DIY eGPU MacOS Experiences

Out of my depth with MacOS, but unless there is native support for the GTX550Ti which is lacking for a GTX460 then there would be no reason to get it over a s/h GTX460.

A GTX550Ti has 192 cuda cores, a GTX460-1GB has 336, or 75% more performance potential. They can be had for a lot less as a s/h ebay purchase. Be sure to look for the 1GB 336 cores version avoiding the SE, V2 or 768MB versions. The best ones being the OC versions.

 

According to this post, it seems GTX460 should work out-of-the-box in Mac OS X Lion. GTX550Ti is a good choice too because it has been tested on 10.7.3 & it works out-of-the-box.

 

Well I am waiting for a used gtx 460 1gb this week. Most of these cards are supposed to work with OSX 10.7 with minor tweaks or out of the box. As soon as I get it I ll try out.

 

thank you guys so much.

around my friends i like to name myself the one computer savvy, compared to you guys...no comment lol. but i like to learn new things all the time and this one has certainly be one of those that are fun to learn. left me

i will try out the gtx460 sometime this week and will post back later. been busy with work and training for a bycicle tour.

thanks again, will keep in touch.

 

Hey guys,

Would it be a good idea to trade in my geforce 560 for a geforce 460? Would there be a big drop in performance? Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe the 560 is just a rebranded 460. I am planning on using my egpu on multiple mac computers, so having a compatible card would but very well.

 

are the amd radeons cards mentioned on the first post by @timohour the only ones compatible with osx or are there other that work right out of the box? i am not too familiar with AMD as i have usually chose Nvidia over ATI, which would be better than my GTX460?

thanks @nando4 for the info about the lack of performance on the GTX550Ti, i will keep an eye out for that detail.

 

is this Newegg.com - XFX Double D Black Edition FX-777A-ZDB4 Radeon HD 7770 GHz Edition 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card better than my GTX460 and better than the GTX550ti?

@nando4, by cuda cores, does this mean that this RADEON HD has 640 cores? I went to the details and saw "streaming processors: 640"

On the topic of AMD - Nvidia comparison. On the RADEON cards, is higher the number the better? for example, if we were to say a RADEON HD 7440 (made up numbers) is better than a RADEON HD 6440? But, not better than a RADEON HD 6660? since the only difference is that they are using a different chipset architecture (the number 6xxx & 7xxx), but the series on is higher x660 > x440?

 

No, you don't have to trade a 560 for a 460. All 5XX and 4XX should work under the latest update (10.7.4) and the Nvidia drivers package. Especially on macs Fermi cards (if their Device ID is added in the info.plist) are supposed to work without ATYinit or efirom, plug n play, just no boot screen.

Yes as mentioned on the first post as of now the only Ati cards that have full support are 58XX, 57XX, 68XX. Also it is noted that 69XX will be fully supported in OSX 10.8 as shown here. I have personally tried to attach an 6950 with no positive result as of 1/2012 with 10.6.7. We also expect support of the 78XX and 79XX series in ML but it ain't for sure. As of now you should better stick with your GTX460 waiting for either Keplar support (no signs it will come) or 78XX support. You could also get a GTX580 which will work OOB.

 

Palit Sonic OC GTX460 working perfectly @ x1 2.0 with OS X 10.7.3 after the Nvidia Update Driver. No need for any tweaks for OpenGL to work. Maybe needs some tweaking to enable OpenCL. Will be find out soon

 

Tried the Nvidia drivers on 10.7.4 but the card is still not detected.

Could someone send me an unmodified info.plist file? Hopefully this time around it won't corrupted.

 

Here is an unmodified Info.plist from NVDAGF100Hal.kext
I've renamed it to Info.plist.txt so I can attach to this post.
You have to remove ".txt" from the file name and repair its permissions once you put at the right place.

 

Here is a post I've replied from the thread DIY eGPU Case Proposal (Thunderbolt). I think it concerns to this one as well.

 

Hi all,

I found this forum just recently. I borrowed a P4EH EC2C and a GTX 550 Ti form a friend to test it with my MacBook Pro 3,1 (mid 2008). But I can't get it to work. I'm obviously doing something wrong. First of all, where can I get the drivers from? Do I have to patch anything? Is the card the right one or should I get an AMD card instead?

Or should I try to get it to work on Windows 7 partition? I tried it there as well but I can't get the drivers (295.75 i think) to install.
Any ideas? Thanks a lot.

Update: I just installed the 270.00.00f06 Web Release from Nvidia site and modified the Distribution file and just added "MacBookPro3,1" to the list. The Installer started this time and installed the drivers. Now in System I can see the card. But how can I tell maces to use it (I want to use internal lcd)?

 

In Mac OS X you can't use internal LCD from your Macbook yet (or ever).

In Windows you would use NVIDIA Optimus driver and choose to use your internal LCD IF your Macbook had a Sandy Bridge or Ivy Bridge internal GPU (aka Intel HD3000 and Intel HD4000). Since your Macbook Pro is from mid 2008 you have to connect an external LCD in Windows as well.

 

Hi,

Well it does seem like the TB port is somehow stopping my card to connect with my macbook pro. Did you do anything else for the card to appear? Or did you just:

-Plug in expresscard
-turn on macbook
-Card appeared in system profiler

or was it a different method?


Also, does anyone know where/how I can find ATY_init? My info.plist just doesn't seem to be loading.

 

What I did was
- power up the card and atx unit (macbook off)
- boot macbook
- in system profiler there was nothing detected
- downloaded the drivers and modified the mentioned file
- installed the drivers
- reboot
- back in machos I looked into the system profiler and there it was

I also have to say that the card was detected from the first time I connected it because in the menu bar I had this screen icon where I could choose to disable the cards.

I'll try and connect it to an external display to see if at least that is working.

I also read that the limitation (you need to have an Intel HD internal card) is no longer valid, because of this DSDT override ( http://forum.notebookreview.com/8377566-post8941.html). Has anybody tried this so far?

 

As cyph3rz said there is no working way so far to use the eGPU with Internal screen for OpenGL apps. However, OpenCL applications (like Final Cut X...) will use the card if it is detected properly.

Intel HD and/or DSDT override has nothing to do with each other. Also Optimus won't work @ OSX only Windows...

Pls for noob questions refer first to the thread DIY eGPU experiences. There is plenty of info to read...

 

You won't need ATY_init with the new drivers.
Can you explain us what you did when using Windows and exactly what you did when using OS X?

 

i found this offer Newegg.com - MSI N460GTX-M2D1GD5/OC2 GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) 1GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

what do you guys think?

 

MSI specs tell us it's a GTX460SE and they fail to list it's poor core count.

There are four variants of the GTX460 with the GTX460SE being the lowest performing unit. It's 288 versus 336 cores being similar to comparing a GTX560 (336) to a GTX560Ti (384).

GTX460SE-1GB: 288 cores, 256bit bus, 1GB RAM
GTX460-768GB: 336 cores, 192bit bus, 768MB RAM
GTX460v2: 336 cores, 192bit bus, 1GB RAM ** uses new more efficient GF114 chip**
GTX460-1GB: 336 cores, 256bit bus, 1GB RAM

I'd advise hunting down a second hand GTX460-1GB OC version for best bang-per-buck with anywhere up to 17% better performance. Having the same core count meaning it's performance is similar to a GTX560. A GTX560 uses the more efficient GF114 chip so may overclock better and uses slightly less power. Still, at AR$90, the MSI GTX460SE is a better bang-per-buck *new* option than say a GTS450/GTX550Ti (192 cores).

 

Not to try to sell things where I shouldn't, but I have a 460 GTX I'm looking to sell that runs over 900MHz on the core. Pm me.

 

sorry for the late reply, but doesnt the one i linked use the same structure of the newer 5xx series, hence it only has 288 CUDA cores? i read somewhere that that one of the reasons this card was good for just 90.

i received them this past tuesday and installed one in a Dell tower i have, and am running everything on high (except for Shadow=OFF, as i dont care for that) on a lower resolution instead of the 1080p and its running at a steady 60fps.

to everyone else: i still haven't had the chance to test out the eGPU with this card. i still havent bought the other components for it as my brother in law took his back lol

 

Kudos for starting this thread. I was always having a tough time looking through the eGPU thread for Mac OSX implementations.

Have we imported the successful experiments from there?

BTW - What are the experiences on SL vs Lion here? Especially looking at my Thinkpad Hackintosh X61T to drive large LCD with eGPU.

 

Lion has better drivers on all new cards against Snow Leopard.
what's the card you own atm?

 

As you can see here.. I am still looking for a Graphics card that works.

 

After a bunch of research and wanting Low Power set up.

Here's my latest SHORTLIST: Top is lowest Power / Price compared to below:

Suggest? Lowest Power & Coolest running Graphics card to drive 2560 x 1600 / 2560 x 1440 LCDs via Dual DVI & Display Port outputs for Windows & Mac? Gaming not critical. Will be used as eGPU

Thoughts on which ones are/ would be good for eGPU on Mac OSX Hackintosh?

 

I'd go with ATI Radeon HD 6670. The 1GB GDDR5 one should work out-of-the-box in Lion. However, I didn't see anyone tested DisplayPort, only DVI, VGA & HDMI confirmed working.

 

I am a little less inclined towards it at this point. More inclined towards the "earlier candidates" on my short list.

UPDATE: Given this power comparative.. I am going to take your input on the 6670. Lets see if I want to go that way and spend the $$ or stick with the 30$ card.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4278/amds-radeon-hd-6670-radeon-hd-6570/15

Thoughts on whether these top 3 work on Mac OSX? And if so do they work on SL / Lion?

PS: One more question. The PE4L kit that is now for 78$. Was it not cheaper for an earlier version? If so, how/ where can I get that?

 

How do I set up a e-gpu for a macbook?

 

One question:

What is the difference between these two? Pros and Cons of getting one over the other?

PE4L ( PCIe Adapter ver2.1 )
PE4L ( PCIe Adapter ver2.1 )

PE4L ( PCIe passive adapter Ver1.5 )
PE4L ( PCIe passive adapter ver1.5 )

Ver 1.5 is much cheaper as well.. Thoughts?

ALSO: What is their typical turnaround Shipping/ Delivery time after placing the order?

 

Has anyone successfully paired an NVidia 4xx - 6xx card with mac os x? It seems that all of the cards are AMD cards..

 

Hi all,

I'm trying to set up the eGPU for OSX Lion 10.7.3. My eGPU works fine with Windows 7 and DIY Setup 1.x but I can't seem to get it working on Lion (do I need to boot into DIY Setup 1.x before I boot into Chimera to load Lion?). I booted with GraphicsEnabler=Yes (with and without going through the DIY Setup 1.x), system profiler detects the card but there's no video on the external monitor and the GPU fan spins loud (that's how I know it isn't working). I have a HP ProBook 4530s and my GPU is a Nvidia GTX 260. Any help would be much appreciated, thanks!

 

Try doing this. This was written by Cyph3rz on page 4 I think:

"NVIDIA has released new drivers today for OS X Lion 10.7.4.

For those who don't know how to install it:
Copy the installer off of the disk image, right-click to open it, then find and edit distribution.dist inside with textedit and change "var system_models" to match your Mac model. (e.g. MacBookPro8,1 for MacBook Pro 13" Late 2011)."

You would just have to download the 10.7.3 drivers. It should work.

 

I believe these instructions are only for real Macs/Macbook. I have a Hackintosh.

 

Hackintosh users can download the driver, too. There is a way to it to download on hackintoshes. Could you post a picture of "About your mac"? (I'm guessing you know but click on the apple at the top left and about your mac)

 

My system detects the card but there isn't any video on the external display. Here are my screenshots, hopefully someone can help. I've followed the guide to update the nVidia drivers and that was a success. What am I missing to solve this puzzle?!

EDIT: Upgraded to ML 10.8 and everything works great!!!

 

EDIT2: I swapped over the VGA and DVI cable and it all works.. nice easy fix then.


EDIT and sort of fix:

Turns out ML does not support VGA output. I unplugged my VGA monitor (which is connected to an adapter) and the card now works.

This is really annoying, because one of my screens is VGA only (it's the nicer one incidentally). However, I plugged it into the VGA output on my laptop and all 3 screens now work (which is awesome). Although it would be more convenient to have the two powered by the eGPU to save rewiring things for another OS.

It's strange because when I used this card in my desktop with Leopard, VGA worked just fine. Did they actually decide to remove functionality in later versions?



Hi all,

I've been trying to enable a GTX260 as an eGPU, which is connected to two external displays. System Information does actually see the card, but it doesn't say that there are any displays attached and at the moment it claims that it only has 1MB of vram.

I have added the correct line to NVDAGF100Hal.kext as described earlier in the thread, but it hasn't helped. Besides, it seems like the card is detected, it just isn't quite being recognised properly.

I'm on Mountain Lion. My internal card is another Nvidia card (GT218, but I use a custom DSDT that describes it as a 9400M instead). I haven't installed any extra Nvidia drivers, but as far as I can tell they are all included in ML anyway. This setup works fine in Windows and Linux so the hardware should all be functional. I've also used this card before in my desktop PC with OS X and it worked well (but that was after I did install the Nvidia drivers since it was on Leopard).

Attached are what System Information shows. I added

0x05e210de&0xffc0ffff

to the NVDAGF100Hal.kext Info.plist file.

I'm wondering if this can only be done with an Intel internal card and different brand of eGPU? However if I switch to the Intel graphics card in the BIOS, OS X just refuses to boot, so I can't really test this.

I'm using a Thinkpad T510 and PE4H.

Any ideas?

 

Hi everybody, i'm resuming this 3d cause i decided to upgrade my Macbook4,1:
i'm totally new to egpu.. but if i've understood something here it is:

i need to open my mac and remove the airport card to use the 1X configuration on my mPCIe connector. (i have no express card slot)
set up PE4H/L +PM3N+any videocard... (maybe ATI?)

the point is: i wrote to hwtools support and they answered me that my BIOS may be not compatible..
but many pages ago i read about some of you who with a macbook pro get it working..
my question is: if i'm on a Core2Duo 2.1ghz 2GB Ram, fully supported 64bit OS, WIN7 and MountainLion (boots with kernel 64bit) what kind of configuration should i choose to get it working at least on BootCamp?

thanks

 

Hi guys! I've been wanting an eGPU for Blender cycles for a while now so I've come here to ask a few questions (and kinda act like a noob)

I have a Late 2011 17" MacBook Pro which has an Expresscard slot so my intention is just to buy the PE4L 2.1 and put a nVidia (Blender no support ATi yet ) graphics card on there.

I have a sandy bridge cpu (2.4 i7) does that mean I get a PCIe 2.0 x1 link over Expresscard?

The computer has a ATi 6770m and a Intel HD 3000 which does automatic graphics switching on the mac side, so is it possible to drive the internal LCD for gaming (I'll be using this more for OpenCL/CUDA but this is just out of curiosity).

And lastly, will it blend?

Thanks in advance

Also, idk if this is even possible (it may just be plain stupid) but since the PE4H has multiple inputs for more bandwidth could I have it plugged into the expresscard slot, mPCIe, and a couple thunderbolt>expresscard adapters (since you can chain 2 to fill up the thunderbolt channels)? That would be equivalent to an x4 slot right?

 

Hello,
I am looking into the possibility of driving many (3 or 4) projectors (plus a monitor) off of a mac mini. I was thinking of using the Sonnet Echo Express (or II, or Pro) enclosure and some midrange video card (whatever model works best) to drive the projectors, and the HDMI port on the Mac Mini to drive a standard DVI monitor. Note that the projectors are VGA (I heard there can be some issues with VGA on eGPUs?)
Can anyone please confirm that a setup like this will definitely work or not work? Additionally does anyone have recommendations for which video cards would work well under OS X 10.8?

 

Hey frenchie,

So you're planning on using a Thunderbolt enclosure under OS X? The only problem with this is that no one has actually gotten a thunderbolt e-gpu to work under OS X because it isn't "thunderbolt aware". Under windows, a mac mini works fine with an e-gpu. I have a Vidock connected to my 2012 mac mini and it works fine under windows, just not with OS X.

 

i have a question for u. i use bplus to add a graphic card gtx650 to my macbook pro 2011 i use thunderbolt.WHen i open the computer the card work but there was nothing on my External display.WHats wrong

win7 64
...........

 

Thunderbolterizer!

 

Hey Epicblob,

I have a problem and a serious question to you concerning Vidock under Mac OS X (10.8.3/4).
Here are my specs:

Modellname: MacBook Pro
Modell-Identifizierung: MacBookPro8,1
Prozessortyp: Intel Core i7
Prozessorgeschwindigkeit: 2,7 GHz
Anzahl der Prozessoren: 1
Gesamtzahl der Kerne: 2
L2-Cache (pro Kern): 256 KB
L3-Cache: 4 MB
Speicher: 8 GB

I plugged in everything right from the beginnig but OS doesnt detect the good damn device!
Did I miss or left out something?!? What did I wrong? Do you have any experience on this?

Thanks for your support man!

 

the problem is OSX is not thunderbolt aware, you may need to heavily modify drivers ( kexts ) IF you can get it to work at all. almost all of us have given up on OSX with an eGPU to this point and stayed with windows until Apple possibly has it working with TB 2.0 at the end of the year in conjunction with OSX 10.9

 

Did you guys check out the link I posted a few posts up? These guys were able to mod the files so the card would become thunderbolt aware. This could theoretically be done with other cards. Only time will tell, but an egpu for os x isn't doomed.

 

I have checked it and am in the process of trying it. to this point there have been not a lot of cards that seem to work too well unfortunatly

 

Hey KCETech1,

Thanks for your answer and ideas.
Do you have an idea how to make the Vidock / the graphic card become thunderbolt aware?
If so, would you please share your solution?

 

would also be very interested in Mac solution for GPU in a thunderbolt enclosure.

 

Hey KCETech1,

Did you make any progress so far? FYI: The ViDock works perfectly in the internal Expresscard slot of older MBPs. My suggestion is, that the TB Bridge creates conflicts with the internal drivers, just as it did in case of MEDIAPROS. How to make the ViDock Thunderbolt aware? The systemprofiler lists the ECHOPRO34 and natively recognizes the PCIe Slot but NOT the device inserted. In my opinion, the drivers (which one I dont have any clue) have to be rewritten. Does the MEDIAPROS file give you any insight into the driver-implementations?