garytyler

Hey thx for the input.

What do you mean with "consistently"? It didnt work at all or it worked sometimes or it worked but not stable? And have you been using Optimus?

I wouldnt want to sell my 27 TB Display but will if I have to

It would work about 30% of boots.

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Also, I know what you mean about selling the TB display. The only benefit is the ports though and it's nice to not be limited to needing a TB output.

I guess we will know soon. I have already ordered all items for my eGPU Akitio Set Up if I will not run into troubles we I will test it with my 27" TB Display asap.

Thanks to Dschijn

Still undecided re the GPU. GTX 770 or 960, depending on the price I will get for used ones on OLX.

I have not been able to get my Thunderbolt Display to work consistently with my Akitio setup. I ended up selling it and buying a regular 27" Apple Cinema Display instead. I think what Nando says in a few threads is the case... basically, the BIOS gets confused and makes some random decisions at boot. This leads to the sometimes black screen boot and it means the display signal is routed to what seems to be a random port. With my 27" Display, it will work with mini-Displayport or Displayport via adapter. What I found is that the display output routes to either my empty TB port on my MBP Retina or it routes to the Displayport on my eGPU. So, when I boot my machine, either the display turns on or I switch the cable to get it to turn on. This allows me to use my display 100% of the time, but sometimes I have to switch a cable. It's worth it in the end.

Any single-slot Thunderbolt2 enclosure/adapter such as a AKiTiO Thunder2 or Sonnet SEL provide a x4 2.0 PCIe BUS to service the single slot.

Any Thunderbolt enclosures/adapters such as the Sonnet III-D or Netstor NA211TB with 2 or more slots require an additional PCIe-to-PCIe bridge chip to split the x4 2.0 PCIe BUS (Thunderbolt) to additional buses. That additional bridge adds configuration complexity and it seems the Apple firmware can hang on bootup, presumably in a infinite loop attempting to configure those bridges but failing to do so.

I recall @squinks having the same issue with his Sonnet III-D that was resolved upon using a Sonnet SEL.

Is this the issue that causes the boot to black screen half the time when I boot with 2 eGPUs daisy chained? Interesting. I wonder if I should be running a PCIe splitter instead. I'm just doing GPU rendering so it should't slow me down.

I have to say that the software on this board stinks. Just wrote a long, technical post and the whole thing vanished when I hit "post".

MVC, Do you think the EFI mod would allow the on board Thunderbolt port to provide consistent display output on my 2014 15" MBPr + 750M during eGPU operation? If so, I'll mail you 2 cards.

After this post, I'll need to spend the evening catching up on work but I wanted to report some more findings. All of my tests are using both of my TITAN cards daisy chained because my goal is to have both of them running satisfactorily, which I believe I've found a pretty good solution for. If I did these tests again, I would have a few displays setup with each connection so I could tally the functional display outputs on each boot. I didn't have all of that gear at once so I tested HDMI yesterday and Display Port today. Also, I am using the Default OS X Graphics Driver for these tests. My past experiences are that it runs the cards about identical to the Nvidia Web Drivers in regard to display output but the Default OS X Graphics Driver seems to have better stability during CUDA rendering. The regular GTX TITANs have full support from the default drivers but note that the TITAN Black or TITAN Z does not. They both load as NVIDIA Chip Model. I have tested all of these myself.

Components:

-2014 15" MBPr + 750M OS X 10.10.1

-Corsair RM750 PSU

-x2 Akitio Thunder2 Expansion Boxes

-x2 GTX TITANS (x1 Asus, x1 EVGA)

-x2 Powered Risers

*Display output through Display Ports on TITANS worked 12 out of 16 boots. Only one of the cards would provide output at a time and which one seems to be designated at random. It doesn't seem to have any relation to whether the display was plugged in during boot or not.

*HDMI provides approximately the same results but sometimes the "chosen" port is the proprietary HDMI port on the laptop instead of the HDMI ports on the eGPUs and the success rate seems to be a little bit higher, possibly because of there being 3 ports instead of 2.

*DVI has not been tested extensively but I have tried them maybe 5 times with zero success.

*The spare TB2 port on the laptop will output to a Thunderbolt Display approximately 30% of the time.

***I acknowledge this data collection may not be presented to the scientific standards of some users and I don't care because this forum is not my full time job. If it is misleading or not based on good evidence, that is a different story and I will happily remove or edit the info. Many of us only have so much we can give and I expect most users here are not interested in being full time eGPU makers. We are building these machines to assist in other interests. TechInferno is not academia and if it were, I probably wouldn't want to help out at all. With that said, I am very thankful. I just think it's silly to be on here ridiculing people for things like typos or seeming "amateur."

Yeah, nobody calls it that.

"rMBP" if you want anyone to know what you are talking about.

I have a rMBP 15" 2012 and it has had no issues with multiple Titans.

Will try with my TB2 devices. If you actually got output on HDMI from the eGPU, good for you, and great news as most can't do that.

I never tried past 3 boots so maybe I will try 4-5 and see if that does it.

In all this I don't see how you are powering the Titans. Both PSU and how you trigger it is important.

HDMI output on the GPU is about as consistent as output on the proprietary TB2 and HDMI ports. Both are basically like rolling dice. I haven't gotten anything from the DVI ports though. I feel comfortable saying they won't work. I don't have a good cable/display setup handy to test the Display Port through the cards.

I don't remember the name of it but I'm running the Corsair 750 with a little plug device I picked up at this computer thrift store in my neighborhood. It accomplishes the same thing as the paperclip trick. Maybe it's the PLEX switch you mention above but I don't remember the name. I've got a Kill-A-Watt meter as well. With both cards rendering, it pulls between 410 and 450 watts.

I just wish I could figure out how to get a consistent response from any one of these ports. I don't care for enhanced graphics, just need large display to do work on.

You need to use science to your advantage.

First and foremost, details. Does MBPr = rMBP? Never seen it that way before. 15"?

Did you do all the kext mods? When it does work, does it work perfectly? How do the Titans show up in System Profiler?

How are you powering them...etc, etc.

When you say "external output, period" what do you mean?

From rMBP or are you connecting an external display? Or do you mean, no output at all from rMBP?

I meant MBPr 15". I am certain I've got all the kext mods correct. I've been using this setup for a month or so. The GPUs show up both as GTX TITAN in System Profiler. They are currently powered via powered risers (also powering the Akitios via the risers) from a Corsair 750. I have tried every arrangement for powering them that I know (Akitio's included power supply & molex>barrel plug) and each combination brings the same results with this setup. By "external output, period" I am referring to display output from the free TB port and the HDMI port on the laptop. By "period" I mean to highlight that the issue with display output is not only with the ports on the eGPU, but also the proprietary ports on the MBPr while having the eGPU connected. I have read the same reports from other TechInferno users but there hasn't been any resolution found.

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Maybe I should add this in the other thread. I'm not sure.

Once everything is booted, it runs great 98% of the time. Sometimes I get a freeze during intense GPU operation that is a different type of freeze than I have seen with my applications. The screen freezes and the cursor stays as a pointer and I must reboot myself.

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One more thing. I am running the most recent Web Drivers but I discovered my TITANs will load the same in the System Profiler without it. They also produce essentially equivalent benchmarks and render performance on the Default OS X Graphics Driver. I expect you already knew this but it's pretty cool.

Just a note, my 2014 MBPr GT 750M does not just have issues with external output through the eGPU but also from the proprietary ports on the laptop. This includes the free TB2 port and the HDMI port. Each of them function maybe 1 out of 4-5 boots. I have also found that the eGPU (2x Amities + 2x GTX Titans) will give output through HDMI with approx. the same frequency (1 of 4-5 tries).

MVC, thanks for all the help and info. I am wondering if you might have suggestions for getting a display output straight from the MBPr to work. I'm running a MBPr 2014 w/ GT 750M, 2x Akitios with 2x GTX TITANs and often have to boot up to 10 times before I can get my display to boot. I don't want accelerated graphics. I'm just rendering with Octane. I keep seeing in your posts and others that the MBPrs have issues getting external output from the eGPUs but I have issues getting external output period, whenever an eGPU is connected. I'm not sure if this is a separate issue or the same, but if it's all the effect of the same cause, it might help to discuss it that way? Just a thought. Looking forward to what gets learned here, as I love my MBPr for video editing and want to be able to rely on it (mores) for animation rendering as well.

Ok, time to put down the shotgun and be methodical.

At the very least you should be able to see the GPU in System Profiler.

Later today I am going to put up a link for modded kexts. They will be for 10.10.1 and latest Web Driver ONLY. I think it is likely that if someone can miss the note about powering the PSU then they might have buggered the kext mods. If newbies all used same modded kexts we could rule out that as an error point.

I have 2 folders on my desktop. One is called "virgin" and one is called "eGPU modded"

I start with a fully updated system with web drivers running then I drag the 3 kexts from S/L/E to both folders. This makes copies in both folders. Note that by so doing I have changed their ownership.

Next I do the mods to the ones in modded folder. I drag them to kextdrop and install them. Then I run a "repair permissions." You will see the parts of the kexts get their permissions reset to being owned by system.

Next I verify that my boot args are right. In terminal I run "nvram -p". A bunch of text shows up, boot args are in there. Make sure that the devmode and NVIDIA driver both appear.

If they do, shutdown and connect eGPU. It is absolutely 1000% CRUCIAL that you verify that PSU for eGPU is on. Turning on switch is not enough. They don't "sense" that power is needed. Either PLEX switch or paperclip.

Don't connect external monitor yet. Just boot using standard display connection. If you have done everything right it will appear in System Profiler. If rom revision says "Preset 1.0.0" they you probably aren't using web drivers. If it says "VBIOS 80.xx...." Then you are.

For most TB2 macs you will not get display output from an NVIDIA card. You will be able to run CUDA apps like Octane and Resolve. Also OpenCL.

If you see "NVIDIA chip model" then you have buggered it up somewhere.

Note that if you re-install the web driver at any point it will overwrite the Nvdastartup kext. No problem, just drag the modded one from folder on desktop in kextdrop and install, then repair permissions.

If everything gets messed up, no need for complete reinstall of OS. Just drag the virgin kexts into kextdrop and repair perms and reboot. Will get you back to square one.

Once I get the modded kexts up and people follow instructions EXACTLY we will see greater successes.

Googling stuff and running oddball fixes from the web will just make a mess of things.

Thank you for your input. The TITAN and TITAN Black are both from an older architecture (Kepler, I believe), which the 780 and 780Ti falls into. Both these cards should have no problem running on their own, especially with a Sonnet III-D. Since you have three graphics cards, I don't think you can run them on SLI at all.

The problems we're experiencing at the moment is related to the new Maxwell architecture, which for some odd reason, wouldn't work with the exact same laptop and exact same PCIe chassis.

I realize this, just thought it might somehow add some insight. I realize it may be completely unrelated problems but the symptoms are pretty much exactly the same so this info may help someone findan answer. Who knows.

I'm not running them on SLI. I'm running them for Octane Render software. No need for SLI.

Thank you for your input. I've also been looking forward to getting a reply from someone with an Akitio chassis as well, to see whether it's limited to Sonnet enclosures.

This further confirms that the problem lies with the 750M dGPU in the 15" MacBook Pros. I'm eagerly waiting for an EFI update from Apple, otherwise, let's see what NVIDIA GM200 GPUs offer, otherwise, it looks like the III-D is just an expensive paperweight.

My latest setup is giving me these exact issues. It's a 2014 MBPr 750M with 2 Akitios, 1 with a TITAN and 1 with a TITAN Black via daisy chain. I can run one of these cards on it's own with no problem, but I'm hoping to run both of them. I am getting boot about 60% of the time, and black screen the rest. Maybe this info will help with problem solving, who knows.

1x TITAN = boots every time

1x TITAN + 1x TITAN Black = same black screen boot issues reported elsewhere in this thread

Looks great! I followed your guide successfully except I used a 970 and not a titan. However, I can't seem to get any other external displays to work. Could you (or anyone else) help me with this? Ive got 1 monitor plugged in via thunderbolt (adapted to HDMI) and another plugged in over HDMI. It would be great if I wasn't just limited to 1 external and 1 internal. Thanks!

I've used 3 different cards with my MBPr and Akitio now. They can all be used with external monitors bit you must boot with the monitor unplugged and plug it in within the first few seconds after your desktop loads.

When I learned this, I was just remembering that even without an eGPU, my Thunderbolt Monitor wouldn't turn on until my desktop loads during bootup and thinking it was worth a try. It works almost every time. If it doesn't work for some reason, I just reboot. It is a little annoying but it works and it's worth it.

I would expect that there is a modification we could use with the tunneling commands in the kext files that would change this because my guess is that the issue has to do with the fact that the Apple Thunderbolt monitor and some of the Thunderbolt hubs are the only peripherals that could tunnel to other devices through Thunderbolt before the kext modification. Now that I think about it, some of the extra Kexts may not be necessary for use without enhanced graphics. I'll try that in the next few days and post my results. I may be onto something here.

I think that answers the question. The prompt lists what is used in the test. It was just the Titan Z. Here's another that includes the 750M. This seems like exactly what the scores would be if only 1 core was being used. Thanks for this. I had been scouring for info but the benchmark thing seemed like it would not bring me the answers I was looking for. Glad I did it!

http://www.mediafire.com/view/acu3y6cxac3nf4t

another member just posted in the Octane forums a screenshot of both Titan Z cards loaded with drivers so I know it's possible. I'll give an update.

I don't know much about benchmarking. Had some programs running in the background and such but this is the score I got in Luxmark testing only the Titan Z:

Simple File Sharing and Storage.

I do not believe that you are using both halves of the card, just one.

A few rounds of Lexmark OpenCl Benchmark will show you one way or the other.

Or CUDA-Z, but Lexmark would show for sure, OpenCl is additive, so each card can add to score.

But it looks like driver only loaded for one of the two cards on the board.

Aren't those windows applications, though? If they are windows applications, I don't think they would help me determine if both sides are being used in OS X. If you have any idea how I could investigate that, please let me know. I'm really curious. The driver thing is suspicious. BUT, in Mavericks, it booted as only 1 card with the driver and renders were actually slower. So, if I never updated to Yosemite, it would appear as if both sides were probably being used. This makes it hard to really tell.

PS - I will run some benchmarks probably on Sunday. Just real busy with work rn.

EDIT - Just saw Luxmark has an OS X version. Downloading it now.

@garytyler another interested to eGPU for rendering here.

My experience started with the mindset of upgrading my business subnotebook for 3D modelling, animation, VFX, rendering.

For cost/benefit reason I choose an AMD card (HD 7950 Boost 3GB), that is working good with C4D, HitFilm and Indigo Renderer.

Problem is I underestimated the time for the availability of OpenCL pure GPU renderer able to work with C4D, so will look next year if maintain my AMD card or go for Nvidia.

How did you work with Octane? Able to offload totally rendering to GPU?

Yeah. It works really good. I'm pretty sure Octane is only working with Nvidia cards right now . There is more info on my newer setup with a Titan Z here: http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/8469-%5Bwip%5D-2014-15-macbook-pro-gt750m-titan_z%4016gbps-tb2-akitio-thunder2-osx10-10-a.html

I don't know much about Indigo Renderer but it looks pretty nice. No integrated plugin though, right?

You just gave me an idea! So I disconnected my eGPU (AkiTio/GTX970). I created a new Adobe Premiere project and tried to render 13min video and it took me to complete the task for 18mins! Now I connected back my eGPU I'm using Apple Cinema Display, but instead outputting the display from the GPU via display port adapter, I daisy chain my my display and mac mini to Akitio and opened the same project and was able to render the video in just under 3mins! (Note: In the Project Settings I selected the OpenGL Renderer instead of Software Only. I made some previous file modifications in order for premiere to use other listed GPU) Before when I run premiere with this setup Cinema Display=display port adapter=eGPU=thunderbolt cable=AkiTio, my premiere always crash! can't even complete to render or edit a video!

Now, If I could only figure out how to select a different GPU for my Steam Game then this is a good indication, I might as well go back to my beloved Thunderbolt Display!!!!!

Anyone knows if there are any settings in Steam to select another GPU other than the internal GPU of MBP or Mini?

Yeah! Big GPUs aren't really "needed" in video editing but they are probably going to catch on. Premiere has has GPU support for a few years now and After Effects gets a major boost from CUDA. I don't entirely understand the setup you are talking about but I can say my Thunderbolt monitor was a pain in the ass with Mavericks + eGPU but it's a breeze in Yosemite.

correct, if you connect your thunderbolt display to akitio it work just fine, it will just daisy chain. What software you are using for 3D rendering? And how do you know if the titan-z is being used during the rendering process? Is there an option on your software to select which gpu to use?

try to run the benchmark with and without the GPU and see what is the result. Thanks!

I'm using Octane Render Cinma4D Plugin. I know I'm using the Titan Z for rendering because my renders are hauling ass, but yeah there is a settings window for available GPUs where you can set which ones you want to put to work and how much. Here's a pic:

PS - I am in the middle of a render right now. I'll run that benchmark tonight or tomorrow.

What monitor are your running? Is that a thunderbolt or cinema display?

Edit: I just saw you are using Thunderbolt Display. I believe, you are not utilizing your GPU in this setup. If you click the 'About this Mac' you would see the internal GeForce GT 750M as the Graphic display and not the Titan Z. Can you post the screen shot the about information of your MBP?

That's right. I'm not utilizing the GPU for accelerated graphics, but that's not my intention. I'm using it for 3D animation rendering. I can post a screenshot but it's as you say it is... GT750M running the monitor. This is what I would prefer, so that the Titan Z is doing nothing but rendering. For what I'm doing, this is a pretty amazing setup because I've got the dual Titan Z rendering and my onboard GT750M to run software on, and it's all on a lap top.

From what I have read, the Titan Z isn't all that great for accelerated graphics but it is great for rendering animation. I don't know a lot about the graphics part because I'm not a gamer, but if I plug the thunderbolt display into the Akitio, it works fine, though I don't think it's doing anything more than a daisy chain. I've got a couple DVI monitors laying around but no HDMIs. Not sure if I could test much on DVI but if anyone is interested and wants me to then I will.

Does this mean running a benchmark is a waste of time?

Also, Tech Inferno Fan, the Titan Z is also a dual card. Might be worth mentioning in the notes. It's marketed at 12 GB vram but it only runs at 6 GB. Kinda strange and mostly marketing I think. I don't exactly know what it all means.

@garytyler , nice work there. Thank you for your post.

Your top notch hardware has the capacity to place you at the top of the leaderboard at http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/6578-implementations-hub-tb-ec-mpcie.html#dx11 . Did you want to bootcamp your system with Win8.1 to be able to run those benchmarks?

I have a Windows 8.1 Bootcamped already. I haven't booted it since upgrading to Yosemite but I'll give that a shot. I've never done a benchmark. Should I just download GPU-Z? Is that the software you use for that?

Also, Tech Inferno Fan, the Titan Z is also a dual card. Might be worth mentioning in the notes. It's marketed at 12 GB vram but it only runs at 6 GB. Kinda strange and mostly marketing I think. I don't exactly know what it all means.

I previously posted this thread with a similar setup but with a GTX 780: http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/8357-egpu-octane-render.html

System

• 2014 MBP Retina w/ GT750M, i7-4960HQ 2.6Ghz, 16GB RAM, 2xTB2-16Gbps ports
  
• Thunderbolt Monitor plugged in the second TB2
  
• OS X 10.10
  
• Octane Render 2.1 Cinema 4D plugin

eGPU parts

• NVidia Titan Z 12GB dual-GPU 2.5-slot card 10.5" long card
  
• http://forum.techinferno.com/enclosures-adapters/7205-us%24200-akitio-thunder2-pcie-box-16gbps-tb2.html#post98210
  
• barrel-to-molex adapter as per http://forum.techinferno.com/enclosures-adapters/8317-%5Bguide%5D-making-molex-barrel-adapter.html
  
• RM750 PSU

Details

The AKiTiO top shell was removed and vice grips used to bend the case at two places to accomodate the video card.

The fan on top is the stock fan that comes in the Akitio. I just fitted it to the top to blow air down onto the backplate of the card. I ran the power wire behind the Akitio board to keep out of the way.

The little cables that stick out from the Akitio board do rub the Aluminum backplate of the Titan Z. I placed a small piece of gaffer's tape in that spot on the backplate for extra caution but I don't think it's really much of a concern. Doesn't hurt that the fan is blowing onto it at that very spot.

Since I'm doing 3D rendering and I won't be able to add cards to this setup, I thought I should just return my GTX 780 while I can and get the dual action of the Titan Z, if I could get it running. It wasn't a piece of cake, but it looks like everything is running smooth now.

Initially, I was running Mavericks. I literally just pulled the 780 out and put the Titan Z in and it booted right up with the driver. But, I experienced some crashes when booting Cinema 4D Octane Render or in Cinema 4D Octane Render. Since there were some recent driver updates from Nvidia, I figured that might be a good next step but I needed Yosemite. The update was not very smooth but I got her going now. It really takes some finessing and following directions in the below below closely, but also with a knowledge of why. It seems an extra restart during the process can throw things off.

After the update, I was still sometimes getting a boot to a black screen after the Apple logo. The computer would be running and the card would be on but the screen was black. This is when I tried out the powered riser I had laying around and rigged up a Molex>Barrel plug. After that, things seemed to smooth out. I grabbed a little case from a computer thrift store by my house (Free Geek – Computer/Technology Reuse, Education, Recycling & Sales) to put everything in but the riser wouldn't allow the card to sit nicely in there. Chatting with the guys in there (knowledgable bitcoin miners) they convinced me that just using the Molex>Barrel Plug from my 750 watt PSU alone would solve any power issues in the Akitio and card slot because that should be drawing at least 100 watts from the PSU to the Akitio. I gave it a shot and so far so good. I'm not using a powered riser, only using the Molex>Barrel plug to power the Akitio. The bitcoin miners said powered risers are usually used to prevent too much power draw from blowing out a motherboard and that because I'm not going into a motherboard with it, I don't need to worry about that. They said putting more watts into the Akitio with the Molex>Barrel plug should solve the issue, if it's a power issue. I still don't know if it was or not for sure.

At this point things are running nicely. When I upgraded to the Titan Z in Mavericks, I saw about a 40% increase in Render speed. After updating to Yosemite, it seems I have gained bout 10% exta render speed and now my Thunderbolt monitor is no longer finicky - I can just leave it plugged in all the time.

If anyone has insight as to why my card shows as 2 separate cards, only 1 of them titled 'Titan Z' in System Report, I am curious if this is expected. Of course, this is a dual card, but in Octane Render, it only loads as 1 card so I'm hoping my speed loss isn't because of only 1/2 of the Titan Z is being used.

References used for assistance updating to Yosemite

http://forum.techinferno.com/implementation-guides/8059-%5Bguide%5D-2013-15-macbook-pro-gt750m-gtx780ti%4016gbps-tb2-sonnet-ee-iii-d-osx10-10-a.html

External GPU - V²C - ViDock :: Topic: macBook -> viDock -> 970GTX -> Oculus Rift (1/1)

A Thunderbolt GPU on a Mac : How-to | Le journal du lapin

I've updated the card model in my original post. It doesn't seem like I can post photos here but I've got some of my setup I'm happy to add.

There isn't much info on this board about using eGPUs for GPU based 3D animation software like Octane Render. I just thought I would post that my experience is great so far. I wasn't able to find much evidence prior to my build so I figured I would make a post incase someone is curious how effective this is in the future. Here are my stats:

–2014 MBP Retina w/ 750M

–Thunderbolt Monitor plugged in the second TB port

–OS X 10.9.5

–Octane Render 2.1 Cinema 4D plugin

–EVGA GTX 780 3 GB

–Akitio Thunder2 without any riser, just a bent open case and the card inserted and the stock power adapter

–RM750 PSU

The only imperfection is that my Thunderbolt Monitor is a little bit less reliable as far as being detected, but it has always been a POS. If I plug it in during the login screen, it always gets detected. I learned this trick before the eGPU but I think the reliability does drop when using the GPU. Either way, it's pretty much a non-issue.

As far as enhanced graphics, I have no idea what that involves to be honest. The GPU renders my animations great and that's what I care about.

Also, after reading this forum a lot, I thought I needed Boot Camp installed for some reason. I didn't completely understand why but I spent a day getting it installed then realized I don't even need it and everyone on here is just talking about it because they are gamers. More power to you guys, though! Thanks for figuring this out and sharing the knowledge!