Mac + eGPU

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glimpse
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Uhlhorn wrote:Thanks.

I am using 10.11.5, but I can not downgrade to 10.11.4. :-(
The El Capitan installer from the App store installs 10.11.5. The combo updater 10.11.4 is not installing on an 10.11.5 installation.
I know =) ..we had a lot of problems trying to roll back, but apples politics & the way they move upgrades is not very helpful.. =)
knurling
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Hey guys--not sure where to start troubleshooting my eGPU setup.

For months, I had Octane running fine on El Capitan 10.11.4 (MacBook Pro) until this week after unplugging an external display (Apple ThunderBolt Display) after a normal shutdown. Upon booting back up, the laptop screen resolution got stuck and OSX wouldn't recognize the laptop screen in the display settings. After trying ever trick in the book (reset SMC, reset PRAM/NVRAM, etc..) I decided to update OSX knowing it would likely cause problems.

The NVIDIA Driver Manager, NVIDIA Web Driver and CUDA all seemed to make it through the update fine, each showing the most recent version of the respective drivers install. However, the GTX 980 isn't showing on the device list.

Any ideas I can try without resorting to formatting and starting from scratch?

Thanks!
MarioVisuals
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Joined: Thu Jan 08, 2015 7:31 am

Hi guys,

Does anyone have 1080 in Akitio box connected to El Capitan 10.11.5 here?
Is it working?

Thanks
Windows 10 Pro 64-bit / Intel Xeon E5 v3 @ 2.40GHz x 2 / 64 GB RAM / Z10PE-D8 WS / 3 x EVGA GTX 980Ti / C4D R17 / X-Particles 3.5 / Octane 3
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whersmy
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I hope apple announces a brand new egpu through USB-C :o
Keynote is now live on http://www.apple.com/apple-events/october-2016/
Attachments
egpu_2.jpg
egpu_1.jpg
Octane 2022.1.1 nv535.98

x201t - gtx580 - egpu ec
Dell G5 - 16GB - dgpu GTX1060 - TB3 egpu @ 1060 / RTX 4090

Octane Render experiments - ♩ ♪ ♫ ♬
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Uhlhorn
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The new MacBook pro has 2 or 4 Thunderbolt 3 connectors via USB-C. Thunderbolt is an Intel technology and Thunderbolt 3 is supporting eGPU.
Makin
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Joined: Wed Feb 12, 2014 7:51 am

Hi. I have build 4 egpus stations based on Akitio and 980ti. After eGPU Script i can work with two of them on Sierra. But when I plug 4 of them (no matter if i use two thunderbolt cables(2x2) or one (1x4)) my imac 5k won't boot and it's stuck not even making a startup sound. The same thing with three. Only two gpu's setup works perfect. Can anyone have any idea what can be wrong and how to fix this? Thank You :)

P.S. I have also tried the bootcamp and windows 10 sees all 4 of them but only one is active and renders in octane bench. I have the same problem with booting as in macos, so i have to do it by hot plugging thunderbolt cable.
Collider
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Short answer.... you can only do 2 980ti egpu on Mac.

You can do up to 3 980Ti on the cMP, (cheese grater Mac, you need to use a splitter and run your own psu- not egpu) or up to 5 older non MAXWELL cards.
You'll get this advice here a bunch.... build a pc for a render server and use you 2 cards for working. Your other option is to use 2 Titan Zs that are essentially 2 gpus on one card. Folks have gotten those to run with all 4 gpus utilized.
7x 980Ti | ASRock EP2C612 WS | Xeon E5-2620 v4 Eight-Core Broadwell Processor 2.1GHz | 64GB DDR4 2133 | water cooled
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Uhlhorn
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@Makin: It is better to put the GPUs into a PC and use it over network rendering. ;-)
The big problem is, that Octane is not able to render with network GPUs only. So You have to use 1 GPU connected directly to the Mac.
Makin
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Joined: Wed Feb 12, 2014 7:51 am

So the network rendering was my second though :) use only two egpus for modeling and all four via network for rendering connecting two more to macbook. Damn.. All this mac experience is getting more a pain in the a... I think it's time to switch back to PC again.

Thank You all!
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Uhlhorn
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Makin wrote:All this mac experience is getting more a pain in the a... I think it's time to switch back to PC again.
Yes, indeed. But the problem is, that Windows is the greater pain. Perhaps a custom Mac (Hackintosh) is a solution.
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