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Hi everyone. I am looking for some direction/advice on setting up an eGPU for my rMBP. I am more of a software and cloud networking guy then a hardware/graphics guy - so I am out of my area of expertise here. Any assistance is greatly appreciated. NOTE: I have a multiple display/monitor addiction. The more monitors the better - and that is the main reason I am here. My current setup: Mid 2012 rMBP 2.3 GHz Core i7 8GB Ram NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M 1024 MB integrated graphics Two (2) 1080p 24 inch external monitors (one connected via thunderbolt port, and the other connected via HDMI) One (1) 1080p 21 in external monitor (connected via the other thunderbolt port). So yes, I am running three (3) external monitors off of my mid 2012 rMBP. And, it actually runs fairly well. Include the rMBP display, and I am running a four (4) monitor setup. I can usually have youtube playing on one monitor and browsers on the other, while still maintaining decent performance. I am actually really surprised at how well it works for a 4+ year old computer. However, there are some apps that I run which require me to unplug one or two of the monitors, and the rMBP is almost always running hot. And obviously, I can forget about doing any kind of high-end gaming (which I rarely ever do at all). Where I am going: My company is giving me a spec'ed out mid 2015 rMBP (which I should have in a few days). Mid 2015 rMBP 2.8 GHz Core i7 16GB Ram AMD Radeon R9 M370X 2048 MB (dedicated GPU) I am very excited to get a nice spec bump over my 2012 rMBP, especially going from 8GB to 16 GB ram. And I am sure performance will be that much better with my three (3) external monitors attached. What I want: More monitors! 4k monitors! Here is the setup I would like: My new mid 2015 rMBP docked (probably using something like the Henge vertical dock station). Run five (5) external monitors - one vertical and 4 horizontal. Monitor (1): Supplement the rMBP display (since it will be stowed in the dock) with a 24 inch 4k monitor. Monitor (2): Another 24 inch 24 monitor Monitors (3), (4), and (5) - these no NOT have to be 4k. Will probably just use the three (3) external monitors I already have (mentioned above). Priorities: Gaming is NOT my priority. If I can play GTA 5 in ultra mode - great! But I would consider that an extra benefit. I rarely play new games. I am more of a 16-bit, 2D platformer guy. I have done some VR development, and if I could run the Oculus Rift or Vive - then that would be really nice. My main priority is to power all these monitors while removing at much load as possible from the rMBP - so that I can run virtual machines/edit video/have 50 chrome tabs open - all while playing and HD youtube video (you get the idea). Here are my questions: (1) Will using an eGPU offload a lot of processing power so the rMBP can concentrate on running many apps at once? (2) If games are not a priority, are there graphics cards that may be cheaper which are designed for running more monitors vs. powering games? Or is it all one in the same? (3) I notice that many GPUs only have 2 or 3 video out ports. How can I go about connecting 5 monitors to the eGPU - if it is even possible? Or, would I still need to run one or two monitors directly off the rMBP? (4) Am I missing any details/information/questions that will be important? What am I missing or not thinking of? Thank you in advance for all and any advice.

THANKS TO ENCOURAGING GUIDES ON THIS SITE, I HAVE MANAGED TO GET MY EGPU SETUP WORKING Macbook Pro Retina 15” Mid 2015 AMD Radeon R9 M370X 2048 MB 2.8 GHz i7, 16GB RAM Windows 10 64bit ( bootcamp ) OSX Sierra Enclosure: AKiTiO Thunder2 Graphics card: EVGA NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB GDDR5 Memory PCI Express 3 Graphics Card Power supply: EVGA 100-W1-0500-KR - 500W 80 Plus Power Supply (100-W1-0500-KR) Connections: Molex to barrel adapter to connect PSU to GPU and enclosure GPU powered by the PSU directly HDMI cable to connect GPU to monitor Thunderbolt cable to connect Thunder2 to Macbook PSU powered on using the 'paper clip technique' Monitor: Dell U2715H 27-Inch Widescreen IPS LED Monitor Info and guides: https://www.techinferno.com/index.php?/forums/topic/7947-the-basic-egpu-hardware-guide-for-macs/#comment-118751 Process: Power on and connect the GPU, check that the Nvidia is showing up in the device manager Install Nvidia drivers Disable discrete AMD GPU in the device manager and shut down Boot back up into Windows10 and BOOM, Windows10 should now be using the GPU. Results: I can reliably get the eGPU to work every time and have experienced NO CRASHES! I still play games using the AMD when I'm not at my desk, which just requires re-enabling the AMD. Sometimes switching the AMD on and off can cause the device manager to hang, but restarting Windows 10 sorts this out so I've not had any problems using the system both ways. Games Performance: Doom - 1440p max settings - 60pfs ( WOW!!! ) Deus Ex Mankind Divided - 1440p max settings - 30-45 fps Just Cause 3 - 1440p max settings - 30-45 fps Star Wars Battlefront - 1440p max settings - 30-45 fps Overwatch - 1440p max settings - 60fps Getting Windows10 to select the eGPU as the primary display device: As far as I can tell, all that is required to get the GPU to power the external display is to disable the discrete graphics chip (AMD R9 M370X) via the device manager in Windows10. In my experience, provided the eGPU is connected, disabling the AMD R9 will automatically cause the OS to switch to the eGPU. Although a couple of times when I've done this without restarting, the AMD has switched itself back on! Provided the eGPU is connected and powered on, and the AMD is disabled, booting into Windows 10 will automatically select the eGPU and you're away!

Hi All, I'm new to the forums but I found a lot of great information here so I thought I would share. I have successfully run an NVIDIA GTX 1070 with my Early-2015 Macbook Pro. My setup is the following: - Akitio Thunder2 PCI-E Box - NVIDIA GTX 1070 - Powered 16x PCI-E Riser - EVGA NEX650G PSU (I know it is overkill, it was my only option in a pinch. Paperclip trick for power.) I have outlined the pieces, my excitement and some issues at my blog. Issues: - I initially had an issue where my system would not boot correctly with the eGPU powered and plugged in. The screen remained black and no boot chime. Booting into and shutting down from OSX solved this issue but it occasionally returns. - The first PSU I tried (EVGA 500W) would spontaneously turn off when I started using the GPU at high load (e.g. intense gaming). I replaced it with the EVGA NEX650G which I had from an old project. - Windows 10 still holds issues for me. I often have to get to the boot screen (holding alt at boot) and then plug in the eGPU + Power before selecting Windows. Even then I have a high failure rate (>70%). Windows 10 often hangs at the loading screen (spinning circles) and never moves on. This happens 3/4 times. I am currently re-installing windows 10 to see if it helps. When I get through to windows the eGPU works great. Tried with Witcher 3 @ 1080p with ultra-high settings. I believe that Optimus is also running with the current driver. If there are any requests for benchmarks, I am happy to do them. I am new to this world though and therefore don't know the defaults. Nas [EDIT: 23/06/2016] After using the setup for a number of days, I have come across a few problems and solutions. I am using a 2015 Macbook Pro and others on this forum have had issues making eGPU builds with this macbook. After installing Windows >5 times and Linux > 3 times, here are my outcomes: Issues: -> Windows 10 or 8.1 installed via bootcamp to the local disk barely works. One boot out of every 20 allows you access to the GPU, otherwise infinite spinning wheel or blank screen. -> Linux is a bit tough too as we are using an integrated graphics card. From what I have understood, to get the eGPU working you must uninstall the nouveau drivers and use bumblebee (for optimus on linux). Still trying to make that work. Solution: -> To get the setup working on Windows, install to an external drive. Following that, every time you want to use the eGPU do the following: 1) Turn off everything 2) Plug in the eGPU -> Thunderbolt2 3) Power up the eGPU and wait for ~10s 4) Turn on the Macbook Pro while holding alt and get to the boot option screen 4.1) It the GPU starts up but the mac does not, hold the power button until the GPU dies down and then try again. If it fails repeatedly, boot into Mac OSX and then shut down. 5) Success! This above technique has allowed me to boot around 7 out of every 10 times I try. I am now running Windows 8.1 but I shall also try this technique with windows 10 sometime. Much better. [EDIT: 03/07/2016] I created a 3D printed enclosure for my Akitio board! Check it out on my blog: https://nasiryahm.wordpress.com/2016/07/03/3d-printing-an-egpu-case/ Or on my post in TechInferno:

Greetings! I have MacBook Pro 13" Early 2011 and using EVGA GTX 960 2GB (mini) in Akitio Thunder2 box and Dell DA-2 external PSU. I've installed NVIDIA Web Driver 367.15.10.15f01 to macOS Sierra 10.12.1. Everything works fine, except in some games and benchmarks there are broken / noisy textures like the ones in attached screenshot. What can be the problem?

Hey folks, I've got my eGpu all set up with a GTX 980 with an Aikido Thunder2 using this script: I have a late 2013 macbook pro running os 10.12.1. Currently my 4k monitor is plugged into my gpu via an HDMI cable, but I have two issues: 1. My internal screen still shows up as a display even when the notebook is closed 2. I can't get my monitor to do 4k @ 60hz. Normally I can get it to do 4k @ 50hz using a custom resolution and the built in gpu, but now, with the eGPU if I try either 50hz or 60hz the monitor just goes black. Does anyone have a fix for these issues? Ideally I could use the GPU just for running the 60hz display and still use the Iris for other stuff to avoid crashes. Thank you!

Hello, I have a msi GEFORCE gtx 980 ti going into the AKITIO thunderbolt 2. I have a 600w power supply with both of the PCI E (6+2)pin power cables going into the card. I am now on 10.9.5 after upgrading from mountain lion. (15' Late 2011 macbook pro i7 2.2ghz 16GB RAM . AMD Radeon hd 6750m 512mb) Whenever i run the script curl -o ~/Desktop/automate-eGPU.sh https://raw.githubusercontent.com/goalque/automate-eGPU/master/automate-eGPU.sh 2) chmod +x ~/Desktop/automate-eGPU.sh 3) cd ~/Desktop 4) sudo ./automate-eGPU.sh I get the response of "Only Kepler architecture cards are supported on OS X 10.9.5." I also have tried to run a modes driver i found a mirror link of and it states after the installer starts that "Mac OS X version 10.9.5 (13F34) is not supported with this package. Please see NVIDIA’s website for further driver information." I am a video editor and have my first big shoot in Los Angeles in two weeks, I would greatly appreciate any help I can get. Thomas, www.iamThomasDaniel.com

Hey tech inferno, I started my eGPU/docking station project a little while ago, using a cooler master elite 120 white as the enclosure, an akitio board, a gtx 970, and a 1tb samsung ssd (for external windows 10). Everything is powered by a 650 watt evga power supply, and the akitio is connected with a soldiered barrel plug to a chopped molex cable. The first time I tested it with a 750ti (before buying a 970) everything just worked. I pugged the thunderbolt in while windows was booted, and installed the latest drivers. The screen flickered, and that was it. Done. Everything worked. Optimus worked flawlessly, external monitor worked flawlessly, frame rates were amazing (for a macbook) and my computer itself stayed cool. I immediately returned my friend's 750ti and bought a 970. Once I got around to installing it I was at college, but it was the same as before. Once I got the computer to recognize the card (in device manager), I installed the drivers, the screen flickered, and everything worked, just faster. I had a blast playing some games that I had been missing while working on the project. For several days I was able to either connect the egpu by plugging it in while the computer was off, turning on the power supply, waiting 15 seconds, and then booting, holding alt, and booting onto my external ssd; or just booting into windows and then hotplugging my egpu. It always worked, and it was better than I ever expected. Then, one day, I came back after class, and nothing worked. No hotplugging, no successful boots, and no accelerated video. Once in a while I could get it to boot, but when it did that it was only because it didnt recognize the card at all, and just used iris pro. Can someone help me get my setup working again? My laptop is the 2015 macbook pro 15" (for which there are few guides). I'm hoping someone else has overcome this problem. I have tried reinstalling drivers, but it no longer freezes the screen and works, it instead requires me to restart, and when I do, it breaks. Major karma to anyone who helps me out. I can put pictures (or video of boot failures) if someone wants me to. thanks! -Hunter

Hi guys, I'm new to this forum, Mac world and also to eGPU world! So I decided the better thing to do is to put my hands right into the mud.. I purchased an used, original Akitio, a Palit GTX970 JetStream and a cheap Micro ATX PSU (Vultech GS500M) - My pc is a mid 2014 MacBook Retina with Windows 10 and Sierra (I5 2.6 GHz, 8Gb RAM, Intel Iris 5100, 256Gb SSD). First thing first, I prepared the PSU to power all the things. The datasheet says it is a 500w, with two 12v rails, 29A total (348w). I cut all the connectors, isolated the other lines I won't use (3.3, 5v, 5vsb and -12v), shorted the power on with a negative. Then I had six 12v positives, and all the commons. I gathered 4 wires and solder them to the positive of the two PCI 6 pin cables, same I did for the negatives, except two. I used the remaining wires (2 positives and 2 negatives) to make the barrel connection for the akitio. Tested without anything plugged, it works (fan spinning) Then I build a plexiglass enclosure to contain everything, i kept the layout of the original metal case, so the position of the board is the same; next to the video card, on the opposite wall I planned to install the psu, with the air intake obvously facing the outside, and the air output in the rear. In the front I installed a 120mm fan, plugged into the fan port of the Akitio board. I partially assembled all the parts, leaving the top and the right side (opposite to the board, to be clear), and power on. Surprisingly, nothing blew up... I managed to make the card recognized by Windows, installed the drivers, AND make some gaming - benchmark test to test the setup. I made a short session of Farming Simulator 2015 and suddenly nothing wrong .. BUT .. after some minutes the PSU started to buzz. The more the card required power (by doing some "complex" tasks), the more PSU buzzed. I also tested with Unigine Valley, in ultra setup. Everything worked, I made two benchmarks, I reached 85°C on the GPU and 96° (WOW..) on the CPU.. And now.. my concerns.. - is the PSU buzzing just because is sh*tty? Or I made some terrible mistake by wiring, soldering and so? I took a look inside it and TBH.. even if I don't know electronics so deep to reverse engineering I noticed that 12v wires come ALL from the same pad on the pcb.. so I guess it's not a problem to put them together. If the power table is correct .. I should get nearly 350 w from the 12v line .. during the benchs I logged the power consumption with HWINFO, and the 970 drew about 120w on its peak .. if summed with the Akitio I get less then 200w .. far more behind the limit.. - the temperatures .. ok 85° in full load would not scare me if the GTX was inside my good old desktop gaming rig .. but here I think the game is different, is there any risk to "cook" the Akitio Board? The space between the card and the board is really low (I'm not using a riser), I'm thinking about improving the ventilation by drilling many holes in the wall very next to the board, and maybe installing a more efficient fan connected directly to the 12v. Would it be ok? - the riser .. TBH I don't really know if I need the riser or not. By now the card is plugged directly into the Akitio Board, powered by the buzzing PSU, that also power the board. Everything works even if the mentioned troubles above. Any kind of suggestion is accepted, last things to say, I'm quite able to solder and etcetera. I own also a Dell DA2, but I preferred to make an "everything integrated" solution and last but not least .. JetStream GTX970 on review peaked quite 200w itself. I need more power, I guess. Ok I'm risking to be lynched .. but just to know .. I decided to mod directly the PSU by following a guide taken on the web .. stupid or not it's not my invention I attach a pic of the connection I made, of the PSU board and the power table Here are some pics of my setup .. on idle and with low gpu load it's running fine, no buzz BUT no load .. tested again Unigine and here are the results (AGAIN the psu is buzzing). Respect to the post I modified the case by drilling holes behind the Akitio Board, drilling the psu case, and most important, I dressed the power wires of the akitio board with a silicone-fiberglass sheath to protect it from the heat produced by the gpu. Again, thanks.. any hint would be appreciated.

Hello world! Been reading this forum for quite a while, thinking of how to make my old Macbook into something that would handle games. Ideally I wanted to play Fallout 4 and wanted to do it on an internal screen. I also wanted as clean of an install as possible (no PSU's or extra boxes. no soldering etc) So here's what I did. Components: 1) Akitio Thunder2 2) EVGA 750ti 02G-P4-3751-KR (the short non-OC version) 3) 90w 12v brick (still enroute) Process: 1) Opened up the Akitio. 2) Removed internal fan 3) Put in the 750ti with room to spare 4) Closed the Akitio. Then I stopped because I knew that the PSU that comes with the Akitio is too weak so I had to wait for a 90w brick that I ordered. But I really wanted to see if the whole thing would even be possible to set up in Windows/OS so I thought what the hell and plugged it in with the 60w PSU. 5)Just plugged it in normally and turned the Macbook on. 6) In OS X I used the automate-eGPU.sh script that's been lying around here on the forum. Don't forget to turn off the SIP before using it or it won't work. 7)After that the 750ti showed up in System Report but I don't have an extra screen to test it so I stopped there for OS X. 8)Booted into Windows 10 x64 (Boot Camp) with everything attached, installed the latest NVIDIA driver, rebooted - nothing. black screen after the OS selection. It probably wants an external screen. 9) But I found a way for it to work without the external monitor. First I unplug the Akitio. Then boot into Windows 10 normally using the iGPU. Whilst in Windows, plug the Akitio back in. Reboot via Windows's Start menu. Select Windows on OS select. BOOM! Boots into Windows WITH Akitio attached. Takes it a bit longer though for some reason. 10) After I got everything working I thought what the hell, I'll try benchmarking it. Worst case, it's gonna crash on me. I tested it with Unigine Heaven and 3dmark11. It held normally. 11) Then I thought what the hell I'll play some Fallout 4. So I did for about an hour and it worked admirably with the 60w PSU. Disclaimer: I understand the GPU was probably throttling heavily and it's not a healthy thing to do, but the 90w brick is on the way and I will be using that one when it arrives. That's all folks, I'll try to keep updating this post.

Currently I have two different akitio thunder 2 setups and one runs with 970 (will be referred as setup 1) and other with 1060 (will be referred as setup 2). 970 uses a more basic cabling setup and it has wire mesh paper tray cut attached. The other one has 8pin male connector replacement for the adapter socket and drilled surface. In this post I would like to do a quick comparison in between those two for cooling and performance. BTW, I am just an amateur who enjoys playing rc toys, completely have an unrelated profession and wanted to build egpu setups as a hobby. Also, I have many macbooks around me and wanted to expand their lifespans increasing their graphical design, gaming and cuda computation capabilities. I could not have gone this far without @Dschijn @Nando @goalque and @seefew s setups and descriptive posts. To start with for sure you will need Akitio thunder 2 or preferably Thunder 3 and also a graphic card. I decided to fit graphics cards in to the boxes in order to carry them around with a camera bag (cheap canon or nikon camera bags are perfect to carry akitio setups and their adapters). My must have tool kit list: 1. Dremel rotary tool (even the cheapest will do the job), dremel work station with. Proxxon and bosch also have similar tools but the key is head should be capable of holding small cutting wheels for hobby crafting. 2. Soldering station capable of at least 350 degrees Celsius (if you are going to replace akitio thunder 2's adaptor socket you would need at least 350 for sure). 3. Heat gun to wrap cable tubes 4. A multimeter to mesure 5. Glue gun 6. Welding kit (if you will cut/expand the front but still make it use the front grill) Consumables: 1. Zip ties 2. Solder wire 3. Glue gun sticks 4. 2.5mm Drill bits (at least 20 for case drilling required) 5. Dremel metal cutting wheels (at least 5) and couple grinding and polishing heads. 6. PSU cables (18 AWG or something like that) Used parts and pieces in my Akitio setups (I have no endorsements or something like that from the brands but I will just write them so you guys can found them easily): 1. Frozencpu connectright 8pin male eps 12v p8 connector ( setup 1) $2.98 2. 4pin male and female connector (to attach capacitors with fashion) $0.55 each 3. Gold plated female and male pins - 4 pack and $0.99 for male and $0.99 for female 4. Mod/smart full pin removal kit (to remove back pin connectors if you will mess the cabling) 5. Full automated ksd9700 series thermal switch to attach to front fans (I preferred 70 degrees) 6. Noctua nf9x14pwm 92 x 14mm pwm fans $21.95 x 2 (you can fit 2 of those beasts and yes they are a game changer) 7. Moddiy.com 8-Pin CPU/EPS Male Header Connector - 90% Angled - Black 1.99 USD (setup 2) you need at least two in order to get couple extra long pin legs 8. Moddiy.com Mini 4-Pin GPU to 2 x 4-Pin PWM Fan Adapter (to connect noctua fans to graphic card's pwm socket to have digital spin controls) $5.99 9. Dell 220w DA-2 Ac Power supply adater $23.99 or Corsair sf450 mini psu $89 (Dell da2 are what I prefer for my setups but for larger graphics cards sf450 is the ideal) 10. 4700mf capacitors (I used 4) $0.8 each 11. 12v swich (I used round led switch for my setup 1 and stick switch for setup 2) $0.4 12. PCI-E 8 PIN Y SPLIT TO 90 DEGREE RIGHT LOW PROFILE PCI-E 6 AND 8 PIN (you can make one by yourself or buy one from ebay) 13. Cheap 60 x15mm fans (I used two of those) $4 Cabling for setup 1, takes around 4 hours to complete (I am going to describe only the difference between other setups posted in the forum): 1. Easiest way around is expanding low profile 8pin connector's cable to somewhere around 15-20 cms in order to make an L shape starting at the top where gpu's power socket rests and take it down to the akitio's power adapter sockets. At this point you can reduce the cables to one yellow and and one black and solder those two to the back of the power socket. Image below is from my setup 2 but it represents where you should solder the yellow and the black. 2. Bend left leg of the graphics card and place a 8 pin male connector and solder each yellow and black cables to get only one of each and solder those two cables to back of the akitio 2's power socket. So in total you would solder 2 sets of cables to the back to power the graphics card and to power the akitio's card using the power coming from the 8 pin connector. If you are using a psu such as corsair sf450 you can use all 4 black and 4 yellow cables to power the board but if you will use dell da2 you should use one for the power switch and other should be blank so only 6 cables will power the card. (this step is extensively described in other posts) 3. Cut back of the two plates in a rectangular 8pin shape using dremel rotary tool and steel cutting wheel. This step just requires attention but it is very easy to do in 3 minutes. Just use a pencil to draw the shape and slowly cut the plate. (image was on top of a document so I did a quick edit) . 4.I used a round led switch for my first setup and attached it to the front of the case. To fit the switch I first created a small hole with a 2.5mm drill bit and expanded that using a round dremel rotary head. Then attached one cable to one of the 8pin connector's line's to power dell da2's switch line and grounded it to one of the 3.4v sockets as the yellow cable at the right hand side of the card. 5. Cover all cables and sockets with tubes, or hot glue gun. Cabling for setup 2 takes around 4 hours to complete: 1. Using the soldering iron remove the existing power socket of the akitio from the board. Heat it from the back legs and it will drop. 2. Organize legs of Moddiy.com 8-Pin CPU/EPS Male Header Connector in order to match the holes. I soldered and grouped legs of 2s to fit only one positive and one neutral leg. 3. Soldered two separate cable lines to the legs to power gpu and attached a Y SPLIT TO 90 DEGREE RIGHT LOW PROFILE PCI-E 6 AND 8 PIN 4. Soldered 4 capacitors to 4pin connectors via cable then attached them to other soldered pair. 5. Soldered one yellow one black cable to the board in order to power front fans and soldered ksd9700 thermal switch to the black cable. 6. Paired two front fans cables with matching cables and soldered to the yellow cable (step6) and empty black cable coming from thermal switch. 7. Cover all cables and sockets with tubes, or hot glue gun. Ventilation for setup 1 takes around 2 hours to complete: 1. Cut the exterior of the box using steel cutting wheels following rectangular shape among yellow and blue sections of the diagram 2. Cut a rectangular mesh grill from the paper holder and slide it in to the box. 3. Stick mesh grill with a epoxy or weld it in. 4. Apply black spray paint (I took it to a auto paint shop for proper painting) Ventilation for setup 2: 1. Cut the front inner side in a rectangular shape to fit to 60mm fans on top of each other. To be able to do so you should weld sides of the front sides so it does not come apart. Place two fans. 2. First hit with a sharp steel to create small holes (punches) following the diagram. Then drill thousands of 2.5mm holes using dremel work station and rotary tool. (This step took my 22 hours) 3. Clean holes with sandpaper and paint. (In the attached image I was using it with the setup 1) Post will be edited soon...

It is done! I got my GTX1070 to work on my Mid 2014 Macbook Pro 15" using Windows 10. I managed to get Optimus running, which means it can power my internal display! Nitty-gritty below! Software deetz: Windows 10 installed via Bootcamp Intel Iris Pro drivers v15.40.22.64.4424 nVidia Graphics Drivers v383.39 rEFInd bootloader (to enable Iris Pro on Windows) gpu-switch by 0xbb (to set Iris Pro as the display's main driver) Hardware deetz: Macbook Pro 15" (Mid 2014), 2.5GHz, Iris Pro + GT 750M AiKiTiO Thunder2 (powered by its power brick) MSI GeForce GTX 1070 Founders Edition Corsair RM550x (to power the card) Some very elegant black electrical tape If there's anyone interested in any part of the process (or anything else) leave a comment and I will update the post!

I have a setup almost identical to this build: 1. AKiTiO Thunder2 PCIe Box 2. EVGA GeForce GTX 750Ti with G-SYNC Support 2GB GDDR5 128bit, Dual-Link 3. GameMax GM450 OEM (GM-450) - 450W power supply 4. Macbook Pro Retina 13 (2013) I installed the latest drivers from the EVGA website. I connected external display via HDMI and can see my card in Device Manager. The problem is under a smallest load (starting a game or Unigine Heaven test), the whole system freezes, picture from the external display disappears, although fan on graphic card is still going. Any ideas how this can be fixed? I took power from the Molex connector. Could that be the problem?

Hello. I am trying to setup this configuration but I am not very sure about the internal display working on Ubuntu. Although the wiki page for optimus mentions that this technology works for Windows and Linux. But I am yet to find any implemention of this setup. Would welcome your valuable suggestions.

Hello, I have just recently bought a eGPU and well, its awesome for games / windows but mac is a completely different story, It works. but the UI lags while switching windows, sliding full screen apps and doing even the most basic tasks.. Is there anyway to fix this? Thank you and have a lovely day! Specs: - Base model Mid 2015 Macbook pro retina 15 inch - Akitio Thunder 2 - 200WAT PSU - GTX 970 - Monitor: Samsung U28D590D 4K monitor

Hey all, I've been having this weird thing on my OS X installation (windows works fine) when using my egpu setup. At seemingly arbitrary times, I've been getting kernel panics. It happens when doing things like gaming, but also when editing text files and nothing else. I've attached my setup info and the most recent problem report below. Anyone have any ideas? Thanks! MBP Retina 13" early 2013 Aikitio thunder 2 Powered 16x to 16x riser EVGA 500W supply ASUS directcu ii 780 ti Install performed using most recent automate-egpu script driver version 346.03.06f01 Report dump:

hey all, wondering if anyone gets any heat issues with a rMBP, running in clamshell while heavy gaming with the eGPU.

Hi! I've currently got my Akitio Thunder 2 + MBPr setup working beautifully with Windows 10 - except for one annoying issue. Sometimes when I boot up Windows 10, the OS will try to output on the output of my eGPU (GTX 960) instead of the internal display. This means that I can't log into the OS and that I have to force-reboot. Sometimes I time the bootup correctly, and everything works perfectly, but sometimes it doesn't - which is very annoying. Do any of you guys know a way to force Windows 10 to use the internal display - always - even if an eGPU is plugged in (basically forced Optimus)?

Hi! I've currently got my Akitio Thunder 2 + MBPr setup working beautifully with Windows 10 - except for one annoying issue. Sometimes when I boot up Windows 10, the OS will try to output on the display output of my eGPU (GTX 960) instead of on the internal display. This means that I can't log into the OS and that I have to force-reboot. Sometimes I time the bootup correctly, and everything works perfectly, but sometimes it doesn't - which is very annoying. Do any of you guys know a way to force Windows 10 to use the internal display - always - even if an eGPU is plugged in (basically forced Optimus)?

I decided to build eGPU for my late 2013 13" MBPr 11,1 but got lost in the details for the planned configuration. I after the following: Nvidia 970 or 980 GPU external SSD drive for Windows 8.1 and the games a case that can fit both GPU and SSD The questions I'm not sure about: Is it possible to install Windows on the external SSD and daisy chain it on the same TB cable as the eGPU? Can I use the MacBook's LCD with Optimus & Win 8.1 or Win 10? Which eGPU case and GPU brand would you recommend for the easiest installation? I wouldn't custom build the external case, just buy the one that works. I hope I can get the information I need and I hope it's doable for the average human being. :-) Thank you!

Hey guys, I recently upgraded from 10.9.5 to 10.11.3 and am now missing the native resolutions for my ASUS 2k display. I can only select 1080p when I'm using the Nvidia web drivers. The native 2560 x 1440 px. When I switch to the OS X Default Graphics Drivers the higher resolution is working again. Strange thing then, my Geforce GTX 780 Ti is recognized as "Ashley" not as "GTX 780 Ti". Does anyone have an idea what the problem is? On the Nvidia page it says "BETA support is for iMac 14,2 / 14,3 (2013), iMac 13,1 / 13,2 (2012) and MacBook Pro 11,3 (2013), MacBook Pro 10,1 (2012), and MacBook Pro 9,1 (2012) users. " - is it possible that they dumped support for older models like mine (8,3)? Your help is really appreciated. Hannes Attached images: 1 with NVIDIA Web Driver 2 with OS X Default Graphics Driver

hello techinferno! new the the forums, so i hope i dont get eaten alive, i tried to search for current posts, and im getting a couple older posts regarding bizon tech external gpus for macbook pros, as well as akitio, im not looking for a large external gpu housing, looking for something that im able to travel with(put in a backpack), so purchasing a gaming pc is out of the question, ive looked at bizon tech, and im getting mixed reviews, i see great comments regarding their products, then im getting that you shouldn't even consider it, here is the link from bizon tech https://bizon-tech.com/us/bizonbox2-egpu.html/ keep in mind id be paying in CAD, so i'd prefer if it was a Canadian website as the exchange on the dollar is a killer current macbook specs, havent upgrades to ssd yet, currently in the middle of some work, and i dont want it to corrupt by any means

Hi, I have a big/little problem to make my eGPU work. Here's are my specs and hardware. Macbook Pro 15" Mid 2012 2.6GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processor (Turbo Boost up to 3.6GHz) with 6MB L3 cache 8GB of 1600MHz DDR3 memory 1TB Seagate SSHD + 750GB 5400 rpm (optical disc drive removed) NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M with 1GB of GDDR5 memory OS: OSX Yosemite & Bootcamp (Windows 8.1 64-bit) eGPU needed hardware/software: 480W PSU Veriton Sonnet EE PE4C-EC060A v3.0 (Link to website: http://www.hwtools.net/Adapter/PE4C%20V3.0.html ) QLeadtek GTX 650 Ti Boost DIY eGPU Setup 1.20 by Tech Inferno Fan So, I already have bootcamp(Windows 8.1) installed. So skip that part. Installed the DIY eGPU 1.20 (Have read throught MBR implementation, it seems my model requires 1.20 since everyone is using it?) Hook up the hardware. Image below shown. Ok. I cant upload a 189kb picture. This sucks. I hooked up the 24 pin from PSU to the eGPU. And use a 2 molex adapter to a 8 pin connector to power my GPU. Then eGPU express card to my Sonnet and to my laptop. Situation: eGPU and GPU works when I on my laptop. That's fine. Problem 1: Whenever I do that in the beginning, my computer freezes. Before my mac can boot up to windows os, it freezes on the white screen. Problem 2: Run laptop first to boot windows 8.1. Then plug in eGPU. GPU isnt detected. Nothing happened. So far this is accurate on what I have been doing with eGPU. I worked on this for more than half a year now. I need help. I've gone through lots of websites and such. But havent gone through enough. Please let me know what's my problem or any further information, i'll do my best to answer them. (Edit1: Planning to buy a swex soon. So its gonna take 1 month time. Not sure if its needed or not) Thanks, Kazeki

Hello guys, I recently made a Akitio + 980Ti eGPU setup for my three year old rMBP 15" Mid-2012. I was working on a post trying to summarize my experience, but one question popped to my mind. Because of TB1, rMBP 15" Mid-2012 does not support a 4K external display. But I was wondering if I can hook up a 4K monitor to the 980Ti eGPU setup. I currently have a WQHD 27" monitor, and I wanted to add a second display; I would love to add a 32" 4K display, but if not, I will go with a 34" 21:9 2560*1080 display. If nobody has an answer to this, I will try to borrow a 4K monitor somewhere to test it out, but if anyone has experience, it would be great! Thanks!

Hey, So I've been having fairly consistent crashes under OS X, where the screen completely freezes, leaving me with no control. The only option at that point seems to be to cause a kernel panic by unplugging the akitio/holding the power button to turn it off and reset. This doesn't seem to happen at any particular time. Any ideas? (setup and crash log below). Thanks! ------------ Setup: Macbook Pro 13 inch early 2013 Akitio PCIE box acer direct ii gtx 780 evga 500W power supply powered 16x riser Crash log (although this may be from the kernel panic from shutting it down)

hello is it possible to do a egpu with the express card on a 17" macbook pro would there be any problem with the integrated graphics?