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joebclash

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 14, 2016
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I know it sounds crazy to do egpu on mac pro but I'm using all my pcie slots. Mac pro's have a slot for air port card, so I was wondering if I could setup egpu using something like the Exp Gdc 8.4 on my mac pro with the air port card slot?
 

joebclash

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 14, 2016
210
119
Crazy prices for empty boxes :eek:
You can set up not bad hackintosh for that money

Yes, breakout boxes are very expensive. Thats why I was asking about the Exp Gdc. It seems people use it for older laptops. Just trying to figure out if it would work with mac pro.
 

joebclash

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 14, 2016
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Take a look at this post about re-purposing a Cyclone Microsystems backplane.

I was hoping you would make an appearance in this thread. That setup is beyond my skill level. Do you know if anything can be done with that wifi slot on the mac pro?
 
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ActionableMango

macrumors G3
Sep 21, 2010
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Do you know if anything can be done with that wifi slot on the mac pro?

I've seen people attach non-wifi cards (such as USB 3.0 or SATA), and they did work.

However if you look at the system block diagram, the Wi-Fi connector is a MiniPCIe 1.0 slot with only a single lane:

upload_2017-3-15_12-7-23.png

The bandwidth would obviously be crippled (0.3GB/s instead of 10GB/s for a PCIe 2.0 x16 slot). Even if that were enough speed for you, I'm not sure that slot type is compatible with graphics cards because of the max wattage. Graphics cards expect up to 75W from the slot, but a PCIe 1.0 1x slot is limited to 6W.

So even if you find all the right physical adapters I don't think this would work.
 
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Synchro3

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Jan 12, 2014
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Filin

macrumors regular
Mar 7, 2010
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Ukraine
@joebclash, i think you should go another way - free up PCI-E slot.
What cards you use now?

p.s. also exist such thing as PCI-e riser. You can combine two (or more) cards to one PCI-e slot. Even external versions exist.
 
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joebclash

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 14, 2016
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119
PE4L-EC060A: http://www.hwtools.net/Adapter/PE4L V2.1.html (price at the moment a lot too much due to relocation of warehouse, I paid around $40 in the past)

This is a newer version: http://www.ebay.ch/itm/PE4C-EC060A-...663180?hash=item4aff4aaa0c:g:hlwAAOSwDNdV23oA

And this Expresscard to PCI-E-Adapter:
View attachment 692411 View attachment 692413

That pcie adapter seems very interesting. It opens up some possibilities but I'm starting to realize I may need breakout box...
 

Flint Ironstag

macrumors 65816
Dec 1, 2013
1,334
744
Houston, TX USA
Yes, breakout boxes are very expensive. Thats why I was asking about the Exp Gdc. It seems people use it for older laptops. Just trying to figure out if it would work with mac pro.
People seem to forget... If you bought that Magma PCIe expansion chassis back in 2011, guess what? Simply update the GPUs in it to stay current. How many other peripherals offer that type of longevity? Pretty much just monitors and IBM Model M keyboards. These things will outlive your primary workstations many times over, making the overall cost negligible.
 

joebclash

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 14, 2016
210
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Oh my bad. Yeah. Thunderbolt. You are right.

No problem. This whole egpu thing is very confusing. The advances in gpu compute power is just amazing. I still don't understand why apple is not jumping on epgu like a dog in heat?
 

mattspace

macrumors 68040
Jun 5, 2013
3,305
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Australia
No problem. This whole egpu thing is very confusing. The advances in gpu compute power is just amazing. I still don't understand why apple is not jumping on epgu like a dog in heat?

because GPU updates are the only thing they've got to offer to push new machines, in which CPUs have been more or less static. I wouldn't pin hopes of user-ugradable GPUs ever coming back to the Mac.
 

Flint Ironstag

macrumors 65816
Dec 1, 2013
1,334
744
Houston, TX USA
No problem. This whole egpu thing is very confusing. The advances in gpu compute power is just amazing. I still don't understand why apple is not jumping on epgu like a dog in heat?
This is a mystery for the ages. You need a breakout box. If you'd purchased one with your Mac Pro back in 2012 it would have paid for itself many times over if you're a professional. Throw 4 new GPUs in it every 3 years and stay on top of the game.

Pretty simple math.

[edit] did you see my earlier post? max expansion has a box for you, with whatever backplane you want (PCIe or Thunderbolt)
 
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joebclash

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 14, 2016
210
119
because GPU updates are the only thing they've got to offer to push new machines, in which CPUs have been more or less static. I wouldn't pin hopes of user-ugradable GPUs ever coming back to the Mac.

Which is why apple should embrace egpu. They should build a better razor core.

Does anyone know why you have to run all these weird scripts to get egpu working in macos? Don't tell me they purposely cripple egpu in the os?
 
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