Thunderbolt 2 eGPU??

[Blackbeard555]

So I was thinking about getting a Thunderbolt eGPU to go on my 15" rMBP from mid 2014. I would mainly be using it for gaming in Bootcamp.

I was planning on this enclosure and this card, with an external PSU of course.

Anybody see any potential issues here?

Thanks

--Sean

 

[yjchua95]

So I was thinking about getting a Thunderbolt eGPU to go on my 15" rMBP from mid 2014. I would mainly be using it for gaming in Bootcamp.

I was planning on this enclosure and this card, with an external PSU of course.

Anybody see any potential issues here?

Thanks

--Sean

I use a Sonnet IIID with a GTX 780 Ti + Corsair RM450 PSU and it's as easy as plug and play into Boot Camp. Just switch it on before boot, start up in Windows and there you go (only works for Haswell and later Macs, because only these ones have a UEFI 2.0-compliant logic board). Your Mac has a Haswell chip, so PnP eGPU is supported provided you use Windows 8.1.

It should work the same with the Akitio.

 

[Blackbeard555]

I use a Sonnet IIID with a GTX 780 Ti + Corsair RM450 PSU and it's as easy as plug and play into Boot Camp. Just switch it on before boot, start up in Windows and there you go (only works for Haswell and later Macs, because only these ones have a UEFI 2.0-compliant logic board). Your Mac has a Haswell chip, so PnP eGPU is supported provided you use Windows 8.1.

It should work the same with the Akitio.

Thanks!

 

[yjchua95]

Thanks!

Note: Since your rMBP has a discrete GPU, you will need an external display connected to the eGPU as well. Somehow, the internal display cannot be powered by the eGPU if a dGPU is already present.

 

[Blackbeard555]

Note: Since your rMBP has a discrete GPU, you will need an external display connected to the eGPU as well. Somehow, the internal display cannot be powered by the eGPU if a dGPU is already present.

Would it work if I uninstalled the drivers for the dGPU or disabled it in the Windows control panel?? I really want to game in 1800p!

 

[yjchua95]

Would it work if I uninstalled the drivers for the dGPU or disabled it in the Windows control panel?? I really want to game in 1800p!

The drivers for the dGPU and eGPU are the same drivers.

And there is absolutely no way to disable the dGPU in the rMBP, because it's hard-wired into the UEFI to remain enabled if Windows is active.

 

[jblagden]

Note: Since your rMBP has a discrete GPU, you will need an external display connected to the eGPU as well. Somehow, the internal display cannot be powered by the eGPU if a dGPU is already present.

What about a Mac which only has integrated graphics?

 

[cheezeit]

So this should work on a 2015 15" with the 370x correct? Maybe if I get a deal I'll downgrade to the one without DGPU and invest in this. What's the percentage of power we get using it? 80% of the card?

 

[SDAVE]

So this should work on a 2015 15" with the 370x correct? Maybe if I get a deal I'll downgrade to the one without DGPU and invest in this. What's the percentage of power we get using it? 80% of the card?

Well you'll be limited by the lanes (I think its 4x) for Thunderbolt 2.

Thunderbolt 3 has PCIe 3.0 specs embedded so I'm sure it will give you more performance. You'll never get true PCIe performance with these docks.

 

[Barna Biro]

What about a Mac which only has integrated graphics?

It works fine with either internal or external display ( if you want to render things on the notebook's display then make sure you get an NVidia GPU that works with Optimus - not sure if they made it work on Windows 10, I had to revert to 8.1 in order to continue rendering things on my notebook's screen -> Note: using an external display for rendering should yield better performance overall ). I'm using a 13" rMBP with a ViDock that houses a Zotac GTX 760 Amp! Edition and I'm using the notebook's screen for rendering ( no external display ); been working like a charm for almost 2 years now.

@OP: make sure that the setup can provide enough juice ( power ) to the card / it can be hooked up to a proper PSU if needed... I see they have a 75W power brick but that might not be enough ( haven't read up on the card's power consumption but I have a feeling it will need more juice ).

Also, double-check the dimensions, making sure the card you decide to go with will fit nicely into the case.

 

[jblagden]

It works fine with either internal or external display ( if you want to render things on the notebook's display then make sure you get an NVidia GPU that works with Optimus - not sure if they made it work on Windows 10, I had to revert to 8.1 in order to continue rendering things on my notebook's screen -> Note: using an external display for rendering should yield better performance overall ). I'm using a 13" rMBP with a ViDock that houses a Zotac GTX 760 Amp! Edition and I'm using the notebook's screen for rendering ( no external display ); been working like a charm for almost 2 years now.

@OP: make sure that the setup can provide enough juice ( power ) to the card / it can be hooked up to a proper PSU if needed... I see they have a 75W power brick but that might not be enough ( haven't read up on the card's power consumption but I have a feeling it will need more juice ).

Also, double-check the dimensions, making sure the card you decide to go with will fit nicely into the case.

Will that only work in Windows or will it also work in OS X?

 

[Barna Biro]

It works on OSX as well but if you'll be mainly using it for gaming then I'd use Windows ( games are generally better optimized for Windows ). Either way, as I said, it should work on both Win and OSX, so it's really up to you.