2015 11" Macbook Air TB2 with OSS Cube 2 and GTX970 (Win8 Working but not OSX)

[Odysseus]

Hi all,

I've been reading these forums and trying to get my egpu to work. The info has been very helpful! However, I don't have my setup working 100% yet. Here's what I have so far. Hopefully this might help others, and maybe someone can point out how to get my egpu to work under Mac OSX! I've tried several different cards, and I have now borrowed my friend's GTX970

Hardware:

• 2015 11" Macbook Air, which has thunderbolt 2
  
• Gigabyte GTX 970
  
• OSS 5-Bay Cube 2 (Desktop PCIe Enclosures | One Stop Systems). A little pricey ($700) but not as pricey as the Sonnet. Also, the PSU supports GPUs out of the box. It also has 5 PCI slots. My thoughts are to try to make it a desktop dock by adding a USB 3.0 PCI card, etc (if it would even work with OSX) once I got the GPU portion worked out.
  

On my MBA, I have Yosemite and Win8 running under bootcamp. Getting the eGPU to run under Win8 was very easy. Yosemite is a different story, unfortunately.

I do have a weird issue. I can NOT boot my MBA while the eGPU is connected and powered on with the GTX970. No matter how many times I hit the power button, the MBA just sits there and does not power on. And I mean it's like I'm pressing the power button on a laptop that has no power--there is no response, nada, it's dead. It's such a strange issue, and I've searched around online and these forums and have not been able to find any mention of it elsewhere. I don't know how to debug this issue if the laptop won't power on. Once I unplug OR power off the eGPU, the MBA will power on normally, but after a few power button presses. It must be the GTX970, the other cards I've tried (HD7950 and GTX260) allowed me to power on the laptop while the eGPU was on and plugged in if I recall correctly.

Windows 8:

Once I go to the Mac boot menu (by holding down Alt) and select Windows, I can immediately turn on the eGPU at the blue Windows start up logo. Everything seems to work fine. I installed the latest Nvidia drivers, and Optimus seems to work great without any additional intervention on my part. Just as an FYI, there's no indication that the eGPU is in use until you start a 3D game/application (or plug in an external monitor to the eGPU). At first I thought Optimus wasn't working, but once I tested with Unigine Valley, Optimus kicked in automatically. I also installed Crysis as a test, and no issues playing on my MBA with settings maxed out. On WIndows 8 at least, so far it looks like it is working with no issues.

Mac OS X:

Unfortunately, OS X is a different story. I'm running Yosemite 10.10.4, and I would love to get the eGPU to work on OS X since I would like to use OS X for photo editing and also gaming. I tried using goalque's excellent script (http://forum.techinferno.com/mac-os-x-discussion/10289-script-automating-installation-egpu-os-x-inc-display-output.html), and I also tried manually editing the 3 kext files and installing OS X Nvidia drivers. Since I can't boot the MBA with the eGPU powered on, I would try to hot plug after Yosemite fully boots. If I try to do this, under System Report the GPU is listed as "NVIDIA Chip Model." I've experimented powering on the eGPU at the Apple boot logo and the login screen, but this freezes up the MBA. I did find that powering on the eGPU immediately as I log in helps Yosemite detect the GPU (I also added -v to the boot-args, but I think it still worked without it). However, if I have an external monitor connected, the MBA LCD display screen blinks in and out. It pulses on to off and back in like ~1 second intervals. Once I unplug the external monitor, the display stops blinking in and out. Also, under About this Mac>Displays, both internal and external displays indicate the HD6000 is being used and not the eGPU.

I haven't investigated getting Optimus to work under Yosemite yet. I'm currently stumped trying to get the external monitor to work under Yosemite. I'll also need to try a different monitor (could that be an issue?), the current one I'm using is pretty crappy.

If anyone has seen the blinking LCD screen issue or the non responding power button issue, please let me know! Thanks!

[EDIT] Updated to indicate that Win8 and Mac OS X Yosemite now both work. See below

[euqlaog]

2015 models behave differently, have you tried tranj10’s guide?

http://forum.techinferno.com/implementation-guides-apple/10614-2015-13-macbook-pro-gtx970%4016gbps-tb2-akitio-thunder2-win8-1-osx10-10-%5Btranj10%5D.html

I recommend to erase & install and resetting NVRAM & SMC. Please don’t edit kexts manually, try switching between [-m] and [-a] modes, the latter is meant for multi-slot enclosures.

Automate-eGPU.sh script will have a big update very soon.

[Odysseus]

2015 models behave differently, have you tried tranj10’s guide?

http://forum.techinferno.com/implementation-guides-apple/10614-2015-13-macbook-pro-gtx970%4016gbps-tb2-akitio-thunder2-win8-1-osx10-10-%5Btranj10%5D.html

I recommend to erase & install and resetting NVRAM & SMC. Please don’t edit kexts manually, try switching between [-m] and [-a] modes, the latter is meant for multi-slot enclosures.

Automate-eGPU.sh script will have a big update very soon.

I had not seen tranj10's guide. I'm not sure if the "black screen" issue is the same as I'm experiencing. I reset the NVRAM and SMC and tried his steps, but my laptop won't even power on with the eGPU plugged in. It must be doing something since I have to hold the power button down to power cycle it so that it will power on without the eGPU.

I just tried the -a option. Looks like that at least fixed powering up the eGPU at the login screen. So I can boot to the login screen, and then power on the eGPU. eGPU gets detected, but I still have the flashing screen issue when trying to plug in a monitor via HDMI (same as before). I'm trying to use a TV as a second monitor. When I get a chance, I'll try to use an actual monitor.

[Odysseus]

Look like my issue was the crappy TV I was trying to use. I'm using display port to a second monitor AND made the external monitor the primary monitor. This enabled the eGPU. I made the external monitor primary by moving the "menu bar" to the external monitor display under Display Settings. If I didn't do this, didn't seem that my eGPU would kick in. I'll run some benchmarks to verify.

Also, Mac OSX still hangs at the log in screen if I power up the eGPU before I log in. What I posted above seems to have been a fluke. Once I enter my password and immediately after I hit the enter key, I power on the eGPU. This seems to work so far. I've tried the -a option, doesn't seem to make a difference.

[euqlaog]

@Odysseus:

Thanks for the input. I just noticed that the new version has some bugs I will fix soon. It’s very difficult to maintain nearly 1000 rows of code that you can’t compile & debug

I didn’t verify if the -a works as before on 0.9.4. I will check.

EDIT: Confirmed, the -a mode needs a fix as well

[Odysseus]

@Odysseus:

Thanks for the input. I just noticed that the new version has some bugs I will fix soon. It’s very difficult to maintain nearly 1000 rows of code that you can’t compile & debug

I didn’t verify if the -a works as before on 0.9.4. I will check.

EDIT: Confirmed, the -a mode needs a fix as well

No problem, goalque. Your script wasn't related to the issues I was having. Even if it has bugs, it made editing the kext files and installing a modified NVIDIA driver very easy. Really appreciate your contributions and look forward to your updated script.

I think I'm at the point where I have a usable setup in Windows 8.1 and OS X. I don't have optimus under OS X and I can't boot with the eGPU powered on. But I can live with those limitations. I can get the eGPU to work consistently with a minimal rain dance. Hopefully future NVIDIA drivers will get Win10 Optimus working.