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DIY eGPU Macbook experiences


oripash

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Hey everyone, I've been trying to get my eGPU set up for about a month on and off now and haven't had any luck. I have a Late 2013 (trash can) Mac Pro running El Capitan 10.11.5 (15F34). I have a Corsair 1000W PSU powering my MSI GTX 980 ti that is plugged directly into my Akito that is being powered by a molex - barrel plug from the PSU. My end goal is to use this eGPU to run Octane Render in Cinema 4D.

 

 At first I followed this tutorial posted on the Octane Mac+eGPU Forum. I followed this since the guy has a Mac Pro trash can as well and his end goal was to use for Octane. No luck, my Mac would never start up with the eGPU connected, it wouldn't even get to the start up chime. I then messed around with plugging it in a certain times during startup or turning the Mac and eGPU on at the same time but again, no luck.

 

I thought it must be me making a silly software mistake b/c I don't have much knowledge of this so when I came across the goalque script I thought I was in the clear. No luck with that either. I followed all instructions and still get the same results as before. Until recently my Mac would never even get through the startup while the eGPU was connected. The other day I bought an Apple TBolt 2 cable to use instead of the stock one that came with the Akito and my Mac would get past the startup and I could log in. Instead of seeing my NVIDIA 980ti below my two AMD's under graphics/displays in system report I would see this AMD Radeon HD 8xxxamdradeonhd8xxx?.png

 

I never really understood this and could not find any information about it online. I've restarted my Mac from backups and the AMD Radeon HD 8xxx does not appear anymore. Whenever I install the drivers and edit the kext files or use the goalque script this AMD Radeon HD 8xxx appears when the eGPU is connected.

 

Any insight anyone has into this would be greatly appreciated! I will gladly provide additional information to anyone that needs it.

 

Thanks,

Luke

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Hi Everyone,

 

I have followed the tutorials of this forum to build an eGPU for my 2015 late iMac. I wanna use it with Davinci Resolve, for CUDA rendering and NOT for external display. 

My config: 

 

5k iMac 27" i5 24GB RAM

Akitio Thunder2

Gigabyte GTX 980 ti 6GB

Zallman 400W PSU

 

After I installed Goalque's script and fixed the SIP thing, I can see my GTX in the System Report / Graphics part. (at the "About Mac" window it shows only the AMD card under Displays). After any restart my screen comes up cropped to 1/3rd. The sleep trick works, but my display starts to jump around. I cant fix that. The jumping remains, independently from selecting the OS X driver or the Nvidia web driver. DaVinci Resolve starts, but says no CUDA driver installed, and exits. 

Is the connecting an external monitor is a must step, or should I be ok without it? Should I download the CUDA driver package too?

 

Many thanks.

 

 

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Update: I have found the solution and it works! No sleep and wake, CUDA render is available, no flicker and real 5k resolution on the retina. It was here: 

Thanks a lot again for the community to make this possible for us!

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Phtoon
I found the solution.
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I'm operative with my eGPU since few hours so i need to understand a lot of things better, but i needed some sleep and when i returned the Mac mini was powered off, so i fear wake sleep doesn't work. I've searched the forums without luck, can anyone point me in the right direction?

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Hi goalque,

 

I managed to build the eGPU system according to the implementation guide succesfully. My specs:

 

iMac late 2015 5k, i5 24GB ram (no bootcamp)

Akitio Thunder2

Zallman ZM400LE PSU

Gigabyte GTX980ti 6GB

 

I do not have an external monitor , I would like to use only the CUDA rendering in DaVinci Resolve. I have applied the quickfix by goalque, not to have an external display. Since then, my 5k works as before. Now my mac shows the GTX980ti under the Graphics pane inside System Report, but not at "About my mac". There is still the built in AMD r380. In Davinci Resolve, the system shows only the GTX980ti, which seems to be victory, but I cannot see the performance gain. It is the same slow 6fps, what I get from my AMD GPU. Although I can hear ticking noise from the card during playbayk or render. This is the same with a Lite version and with the full, Studio version as well (Lite version is using only one gpu). It seems, that nothing utilizes the eGPU.

 

I have downloaded an app, called XRG, saying it is monitoring my all gpus. It does, and what is weird, that during using Resolve, the nvidia gpu is at 0 percent. Same with Adobe Premiere. But if I have a Facetime call or a youtube video, suddenly the nvidia gets active. You can see on the 2nd XRG screenshot, that it had activity for Nvidia gpu. That is a youtube video on my retina display.

Is there any software to monitor the egpu's performance somehow? Did you have experience with XRG?

 

Thanks a lot.

 

XRG_results.jpg

resolve_gpu.jpg

imac_gpu.jpg

XRG_youtube.jpg

Edited by Phtoon
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I have a frequent issue while booting with my eGPU (GTX 980 on a Macbook Pro 2012, Windows 10).

I am using DIY eGPU setup 1.20 to get rid of my code 12 error. This means I need to access my boot manager every time I boot, chose setup 1.20 and finally option one.

 

And that's the tricky part:

 

20 % of the times I boot I don't even get to my boot manager. My macbook just boots normally, and thus my eGPU won't work.

60 % of the times my external monitor (connected to my eGPU) shows the boot manager. If I chose eGPU setup and try the automated startup .bat-file the system just freeze.

40 % of the times I get the boot manager to show up on my macbook, and then it works perfectly.

 

So, how do I get boot manager to always show on my macbook?

 

Edited by Red Onion
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Hello everyone,

 

This Spring I bought Akitio Thunder and EVGA GTX980Ti. I managed to get it working on MacBook Pro, with Windows 8.1, with the built-in monitor. Several weeks ago, I needed to load with iGPU, so I plugged off the eGPU and loaded. Since that time I can't get that eGPU work with my built-in display again.

 

My machine

MacBook Pro 13'' Late 2013

Windows 8.1 via Bootcamp

EVGA GTX980 Ti

 

Software setup procedure

  1. Disconnect the eGPU from the computer. Or connect it to the computer. Tried both ways with the same negative result.
  2. Load into MacOS X
  3. Using Bootcamp, install Windows 8.1 and the Bootcamp software on top of it
  4. Install CCleaner and Driver Fusion. Using that software, wipe out any mentioning of the Intel graphics driver from the system. Remove Bootcamp from autostart.
  5. Prevent the iGPU from being automatically installed by the system using the Group policy editor, as described here
  6. From the Device Manager, disable and remove the iGPU (the screen blinks, the iGPU disappears, but the resolution and other image quality remain the same...)
  7. Reboot
  8. Install the nVidia graphic driver
  9. Reboot
  10. In past, could play games at this stage, and access the nvidia control panel. Now, can't play both...

 

The problem

The eGPU is visible in the device manager, is correctly recognized after installing the latest nvidia drivers. However, when I try to access the Nvidia control panel, it says "NVIDIA Settings are not available. You are not currently using a display attached to an NVIDIA GPU." - apparently the monitor can't see the GPU... When I run this  benchmark test, it uses the GTX980 eGPU, so it works, but when I try to run any game, it uses the iGPU and the FPS drops below 10. Skyrim, for example, reports that it can see GTX980, but when I enter the game, the FPS is low and the eGPU's power supply is silent (my power supply produces a special noise when the eGPU is used).

 

Venting out

This is really so strange. I've been struggling for two or three days already. In past, I re-installed this entire setup 2 or 3 times successfuly, now I can't reproduce the successful setup. I have no idea what I am doing wrong this time. I even tried to use the old nvidia driver, with no success... Also inability to order Windows explicitly to use a certain GPU for a certain display is just infuriating. Whatever I do in the device manager seems to be just ignored by the system. I even consider taking a disassembler and trying to attack the Nvidia control panel executable, so that I see where the GPU for the display is set and manually setting it to GTX980... Seriously, is there any way to tell this remarkable operating system which GPU you want to use with your monitor? It just drives me mad how this system seems not to listen to your commands at all. Maybe something on the kernel level? Anything?..

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Update: 

 

I updated OSX to 11.6 which made me to upgrade nvidia driver as well. This fixed the issue with XRG showing me activity on nvidia gpu during normal os tasks like youtube and facetime.

XRG monitors gpu faulty.

I have installed iStatMenus, which shows you bars for gpu activity without values, and it shows the active gpu. Finally I could see the performance growth, so I made a quick benchmark uninstalling and reinstalling the egpu.

 

Benchmark properties:

 

- OS X 11.6, Resolve 12.5

- Unfortunately I have only the system disk (not ssd, but a 1TB regular 2,5" hdd) which I used as source and target as well, so RAW render and playback is pretty irrelevant I guess, because my HDD was the smaller throughput.

- sequences: Arri Prores4444 (25 fps) 16:9 HD and ArriRaw 4:3 2k rendered into Prores422 HQ with heavy grading (using 15 nodes with primaries, secondaries, blurs and OFX GPU heavy effects)

 

Results: Playback.

no egpu: 15-18 fps

with egpu: 25fps (!!!)

 

Render

no egpu: 8 fps

with egpu: 13 fps

 

It is weird, that when I check CUDA-Z results on mac, the device to device connection is around 1300 MiB/s, but if I start a resolve playback, it drops to 700-800, and stays there during the playback. After stopped, it jumps back to the original 1300.

 

I try to test it on Windows 10, but I could not install the Nvidia drivers. I can see the GTX in Device Manager, I can install any Nvidia driver seeing my card, but after restart the driver disappears. 

And I do need to turn on and off the egpu during restart. It works continuosly.

 

Is anyone has a solution for the Windows install? Thanks.

 

 

 

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On 7/29/2016 at 2:21 PM, Phtoon said:

Hi goalque,

 

I managed to build the eGPU system according to the implementation guide succesfully. My specs:

 

iMac late 2015 5k, i5 24GB ram (no bootcamp)

Akitio Thunder2

Zallman ZM400LE PSU

Gigabyte GTX980ti 6GB

 

I do not have an external monitor , I would like to use only the CUDA rendering in DaVinci Resolve. I have applied the quickfix by goalque, not to have an external display. Since then, my 5k works as before. Now my mac shows the GTX980ti under the Graphics pane inside System Report, but not at "About my mac". There is still the built in AMD r380. In Davinci Resolve, the system shows only the GTX980ti, which seems to be victory, but I cannot see the performance gain. It is the same slow 6fps, what I get from my AMD GPU. Although I can hear ticking noise from the card during playbayk or render. This is the same with a Lite version and with the full, Studio version as well (Lite version is using only one gpu). It seems, that nothing utilizes the eGPU.

 

I have downloaded an app, called XRG, saying it is monitoring my all gpus. It does, and what is weird, that during using Resolve, the nvidia gpu is at 0 percent. Same with Adobe Premiere. But if I have a Facetime call or a youtube video, suddenly the nvidia gets active. You can see on the 2nd XRG screenshot, that it had activity for Nvidia gpu. That is a youtube video on my retina display.

Is there any software to monitor the egpu's performance somehow? Did you have experience with XRG?

 

Thanks a lot.

It’s a pity that software developers are not aware of the possibility of external GPUs - iGPU (or AMD dGPU) is often selected as the primary OpenCL device and Nvidia dGPU for CUDA processing because the software is designed for specific hardware. That’s not always the case, for example the new OpenCL rendering core of the Indigo Renderer supports multiple GPUs.

 

I don’t have experience with XRG. I use an energy meter plugged into a floor power strip. The OS X Terminal is a very useful tool:

ioreg -c nvAccelerator | grep \"PerformanceStatistics\" | sed -E 's/.*\"Device Utilization %\"=([0-9]+).*/\1/'

 

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18 hours ago, goalque said:

It’s a pity that software developers are not aware of the possibility of external GPUs - iGPU (or AMD dGPU) is often selected as the primary OpenCL device and Nvidia dGPU for CUDA processing because the software is designed for specific hardware. That’s not always the case, for example the new OpenCL rendering core of the Indigo Renderer supports multiple GPUs.

 

I don’t have experience with XRG. I use an energy meter plugged into a floor power strip. The OS X Terminal is a very useful tool:


ioreg -c nvAccelerator | grep \"PerformanceStatistics\" | sed -E 's/.*\"Device Utilization %\"=([0-9]+).*/\1/'

 

 

 

Thanks a lot. I have run the script during Resolve playback, I got a number: 75. What does this mean? What is this script reading? Sorry for being dumb.

Edited by Phtoon
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1 hour ago, Phtoon said:

 

Thanks a lot. I have run the script during Resolve playback, I got a number: 75. What does this mean? What is this script reading? Sorry for being dumb.

It shows the current eGPU utilization in percent. In Unigine Valley benchmark it went up to 90-100% (you need an external monitor).

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Just an update with my issues.

 

I finally got the script to run successfully, it now says Mac is egpu ready, however Mac only recognizes eGPU as  NVIDIA Chip Model (I'm running a GTX 960) and doesn't show any display other than internal. Also, when I restart the Mac with egpu  plugged in, it crashes and restarts halfway through loading bar. Anyone have any success running an  eGPU on beta? Unfortunately downgrading to el cap is not an option for me.

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Hello! The system crashes when trying to start a new version of adobe premiere  (2015.3) when the external card is connected. Everything works well without eGPU. But in the settings of premiere I can not specify the use of cuda. What could be the problem? I use the latest drivers...

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54 minutes ago, Misha said:

Hello! The system crashes when trying to start a new version of adobe premiere  (2015.3) when the external card is connected. Everything works well without eGPU. But in the settings of premiere I can not specify the use of cuda. What could be the problem? I use the latest drivers...

Remove Metal folder in distributive (e.g. in AE - /Applications/Adobe\ After\ Effects\ CC\ 2015.3/Adobe\ After\ Effects\ CC\ 2015.app/Contents/PTX/Metal )

Edited by devild
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Hello everybody! First of all I would like to thank the participants of this topic for useful information. I fashioned eGPU based on AkitioThunder2 and MSI GeForce GTX 970 1140Mhz. When I run Adobe Premiere, variety benchmark's and games, after a few minutes the system crash. By this post I attach the system report. I hope someone can help me.
 

 

 

 

 

 

Screen Shot 2016-08-16 at 02.10.22.png

Screen Shot 2016-08-16 at 02.10.45.png

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  • 3 weeks later...

my system can recognize egpu gtx980 and when i install the driver and restart。but it can't work my system was Windows 8.1,when i was gaming fps was very low。 some body can help me solve this problem。i was installed the optimus efi boot。my english was very poor i hope you can read it 

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On August 31, 2016 at 6:53 PM, JohnyB33 said:

Does anyone know how to setup the e-gpu so it uses the internal display?

 

Literally in this same forum, one post below this thread is an Optimus "internal LCD mode" guide. 

 

 

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2 hours ago, P-Mac said:

 

Literally in this same forum, one post below this thread is an Optimus "internal LCD mode" guide. 

 

 

 

I guess i should have specified, I wanted to get it working for windows 10 not 8.1. Not sure if that makes a difference for this guide.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi all,

I am very interested in constructing an external GPU for my new 2015 13" rMBP and have been lurking on these forums nonstop for the past few days. Let's just say that my head is spinning from all this information.

I am on the edge of purchasing an Akitio Thunder2 but have many questions. These are as follows:

1) I am considering using a new EVGA GTX 750 TI (no PCIe power). How would the power supply work? Can I use it at full clock with the official Akitio 72w PSU or do I need something more (if so, kindly link to a reliable source)?

2) I am running Windows 10 Bootcamp in UEFI. Does this mean that I can just plug-and-play the GPU?

3) Could I use my internal display? How would I go about disabling the internal display and using an external display instead?

PS: I am planning on using Windows 10 for all of this.

Thank you all so much! Any help is greatly appreciated.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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