Kudos: This build would not have been possible without @itsage.
System Specifications
- MacBook Pro 15" (Mid-2014)
- CPU: 2.5 GHz Intel Core i7 (i7-4870HQ)
- GPU(s): Intel Iris Pro 5200, NVIDIA GeForce GT750M
- macOS 10.14
eGPU Specifications
- Sonnet Breakaway eGFX 350W
- GTX 780 SC
- Apple TB3->TB2 adapter
Installation
The installation process is usually straightforward if you use one of the solutions on this forum.
For macOS (10.13.4+)
- Use purge-wrangler.sh (Option #2).
v4.2.2 or later required.
When asked, choose not to install web drivers.
- Reboot with eGPU plugged in.
Few things to keep in mind:
- Hot-plugging may not work.
- Hot-unplugging not supported.
Not all applications take advantage of external GPUs. For that, one can use set-eGPU.sh for High Sierra (10.13.4+) or use the Prefer External GPU option in Mojave.
For Windows
Installation is simple:
- Download a copy of the latest NVIDIA Drivers.
- Disable internet connectivity.
- DDU all drivers.
- Boot with eGPU plugged in.
- Install NVIDIA Drivers.
- Reboot.
- Reconnect to the internet.
Benchmarks
Don't have much time - these are benches running on the internal display using Mojave:
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GeForce GT 750M LuxMark
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GeForce GT 750M Heaven |
GTX 780 Heaven Internal Display |
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GeForce GT 750M Valley |
GTX 780 Valley Internal Display |
Comments
I only use the eGPU for testing purposes at this time, but my experience and benchmarks make the following clear:
- Compute performance over 750M: ~7x.
- Saying that Thunderbolt 1/2 are significant bottlenecks is not necessarily true.
When you have a chance, please run Unigine Valley and Heaven with internal display mode.
Nice results! The web drivers haven't improved much so the performance gain in newer Nvidia cards are not very significant in macOS.
@mac_editor I have a MBP 15" late 2013 with basically the same specs as yours. I am running a Sonnet 550 with a 1080ti with no luck on windows 10. macOS works fine though. Did you have issues with detecting your Sonnet? I've tried to connect at the windows loading symbol during boot up but Win10 doesn't detect any new hardware. I read there could be conflict with the dgpu and egpu being both nvidia. I've disabled/uninstalled the 750M while in EFI mode. Any ideas what I should try next?
Macbook Pro 15" (Late 2013) > Sonnet 350 Developer > TB2-TB3 > > RX580 > MacOS 10.13.6 + Win10 (Plug and Play)
Macbook Pro 15" (Late 2013) > Sonnet 550 > TB2-TB3 > MacOS 10.13.6 (Need help with Win10)
Testing Soon: Macbook Pro 15" (Late 2013) > Akito Node T3 > TB2-TB3 > ?
I'm thinking of trading in my 1050ti for a 750ti, so I can have audio over HDMI/DisplayPort and also use the Mac native drivers (and avoid having to wait for Nvidia's web drivers. Do you get audio over HDMI and DisplayPort with your 780? I'm not so much a gamer as I want to more smoothly edit 4k video. I have the same Macbook as you @mac_editor.
Macbook Pro 15" 2013 with NVIDIA 750m and Akito Thunder2 and MSI AMD 560 OC, Mojave 10.14
@noah_leon I don't have this Mac anymore so I cannot test. I don't recall if I had audio output or not, nor do I have the time to test this on my new machine. I'll let you know once I get the chance to test.
Hi @mac_editor
I followed the instructions above and my iMac 4k seems to recognize eGPU, which is not working. Can you please suggest what I can try? I will greatly appreciate it.
Mac OS 10.14.1: I ran pure-wrangler again after the update. also disabled SIP.
Aorus gaming box with GTX1080
iMac Retina 4K, 21", Late 2015, Mojave, iGPU 6200
MBP Retina, 13", Early 2015, Mojave, iGPU 6100
Aorus Gaming Box GTX1080
@mac_editor Oh, I was totally misunderstood. Thanks for the comment.
Can I ask you another question? I'm wondering if there is a fix to avoid plugging eGPU to iMac every time when booting Windows 10 with the spinning dots, which is a really pain.
iMac Retina 4K, 21", Late 2015, Mojave, iGPU 6200
MBP Retina, 13", Early 2015, Mojave, iGPU 6100
Aorus Gaming Box GTX1080
@uchlee I am not sure. Do you need to do this every time for Windows?
Yes, every time. 🙁 Also should connect it to the same port that I used when installing. If I connect it to the other port, it just fails.
iMac Retina 4K, 21", Late 2015, Mojave, iGPU 6200
MBP Retina, 13", Early 2015, Mojave, iGPU 6100
Aorus Gaming Box GTX1080
@uchlee It would be great if you could add your config. to your profile signature. It seems you have an Intel-GPU only iMac? Are you using an external display? I am guessing when booting with the GPU plugged in you see black screen. You can use automate-eGPU EFI windows boot to resolve this issue fairly easily.
@mac_editor I filled my profile signature with my configurations. Yes, I have intel-GPU only iMac. Yes I'm using an external display.
If I boot with the eGPU plugged into Windows 10, it boots up and recognizes eGPU, which doesn't work though.
I've read the following thread but don't quite understand what it does:
https://egpu.io/forums/mac-setup/automate-egpu-efi-egpu-boot-manager-for-macos-and-windows/
iMac Retina 4K, 21", Late 2015, Mojave, iGPU 6200
MBP Retina, 13", Early 2015, Mojave, iGPU 6100
Aorus Gaming Box GTX1080
@uchlee Thank you for that 
What exactly do you mean by doesn't work: black screen on both displays or either, not showing in the device manager, etc.?
@mac_editor I installed automate-eGPU EFI boot manager but bumped into an issue, freeze when booting Windows 10 with the app. I will follow up in the following thread:
Thank you!
iMac Retina 4K, 21", Late 2015, Mojave, iGPU 6200
MBP Retina, 13", Early 2015, Mojave, iGPU 6100
Aorus Gaming Box GTX1080
What exactly do you mean by doesn't work: black screen on both displays or either, not showing in the device manager, etc.?
Windows 10 recognizes the eGPU and listed it with the correct name (GTX 1080) under display adapter of the device manager but with an exclamation point. Black screen on the monitor connected to eGPU but iGPU works just fine so I can use the machine.
iMac Retina 4K, 21", Late 2015, Mojave, iGPU 6200
MBP Retina, 13", Early 2015, Mojave, iGPU 6100
Aorus Gaming Box GTX1080
- Saying that Thunderbolt 1/2 are significant bottlenecks is not necessarily true.
This is true. I got some very good results on my TB2 Build ( https://egpu.io/forums/builds/early-2015-13-macbook-pro-gtx1080ti-11gb16gbps-tb2-asus-xg-station-pro-via-tb3-tb2-adapter-macos-10-13-6-oliverb/) Especially the Luxmark Results are nearly identical to TB3.
Very soon I will post an article comparing results between: TB2 - TB3(activ) - TB3(passive).
What exactly do you mean by doesn't work: black screen on both displays or either, not showing in the device manager, etc.?
Windows 10 recognizes the eGPU and listed it with the correct name (GTX 1080) under display adapter of the device manager but with an exclamation point. Black screen on the monitor connected to eGPU but iGPU works just fine so I can use the machine.
What do the device properties say when you get the yellow bang on the eGPU? Sounds like Code 12 - eGPU not having enough resources, or something else. Ideally I would suggest sticking to hot-plug. I don’t think you need the EFI stick (since your iGPU stays active). Please post screenshots of everything you’re seeing including device properties when booted with eGPU plugged in (don’t use EFI stick).
Yes, it is code 12 error, which I've just learned.
Also I've found that I can hot plug my eGPU after windows 10 boots up. wow!
iMac Retina 4K, 21", Late 2015, Mojave, iGPU 6200
MBP Retina, 13", Early 2015, Mojave, iGPU 6100
Aorus Gaming Box GTX1080
Yes, it is code 12 error, which I've just learned.
Also I've found that I can hot plug my eGPU after windows 10 boots up. wow!
Hot plugging is rarely working due to code 12 error. @mac_editor is there a permanent solution to this? I read a post suggesting to turn on/off PCI bridge(?), which works occasionally.
iMac Retina 4K, 21", Late 2015, Mojave, iGPU 6200
MBP Retina, 13", Early 2015, Mojave, iGPU 6100
Aorus Gaming Box GTX1080
@uchlee DSDT override usually resolves this issue. One way to perhaps avoid this is to hot-plug eGPU without anything else connected to the other ports (if that was previously the case). You can make use of a compiled and modded DSDT for your system (follow one of the guides here) using the EFI stick (before using the stick remove apple_set_os though).
@uchlee DSDT override usually resolves this issue. One way to perhaps avoid this is to hot-plug eGPU without anything else connected to the other ports (if that was previously the case). You can make use of a compiled and modded DSDT for your system (follow one of the guides here) using the EFI stick (before using the stick remove apple_set_os though).
Thanks for the reply but I don't see the link to the guide. Maybe is this the one?
https://egpu.io/forums/pc-setup/fix-dsdt-override-to-correct-error-12/
iMac Retina 4K, 21", Late 2015, Mojave, iGPU 6200
MBP Retina, 13", Early 2015, Mojave, iGPU 6100
Aorus Gaming Box GTX1080
I grabbed a NVIDIA EVGA 750ti after reading this post, thinking that it would work natively in my Thunder2 enclosure. I had my 1050 working fine in High Sierra but made the mistake of upgrading to Mojave. I ran purge-wrangler, option 2 with SIP disabled. I plug in the eGPU but although it shows up as a device in the Thunderbolt options, there's nothing in the graphics panel of System Info.
I tried hotplugging, rebooting the system with it attached or attaching it right after the boot loader screen (after pressing "option" during startup) which worked for the 1050. It doesn't seem to see the card and the external monitor stays dark.
If I log out sometimes I can get a black screen, which is promising! But still no indication that the card is present in the system.
There must be something obvious I'm missing.
Macbook Pro 15" 2013 with NVIDIA 750m
Any ideas?
***EDIT***
I just found out that the 750ti is a Maxwell card, not a Kepler card (which are natively supported I guess), which drives me crazy, because the 750M already in my Macbook obviously works natively, and they are both 750 cards.
I naiively supposed they were the same architecture. I guess these naming conventions are more for marketing than information. Looks like I'll be selling a couple of cards.
Macbook Pro 15" 2013 with NVIDIA 750m and Akito Thunder2 and MSI AMD 560 OC, Mojave 10.14
Hi, My laptop is Mid-2014 Macbook Pro, Intel Iris + GTX 1080 Ti (Razer Core X via TB3->TB2). System: 10.14.3
I have tired your purge-wrangler (latest version: 5.1.2) with web-driver installed. The system information shows the graphic card is connect and I can see two displays were shown in the system preference but the monitor was not working. purge-wrangler (latest version: 5.1.2) not install web-driver. Not working. EFI boot, not working. This is the problem of graphic card GTX 10-series or System's problem? How can I solve it?
Pending: Add my system information and expected eGPU configuration to my signature to give context to my posts
I just found out that the 750ti is a Maxwell card, not a Kepler card (which are natively supported I guess), which drives me crazy, because the 750M already in my Macbook obviously works natively, and they are both 750 cards.
@noah_leon, precisely, 750/750ti won't work on Mojave. Most others 600/700er do. That was bad lack grabbing one of the "bad cards".