Simurgh5

Both.

Should work as far as I can see. I'd not care about the fans because the Akitio Fans alone are enough to wake a sleeping cat. ;-)

It looks quite high, this fanless card - but I guess you checked the size.

I am very sure that you need to get another chard if you want this to run without additional power supply modding. 

I have the same setup (though 2014 MBPr) with this 750 Ti https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B00IKF9F6C/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1. Has been working completely stable for days...

@goalque,

yes, there's something wrong, I'm trying to resolve it. I'd love to test such a version. Thanks! 

My eGPU is still the 750Ti – is this sufficient?

And does the Sonnett Echo SE ii somehow stand in the way?

Hey Goalque,

as always I cannot appreciate your work enough.

I'm gonna try it and I think I got the basic procedure but can you please elaborate a little bit on what exactly this ROM is and where I can get it.

Can confirm this for the very same MBA, Windows 8.1 :-)

There is an Option within the Settings of the Adobe apps - Check that this is correct. With my Setup and the Script Adobe Apps are able to utilize it via OpenGL - otherwise maybe one could try CUDA?

That would be awesome - maybe this solves the issues with the backlight when the dGPU is activated and maybe even the battery life issue.

For me Pizzacats link did not work - I just googled the current beta myself and entered that link.

@Philipp_Riedl: If support in German would help you, e.g. clarifying the steps - just send me PN.

@goalque:

I was finally able to test Version 0.9.5 on both devices. On the MBA where the -a mode is not required, it works perfectly well. However, on the rMBP (2014, GT750m) it's a step back – I'm back to manually plugging in the eGPU during the Apple Logo. Otherwise I end up with black screen boots again.

Normally, when you would close the lid, it goes into clamshell mode. But that doesn't seem to be working with eGPU. What I really want is for the internal screen to not be rendered at all, so turning down the brightness isn't really an option :/

When I say that it reverts back to the iGPU, all signs point to the fact that the dedicated card is working, except when I run heaven benchmark. Normally I get around 22fps on high settings with the GTX 960, but when I change any display settings (like mirroring the internal display to the external display), the benchmark goes down to 4fps. So yeah....

Try starting the Macbook, immediately closing it after pressing the power button. My configuration shows the following behavior: the background light is activated and stays turned on, however the internal screen is not rendered. Neither does it show anything (staying in Apple Logo) nor does it appear in the system profiler / monitor settings. So I conclude that (though the display light is activated) that I can use something like a clamshell mode.

@goalque:

If I don't change any part of the configuration (starting Windows/changing from HDMI to DVI Monitor/changing the primary monitor/activating gfxCardStatus/...), it works 100% reliable. All issues that I ever observed are driver related (the background light of the Retina Display Turns off during iGPU/dGPU switches – also silverlight is a bitch but it has always been...).

So regarding the booting part only: I never observed any problems. The eGPU-Output actives during the Apple Logo Boot and the Login is already displayed on both internal and external screen.

update on what happens after disabling FileVault: I disabled FileVault to see how it affects the EFI freezing issue when connecting TB. I froze on my first try, so I booted back into OS X without eGPU and reran the automate-egpu with -a option (I never messed with automate-egpu before I disabled FileVault). I was able to avoid a freeze 5/7 times.

One thing to note is that disabling FileVault moves OS X boot up to right after EFI Boot menu selection versus OS X boot up after log in when FileVault is enabled. This is important because for test cases where FileVault was disabled. If I select the Mac HD quickly after I connect the TB cable, OS X will boot up but the eGPU won't be recognized. System Report will show only a NVIDIA chip model is attached rather than saying a NVIDIA GTX 970 is attached. To fix this issue you have to wait about 10 seconds at the EFI boot menu after attaching the TB cable (if you have FileVault disabled)

Maybe it's just my feeling, but it seems like power up/boot up/eGPU recognition was working better when FileVault was enabled.

edit: Maybe waiting the ten seconds at EFI boot menu after connecting TB doesn't work. I now had two boots that didn't recognize the eGPU.

edit2: So I noticed a new pattern. If I connect the eGPU at EFI boot menu, and the eGPU fan spins at a normal speed the OS X will recognize it after boot up. If the eGPU fan is spinning at max speed when connected, OS X will not recognize it. This seems to be a problem introduced after disabling FileVault, I didn't run into this issue when it was enabled.

I'm fairly confident that this is the case. And it seems that subsequent tries after the max eGPU fan speed results in EFI freeze at plug in. I need to reset the power to the eGPU to get a working bootup again.

I observed exactly the opposite! When I disabled FileVault, all my trouble was gone. So if I enable FileVault (without Goalque's script), I will not get boot + recognition of the card. Only if I disable FileVault and plug in right after the Apple appears, it works without the script. With the script, it's all fine of course.

@goalque:

I finally tried the new version:

-m works great now – I am able to flexibly switch between mobile mode and eGPU mode. With significantly prolonged battery life using the default OS X driver. :-)

I have maybe one suggestion but this is more a matter of comfortableness: could one add a "mobile" mode as I called it so that you run the script, let's say "-mobileMode", and then the script reboots with the default OS X driver?

Just a suggestion – I can understand that there are more important things that you want to solve. (Thinking of El Capitan...)

Thanks for your guide – now that I read about your encouraging success, I'd like to give it another go with my Windows and eGPU...

I was wondering: Is it really necessary to install rEFInd from Windows? Because it seems a lot easier from Mac OS, so if it is basically the same, I'd try it from Mac OS. What do you think?

Hey All,

is OS X 10.10.4 necessary in order to get a eGPU running?

I´m still on 10.8.5 and i do not have any luck to even see my eGPU setup

My setup:

2011 15" MBP dGPU AMD Radeon 6490M 256mb

Sonnet Echo Express Pro/34 via Thunderbolt

PE4H PCIe adapter

GTX 750 graphic card

700W external PSU

If someone could give me a opinion if that setup would work under 10.10.4 i will update asap.

thanks for reading

I don't know a definite answer – but my intuition is that this is not about the OS itself. 10.10.4 is definitely not obligatory but it might be that it helps you with configuration issues.

If I were you, I'd take an external usb drive, install Yosemite on it and just try it out. :-)

I haven't tried the experimental mode but I will be sure to check it out. I doubt it's going to work though The issue isn't just that there's no video when the eGPU is connected to the "wrong port", there's no startup chime or USB initialization either. The computer just seems to hang forever like that. I'll have another go at it because I'm curious, but what I'm seeing here might be limited to my own specific hardware combination.

And exactly that's the problem -a mode should solve. It's not about recognizing the eGPU, it's about being able to start at all! I have exactly the same behavior without the script and only with the extra boost, I can start the 2014-rMBP.

OS X 10.10.4 – running for both devices.

Just download the latest driver manually, put it on the Desktop and let the magic work. (;

I had the theory that Silverlight tries to apply some kind of security so that one won't redirect the display stream and do evil stuff like recording it. I also observed Silverlight to be very sensitive to any changing of the screen configuration (like adding a monitor) while it is running – that was before the eGPU. I have the feeling this is more than bad programming. I assume it's a feature for the silverlight host.

I also tried booting into Windows 8.1 using this method. The eGPU isn't detected at all. I've installed the latest NVIDIA drivers both when unplugged and then when plugged. Also, after booting out of Windows, I cannot get back in to OS X when I switch on the computer (i.e. black screen freeze again), I solved this problem by booting into OS X without the eGPU plugged and running the script with the [-a] parameter.

You are right, that's because the background process is re-doing the hack after each boot – which is necessary. Windows of course won't do that for us. I was trying the same as you. My intuition is that we won't solve this problem until we activate the Intel Iris Pro. (The same setup works on the MBA without any issues so I assume this is about the dGPU.) I tried the Iris Pro Guide which is provided here but it results in a black screen during Windows login for me. I know through several tries that the hack does what it should – the iGPU can be activated. I assume that it's the dGPU that is interfering. So one would need to kill the dGPU on the EFI level probably. But this goes far beyond my skills.

Another way to go might be figuring out what goalque's discovery is actually doing so that one could teach windows to do the same.

Interestingly, I observed that goalque's hack skips reFIND (I tried the reFIND + apple_set_os.efi hack – this could activate the iGPU but most of the time I observed these problems.)

Hey people,

does anyone have any experience using Silverlight and an eGPU?

With my setup (see signature), Silverlight does not work, when I have the eGPU connected.

I know that Silverlight always switches to the dGPU and sometimes I also have trouble with Silverlight and the NVIDIA Webdriver (the switch just turns off the LCD backlight). But as long as the eGPU is there, Silverlight will always state "plugin error".

I'd appreciate very much if you could share your experiences or even solutions.

Cheers,

Simurgh5

RE: http://forum.techinferno.com/mac-os-x-discussion/10289-script-enabling-nvidia-egpu-screen-output-os-x-7.html#post137949

Firstly a big thank you for the script ! (very good job!)

Is what i could run my EGPU on my thunderbolt display?

For now, the thunderbolt display uses that the graphics card iris

And above all i do not have another external monitor, so your help would be welcome

I have a theory. Could you borrow an external monitor? If yes, I'd like you to test the following setup:

1) Connect an external monitor to the eGPU and boot with eGPU.

2) Make the external display your primary monitor (within the OS X Monitor settings drag and drop the menu bar to the external display)

3) For me, OS X now says that all displays are driven through my eGPU and the benchmarks confirm this it seems (with a small drop on the internal display due to Optimus, as would be expected).

If this works out, one could conclude that the trick is to make OS X think that there is an external display connected. (I think this has been suggested before.)

Now there is a parameter [-a] which launches two background processes, the other “automate-egpu-daemon” takes care of the following:

1) If you have a multi-slot enclosure (such as NA211TB, III-D, SE II) and you are using a Maxwell card with a dGPU equipped MBP (750M), the freezing issue at booting stage is completely eliminated. You can press option key to have boot screen without freezing or boot straight into the OS X. I discovered this by comparing 2014/2011 Mac mini’s differences. Big thanks to @Simurgh5 for testing my theory.

[...]

3) If you accidentally disabled the web driver, “automate-egpu-daemon” forces developer mode and web driver on each boot.

The other process, “automate-egpu-agent” detects in real-time if NVDAStartup.kext is changed. If you edit it or reinstall the web driver via Nvidia’s own UI, you will get a pop-up window that says:

“Nvidia driver change detected. In order to use eGPU, your system must be reconfigured. Click OK to execute automate-eGPU”.

@goalque:

Great work! I gratefully confirm that the automatic mode is running smoothly for several hours now and that it does what it should: The Webdriver is enabled when disabled and the rMBP can be booted with the eGPU connected. This is more than I'd ever have expected when I started my eGPU project.

I have one (hopefully) small request for the next version: Could you make the Webdriver re-enabling optional? [For whatever reason, I am experiencing much lower battery life with the Webdriver enabled. I've always had this before so this is not due to the script.] Or if you think this feature might be confusing for other users: could you tell me what I'd have to change in the script? I am familiar with programming in general but not very much in the shell – so I'm afraid to change anything in your beautiful script without knowing all dependencies within it.

I'm voluntering for anything if you want to test the 750m + ... configuration