MacGamer

Anyone have issues getting OpenGL working on an eGPU?

Can confirm Razer score works on AMD MacBooks on the internal display! Currently getting 45fps+ on Black Ops 3 with everything maxed out. 

I'm trying to enable my iGPU for the 15" Mac with 450. I've managed to get rEFInd working and run apple_set_os.efi.

However, once I try to boot into Windows or MacOS after running that script, everything freezes. The only way to fix is to reinstall MacOS. 

Anyone else with this problem? Never knew getting an eGPU working would be this difficult. 

Edit: I just ran integrated.bat and rebooted into safe mode. All that happened was a frozed Win 10 logo, and I cannot boot into MacOS again. I'm pretty sure this is the issue to my boot problems and not apple_set_os.efi.

On ‎11‎/‎23‎/‎2016 at 3:30 AM, Casey_S said:

Edit: Fixed, uninstalled the root lanes and restarted. Back to error 12.

I'm struggling to fix this error. Can you elaborate on what you did?

Just got my Razer Core and new MacBook. I'm trying to enable the iGPU, but I cannot boot into rEFInd after following the installation problems. Anyone else with this issue?

You could try undervolting and using a program that prevents unnecessary throttling. 

A way to test if the CPU is bottlenecking would be to find a game that's mostly hard on the GPU. I think you'll still find TB3 improvements in actual games. 

Have you managed to get it working with the internal display (maybe via dragging from the external)? Sorry to ask again, but I can't find any additional information on this. 

CPU bottleneck? 

Sweet! Let me know if you can get the internal display accelerated. 

1 hour ago, Casey_S said:

Only had a moment to plug in the Thunder3 + GTX 1080 to my 15" 2016 MBP in Bootcamp last night, but it was recognized in the device manager as a "Microsoft Display Adapter" without any steps taken other than powering on the Thunder3 then powering on the MBP. Haven't installed any additional drivers, didn't try hotplug, haven't done any EFI management yet.

Sounds promising. I have a similar setup arriving in a few days. Really hoping I can get the internal display to work. 

I'm going to be purchasing a Macbook Pro 15" 2016 model with GTX 1080 and Razer Core. Will see if I can have any luck disabling the dGPU and see if I can get it working on both the external and internal display.

I have one question, however. Will the stock 2.6GHZ quad with 3.5 turbo bottleneck the GTX? 

I'm considering giving it a shot. All I'll need is a compatible GTX card and AKiTiO Node, correct? I've never built my own eGPU before. 

41 minutes ago, goalque said:

If you're going to choose AMD eGPU, you can drag a windowed app to the extended internal screen, and its contents will be accelerated by the eGPU.

 

If someone has forgotten:

This functionality is included in the demo.

 

As @Tech Inferno Fan noted, I'm confident that MBP13,3 behaves similarly as the MBP11,5 (M370X dGPU) regarding gmux, and HD530 can be activated manually as well for Nvidia Optimus. Someone just has to try.

I may take the gamble. Worse case is that it fails and I can sell the GPU on eBay haha. 

Does the extended internal screen only work on AMD, and have you heard anything about performance? Thinking of a GTX 1070 (if it's possible) to drive games at 2880x1800 or a comparable AMD. 

I'm very interested in playing on the Mac's internal display, but all the 2016 15" models have an AMD dGPU. Would there be better chances at getting a Radeon to work with the internal display, or am I out of luck?

10 hours ago, Tech Inferno Fan said:

 

Enabling Optimus  - accelerated internal LCD mode

 

The 2016 15" MBP has HD530 (iGPU) + RX450M/RX455M (dGPU). The problem when booting Windows is the UEFI/gmux sets the dGPU to drive the internal LCD.

How to fix this?  Follow the 2013-2014 GT750M 15" MBP guide: https://www.techinferno.com/index.php?/forums/topic/9402-working-dgpu-macbook-internal-display-via-optimusgtx-970-egpu/ to:

 

1.  use rEFIt to set apple_set_os.efi to spoof Win boot to match OSX boot where the iGPU is enabled

2.  use gmux-switch to switch the gmux so the internal LCD is drive by the iGPU

3. Disable any dGPUs (yes, AMD or NVidia) in Device Manager so the NVidia driver uses the eGPU for Optimus functionality.

 

Has anyone confirmed that this works? 

On March 8, 2016 at 6:04 AM, Morv said:

 

If you've already got the Macbook simply try it. If you can enable the iGPU under Windows then you should be good to go for a Nvidia eGPU + Optimus for usage on the internal display. No need to already have the eGPU at this point.

I'm going to give that a shot. Assuming it did work, would it be possible to game in native resolution on most modern games with a decent FPS? I'm assuming a top GPU will be needed, but I'm wondering if the performance loss will be too much.

I stumbled on the idea of building an eGPU a few months ago. Until recently, I started to deeply research the idea in an attempt to find out how I can play modern games on native retina resolution. 

The only problem is that I have a MacBook Pro 15" (mid 2015) with a dedicated GPU. I have no interest in gaming on an external display as this would reduce portability for me. 

So I'm wondering if it's possible to fake an external GPU and mirror the display on my internal. There has been some success in the past with a DVI dummy on Windows 7. It only worked with borderless and mirror mode, but that would be fine with me if the performance remained the same as full screen mode. 

Before shelling out $500+ on everything required, I would like to know if anyone has been successful with faking an external display. 

Also, would performance take enough of a hit to make retina gaming unplayable? I would probably be using a GTX 970 on Win 10, Win 8.1 if required. 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Do you know if this would work with my 2015 MacBook Pro with AMD Radeon dGPU?