Disclaimer & buying options for OCuLink eGPU adapters for reliable up to 64Gbps ePCIe 4.0 x4 connectivity is here
I can't tell if this is a ridiculous question or if it's actually harder than it seems. I can't get my laptop display to disable so that the external display is the primary and only display used.
Becuase the Akitio Node comes with such a short thunderbolt 3 cable, my setup is awkwardly half underneath my desk and I can't see both monitors at the same time (new cord coming soon...).
How do I disable the dispaly on my laptop while i'm working off the external display? This creates issues for new windows spawning on the laptop and me having a hard time getting them up to my external, etc.
To do: Create my signature with system and expected eGPU configuration information to give context to my posts. I have no builds.
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Not sure how helpful this is but you can press the windows key + P and select the other option to chose screen only. It’s a shortcut for the display options but ultimately that should help you disable the display
To do: Create my signature with system and expected eGPU configuration information to give context to my posts. I have no builds.
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For Mac I'm not aware of a method to "turn off" the internal screen while the eGPU is driving an external screen, short of closing the lid but I don't believe that configuration is supported yet in Apple's current implementation. itsage or others might be able to clarify.
Bring peace to your computing life: stop trying to understand Apple.
I did that on my Dell 9365 by enabling TBT pre-boot modules (PCIe behind TBT). It trips the TPM each time you boot with a different configuration. But the internal display does not work (no backlight afaict), and the Dell boot screen and BIOS come up on the eGPU. When in Windows, the Intel graphics is powered down, due to some obscure error. So it has booted with the eGPU as the actual GPU. You can remove and re-plug the eGPU, but the internal display and internal graphics will not work until a reboot without the eGPU attached.
Just whatever you do, do not disable the Intel Graphics in devmgmt.msc - because next time you try to boot without the eGPU, it will leave you with a stuck framebuffer from the UEFI screen just as ntoskrnl boots.
It probably gives some thermal room for the CPU to run faster, without wasting power on the Intel GPU running idle. At least that is my hope.
If you do not have PCIe behind TBT pre-boot support, then you will probably have to change the DSDT, but I have no clue about that. My friend who uses Hackintosh has some experience with that.
The naïve solution is just to disable the Intel graphics whilst using eGPU - but again, it will cause problems if you try to boot without the eGPU. So you'd need to find a way to disable it without it persisting through a reboot.
To do: Create my signature with system and expected eGPU configuration information to give context to my posts. I have no builds.
.Oh, as for your cable issue. You can get up to 2M Thunderbolt 3 cables. Make sure they are 40Gbps, active, and support 100W power delivery (if it does not say then it is likely only 60W - get 100W for future proofing).
An active Thunderbolt 3 cable is not protocol agnostic - for reasons I cannot quite put my finger on. In other words, they cannot function as USB-C cables or for DisplayPort. Only USB and DisplayPort through a Thunderbolt connection.
I also found that my 100W 1M USB-C 10Gbps cable works flawlessly with my eGPU. I get the same buffer reads and writes to my R9 Nano as I do with the 0.5M Thunderbolt 3 cables. It is potentially hit-and-miss, with no way of knowing how a particular USB-C cable will perform (except that the USB-C 2.0 cables definitely will not work at all). But in theory, a 10Gbps USB C-C cable is identical to a passive Thunderbolt 3 cable - except that the Thunderbolt 3 cable is guaranteed to have the electrical characteristics and conductor quality required for the higher data rates. This is the USB 3.1 cable: https://www.austin.net.au/8ware-usb-31-cable-type-c-to-c-mm-1m-10gbps-270635.html
To do: Create my signature with system and expected eGPU configuration information to give context to my posts. I have no builds.
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