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Thunderbolt eGPU with Thunderbolt display?


elizae

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I guess you would have to disable the dGPU to get Optimus running with the eGPU.
So I guess my best bet to get a MBP with the iGPU as I only really care about gaming with the eGPU and most of the time the MBP will be hooked up to the external monitor and eGPU setup anyway.
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has anyone had any success with daisy chaining an external thunderbolt hdd drive to the thunderbolt display or Akitio2/similar unit whilst having the egpu connected (powered off first). I am trying this and can only get the hdd to work sometimes - but it has to be connected to the 2nd TB port. Meaning I can only use either my eGPU + TB Display OR eGPU + TB HDD.... I need to use both! Any tips?

Currently running Win8.1+Akitio2+970GTX+TB Display - all running perfectly in windows. Only have boot issues (black screen) when I connect the TB HDD to the back of the Apple Display or the Akitio2 unit. Using the GrubEFI mod.

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How about a 2012 Mac Mini + Thunderbolt Display? This one only has 1 Thunderbolt port. Now my display is directly connected to this port. Would either daisy chaining Mac Mini > Akitio > TBD or Mac Mini > TBD > Akitio work? Could you try connecting the whole bunch on only 1 port on your MBP?

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  • 3 weeks later...
has anyone had any success with daisy chaining an external thunderbolt hdd drive to the thunderbolt display or Akitio2/similar unit whilst having the egpu connected (powered off first). I am trying this and can only get the hdd to work sometimes - but it has to be connected to the 2nd TB port. Meaning I can only use either my eGPU + TB Display OR eGPU + TB HDD.... I need to use both! Any tips?

Currently running Win8.1+Akitio2+970GTX+TB Display - all running perfectly in windows. Only have boot issues (black screen) when I connect the TB HDD to the back of the Apple Display or the Akitio2 unit. Using the GrubEFI mod.

This is correct, Im having the same issue. I have checked the hardware info and it looks like that since you have added an additional TB connection MBP cant find resources to work with both the HDD and the eGPU.

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  • 3 months later...

Hi guys! I'm very interested in eGPU's to give an extra graphics power to my mid 2015 mbp 15". There're some great projects but I have a big doubt. I woud like to use the Apple thunderbolt display because of all its connectivity but, is it possible using this display and the eGPU and still having available all its ports?

Thank you a lot!

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The TB Display has to be connected to the MBP TB port, not the AKiTiO or the eGPU!

In OSX: only for CUDA or OpenCL work, no gaming

In Windows: Gaming on TB Display possible with Optimus and the resulting performance drop

Which 2015 15" MBPr is it? With the M370X? We don't have any confirmed eGPUs on 2015 Macs, yet.

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  • 7 months later...

Hey guys.

 

So i've recently run into a bit of a concern. I've read in here, that the monitor has to be connected to the graphics card itself, not the thunderbolt in the eGPU, which makes me wonder. Will the eGPU setup work with a Apple thunderbolt display? Does anyone have any experience with this?

I'm concerned that the screen won't actually turn on with the computer.

 

I might add that i'm running a MBPr late 2013, with 750M graphics card - Apple Thunderbolt display, and an Aikitio encasing. Planning on getting this to work on OSX.

 

Kind regards Chris

Edited by Crof
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I helped someone in the past to make it work.

Because the monitor is not conencted to the eGPU it will work like an additional Optimus monitor (so performance will decrease).

But because of Optimus, the MacBook can't have an dGPU like you have.

 

I will and find that post later.

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Thanks for your effort though. But that's what i figured. I stumbled over another post where they talked about it after i read your reply. They were saying the same thing :/ I have arranged to buy a Cinema display tomorrow instead, as i understand, this will work with the system? yes?

Edited by Crof
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Hi Everyone

the goal is to run 2 thunderbolt displays from Apple Air. Natively it isn't possible as only one will run, hence thinking of eGPU route

do you think this will work and if so, which minimalistic graphics card is best to run purely for display purposes (no gaming) as gaming one would probably be GTX970-980

thanks

 

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On 2/19/2016 at 7:21 AM, Dschijn said:

I don't think an eGPU will help your TB Display situation. Can't you daisy chain the TB Displays?

Not on Apple Air, internal GPU is only capable of running one TB display

 

By the way, I have created a new topic but my post ended up in this thread. I thought I did something wrong and tried to open again and it has disappeared after a while.

If the moderator is  responsible can I know what have I done wrong, as the question is related somehow to this post but not entirely.

I really need to know if anyone had experience in attaching 2 Apple screens to an Air.

 

if not thunderbolt maybe just normal Cinema Displays instead? I am looking for a solution which is simple for the end user.

 

Can a thunderbolt monitor be driven by a mini-display port of a normal graphics card attached to say a standard windows desktop?

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26 minutes ago, papkaal said:

Not on Apple Air, internal GPU is only capable of running one TB display

 

By the way, I have created a new topic but my post ended up in this thread. I thought I did something wrong and tried to open again and it has disappeared after a while.

If the moderator is  responsible can I know what have I done wrong, as the question is related somehow to this post but not entirely.

I really need to know if anyone had experience in attaching 2 Apple screens to an Air.

 

if not thunderbolt maybe just normal Cinema Displays instead? I am looking for a solution which is simple for the end user.

 

Can a thunderbolt monitor be driven by a mini-display port of a normal graphics card attached to say a standard windows desktop?

 

Your questions are answered in this thread. Ie:  you can attach the TB monitor to the TB port of the MBA or a TB port on the Thunderbolt enclosure. However, it is not ideal as the data is then being shuttled back via the iGPU across the TB link. The eGPU cannot directly drive the TB display. It's therefore best to acquire a different display that attached to the DP/HDMI ports on the eGPU if wanting to maximize eGPU performance.

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57 minutes ago, Tech Inferno Fan said:

 

Your questions are answered in this thread. Ie:  you can attach the TB monitor to the TB port of the MBA or a TB port on the Thunderbolt enclosure. However, it is not ideal as the data is then being shuttled back via the iGPU across the TB link. The eGPU cannot directly drive the TB display. It's therefore best to acquire a different display that attached to the DP/HDMI ports on the eGPU if wanting to maximize eGPU performance.

Well I am asking about pears and answers are about apples really...

if you read my question, the goal is to drive 2 Apple Displayfrom a macbook Air. Nowhere in this post i see the answer to this.

I know I can attach 1 TB display to TB port and the question is not about that, but about how to attach 2 of them.

 

Quote

if not thunderbolt maybe just normal Cinema Displays instead? I am looking for a solution which is simple for the end user.

also

Quote

Can a thunderbolt monitor be driven by a mini-display port of a normal graphics card attached to say a standard windows desktop?

 

and what happens to my threads I am trying to create? 

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A Thunderbolt Display will only work in Windows on a Mac with working Optimus. The performance will decrease since it will run in Optimus mode. There is no adapter to make the TBD work on sth else as a TB port. A CD will work if you find a GPU that has miniDP plugs. E.g. some Gainward cards have miniDP.

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41 minutes ago, Dschijn said:

A Thunderbolt Display will only work in Windows on a Mac with working Optimus. The performance will decrease since it will run in Optimus mode. There is no adapter to make the TBD work on sth else as a TB port. A CD will work if you find a GPU that has miniDP plugs. E.g. some Gainward cards have miniDP.

Great, thank you, it is much clearer now.

So forgetting the TBD I should be ok with 2 Cinema Displays connected directly to a graphics card on the eGPU box.

I know ATI(AMD) cards have mini-display ports incorporated in their cards for example:

Sapphire R9 380 Compact ITX Nitro OC AMD Graphics Card 4GB

is there something specific I need to look for in the specification of the graphics card so it runs 2x27" Cinema Displays at full resolution and at comfortable (full) refresh rate?

I need the config to run in OSX, not Windows so if you have had some experience could you please share. 

 

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  • 1 month later...

Edit: @Dschijn is correct. You can't connect TBD to the GPU. I already recalled that I sold my TBD and replaced it with LED Cinema display. My apology.

 

Hi I had a chance to own a 2 TB before. You can connect your two TBD directly to the GPU. You just need to use an adapter for each of the connection (display port to hdmi or dvi) If you connect one TBD to the GPU, and  daisy chain  the other only the TBD connected to the GPU will utilize the GPU while the daisy chain  one, as me tioned above will run as optimus mode.

 

 

Edited by entzoe
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I'm considering setting up an eGPU for gaming on my mid-2014 MBPr, but I do most of my gaming on a Thunderbolt Display. I'm aware that it's possible to use Optimus to run the TBD off an eGPU in Windows, and I'm willing to live with that performance decrease, but I'm not sure what's possible in OSX. Does anybody know anything about this?

 

P.S. The TBD's connectivity is too important to my setup to be removed, so that's not an option, even though I know an eGPU would work better with a display connected directly to the GPU.

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