NaxHz

1 hour ago, unapalada said:

When it boots unsuccessfully, device manager shows an error with the GTX either with:

 

Code 12 or a different error stating something about a firmware issue and need to resolve with BIOS settings

The latter one: I believe that's the code 35 issue I mentioned before.

Thanks for reporting back. 

Aha! What've you done? 

Maybe you should reinstall the whole Boot Camp partition then... That will be exhausting.

Good luck anyway. 

@unapalada

Apple finally updated their AMD graphics driver for Boot Camp to Crimson Edition!! Hooray!!! 

Though this driver is still Boot Camp exclusive, driver version 15.301.2101, which actually is the 15.301.1901 in my opinion and is two months old already. However, our code 12 problem seems to be fixed thanks to this new release. 

Please let me know how is your MacBook running after updating the Boot Camp exclusive AMD driver. Is the code 12 problem fixed? Or it just happens much less frequently? 

Anyway, good news for us!

On ‎23‎.‎03‎.‎2016 at 2:56 PM, unapalada said:

Hello again,

 

I've come across a slight issue after many hours of using my freshly setup egpu.

approximately 9 hours into using it, the whole system stopped suddenly and I was no longer able to use it.

 

after looking up device manager, I've been hit with an error 12 ( This device cannot find enough free resources that it can use. If you want to use this device, you will need to disable one of the other devices on this system. (Code 12) )

 

so this would mean I have to do a DSDT override but I'm just wondering why I was able to use the card for so long without any problems?

I had restarted many times just to triple check everything would keep loading the way it would but to get this suddenly is a bit annoying.

and so I was wondering if anyone knew an easier fix before I start trying to tinker the DSDT override

 

any help would be great!

 

thanks always

Same problem here, got unexpected code 12 very often.

I'm using the same MacBook Pro with M370 dGPU as yours, the same AKiTiO Thunder2 case and a GTX 960 2 GB Gaming Super Clocked from EVGA, and both powered by an EVGA 500W ITX PSU.

Software side I'm using Windows 10 Pro 64 bit (UEFI) with everything up to date, untouched Boot Camp drivers and the latest Nvidia desktop display driver downloaded direct from their website.

Sometimes I can boot into Windows with eGPU detected and enabled successfully, sometimes only detected with code 12 and sometimes just nothing but black screens on both internal display and external monitor.

And even I'm using eGPU right now, next minute when I reboot to install some programs and software updates, it fails to boot with eGPU enabled and report code 12 again, very annoying.

Disenabling dGPU didn't work for me, after rebooting another error code (I think it's code 35?) appeared, told me I should contact my manufacturer to update the BIOS (sorry, what?!?!) Enabled dGPU again and I got code 12 again.

Sorry, but I have no idea how to fix this, just keep trying reboot. I'm also researching for a solution...

I will follow this thread and keep my eye on this issue.

1 hour ago, Piqudo said:

Hello there!

 

 

@NaxHz I tried to PM you but you couldn't receive any PM, so I drop it here in hope you may read this.

 

I do as well live in Germany (but not German )and I have been reading a lot about doing the exact same you have done (I have the same Macbook Pro), for exactly the same purposes (1080p Ultra gaming!) and I wanted to know if you could spare some comments about your success on doing all the complex eGPU thing.

 

I am not an expert on these matters but I would really like to give it a try given the  macbook pro is a beast but the GPU is not at the same level than the rest of the hardware. I have some questions if you wouldn't mind to answer them, besides your overall experience in building up:

 

 - Where did you recommend to buy the "Akitio thunder 2" in Germany? In Amazon.de has quite a price and it is not easy to find it around in other sources...

 - How about the power cable? Do you use the Dell model?

 - Due to the main thread I read (below), I thought the only way to make the GPU fit was to actually bend the Akitio. Did you find a way to get a good GPU performance which actually fits in the Akitio?

Apologies if some things I said are quite basic, but I ain't no ace in this. Thanks a lot for your time and comments, I will be endlessly happy if you could drop some words on this. I am clueless for these stuff and I guess I am a bit scared to mess it up.

 

 

Regards!

 

NaxHz

 

Hi there, 

I bought my AKiTiO Thunder2 PCIe box from Strohmedia.de, but you have to sign up an account, otherwise you can't order anything. 

I've done some price research and compare about this box thanks to heise.de, you can see all the online offers that available to private customers here: http://www.heise.de/preisvergleich/akitio-thunder2-pcie-box-t2pc-tia-aktu-a1241207.html.

I use an ATX PSU, which is for a desktop PC building, not the old Dell power brick, you know, just for safety and convenience...

You can have an overview about choosing ATX PSU here: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-2547993/psu-tier-list.html

Yes, I've found some for myself, but you might be also interested in. I don't know how much would you spend on the GPU, so I write all of them down below. 

• Sapphire Radeon R9 380 2G D5 (ITX Compact), around 200 € (new) - Not recommend now, read above.
• EVGA GeForce GTX 960 SC GAMING (02G-P4-2962-KR), around 200 € (new) - Currently using
• Inno3D GeForce GTX 970 4 GB HerculeZ X1 (N97V-1SDN-M5DS), 320 € to 350 € (new)

Any other ITX-form GPUs would work, read more here: https://www.techinferno.com/index.php?/forums/topic/5661-us189-akitio-thunder2-pcie-box-16gbps-tb2/.

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And yes, my eGPU setup is successful. I should probably open a new topic to share my setup tour... 

But again, very similar to Gatsby's, only I use an ATX PSU and Windows 10, and I have an external monitor at the very beginning so disabling R9 M370X is not necessary for booting up and Nvidia driver installation. 

Let me know if you need a full setup tour. I would write one ASAP when I have time. 

13 minutes ago, wokermin said:

Goodluck with your setup. Mine was worthy because I got the card so cheap lol. Let me know if you need help. The procedure is quite straightforward just like how Gatsby posted. 

Yeah man, thanks again!

34 minutes ago, wokermin said:

 

Well for the case of HD 7990, you won't be able to use the internal display because the R9 M370X powers it [Intel's won't power it when another GPU is on].

Just disable the R9 M370X and the next time you boot, the display will only be the external (HD 7990 case). To my experience, for Nvidia you don't have to disable (must set the primary display to external - powered by the GTX); for AMD you will have to disable it because conflict between same display drivers and it will choose the internal before the external.  

 

Modifying the driver is also the way to update the driver for the external GPUs along with Crimson. Without it, you can't install both because the driver itself only shows that you're using the R9 M370X and there's no update for it >> no Crimson >> old driver for your card. If you don't want Crimson then just modifying only the display driver and update it through Device Manager. IF you only want the Crimson control panel then just modify the InstallManager.CFG (no need for further steps listed in that link -- at least I didn't have to), that only tricks it into install the new control panel. Then I'd recommend modify the display driver file that comes with the new driver packet (the same one that you use to modify the InstallManager.INF) to update the external through Device Manager. 

 

I'd still recommend using Nvidia cards for obvious reasons lol

Lol yeah after reading your posts I think I will just order a GTX 960 tomorrow and give it a try in the coming week. 

Thank you so much!! 

3 hours ago, wokermin said:

well I have the same MBPr with R9 M370X. I've tried both with a GTX 570 and [currently] using a HD 7990 (dual GPUs); and here are my thoughts:

+ choose GTX if you want an easy set up because it's a separate driver, and you can enable the R9 along with the GTX to extend the external display to internal display. The reason I'd do this because since the retina screen is so much better (in my case), the drag-and-drop method works. Playing games on a retina screen is much better even though full screen won't work, only for window and borderless mode. 

+ using the HD 7990 caused me a lot of troubles. As you know there will be 2 separated drivers in the machine and Bootcamp Catalyst driver is dated (april last year i believe). BUT there are ways you can trick the GPUs to accept the new drivers by modifying the display driver inf file that go along with the new AMD driver. Same goes for Crimson installation because if you just run the setup, it will only shows as M370X and there will be an error as "There is no AMD hardware detected" or "No driver compatible". I managed to make some changes to the new driver file and succeeded in installing the new Crimson control panel [the one comes with bootcamp is Catalyst and can't be updated] AND updating both new drivers for 2 GPUs (feb 2016). 

To sum up, if you don't mind going through a lot of troubles and trials then go with the AMD. Personally I think it was worth my time because I learnt quite lot (but also got frustrated a lot lol). 

But as always, Nvidia driver is far superior and game support is amazing. I got the HD 7990 for only $150 so I went that way

Anyways: Nvidia for a pretty straight up setup just like in Gatsby's guide; AMD is you want to go on an adventure 

Thanks for sharing your experience man, thank you soooooo much!  

Good to know that you can use R9 M370X and GTX 570 side by side, is that also possible when you using HD 7990 instead? I mean, whatever AMD or Nvidia cards as eGPU, you don't have to disable R9 M370X in order to boot up without any issues? 

And I'm still curious about, that is there any way to use the Crimson control panel "Radeon Settings" with both the latest Boot Camp graphics driver v15.201.xxxx for R9 M370X and the latest Crimson graphics driver v15.301.xxxx for R9 380 (or any other AMD eGPUs)? I'm not planing to use the internal retina display for gaming, so I think I'm not going to modify the driver files like this guy: http://www.remkoweijnen.nl/blog/2015/09/21/update-amd-display-driver-under-bootcamp/ to install the latest Crimson driver for my R9 M370X. 

Yeah the Nvidia cards are indeed better supported, I'm a CSGO gamer and the latest wildfire operation update just keeps crashing on AMD cards without any error messages, reported by AMD cards users including me (see more: https://www.reddit.com/r/AMDHelp/comments/46d193/counterstrike_global_offensive_operation_wildfire/). BUT AMD cards are usually more affordable! 

Hello everyone! 

After reading tons of threads in this forum weeks ago, I finally decided to start my own eGPU project, thank you guys for sharing all the helpful instructions and explanations. 

But now I'm totally confused by choosing graphics card which will be used as my eGPU to work with my MacBook Pro, and I need some advice from you. 

Basics: 

I'm planing to build my eGPU within 500 € budget. 

I have a 2015 15" retina MacBook Pro with an AMD R9 M370X dGPU in it, under OS X this dGPU performs very well and gets the job done. But under Windows via Boot Camp for gaming, it's not powerful enough for me. My new eGPU will only be used under Windows, just for gaming in 1080p FHD at high/ultra settings. 

I only use an external monitor connected to my MacBook Pro at home, so if the built-in display won't work after plugging in eGPU, it dosen't matter, my MacBook Pro is in closed-clamshell mode anyway. 

Considering my tiny budget, I'm going to use an AKiTiO Thunder2 PCIe Box with a mid range desktop graphics card, and to power both of them without any potential problems, I'm going to use a single 500W desktop ATX PSU. 

Problems: 

Because the AKiTiO Thunder2 PCIe Box will cost me around 250 € including shipping (does anyone know where I can find cheaper offers for private customers in EU? ), and a good 500W ATX PSU will also charge me around 50 € at least, so only around 200 € left to buy a graphics card. 

At this price range I have two options: AMD Radeon R9 380 or Nvidia GeForce GTX 960, both have 2 GB of vRAM and both have ITX compact version to fit inside the AKiTiO chassis. 

Their performance is very close, R9 380 is a little more powerful than GTX 960 saying many benchmark results, but GTX 960 runs cooler and quieter than R9 380 and is also more power efficient.

So let's leave their performance and benchmark scores alone, all I am thinking about and want to know is, how well would each of them work with my MacBook Pro? 

• If I go pick R9 380, will I have a switchable graphics feature like Nvidia Optimus Technology from AMD? So that I won't have to disable and enable the dGPU manually, and the booting process would be very convenient to configure. The graphics drivers seem to be problematic, too. Because the official Boot Camp graphics driver for R9 M370X is half a year old and users are not allowed to install the newest driver from AMD website, also, the newest driver from AMD website says it doesn't support Boot Camp (see: http://support.amd.com/en-us/kb-articles/Pages/AMD-Radeon-Software-Crimson-Edition-16.1.1-Hotfix-Release-Notes.aspx). So there are going to be two versions of AMD graphics drivers exist alongside in my system, one for R9 M370X and one for R9 380, is that theoretical possible? 
• If I go pick GTX 960, as I read others' instructions before, the booting process will be very painful? (see threads: https://www.techinferno.com/index.php?/forums/topic/8132-2015-15-mbp-r9-m370x-gtx97016gbps-tb2-akitio-thunder2-win81-gatsby/ and https://www.techinferno.com/index.php?/forums/topic/9386-2015-imac-5k-27-r9395x-late-2015-gtx980ti16gbps-tb2-akitio-thunder2-osx10113win10-mmomega/) And would there be any stable issues when I install two kinds of graphics drivers from two different manufacturers in my system? 

What do you guys think? AMD dGPU + AMD eGPU or AMD dGPU + Nvidia eGPU in my case? Any experience or advice would be appreciated! 

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MacBook Pro with Retina Display, 15-inch mid 2015, Intel Core i7-4870HQ @ 2.5 GHz, 16 GB RAM, AMD R9 M370X with 2 GB vRAM / Intel Iris Pro Graphics, 512 GB Flash Storage

Dell U2515H monitor, 2560 x 1440 @ 60 Hz

OS X El Capitan v10.11.3

Windows 10 Pro (64-bit) v1511 via Boot Camp, UEFI