Mid-2012 13" MBP + GTX750ti@10Gbps-TB1 (AKiTiO Thunder2) + OSX10.11/Win10 [Berion]

[Berion]

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. 

Edited July 3, 2016 by Berion
clarification

[BillyWang]

Hi Berion！

Your graphics card is working so far？

New power received yet？,90 watts of power can solve this problem？

I also wanted as clean of an install as possible.

You know the do not need an external power supply GTX750ti?（http://item.jd.com/1412212.html）It‘s rated power is 60 watts.With dell-90W power can use it?

Looking forward to your reply.

Thank you！
 

 

Edited July 9, 2016 by BillyWang

[Berion]

Hey BillyWang!

My GPU still working properly, I spent a few days playing Fallout 4 on it and nothing happened, and yes I was using the enclosed 60w PSU. Sometimes I experienced visible slowdown (I'm guessing it's throttling) but the game was totally playable. 90w PSU still enroute (China Post  )

Your card doesn't look like it's gonna need additional power. But I'm not familiar with this brand. I believe it will be fine with 90/120 w psu, just make sure it's 12v.

[tclulk]

hi,Berion!

my book is md102,i use your way to egpu,but i's also black.if i something was wrong?

[ikir]

Let me understand this better.... you are using just the Akitio PSU and it works? So you are buying a 90w external PSU connect just with the barrel plug? No additional 200w PSU or PC PSU?

 

This one?

https://www.amazon.it/EVGA-02G-P4-3751-KR-NVIDIA-scheda-video/dp/B00IDG3PRI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1468912918&sr=8-1&keywords=EVGA+750ti+02G-P4-3751-KR

Edited July 19, 2016 by ikir
added link

[tclulk]

6 hours ago, ikir said:

Let me understand this better.... you are using just the Akitio PSU and it works? So you are buying a 90w external PSU connect just with the barrel plug? No additional 200w PSU or PC PSU?

 

This one?

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IDG3PRI

I use 330W psu like this

[Berion]

Hey guys! 

Sorry to not have replied for a couple weeks.

Yes, I have been playing Fallout 4 for a month off an Akitio with 750TI WITH A 60W adapter that was supplied with the Akitio. It worked for me.

Cons:

-GPU gets very hot after awhile

-sometimes after 2-3-4 hours of play Fallout 4 and Windows with it would just freeze randomly.

- Fallout 4 begins to visibly stutter after awhile (I'm guessing because the GPU throttles).

 

A non-relevant issue, it sometimes takes up to 3 reboots to make W10 recognize the egpu for the internal screen after the Apple grey screen OS selection menu.  That would not be a problem if I had an actual external screen.

 

I have purchased a 120w PSU off Ebay (removed link, PSU died after 1 week)

and it works perfectly well. I've been using it for a couple of days and the GPU is less hot and throttles much less. 

Update: PSU died after 1 week of use. Using another 12v Universal PSU for notebooks I had, it gives about 80w. Everything's working so far. 

 

All in all, I'd say that you can use the 60w psu for a frugal egpu like 750Ti but only if you don't need a lot of power and you are not using a high res. It works though.

 

 

Also, per other question, I'm using the non-SC EGPU 750Ti with a single fan without any additional connectors. 

http://www.evga.com/Products/Product.aspx?pn=02G-P4-3751-KR

 

Edited August 14, 2016 by Berion
updated PSU info

[Berion]

PPS. to avoid confusion, the 90w adapter never got to me, so I had to re-order and went for 120w.

[BAZZINGA]

Hi Berion,

thanks for sharing your info on your setup. I pretty much have the same configuration – except that it's a 15" rMBP instead of a 13". 

Problem in my case:  the system is not stable. It crashes at random – no matter if I am browsing via chrome or watching any kind of video. Heck, it even sometimes when I do not do anything at all. 

I do not care too much for gaming inside Windows 10 – I just wanted to have some extra screen space for OSX when working on video editing. When the MBP is running without the Akitio everything's fine. I had the mainboard recently renewed... the whole OS is a fresh install.

Can you give me any pointers?

Thanks in advance!
Bazzinga

[BAZZINGA]

@BerionMaybe my configuration is unstable because I am using the EVGA GTX750 TI SC instead of the "non-SC"-version?


GTX750 TI (NON-SC)
Base Clock: 1020 MHz
Boost Clock: 1085 MHz

GTX750 TI SC
Base Clock: 1176 MHz
Boost Clock: 1255 MHz

Can you or anyone confirm the specs and my assumption that this might be the reason for my system being unstable?
 

[Berion]

On 8/12/2016 at 7:23 AM, BAZZINGA said:

@BerionMaybe my configuration is unstable because I am using the EVGA GTX750 TI SC instead of the "non-SC"-version?

Can you or anyone confirm the specs and my assumption that this might be the reason for my system being unstable?
 

Unfortunately I can't comment on eGPU behaviour in Mac OS because I don't have an external monitor. Only used the GPU under Windows 10. 

Are you using the external ATX PSU for power? It could be because of a faulty PSU or a faulty riser. I really don't think it's the clock. But I'm no expert. 

 

PS My ebay-bought Chinese 120w PSU died btw. Using a Universal 80w PSU for now. All good. 

 

[BAZZINGA]

@BerionAh OK… so I guess we can't really compare the setups since you are running on WIN10 and me on OSX.

I am using a 120W PSU with a barrel plug – so I followed the advice most people here would've given when it comes to using this kind of card. Ans since I am not able to underclock the card inside OSX I assume I will just have to go with a smaller card. 

I am thinking "Palit NVIDIA GTX750TI NE5X75T00941H KalmX".

What do you think?

[Berion]

@BAZZINGA Any card is fine as long as it doesn't have extra power connectors and fits. Palit will fit but you won't be able to close the Akitio lid. EVGA cards are rumored to be more compatible with EGPU (i have no idea why) and the card I'm using is so compact you can close the Akitio lid. But it becomes really warm. Good luck!

[simon753]

I have almost the same setup with you guys, but there's some issues with my OSX system.

 

Hardware:

• Macbook Pro Retina Mid 2012 (thunderbolt 1)
• NVIDIA GTX Titan
• Akitio box
• 850W ATX PSU

Softwares:

• OSX 10.11.5
• Windows 10 pro (MBR External USB 3.0 drive)
• WebDriver: latest
• Cuda Drivers: latest

I've tested a few times on Windows and OSX, I found that Windows system is more stable than OSX. When I try to use Chrome and browsing webs it just freeze after a few minutes, but Safari works fine if I do the following step. I found that if I turn the "automatic graphics switching" OFF it would be more stable without crashes or freeze while using Safari, but sometimes it can cause another issue which is high load cpu "kernel task", it can cause cpu to reach 100% usage and the whole system becomes laggy which is not usable anymore. And Chrome just doesn't work in both situations. Does anyone know how to fix this?

Edited September 8, 2016 by simon753

[Ted]

Just setup my Akitio Thunder2 with

- EVGA 750Ti SC (2GB) 

- Mac mini 2014 base edition (1.4GHz) running 10.11.6.

- Dell DA-2 (3x12V and 3xGround to Barrel connector)

 

Akitio is powered by barrel input so far.  No other power input.

 

Able to boot up nicely so far to desktop.

No hard gaming, just youtube and the usual word processing/web surfing.

Fan noise is noticeable (when compared to plugging it in Mac Pro).

 

Akitio is able to go to sleep and wake up successfully (sleep time only tested for a few seconds).

Updated 3 Oct:  As expected, mac mini is unable to wake up after sleeping for some time.

 

I am expecting it to crash soon when I start playing DOTA2.

 

Edited October 3, 2016 by Ted

[Berion]

Yeah, my macbook doesn't wake up after going to sleep. Also, 750ti SC asks for extra power I think. 

[Ted]

On 10/2/2016 at 4:07 PM, Ted said:

Some follow up from my first attempt.

I bought another Gigabyte 750Ti OC card which came with 1x6 PIN power input.

 

On top of the barrel connector, I pulled another 6 PIN cable from DA-2 and connected it to the card.

Altogether, I have both the barrel and direct 6 pin to power the Gigabyte card.

This setup works flawlessly without any stability issue.  

As a test, it is able to run some games at high setting quietly without any hiccup or distortion.

Temperature is also kept at a cool level.

 

The only problem that remains:  the inability to wake up after sleep.

Earlier on with EVGA 750Ti, by reducing the core and memory clock about 150Mhz (flashing the card), the card worked stable as well. 

 

Some thoughts here:

The sleep problem is quite a show stopper for me as I usually do not power down my mac mini.  In its sleep state, the power consumption is so little that I do not bother to shut it down for the entire year.

 

Hope this sharing will help those who intends to try out eGPU for their mac mini.  

 

On 10/2/2016 at 4:07 PM, Ted said:

Just setup my Akitio Thunder2 with

- EVGA 750Ti SC (2GB) 

- Mac mini 2014 base edition (1.4GHz) running 10.11.6.

- Dell DA-2 (3x12V and 3xGround to Barrel connector)

 

Akitio is powered by barrel input so far.  No other power input.

 

Able to boot up nicely so far to desktop.

No hard gaming, just youtube and the usual word processing/web surfing.

Fan noise is noticeable (when compared to plugging it in Mac Pro).

 

Akitio is able to go to sleep and wake up successfully (sleep time only tested for a few seconds).

Updated 3 Oct:  As expected, mac mini is unable to wake up after sleeping for some time.

 

I am expecting it to crash soon when I start playing DOTA2.