Irishman

Cool! Where did you see the tease?

I wonder if anyone has gotten this to work with any Apple Hardware with TB2 or TB1?

So, it seems that Apple's El Capitan was released to the public with the (then) latest nVidia web driver rolled into it. In fact, installing El Cap on my stock late 2012 21.5" iMac saw the nVidia web driver uninstalled and replaced with the one Apple offers. When I launch the Metro Redux games, I see that the performance benefit I saw with the web drivers before El Cap still intact. Great news. I an getting notified through the nVidia Driver Manager on my machine that a newer version of the web driver is now available. Has anyone upgraded this to see what it does?

I know I'm probably necroposting, but it was such a provocative statement I had to ask. Do you know what he meant??

How do you mean, "aren't respectful of the hard work of others"?

That's encouraging. I have an iMac of the same year as you (only difference is i5 650M, 21.5") and have been considering seriously upgrading via a TB eGPU solution.

Thank you, Nando! This will be a big help for me in identifying parts to buy. Still reading the thread you linked to. In it, another poster identified a pre-made pack of 4 of these. Is there any reason other than cost not to avail myself of that pre-made pack? - - - Updated - - - So, continuing in my trend of stupid questions that make you lose faith in humanity - has everyone who has successfully gotten this to work had to use a paper clip? It seems like there's an obvious fault in the design of their plugs (that a paperclip would be required to pass power).

So what exactly needs to be soldered and how??

Any recommendations for small 960s that will let me close the case? And finally (for today) is this possible without soldering? And what is the "paperclip trick"?

Thanks! So, I want to warn everyone that I will be asking a lot of stupid questions through this process. Thanks in advance for all the patient help! The PSU would be perfectly safe sitting exposed on the desktop next to the Akitio enclosure? A half length GTX 960 would fit entirely inside the Akitio? Since I'm going to be using this eGPU with a 21.5" iMac, once I've gotten it up and running Yosemite, can I push my iMac back towards the wall and place the monitor in front of it?? In other words, once I'm using the eGPU monitor, will I need to go back and forth to the iMac screen? I'm looking at one of these: BenQ 27" LED HD Monitor Black RL2755HM - Best Buy ASUS VS278Q-P Black 27" 1ms (GTG) HDMI Widescreen LED Backlight LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 80,000,000:1 Built-in Speakers - Newegg.com

Okay, I've been checking up on PSUs from Newegg, Amazon and Best Buy, and came up with these possibilities: http://www.amazon.com/Rosewill-ARC-M450-Bronze-ATX12V/dp/B00LMNVKN0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1429804543&sr=8-1&keywords=Rosewill+ARC+M450+80+Plus+Bronze+450W+ATX12V+v2.31+%26+EPS12V+v2.92+PFC+Power+Supply The specs don't include an 1x8 pin PCIe but the images on the product page do. Thoughts? Same on this one: Amazon.com: Lepa MaxBron 450W 80PLUS Bronze Hybrid Modular ATX Power Supply (B450-MB): Computers & Accessories If I wanted to pursue eGPU solutions that would avoid soldering, would that change anyone's recommendations so far?

Are there any parts recommendations if I want to avoid any soldering? I have no experience with it.

Thanks, Nando, for the advice. Seeing as how my late 2012 Ivybridge iMac isn't on the list, should I follow the recommendations that apply to the GT 650M-equipped rMBPs of the same model year? So, HDMI to pass signal from the 960 to an HDMI-equipped monitor. From my iMac, what should I use to connect to the GPU? One of the 2 Thunderbolt 1 ports I've got? Then adapt it to either HDMI or Displayport to the 960?

I'm thinking I would prefer something that fits within the Akitio enclosure. I understand that will limit my 960 GPU options to half-length cards? Something like these, I've been told: http://www.amazon.com/Gigabyte-Overclocked-GDDR5-Graphics-GV-N960IXOC-2GD/dp/B00SD9KZ96/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1429369289&sr=8-1&keywords=Gigabyte+GTX+960+Mini+ITX http://www.amazon.com/Asus-GTX960-MOC-2GD5-ASUS-Graphics-Cards/dp/B00SX4WZGC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1429369053&sr=8-1&keywords=ASUS+GTX960-MOC-2GD5 When you say I need a PC PSU, do you mean any modular PC PSU 450W or more? Could I get away with something a little lower-powered, like this? Thermaltake 430W TR2 ATX Power Supply Black W0070RUC - Best Buy Will it come with all the cables I need?

Thanks for that! It's helpful. Any insight into the other major components I'm looking at? What PSUs should I consider? Will it come with all necessary cabling? Again, consider I am a newb!

I’m considering an eGPU solution because my late 2012 iMac with GT 650M w/ 512MB VRAM is getting long in the tooth, graphically. I know my iMac only has Thunderbolt 1, which has less throughput than TB 2. DISCLAIMER: I have never built a Mac or PC! When I’ve sat down and thought about what I want to be able to do with an upgraded GPU it basically comes down to these: 1. 1080p 2. 60fps minimum in modern OSX games (I’m not considering Bootcamp at this point) 3. Hardware Accelerated PhysX if support for it ever comes to OS X 4. High or Ultra settings in games 5. Has to do the above with demanding new or upcoming games like Metro Redux (2033 and Last Light just being made available for Mac on Steam) AND Unreal Tournament – whenever it ships. It appears that – from the hardware perspective, there are three main components (main referring to price) that would be needed: 1. A Thunderbolt GPU 2. A Thunderbolt Monitor 3. A Chassis to contain the parts and make it look somewhat like you intended for it to be there In terms of parts I’ve read about it this thread, and other eGPU threads in MR, I’m considering the following: 1. EVGA GTX 960 2GB card $196.99 from Best Buy 2. Asus VE278Q 27” Thunderbolt monitor (2ms) $245.99 from Amazon 3. Akitio Thunder2 PCIe Box $216.99 from Amazon Given the parts outlined above, are any problems you can see that might make me steer in other directions? Alternate parts? Additional parts? I don’t know what I don’t know, so there are very likely vital parts I’m not considering because I’ve never done this kind of project before. (Just about the most “hacky” thing I’ve done on my Mac is to play around in Terminal when making a USB key for installing Mavericks) The other part where I am completely clueless would be editing Kernel Extensions. I can kind of wrap my mind around why it needs to be done – ie so your Mac OS install thinks the external TB GPU is actually a PCIe GPU installed inside your Mac – but beyond that, I don’t know what I don’t know. Any tips on the software side given the hardware I’ve expressed interest in above?? Thank you all so much in advance!!