[APP] eGPU Enabler by Rastafabi  

Another one. 

[download removed, updated]

With the installer refinements I'm laying the groundwork for High Sierra compatibility.

I still need your support to continue this efforts and actually make it work with High Sierra.

Please immediately report back on any issues as my updates can potentially break something, as I cannot test them!

@rastafabi thank you so much for your effort on this, it's much appreciated to have people like you willing to help the community - donation incoming!

Out of interest do you think there'll soon be a way to have this work without needing an external monitor to log in? I currently have to hook my iMac up to a lounge TV just to log in hahaha! 

Thanks

Tom

@Tom Morter-Laing, please write a response in this petition thread so that we may get more attention from Apple to provide Bootcamp eGPU support.

Posted by: theitsage

@Tom Morter-Laing, please write a response in this petition thread so that we may get more attention from Apple to provide Bootcamp eGPU support.

Thanks, and I will - I was more just trying to work out this:

So we have this  https://egpu.io/forums/mac-setup/automate-egpu-sh-is-reborn-with-amd-polaris-fiji-support-for-macos/ which allows drivers etc, but doesn't actually seem to enable the eGPU? As in, with a monitor HDMI -attached to the Breakaway box I have it stays black. But then if I use the above eGPU enabler then I'm forced to use an external monitor just to log in. I just wondered if there was anything I was missing 🙂
I guess the best way is to use this above tool to at least get it working, and then to use a HDMI dongle with the  Spectacle+DisableMonitor workaround so I don't need an external display? 

Also, whilst I'm here -is there any way to make this work with the adobe apps? I find it so confusing - I've installed the CUDA drivers, but After Effects doesnt show it as a rendering option. Premier shows CUDA as an option but the export time when used in Media Encoder is literally exactly the same (to the second) as Open CL, so I have no idea if it's actually using CUDA or not.  

Sorry to be a pest 🙂

Hi, I used your package and it worked, but the internal screen stopped working while the AMD GPU is still visible in System information. If I use goalque's script, then my NVIDIA card becomes visible in System Information but the screen connected to it stays black. Any thoughts? Does this mean macOS only supports one ACTIVE discrete GPU?? I'm using an iMac 2017 21.5 with Radeon Pro 560, and GTX 1070+Akitio Node as eGPU. Please help! Thanks!

Posted by: i0ntempest

Hi, I used your package and it worked, but the internal screen stopped working while the AMD GPU is still visible in System information. If I use goalque's script, then my NVIDIA card becomes visible in System Information but the screen connected to it stays black. Any thoughts? Does this mean macOS only supports one ACTIVE discrete GPU?? I'm using an iMac 2017 21.5 with Radeon Pro 560, and GTX 1070+Akitio Node as eGPU. Please help! Thanks!

Just confirmed that displays connected directly to the iMac still works when using your package, which means two discrete GPUs can work at the same time. Then why would your package kill the internal display??

Posted by: Tom Morter-Laing

@rastafabi thank you so much for your effort on this, it's much appreciated to have people like you willing to help the community - donation incoming!

Out of interest do you think there'll soon be a way to have this work without needing an external monitor to log in? I currently have to hook my iMac up to a lounge TV just to log in hahaha! 

Thanks

Tom

First of, thank you very much for your donation, Tom. It's highly appreciated.

Well, there already is the option you're asking for! The current revision of the installer let you deselect the monitor out feature, which enables the log-in to work like it's supposed to be. To enable this just download and run the installer again and unselect the mentioned option. No need to uninstall it first. If you occasionally need monitor out however you can instead enable FileVault as a workaround for the internal login screen to appear. 

Posted by: Tom Morter-Lain

 

[…]

 

Also, whilst I'm here -is there any way to make this work with the adobe apps? I find it so confusing - I've installed the CUDA drivers, but After Effects doesnt show it as a rendering option. Premier shows CUDA as an option but the export time when used in Media Encoder is literally exactly the same (to the second) as Open CL, so I have no idea if it's actually using CUDA or not.  

Sorry to be a pest 🙂

Regarding application support you can find some technical detail over here.

Posted by: i0ntempest

Posted by: i0ntempest

Hi, I used your package and it worked, but the internal screen stopped working while the AMD GPU is still visible in System information. If I use goalque's script, then my NVIDIA card becomes visible in System Information but the screen connected to it stays black. Any thoughts? Does this mean macOS only supports one ACTIVE discrete GPU?? I'm using an iMac 2017 21.5 with Radeon Pro 560, and GTX 1070+Akitio Node as eGPU. Please help! Thanks!

Just confirmed that displays connected directly to the iMac still works when using your package, which means two discrete GPUs can work at the same time. Then why would your package kill the internal display??

I'm sorry to hear this, but there is currently nothing I can do about it. The way the monitor output on the external GPU is enabled is some dirty injection into system files, which occasionally break something (like 5k iMac resolution). In your case I would recommend to rerun the installer without the monitor output option being enabled and to connect your secondary screen to the iMac directly. This way you would profit from the eGPU's compute power in supported applications, though you won't be able to use its screen-rendering power for games and alike.

Thanks for replying, seems like installing Windows is the only solution. One more thing, I seemed can’t find iGPU on my iMac, is it got hidden by macOS or there’s no iGPU at all in iMacs with AMD GPU?

I posted already  https://egpu.io/forums/mac-setup/automate-egpu-sh-is-reborn-with-amd-polaris-fiji-support-for-macos/paged/11/#post-20439 for goalies automate-e-gpu.sh script. For this eGPU Enabler, I see the same results. Even hot plugging the GPU (not unplugging, only hot plugging it once to the laptop) works, but the 1080 TI is not recognized. Only a generic Nvidia GPU is displayed in the devices monitor.

Hardware is a MacbookPro 2017 using Thunderbolt 3 and OS X 10.12.6

@geoheil: First some clarification: generally speaking hot-plugging is not support with macOS Sierra and before (only certain hardware requires plugging the eGPU after hardware start, but before OS boot).  So please try shutting down, plugging in the eGPU and booting afterwards. If this does not work try rerunning the installer with the monitor output disabled, as you mentioned in the other thread, that you'd only need the GPUs compute power. (This would disable the HDMI port you're using, though you can still use another USB-C port for display output.)

Posted by: sometimesnever

 

 

Now to save up $ for an Octane licence... 

You can get a subscription for $20 / month - that's what I use.

The strangest thing happen to me just yesterday.

As you can see from my signature, I have been happily using eGPU Enabler with my MBP 2015 + Aorus Gaming Box for a month now.

But yesterday something strange happened, during my normal usage (just browsing the web), eGPU HDMI output suddenly glitched, I saw mostly black UI on my external monitor (there were still HDMI output), while the internal monitor still worked fine (I can even move apps from external to internal screen, and they worked fine).

After shutdown, I was no longer able to kickstart my Gaming Box eGPU properly during OS boot. I ended up having to re-install eGPU Enabler following the usual steps.

I found no explanation for this as I wasn't upgrading OS or flashing my kernel. But evidently the re-install worked. So errr, something people should looked out for...

Posted by: bitinn

The strangest thing happen to me just yesterday.

As you can see from my signature, I have been happily using eGPU Enabler with my MBP 2015 + Aorus Gaming Box for a month now.

But yesterday something strange happened, during my normal usage (just browsing the web), eGPU HDMI output suddenly glitched, I saw mostly black UI on my external monitor (there were still HDMI output), while the internal monitor still worked fine (I can even move apps from external to internal screen, and they worked fine).

After shutdown, I was no longer able to kickstart my Gaming Box eGPU properly during OS boot. I ended up having to re-install eGPU Enabler following the usual steps.

I found no explanation for this as I wasn't upgrading OS or flashing my kernel. But evidently the re-install worked. So errr, something people should looked out for...

This happens to me almost every day if I use After Effects 😟

I don't reinstall eGPU enabler though, just have to switch which eGPU I use in which Thunderbolt port in the iMac 🤔

• EUR 20 donation made. Can’t do much as a student, but I may donate again. Also I’m trying to get the Chinese eGPU community to help you.

Thanks for clarifying hot plugging @Rastafabi.

Following your suggestions however does unfortunately not help i.e. I still only see the generic Nvidia card with 256 MB even when disabling the separate display driver in your setup.

Do you think that upgrading to High Sierra could help here?

Is there somethign else I could try?

@geoheil:

The problem is likely your machine specific macOS build number:

https://egpu.io/forums/builds/2017-15-macbook-pro-touchbar-gtx1080ti40gbs-tb3akitio-node-macos/

@goalque I am using OS X 10.12.6 with a Build version of 16G29. The Nvidia Webdriver installed fine though. Strangely, only the generic card is recognized.

Previously when the build number did not fit I could not install the web driver. This time however no such problems seemed to be present.

Okay.

if About This Mac > System Report > Software > System Version > says "macOS 10.12.6 (16G29)"

and you have the correct driver, then it's something else.

Indeed, that is saying 16G29

Has anyone tested this one High Sierra, is it working despite it's not yet supported? @Rastafabi what is your schedule on supporting High Sierra? I've donated something of course a few weeks ago 🙂

Posted by: wottpal

Has anyone tested this one High Sierra, is it working despite it's not yet supported? @Rastafabi what is your schedule on supporting High Sierra? I've donated something of course a few weeks ago 🙂

Not working for me in High Sierra.  @Rastafabi's method was working great in 10.12.6. I waited until Nvidia updated their drivers yesterday and updated to HS, but my 1080 Ti is no longer recognized.  System Report shows "Nvidia Chip Model" whereas it used to show the 1080 Ti.  Is there a chance that the new Nvidia drivers just don't support this GPU?  That would be strange...

@Rastafabi - just donated too. Hope you can get High Sierra working soon!

FWIW my Node shows up fine under the Thunderbolt tab.  This is with a 2017 27" iMac.

hi,

any eta on a mac os high sierra version  ? (my mac did an update by itseld yesterday night, and nothing working anymore 🙁 )

(great job btw !!! )

Posted by: jocker

hi,

any eta on a mac os high sierra version  ? (my mac did an update by itseld yesterday night, and nothing working anymore 🙁 )

(great job btw !!! )

If you are dependent on eGPU support you'd either need to purchase a compatible AMD graphics card (I recommend Saphire branded RX 580 or RX Vega 56) or you'd need to downgrade your OS. The easiest way of doing so is using time machine. 

I hope I'll be able to offer a working implementation for High Sierra as well.

Thank you very much for all your donations! They will help me to continue my efforts on NVIDIA eGPUs for macOS.

unfortunatly... i need an nvidia graphic card to run octane render 🙁 (and i don’t have time machine to fall back to sierra :/)

I hope you’ll find a workaround soon (or hopefully at all 🙂 )

(ho, and i donate 20euros today)

Try using INTERNET recovery (Cmd Shift R) to see if it allows u to install an older OS. Dunno if your data is safe during the downgrade tho.

probably not since the file system is now afps, i think i'll have to hope for a high sierra trick 😉 thanx !

Hi im a CGI artist too and i also already updated to High Sierra.

Im currently deciding (for noise reasons) which 1080 Ti and enclosure i should buy to run with my 15" MBP 2017.

Am i understanding you right? NVIDIA cards wont work (properly) with high sierra yet and there is no info on how long it will take untill either apple impliments it or one of our heroes like Rastafabi builds a workaround?

@Nanky, Nvidia eGPU is a no-go in High Sierra atm. If you need to use NV for your setup, stay with Sierra. The Nvidia web driver in High Sierra is not any better than Sierra.

Right then - all knowledgable ones 🙂

After I stupidly broke my completely working GTX 1070 Sonnet eGFX iMac 5K setup by upgrading to High Sierra, thought I'd take a stab at AMD RX580 in the meantime. So machine was already running Rastafabi's solution previously... System now pops up with the High Sierra "Log out to use GPU" message as expected, but system reports the new card as only "AMD R9 xxx" - is this correct?

Cheers!

Posted by: philw

Right then - all knowledgable ones 🙂

After I stupidly broke my completely working GTX 1070 Sonnet eGFX iMac 5K setup by upgrading to High Sierra, thought I'd take a stab at AMD RX580 in the meantime. So machine was already running Rastafabi's solution previously... System now pops up with the High Sierra "Log out to use GPU" message as expected, but system reports the new card as only "AMD R9 xxx" - is this correct?

Cheers!

My Sapphire Pulse RX580, which solely officially supported by apple, also displayed as R9 xxx, but in LuxMark, it displayed RX580.

Posted by: jocker

hi,

any eta on a mac os high sierra version  ? (my mac did an update by itseld yesterday night, and nothing working anymore 🙁 )

(great job btw !!! )

no eta, not think about support for nvidia in high sierra, if you must use nvidia_GPU, roll back to 10.12 smartly

Are you using your 1070 just for computing? Or it has screen output?

Hi,

First of all, thank you Rastafabi for all the work you have put into helping people with their nvidia egpus. I am new to this community but I have been successfully running a Nvidia 1060 with my Mid 2014 MacBook Pro. I stupidly updated to High Sierra to see if my setup would work or not and soon realized that it would not. I spent my entire evening yesterday restoring everything back to 10.12.6 and Windows 10 (EFI). 

I wanted to offer help to anyone who is stuck and wants to go back to Sierra(10.12). Its not as easy as I had anticipated but since I managed to do it I might be able to help/guide/point people in the right direction. 

@akash4393: Thank you very much for the offering. A good way do so would be starting a thread about the restore.

Thanks to all of you contributing to this thread and the forum altogether and special thanks for the donations I keep receiving!

As it has been proven that NVIDIA eGPUs can work (it's not clear yet wether this requires a special written EFI firmware flashed to the GPU - a task I could not accomplish), I hope I will soon find an implementation myself. 

Wow, the guy in that linked post appears to have some issues with folks here. Good to see it’s possible though, roll on spring and a decent (small, stylish, well designed) eGPU enclosure. 

Posted by: Eightarmedpet

Wow, the guy in that linked post appears to have some issues with folks here. Good to see it’s possible though, roll on spring and a decent (small, stylish, well designed) eGPU enclosure. 

We're certainly not the best of friends but I thought everyone should know there's efforts being made for Nvidia eGPU in High Sierra.