System specs
- 2013 15-inch Macbook Pro Retina
- 2.6 Ghz Intel Core i7
- Nvidia GT750M dGPU
- MacOS 10.14.5 (Mojave)
eGPU hardware
- AKiTiO Thunder2
- AMD RX 560 OC 4GB Rev.2
- Thunderbolt 2 Cable
Hardware pictures
I'll update this post with the photos.
Installation steps
- Power supply 12v 10A - 120watt
I decided to use a power supply commonly used to power security cameras and strip light, because they are very-well build, easy to repair, almost never broke, don't heat and don't make noise. For the power cords, I picked it up from an old broken notebook's power brick that I had.
- Modding Akitio Thunder 2
These cases are not made for eGPUs, so they can't handle the heat very well. So, I decided to make a hole in the case, in front of GPU's fan. I didn't had the right tools to cut the aluminum, so I end up scratching the whole thing! I've had to spray painting it to cover the scratches. I used this old speaker's grid (from these very old cars. Costs only few cents). I used just the grid, not the plastic frame.
MacOS
- Disabled SIP;
- Run purge-wrangler;
- Run purge-nvda;
I enabled SIP after running purge-nvda. Everything works fine!
Benchmarks
Comments
The only downside is that, after installing purge-nvda, the mac doesn't go do sleep after closing the screen, no matter if the egpu is plugged-in or not. Also, when the computer goes to sleep after a few minutes idle, it won't turn the screen on again. You need to force shutdown and restart the machine.
2013 15-inch Macbook Pro Retina
Hi Fernando
Great setup. I have a similar build but with an nvidia gpu card and running 10.13.3. I was wondering, can you run steam with full egpu support on your setup? I was thinking to upgrade to AMD and mojave but concerned that i wont be able to run cs:go and other steam games once i upgrade?
Kind regards
Pending: Add my system information and expected eGPU configuration to my signature to give context to my posts
Hi, I don't use this setup for gaming. But I need to tell you this, stay away from purge-nvda. Every time that I installed purge-nvda (for external monitor) my mac freezes on login screen. It happens around 2 to 3 days after I've installed purge-nvda. So, to fix it, I actually need to reinstall the OS using command + R. Everything else works amazingly well!
2013 15-inch Macbook Pro Retina