Mac + eGPU

[Allan_onderick]

Why do I need a powered riser cable if I am already having the external PSU attached?

Parts:
-2014 Macbook Pro
-AKiTIO thunder box 2
-Corsair RM450
-gpu EVGA Geforce GTX 960 SC
Perfect...

Do not use the Akitio power supply.
Use:
-Raiser (http://www.ebay.com/itm/271448008328?_t ... rmvSB=true)


Tutorial:
https://www.youtube.com/embed/QfKb8TcHDkI

Works on 10.10.1, 10.10.2, 10.10.3
I have not test 10.10.4 but MarioVisuals did, and I think it works for him.

[cjadams]

So guys here is a quick question
I have been looking over the forum posts and such but no one seems to have an answer to this.
I am pondering expanding my mac pro setup..

1 - Cubix Desktop expander pcie-3.o version:

Mac pro
GTX 980 4gb ram (keeping this for monitor only)

Cubix:
4x GTX 980 Ti- 6gb
OR
4x Titan X 12 gb

1 - How much do you think I will hit the ram limit with large scenes.
i tend to do stuff from Zbrush / maya that can end up with large poly counts.
Is the extra 6gb worth it for the $$ on the Titan X?
3000 for the Cubix then about the same for Titan's or
1/2 the price for the 980 Ti's 6gb cards.

2 - with OS X 10.11 - have they lifted the GPU limit? So i can use all 4 cards in the expansion chassis again?

[glimpse]

So guys here is a quick question
I have been looking over the forum posts and such but no one seems to have an answer to this.
I am pondering expanding my mac pro setup..

1 - Cubix Desktop expander pcie-3.o version:

Mac pro
GTX 980 4gb ram (keeping this for monitor only)

Cubix:
4x GTX 980 Ti- 6gb
OR
4x Titan X 12 gb

1 - How much do you think I will hit the ram limit with large scenes.
i tend to do stuff from Zbrush / maya that can end up with large poly counts.
Is the extra 6gb worth it for the $$ on the Titan X?
3000 for the Cubix then about the same for Titan's or
1/2 the price for the 980 Ti's 6gb cards.

2 - with OS X 10.11 - have they lifted the GPU limit? So i can use all 4 cards in the expansion chassis again?

Yeah, some Guys managed to run 4x GPU setups in eGPU boxes. How long this will we are going to see, but since Thunderbolt3 nativelly supports PCIe protocols, think hardware/software vendors/makers will be forced to support eGPU configs - this eats up their sales, but..see no reason why even if they choose to block this couldn't be hacked by comunity. Awesome news for us, but it's still a foggy time. Invest only if You can allow Yourself to experiment.

As for TitanX & huge scenes..correct me if I'm wrong, but I think Octane is still limited by 19 mil triangles, that should technically fit into what..3-4GB? (Do not remember exact formula) so even 6gb card like 980Ti is more than enough. Remember that we have proxies to help dealing with repetative geometry. Texture baking is another solution..& then out of core textures..

The only problem comes when You ayou have huge scenes (a lot of mesh, tons of textues) & then try to render monstrous reselutions..but then again..You can split the view ofset camera & join output in post..- however that eats some valuable time..-so, yes in some sotuations TitanXs with 12GB makes a lot of sense.

[dotcommer]

Has anyone here ever used one of the Sonnet eGPU chassis successfully with their mac/book/pro/etc. ? Curious about this since it looks like it might fit the Titan behemoth:

http://www.sonnettech.com/product/echoexpress3d.html

[glimpse]

Has anyone here ever used one of the Sonnet eGPU chassis successfully with their mac/book/pro/etc. ? Curious about this since it looks like it might fit the Titan behemoth:

http://www.sonnettech.com/product/echoexpress3d.html

Yeah, I know Guys who have those & they work, however it's not plug and play &..it's pricy so the question whether it's worth the price for You =)

[dotcommer]

Nice! And did they need any more power beyond the 75W power supply that comes with this chassis? If not, this might be perfect for me. I'm considering moving over to a more mobile solution, and this would be ideal since I already have my GPU. I'm getting tired of showing up to studios and no one has any nvidia cards so I can't use Octane.

[glimpse]

Power supply is not 75W it's 300W, the problem device doesn't have connectors to match needs of TitanX (however PSU inside can handle the load). There are several posts on hardware forums online where Guys simply get additional wire from PSU & plug it into GPU. Good thing is that Octane draws even less power than TitanX would need for synthetic tests or even games.. Do a bit of googling & search on Inferno forums (feel free to leave a PM for me if You will not figure out Yourself =) but it is possible..

[dotcommer]

Thanks Glimpse! I will have to look into this more.

[cds]

Thanks everyone on this forum I've finally been able to setup an External GPU on my iMac. Here's my setup let me know if you have any questions:

iMac Retina 5k, El Captian 10.11.2

Akitio Thunder 2 + Nvidia Geforce 780 ti cased in a nice Coolermaster Elite 130 Case with am EVGA 600B PSU and some custom work done to the case to get it to fit.
On the software side I used the Automate script to get the drivers it was s very simple process thanks to Goalque.
I'm pretty happy with the results:

Some Photos: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/njkcl0srmxq4 ... rChma?dl=0

[mustardseedsg]

Nice build! Looks pretty portable too.

I'm not at all familiar with Git. Would you mind explaining how to run the script after downloading it? I entered both
chmod +x automate-eGPU.sh
sudo ./automate-eGPU.sh

into Terminal but got a 'file or directory not found' error. Thanks in advance!

On the software side I used the Automate script to get the drivers it was s very simple process thanks to Goalque.
I'm pretty happy with the results:

Some Photos: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/njkcl0srmxq4 ... rChma?dl=0