder2 with the PSU. Then plug your Thunderbolt cable in, power your PSU up and turn your Macbook on. For Windows, this is everything, you only need to install the drivers then. For Mac OS X look into one of the various threads that describe the OS X setup(I haven't done it myself yet). It's really easy with the Akitio Your GPU and PSU are good to use for that. You'd only need to buy the Akitio Thunder2 and the powered riser cable(watch for it to be x16 to x16).

Why would you need a Thunderbolt chip on your product if you send your data through HDMI and the cable(HDMI to TB) does the electrical conversion? But I guess it not that simple or possible then?

The newest EXP GDC version has support for Thunderbolt: EXP GDC Laptop External External PCI E graphics card ARES Series Expresscard Set ATX-in Laptop Docking Stations from Electronics on Aliexpress.com | Alibaba Group. As he has only got Thunderbolt 1 the EXP GDC with it's x2.2 and 10 Gbit should be sufficient and by far the cheapest way. A HDMI to Thunderbolt cable for connection will fit I guess though one has to be sure it actually is Thunderbolt and not mini-DP only. But I'm not totally sure about this.

Ehm guys, I need some help. I was justing testing the game "Next Car Game: Wreckfest" with 23 cars on track and at start I only got around 6 FPS. Quality settings and resolution didn't really affect the outcome. After this I tested the game "Insurgency" which ran fine on high settings and FullHD resolution but had noticable FPS drops when there was much smoke. I remembered having read something about this being bandwidth dependent. So, what I forgot to do yesterday, I checked GPU-Z and I only have a 1x2.0 connection when I should have a 4x2.0 CUDA-Z confirms the problems by only giving about a quarter of the memory copy bandwidth I've seen here. Pictures for proof: This ain't cool but I have no idea where the problem is. I'd suspect the pcie riser but it's 16x to 16x. Any help appreciated. Hm, well, I'll try the riser in my desktop computer. If I get 1x2.0 there as well I know what the problem is. Edit: Ok, it's not the riser. I get a plain 16x2.0 connection on my desktop with the riser applied. Edit2: Okaaaay. Either I'm just stupid and didn't plug the riser into the pcie box 100% or the riser has some loose contacts whose effects only appear sometimes as the riser connector is slightly bent which you can see on my previous post. After reassembling the eGPU I had a 4x2.0 connection but horrible FPS drops for about 20 FPS or more. I had shutdown and bend the riser a bit here and there and tried again. Now I've got 4x2.0 with stable FPS. Both games mentioned are now playable like on my desktop computer. My 3DMark11 result is now also about 1000 points higher at 5478(which is even higher as my desktop result, most probably due to the nearly 2x faster Intel CPU, regarding single thread performance). I'll get a new riser then but now I know everything is working.

So I got my Akitio Thunder2 PCIe Box yesterday and disassembled my desktop computer this evening. At first Windows wasn't working in terms that the external display stayed black. I couldn't see a reason as everything was working as described by others here(Akitio LED green at first, then blue after start of Macbook). Then I removed the newer version of the Intel graphics driver I remembered having installed after I installed Windows and magically I got a picture on the external display at next reboot. Now everything is working fine. Played DayZ for around an hour without problems. Setup: Macbook Pro 15 Retina 2014 with Iris Pro only Akitio Thunder2 PCIe Box with 16x powered pcie riser Nvidia GTX 480 750W PSU GPU and PSU are taken from my desktop, I will most probably replace them with a newer GPU and a PSU with lower W(guess 400W will be enough, quality PSU for sure). Steps were simply those that have been described: - Assemble everything before booting(riser into thunder2 pcie box, graphics card into riser, connect PSU with graphics card and thunder2 pcie box(1x 4-pin molex), leave thunder2 pcie box psu away as it is not needed) - Turn the PSU on first which turns on your thunder2 pcie box and the graphics card, the green light of the pcie box should glow now - Turn your Macbook on - Boot Windows - Install current Nvidia drivers - Have fun! 3DMark11: Desktop(Phenom II X4 965, 8 GB RAM): 5177 eGPU: 4414 = 85,26% Will try Evo*'s Optimus guide soon I guess. Will also have to search for a nice enclosure for the whole stuff. Thanks to all the people having tried and reported about this already

The notebook pad has an angle so it has air below it. It's only that the fans of that pad don't do anything as I and you already stated. Ok, so there is a "problem" with my testing method. If I want to screw a CPU I usually use Prime95. No matter what I do, this keeps pushing the CPU of the Macbook up to 100°C. Now if I use the XTU CPU Stress Test it pushes it to 90°C max. If I apply -105mV voltage offset it still runs fine at 3.2 GHz but with about 10°C less, with 80-81°C max. temperature. Prime95 still reaches 100°C but a bit slower. How might that be possible? Both programs push all cores to 100% usage, though Prime95 uses HT and uses extra threads also. Might that be the reason? I don't know what the XTU stress test does about the extra HT threads, so yea, I'm still a bit confused. If those 80°C would be what I'll get with the eGPU then it will be fine, that's what I can accept(plus it won't be any better in other devices I guess). I have the base model of the MBPr 15 without the dGPU, as I really only need graphics power at home and if I need some when I'm on the go then the Iris Pro will be enough. Problem is that if I start something using graphics right now the temperature is also heavily affected by the iGPU, so I can't really test games and take the temperature for analysis. As I said, unfortunately I don't have the Akitio Thunder2 yet and I'll only get it after the return window already will be closed. That's why I want to be sure that it'll serve my needs. I know the Zbook but only the ZBook G2 models have Thunderbolt 2 as far as I know and they're even more expensive than the Macbook. Apart from that I know the MSI WS60 but the battery life disappoints. I might wait for the next Thinkpad generation with W550 for example, but as they're not announced yet and it's not sure they'll have Thunderbolt 2, the set too choose from is still rather small. Anyway I'll test further how far I can decrease the voltage to lower the temperature as much as possible. Thanks anyway already. Edit 29.10: Did my testing and I can undervolt it Prime95 stable with -125mV(130==freeze) at 3,0 GHz which is pretty cool. While Prime95 runs it stays below 90°C at 86-88°C and with the XTU CPU Stress Test it stays at 70°C-80°C. This seems to be influenced by the book having been hotter already. Yesterday I was testing and I got around 80°C stable, same settings. Now I tested Prime95 first with these settings and afterwards the XTU test and it stayed on 70°C. 80°C is also fine anyway. Plus the case in which the CPU is used 100% won't occur that often. So, there is no reason to worry regarding the use with an eGPU and the CPU is still nearly twice as fast as my old Phenom II X4 965 regarding single thread performance. I am now eagerly awaiting my Akitio Thunder2 box so I can finally switch completely to the Macbook

I used Intel Extreme Utility to lower maximum frequency to 2,7 GHz for example + I have that exact fan control program already installed and both fans run at maximum speed but I still get up to 90-100°C. It's standing on a Cooler Master fan pad with 3 fans so it has free air flow below it. The fans don't do anything to improve temperatures though, pretty useless. Only thing I can try now is undervolting a bit. Will look into this a bit later. Thanks for your quick reply.

Hi, I finally decided to buy a Macbook Pro 15 Retina 2014 in order to replace my desktop and extend it with an eGPU as I am still wanting to game. My goal was simple: One machine for everything, plug out, have a mobile device, plug in, have your gaming machine. Requirements for me: Intel Quadcore and Thunderbolt 2 -> The only way right now is the Macbook Pro 15 Retina. So I've ordered the Akitio Thunder2 Pcie Box too, but it takes until the middle of November to be delivered, so I couldn't test that yet. I'm living in Europe and by waiting I can save 50€. Yesterday I laid heavy load on the Macbook in Windows the first time and within seconds it reached 90-100°C core temperature with thermal throttling(still always above base frequency though) although I already installed a fan control program to get those fans up at maximum when there is load. My Asus N550JV was stable at 80°C with 100% fan speed with the same clocks(MBPr: 2,2 - 3,4 GHz, N550: 2,4 - 3,4 GHz, both loud then but that's not a problem). So, what I'd like to know now is if those people who already have a eGPU setup with the Macbook can tell me if I should worry about that or if it's simply okay and if they experience the same. It would be nice if there were people among those who actually really game and not only run a benchmark to show that it's working, that would be useful to me. I already know that it is normal that they get this hot but I don't know if they can take those temperatures without damage for a longer time. Thing is, I'm still in the 14 days return window and I'm heavily thinking about sending it back as I really don't want to burn a 1800€ machine from within or cripple it to the base frequency where temperatures stay at 70-80°C. It's such a nice device and I like OS X but I'm done with compromises. Either I get the device which fulfills my needs or it's not my device. Thank you very much. @Tech Inferno Fan: If this isn't worth a thread, please take my apologies and place it whereever it fits

Oh ok, too bad. Ah yea, the video is from 2011. Someone has just overseen the year and thought it is a new product...

Nando, get yourself sponsored the USB3380-AB EVK-RC and test it for us If that works that would be awesome, all trouble would be gone. I mean, they show the use of a graphics card in the video on their site but who knows if it's really working with a gaming card.

Hey, I've received my PE4L-PM3N 2.1b and wanted to install Setup 1.2, so I started setup-disk-image.bat and everything worked until the point of creating the devcon.txt. It creates the file but I get the message "BIG WARNING!! mkdevcon: PCI BUS section NOT found". So, as it is told below that message I opened the devcon.txt and searched for the section but only found the PCI Express Root Complex which seems to be normal for newer devices. I deleted the part and started Setup 1.2 via USB stick and chose the second option: "menu-based". At the following process I then get the error message " 'compact' crashdumped so cannot do PCI Compaction on this system." which shouldn't happen as far as I understand. Am I doing something wrong? I use the Asus N550JV with Windows 8 x64 and a HDD with GPT(therefore the USB stick). The devcon.txt looks like the following(it's German, the deleted part is the one named "Stammkomplex für PCI-Express"): ACPI\PNP0C01\1 Name: Systemplatine Device has the following resources reserved: MEM : fed40000-fed44fff ACPI\PNP0C02\1 Name: Hauptplatinenressourcen Device has the following resources reserved: MEM : fed1c000-fed1ffff MEM : fed10000-fed17fff MEM : fed18000-fed18fff MEM : fed19000-fed19fff MEM : f8000000-fbffffff MEM : fed20000-fed3ffff MEM : fed90000-fed93fff MEM : fed45000-fed8ffff MEM : ff000000-ffffffff MEM : fee00000-feefffff MEM : f7fef000-f7feffff MEM : f7ff0000-f7ff0fff ACPI\PNP0C02\2 Name: Hauptplatinenressourcen Device has the following resources reserved: IO : 002e-002f IO : 004e-004f IO : 0061-0061 IO : 0063-0063 IO : 0065-0065 IO : 0067-0067 IO : 0070-0070 IO : 0080-0080 IO : 0092-0092 IO : 00b2-00b3 IO : 0680-069f IO : ffff-ffff IO : ffff-ffff IO : ffff-ffff IO : 1c00-1cfe IO : 1d00-1dfe IO : 1e00-1efe IO : 1f00-1ffe IO : 1800-18fe IO : 164e-164f ACPI\PNP0C02\9 Name: Hauptplatinenressourcen Device has no resources reserved. ACPI\PNP0C14\OPT1 Name: Microsoft Windows-Verwaltungsschnittstelle für ACPI Device is not using any resources. ACPI\PNP0C0A\0 Name: Microsoft ACPI-Kontrollmethodenkompatibler Akku Device is not using any resources. ACPI\PNP0C04\4&315E40E2&0 Name: Numerischer Coprozessor Device has the following resources reserved: IO : 00f0-00f0 IRQ : 13 ACPI\PNP0C0E\2&DABA3FF&3 Name: ACPI-Energiezustandknopf Device is not using any resources. ACPI\PNP0103\0 Name: Hochpräzisionsereigniszeitgeber Device has the following resources reserved: MEM : fed00000-fed003ff ACPI\PNP0C09\4&315E40E2&0 Name: Eingebetteter, Microsoft ACPI-konformer Controller Device is currently using the following resources: IO : 0062-0062 IO : 0066-0066 ACPI\PNP0C0D\2&DABA3FF&3 Name: ACPI-Deckel Device is not using any resources. ACPI\PNP0100\4&315E40E2&0 Name: Systemzeitgeber Device has the following resources reserved: IO : 0040-0043 IO : 0050-0053 IRQ : 0 ACPI\PNP0C14\ATK Name: Microsoft Windows-Verwaltungsschnittstelle für ACPI Device is not using any resources. ACPI\PNP0A08\0 Name: Stammkomplex für PCI-Express Device is currently using the following resources: MEM : 000a0000-000bffff MEM : 000d0000-000d3fff MEM : 000d4000-000d7fff MEM : 000d8000-000dbfff MEM : 000dc000-000dffff MEM : cfe00000-feafffff IO : 0000-0cf7 IO : 0d00-ffff ACPI\PNP0C02\10 Name: Hauptplatinenressourcen Device has the following resources reserved: IO : 0010-001f IO : 0022-003f IO : 0044-005f IO : 0072-007f IO : 0080-0080 IO : 0084-0086 IO : 0088-0088 IO : 008c-008e IO : 0090-009f IO : 00a2-00bf IO : 00e0-00ef IO : 04d0-04d1 ACPI\PNP0C02\13 Name: Hauptplatinenressourcen Device has the following resources reserved: IO : 0240-0259 ACPI\PNP0B00\4&315E40E2&0 Name: System CMOS/Echtzeituhr Device is currently using the following resources: IO : 0070-0077 IRQ : 8 ACPI\PNP0000\4&315E40E2&0 Name: Programmierbarer Interruptcontroller Device has the following resources reserved: IO : 0020-0021 IO : 0024-0025 IO : 0028-0029 IO : 002c-002d IO : 0030-0031 IO : 0034-0035 IO : 0038-0039 IO : 003c-003d IO : 00a0-00a1 IO : 00a4-00a5 IO : 00a8-00a9 IO : 00ac-00ad IO : 00b0-00b1 IO : 00b4-00b5 IO : 00b8-00b9 IO : 00bc-00bd IO : 04d0-04d1 ACPI\PNP0200\4&315E40E2&0 Name: DMA-Controller Device has the following resources reserved: IO : 0000-001f IO : 0081-0091 IO : 0093-009f IO : 00c0-00df DMA : 4 19 matching device(s) found. I also switched to English language causing mkdevcon to find the PCI Express Root Complex but it didn't delete anything there, the lines were still the same. I haven't plugged in a graphics card yet because I wanted to have this stuff running first and this shouldn't be problem, should it? Thanks for any help.

Hey Tech Inferno Fan, I've got a Asus N550JV and though it has neither got any free mPCIe slots nor Expresscard/Thunderbolt i want to try a eGPU setup with it. I wanted to change the BD drive to a HDD bay with an SSD anyway and saw on a picture that the mPCIe slot with the wifi card is placed under the end of the thinner part of the BD drive which makes it very easy to access and made me curious. The difficult part is: I need it to stay mobile thus i need a solution that is possible to be unplugged from the outside. I started thinking of the PE4H 2.4 as it has plugable cable but got reminded that it only has PCIe 1.1 instead of the still praised PCIe 2.0 support and i then was linked to the KZ-B26 and KZ-B22. While KZ-B26 doesn't work because of the 30cm cable(? is it changeable?) the KZ-B22 shall not work at all with 2.0 as said by some user in this forum(found it via google). So i reread the first page of this thread and found that KZ-B21 shall work with 2.0 as it was successfully tested(7-07-2012 on first page where the statement about KZ-B26 is found as well). Sooo, would you think this might work with PCIe 2.0: Internal mPCIe of wifi card <- KZ-B21 with 20cm(i think 10cm are a bit too short, sadly) <- PE4L 2.1b with mPCie <- Graphics card and fun ;-) My TOLUD is fine (3.48 gb, CFE00000) but I'd need Setup 1.x as i've got both iGPU and dGPU, so this part should work. PCIe 1.1 isn't really an option as i'd like to remove my desktop and use the notebook as the only machine but the 1.1 is having FPS issues with newer games(DX10 and above, 3DMark Vantage, 3DMark11 etc.) as far as i read in benchmarks. If you say you think it'll work and have no known doubts about the KZ-B21 part(have you tested this? or anyone else you may know?) i'll finally order it because i'm struggling with myself about this as i don't know if it'll work. Ultimately I'd like to have the blessing of the master for this Also, everybody who knows about this might help me too, of course. Greetings and thanks for all the informations and courage on this area.