t00h0t

17 hours ago, goalque said:

Do you mean F1 restart? Apple's startup manager never shows up?

Yes that is correct. F1 restart.  OSX Restart, and Windows restart. If the eGPU is plugged into the Mac I get a black screen. 

The only time it boots with the eGPU plugged in is from a clean/cold shutdown.

Quote

 

Please keep script’s -a mode turned off (sudo ./automate-eGPU.sh -m) when you test the EFI app. Does is still says “eGPU not detected” when you boot from cold power state?

 

I have tried it both ways. OSX  recognizes the eGPU if I plug it in immediately after I hear the apple boot up sound. But the EFI app never seems to detects the eGPU, even from a cold boot. EFI app doesn't detect it with the quick plugin trick either.

20 minutes ago, goalque said:

@t00h0t

The demo app just demonstrates screen switching in EFI environment, nothing after OS kernel takes over. They are two separate worlds, so doesn’t matter whether Nvidia web drivers are installed. Hold Option key down after F1 restart and then select “EFI Boot” disk again, you should be able to switch between iGPU/eGPU in real time if “Load GOP drivers” is earlier set to ON. At least Gigabyte and EVGA ROMs do work. If you get a black screen, the extracted UEFI driver (eGPU.efi) is not compatible. Is it the same with the 2015 13" MBP?

Yep, it won't boot back into the eGPU EFI disk once I have selected Load GOP drivers. The VBIOS version installed says its UEFI compatible, based on the techpowerup site..

The 2015 13" MBP (On the latest El Capitan) refuses to warm boot with the thunderbolt eGPU cable plugged in. All I get is a black screen with no sound at all.

It will boot up from a cold shutdown and I can select the eGPU boot disk, but it never sees the eGPU. Even if I try to quickly plug it in the moment I hear the boot sound its never able to detect the eGPU.

However, when I plug it in right after a cold boot and let it boot into OSX, using your automate-eGPU script with the -a option, it finds the eGPU and is able to run CUDA applications as well as use an external monitor. So I CAN get it to work.

38 minutes ago, ssamydla said:

 

@t00h0t oh yes i forgot the iMac 5K comes with R9

 

Maybe it's conflict with AMD driver? Since AMD did not have CUDA.

 

And most Color Grading / VFX strongly recommend to use Quadro cards instead of GeForce due to it's specific Driver / firmware. Though both cards has CUDA.

 

Is there any options on the script to download specific driver we want? Try to install lower branch version perhaps.

 

I just checked with my friend, he managed to get his GTX 760 CUDA on his Yosemite Hackintosh, Davinci Resolve.

 

I know its totally different case, but still, it was a PC GPU that successfully run on a Mac without flashing the card's BIOS.

 

so i assume that macOS Sierra has a different OS architecture

 

 

As you can see on the 2nd pic that the GTX card was unsupported for CUDA processing in After Effects. But we can modified this by editing the gpulist textfile and put your card's model to forced it available inside AE.

The images aren't showing up... What text file did you have to edit?

42 minutes ago, goalque said:

“Load GOP drivers” must be set to ON and one restart is required before you can test screen switching. What is the manufacturer of your card?

Other menu options in demo version are limited to the MBP11,5.

With Load GOP set to on, I press F1 and it reboots into macOSX, but nothing is recognized. This is without your script being installed and without the Nvidia drivers installed. I can see on the EGPU boot drive that an eGPU.efi file is created and a settings fie as well. Do I still need to have the Nvidia drivers installed even with the eGPU EFI?

I get a black screen though, any time I try to boot back into the eGPU EFI. I have to delete the settings and eGPU.efi file to get it to come back up.

I have a Nvidia brand card. It comes up as this device https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/165256/nvidia-gtx970-4096-140826 however the VBIOS and other specs actually match this one https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/183593/183593 

@ssamydla I used the automate-eGPU installer script to download the latest Nvidia drivers. I also downloaded the and installed the latest CUDA drivers. My dGPU is an AMD Radeon R9 M295X 4096 MB 

Before I upgraded to macOS Sierra I was unable to get the same setup to recognize the card for CUDA applications then too.

@goalque So I finally had some time to test this out some more this past weekend. I am currently running macOS beta 2 so I understand I'm already pushing the limits of whats available at the moment. 

The results so far are this,

I was able to get the correct ROM (eGPU.rom) file for my board and add it to the boot USB. When I select the drive to boot up, your EFI loader appears and recognizes the card and lets me set Load GOP drivers ON/OFF and changed the Switch screen option to either iGPU or eGPU. I am not able to view anything on an external monitor via the eGPU when I change these settings. But I believe since I have a dedicated graphics card already in my iMac the eGPU can only be used for CUDA functions correct? macOS will boot normally but will not recognize the eGPU at all, even after a few F1 restarts.

However using your script I am able to get the macOS beta 2 (Nvidia has beta drivers for macOS Beta 2 367.05.10.05b07 already)  to recognize the eGPU card fully and install the CUDA drivers. BUT I cannot get any CUDA applications (CUDA-Z, Resolve, etc) to recognize the eGPU at all. Tried with and without an external monitor plugged into the eGPU.

When booting into Windows 10 I have to "time" the plugging in of the external eGPU to right before the login screen, otherwise I get a blue screen crash. If I time it correctly it works very well in Windows 10 and I am even able to drive my Oculus Rift just fine.

Hardware: 

iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2014)

Echo Express III-D with Nvidia GTX 970

12 minutes ago, goalque said:

This is a known issue and there is a quick fix for CUDA:

 

https://github.com/goalque/automate-eGPU/issues/17

So this disables eGPU output, but still lets me use the card for CUDA optimized applications? And fixes the internal display issue? 

Just now, razvani said:

I have a 2013 nMP. It only boots if I connect the eGPU to a bus0 thunderbolt. I wish this wasn't a demo, so I could try the disable dGPU function.

Ohhh, you are running an external 5k display! My mistake... the sleep trick may not work for you then.

I have a late 2013 Mac Pro for work and briefly tried playing with the eGPU but ran into the same issues you are having.  

9 minutes ago, razvani said:

Then it must be a script thing.

Which iMac do you have? My late 2014 will let me keep the eGPU plugged in (for OS X only) from a cold boot and a warm restart. But my early 2015 Macbook 13" won't boot if I keep the eGPU plugged in during any bootup. I have to plug it in right after I see the Apple logo. 

razvani, the same thing happens with my 5k mac... I found that if I just tell the Mac to sleep and wake it back up, it returns to the full resolution. I believe it has something to do with how Apple runs the 5k monitor, I think they basically split the display into two screens and only one gets turned on. But when waking up from sleep it turns them both on, giving you a full screen again. 

Actually upon checking again it actually doesn't go back to 5k, its 4k, but it at least brings it back to full screen instead of half. Also I am on the 10.12 beta 1 so that might be causing some different issues.

I had to tweak the script by goalque to work with 10.12 and it does work, but I can't get any CUDA optimized apps to recognize the eGPU including CUDA-Z. Also things run a bit slow and choppy when both GPUs are running.

I was able to boot to the eGPU EFI but when I select GOP the screen flashes but doesn't switch output to the external  monitor. 

I wasn't able to extract the VBOIS from my card and GPU-Z says it's not UEFI compatible (does that matter?) When I select lookup it takes me to an incorrect card that says it is UEFI compatible. I tried that ROM version since it's closer to what my card says.

I will put the card in a PC and get the real ROM and try again. 

Couldn't have come at a better time!! I was thinking about coming up with a way to just delay the initial boot up of the graphics card once the case senses power, but I much prefer your approach! 

I have the Sonnet Echo Express III with an Nvidia GTX970. Works with my 2014 5k iMac with OS X & Windows 10. Cant turn the system on with it plugged in though just have to wait a few seconds into boot up.

Also I am struggling to get my setup to work with a 2015 13" Retina Macbook. OSX works fine (external output),  but Windows 8.1 & 10 are proving to be a real struggle. And once again I  have to plug the eGPU in after the apple/windows images.

Your OSX script has been awesome! Thank you for that!

If you need beta testers I'd be more than happy to help out, none of my machines are critical work devices. I am a software engineer so when troubleshooting I can speak your language. :-)