R9 Nano or FirePro W4100, Mac Mini Server 2012 - anyone any luck?

[nezbrun]

Folks

 

My first post on this forum, but I've been reading intently for the past few days.

 

My setup isn't really for gaming, it's for CAD and firmware development (I'm a mixed signal/RF embedded electronics engineer). I've been using a Mac Mini Server 2012 for my daily driver (usually in Windows 10 natively in a Boot Camp partition) with one, two to three UHD/4K monitors depending on what I'm doing, successfully for a while using the internal HD4000 and USB3 DisplayLink solutions, but it's been limited to 30Hz refresh rate. Not a big deal, or so I thought, until I started investigating improving some instructional and educational videos, for which I use a 2nd hand rack mounted dual Xeon [some great deals on dual E5-2670v1 chassis at the moment http://www.ebay.com/itm/Supermicro-1U-Server-X9DRW-3F-2x-intel-Xeon-E5-2670-Eight-Core-64GB-Dual-PS-Rail-/131934137789] with a FirePro W4100 which supports 3 4k screens at 60Hz concurrently. I found that working on 60Hz adds a whole new dimension, and so I've spent the past ten days working on the eGPU for my development/CAD Mac Mini 2012.

 

So I have an Akitio working very well with an MSI GTX 750ti to one monitor at 2160p/60Hz, all I added was a 120W external supply. All good in both OS X El Capitan and Windows 10, and many thanks to all of the efforts of those on this forum who made it happen, particularly Nando 4 and Goalque, to whom I owe a debt of thanks.

 

I'd like to see if I can get either the W4100 working and/or the R9 Nano. Both fit nicely in the enclosure, the W4100 is 50W so no need for external PCIE power, but I made up a power cable for the R9 Nano to a Dell DA-2 brick (I tested the DA-2 and cable under load on an electronic load that I have in the lab together with an Agilent 34401A meter, it cuts out at just below 20A @12V, and it regulates pretty well too, only 0.3V drop at the business end at 19A, still a tad over 12V [it's 12.3V under no load]).

 

The W4100 is recognised by OS X in the System Report's Graphics Card section, and by the automate-eGPU.sh script, but it doesn't enable any monitors that I plug into it. It's a known working card, it's from my video editting dual Xeon monster. In Windows, there's nothing recognised at all.

 

The R9 Nano won't boot into either OS X or Windows (it hangs on both), and when hot plugged in OS X the R9's not recognized (although the Akitio is recognised, and the PCI slot is "connected"). I can boot into the recovery partition with the Akitio & card plugged in.

 

I have a backup Mac Mini 2012 that I can mess around with for this stuff as necessary if anyone has any suggestions on getting either of these cards working.

 

Thanks again to the effort put in here, it's really appreciated.