Fed

So you take the Akitio box apart for the TB connector?

Thanks! That's great. I'll check it out.

I understand.

So either use Sonnet IIID and have it fully enclosed but pay $1300CAD or $450CAD for the other one and have it open (for a GTX970). Right?

Thanks. But why then have an enclosure at all? Why not build something cheaper and then try to enclose that somehow?

I am seeing that people who have an enclosure still seem to have the GPU outside the box. Why is this?

Well he has a GTX 970 (connected to TB1) and a 3d Mark FireStrike graphics score of 9225

I have a GTX 970 (connected to TB2) and a 3d Mark FireStrike graphics score of 11188. That is just 82% of my setup and 75% of a desktop PCs performance.

That's just it, I don't really understand those numbers. It looks to me like his score of 9225 is 82% of your 11188 (using a TB2), which is 75% of a desktop PC, making his setup 61% of a desktop PC. Right?

My current GT650 on board GPU gives me decent frame rates as is. I'm not sure how to generate the graphics score using my rMBP. So my question is will the eGPU be worth it?

Any opinions?

Great. I saw some of those already. I am wondering if the bottleneck of the Thunderbolt 1 would make the eGPU improvement in speed not worth getting a GTX970. Any opinion?

15"

i7 quad 2.7

i believe it is a 650 internal GPU

external monitor

i do not yet have an external GPU

Thanks for responding

I am really glad that I have found this form. There's lots of information here, but I am finding it rather overwhelming.

I have an early 2013 retina MacBook Pro, fully decked out. I am thinking of setting up an eGPU using thunderbolt 1 (I assume that is what I have). I would like to use the best video card and enclosure possible. My question is, what kind of performance increase can I expect? Also would using a GTX 970 be overkill due to the bottleneck of thunderbolt 1?

thank you very much for your help. I know this information is probably within the fast stores of information at this for me, but I can't seem to find the answer to my question on my own. Any help would be greatly appreciated.