eGPU on MacBook Pro 4,1 and up with PCIe ExpressCard slot

[kautame]

Latest version (17G5019)
Latest web drivers (the apple ones doesn't work either)
Yes, HDMI (Vga don't work, and I don't have DVI cable)

Is this the first time you use this setup? I mean, have you ever had success with a different MacOS or card or monitor?
Can you provide a screenshot from the Graphics tab in System Report, like the one attached to this post?

Anyway, you could try downloading an older web driver and see if it works better with your system. Instructions to download and patch older drivers can be found in post #112 from Larsvonhier.

 

[panwato]

Is this the first time you use this setup? I mean, have you ever had success with a different MacOS or card or monitor?
Can you provide a screenshot from the Graphics tab in System Report, like the one attached to this post?

Anyway, you could try downloading an older web driver and see if it works better with your system. Instructions to download and patch older drivers can be found in post #112 from Larsvonhier.

View attachment 821421

No, this is the first time I use this combo.
I read in different pages the 550 Ti doesn't work very well in MacOs, my fault. I ordered a Gtx 650, (an eBay auction), because I see it's working pretty well.

In graphics tab shown as GTX 550 Ti (1023 Mb), so the card is detected.

 

[Larsvonhier]

Latest version (17G5019)
Latest web drivers (the apple ones doesn't work either)
Yes, HDMI (Vga don't work, and I don't have DVI cable)

It looks to me if the power supply or the power connection to the graphics card is not sufficient. I had a similar effect when I used a 35W supply on a 80W-demanding card. I reached the finder desktop, but when moving windows or benchmarking the system crashed every time. I replaced the PSU and everything was fine from then on.
Sometimes the supply cables that run between GDC and card are inferior/lousy quality - I received a bunch of that crap from ebay (chinese selle). The single strands were not crimped in a way to have good conductance / low resistance. I could pull the wires out of the crimp connectors by hand with low force. Then re-crimped and soldered the contacts and re-inserted into the plastic connector housing. Voila - works fine now...

Another thing to check: How does the card behave without acceleration? You could disable the relevant kexts and see if it makes a difference in stability.
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I've done a little research, and this is what I've found:
this is the wifi card for an iMac mid 2011, and it's a mini PCIe card.
The photos from iFixit also show the mini PCIe socket on the board, here.

This is the wifi/bluetooth card for iMac late 2012-Early 2013.
It's not a mini PCIe card. It's an Apple proprietary 12+6 connector, something similar to M.2, but with fewer pins. The "Mac version" cable for the GDC Beast had this 12+6 connector.

Anyway, the problem is that the mini PCIe socket in iMacs like mid 2011 seems to work in a different way from previous models. For example: in my iMac mid 2007 I replaced the old wifi card with a combo card and I just needed an adapter to have fully functional wifi+bluetooth. But iMacs from 2009, 2010 and 2011 need an adapter AND an USB cable, like this one. That's because the mini PCI-E does NOT have the USB D+/D- signals.
In this thread, Czo explains that

This iMac (Mid 2011 27") removes the power from the MiniPCI-E slot when the wifi turning off. The slot is not powered when the computer starting (unable to press cmd to open boot menu)​

and, again

iMac Mid 2011, sometimes remove the power from the miniPCI-E slot.​

It seems that the difference is related to the lack of "USB D+/D- signals on the socket".

What I don't understand is if this could affect the GDC Beast. For example, the fact that the slot is not powered when the computer starts could be a problem?



Those cables can't work because they have a regular NGFF (M.2) connector, and not the Apple 12+6 pins one.
If iMacs had the regular NGFF (M.2) connector we could directly use the NGFF (M.2) version of the GDC Beast (this one), but it's a completely different connector.

I am aware that the exact adapter I found is not the right type - that's why I hinted to the "right keying". But adapters from Apple MacBook pseudo-M.2 to NGFF exist that allow use of standard NVME flash cards in those MacBooks. Have done it myself a couple of times. So either such an add-on could be used or some variant of what I found could fit directly.
The question of power being present on the connector all times or only after booting and enabling Wifi/BT could be solved by a small HW patch (find the FET that drives that voltage and all-time-enable it), easy thing - if it turns out to be an obstacle...

 

[panwato]

It's a 220w PSU...

I think is caused by the 550 Ti itself, I try with 650 and post results

 

[kautame]

But adapters from Apple MacBook pseudo-M.2 to NGFF exist that allow use of standard NVME flash cards in those MacBooks. Have done it myself a couple of times. So either such an add-on could be used or some variant of what I found could fit directly..

Ok, I understand, but I couldn't find any of those, and with a shape that could be used inside an iMac, in place of the Wi-fi card.

The question of power being present on the connector all times or only after booting and enabling Wifi/BT could be solved by a small HW patch (find the FET that drives that voltage and all-time-enable it), easy thing - if it turns out to be an obstacle...

I don't like HW patches because they usually are permanent (and when I sell my old Macs I prefer them to be as much "normal" as possible). But I'm following with interest the story of Panwato, because his iMac 11,2 2010 is exactly one of those iMacs I wrote about yesterday. I hope his problem is not related to the power in the connector!
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It's a 220w PSU...

I think is caused by the 550 Ti itself, I try with 650 and post results

Since Larsvonhier wrote about the power supply, I checked the needs of a 550ti, and - depending on the model, maybe - it seems that it needs an external power supply (not just the one from the bus on the GDC Beast). Like in these photos, here, the yellow and black cables connected to the GDC and then to the card in the upper right side. Did you connect those too? Or maybe your model doesn't need it?

 

[panwato]

I don't like HW patches because they usually are permanent (and when I sell my old Macs I prefer them to be as much "normal" as possible). But I'm following with interest the story of Panwato, because his iMac 11,2 2010 is exactly one of those iMacs I wrote about yesterday. I hope his problem is not related to the power in the connector!

[doublepost=1549974799][/doublepost]

Since Larsvonhier wrote about the power supply, I checked the needs of a 550ti, and - depending on the model, maybe - it seems that it needs an external power supply (not just the one from the bus on the GDC Beast). Like in these photos, here, the yellow and black cables connected to the GDC and then to the card in the upper right side. Did you connect those too? Or maybe your model doesn't need it?

For the lack of D+\D-, I think this is related with the combo cards (BT + Wifi)


And yes, I connected the extra power, with a 6P cable from the GDC.
If the cable isn't connected, the GPU doesn't turn ON

 

[Larsvonhier]

For the lack of D+\D-, I think this is related with the combo cards (BT + Wifi)


And yes, I connected the extra power, with a 6P cable from the GDC.
If the cable isn't connected, the GPU doesn't turn ON

Did you check the quality of the 6P conn. cable?

 

[panwato]

Did you check the quality of the 6P conn. cable?

I tried another cable, same issue.

Tried old Drivers (the first for HS), nothing.
Tried the lasts for Sierra, nothing.

I really think this is related to the card itself...

I have a question for you. Do you all have HS on unsupported Macs? If so, have you put patches for the graphics?

 

[monoton]

I bought this, following your suggestion, but you didn't mention that to use both power supply and video card you had to CUT through the plastic to open a hole for the power cable (I looked at your photos, but I didn't notice that). I managed to do it, but it was REALLY hard. Just for the record: what did you use to cut that hole? I used a saw with a blade for plastics, but it took me forever.

Hey, haven't checked this thread for a while. I used a multi-directional wire-saw. And, as mentioned, it has to be adapted. No power-supply is the same. I used SFX type PSU. Someone else could use something else.. I cut out from the acrylic mesh just fitting the power cable input. Did not take too long. The right tools is important. You can see it here:
https://forums.macrumors.com/attachments/cdbf2d3e-34f6-4bc9-a4e0-f4adc17d8c90-jpeg.789503/
https://forums.macrumors.com/attachments/b8a47ea9-e0fe-4dd8-ad5f-a9d2ad303887-jpeg.789501/
https://forums.macrumors.com/attachments/98d3bd02-cda5-4294-8904-04619a90efc9-jpeg.789505/
From post #72.

For me that was part of the fun, adapting it and making it work for my use, when I did this a couple of years ago, back in 2017. I had a project to see how far I could stretch my almost 10 years old system at the time, and also upgraded the internal wifi to be 3x faster (450mbps using all three antennas built into the machine with airdrop support, 6GB ram (4GB+2GB), and an SSD, new battery). I wanted to attach a GPU to be able to use it for more modern GPU programming, and gain more than just OpenCL 1.0 support (as given by the built in Nvidia GTX 8600m), more modern OpenCL, OpenGL and Metal implementations supported. It became a cool "workstation again" and I could speed up many things and do more.
It still works perfectly, and was the perfect choice as it's an old machine and did not require too much investments. More funds I keep for my Mac Pro 5,1's, where I just put in a Radeon VII and waiting for the proper driver support, now that's a beast to program

Regarding the more modern AMD GPUs, your CPU has to support SSE 4.2 as it turns out apple compiled these drivers with optimisations for SSE 4.2. That means any Intel CPU used by apple after C2D, if I'm not wrong (i5, i7 etc. from Nehalem architecture onwards, you probably have the C2D Penryn architecture; stops at SSE 4.1). As in my original post, I stick with High Sierra and use Nvidia graphics on that machine, the small form-factor Pascal based GTX 1050Ti 4GB. No issue, and no SSE 4.2 requirements. I first started out with a Fermi based GTX 560Ti 2GB I had laying around after a desktop upgrade.
SSE 4.2 requirements could possibly be circumvented if someone writes an interpreter to translate SSE 4.2 to SSE 4.1, or somehow binary modifies the driver to avoid SSE 4.2. I guess this could be a perfect project for DosDude. Then Mojave would be a possibility on those older machines, if we wanna have Metal and a more modern GPU with it. I find High Sierra to currently be the best for my early 2008 MacBook Pro 4,1 for these reasons. Even the Radeon HD 7970 probably requires SSE 4.2 on macOS.

EDIT: Yes, the Radeon HD 7950 / 7970 also required Mac Pro 2009/2010 and up (or any other Mac with Nehalem / SSE 4.2 and the PCIe interface). https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/zardon/sapphire-hd7950-mac-edition-review/

 

[panwato]

A little update.

I updated to Mojave with dosdude.
GTX 550 Ti is working. (No acceleration, no web drivers), so I am very close to success.
I'm thinking the dosdude's patch is the answer.
Going back to HS with patched dosdude's installer

 

[kautame]

Hey, haven't checked this thread for a while.

Monoton, where have you been all this time?! I needed you!!! ;-)
You should turn on notifications for this thread, man!

Anyway, thank you for your reply. Yes, I have a C2D Penryn, and Dosdude helped me understand what you wrote in your reply, about SSE).
This month I'm going to upgrade to a more recent iMac (mid 2011, i7) because I'd like to have a bit more CPU power.

 

[MTBnBeer]

What inexpensive available in the U.S. (not the EU) ExpressCard/34 eSATA cards will work in my 17" Early 2008 MacBook Pro running Mojave 10.14.3 via DosDude1's macOS Mojave Patcher? The "vintage" Merax (Silicon Express) dual eSATA Xpress card that worked in Yosemite crashes Mojave as soon as it is inserted since it requires Mojave compatible drivers which don't exist.

Single eSATA port is fine... Don't need dual ports or RAID for the external HD I use for backup. Yes I know I can use USB 2.0 but it is SO slow... and Firewire 800 is slower than eSATA too.

 

[panwato]

View attachment 822135 A little update.

I updated to Mojave with dosdude.
GTX 550 Ti is working. (No acceleration, no web drivers), so I am very close to success.
I'm thinking the dosdude's patch is the answer.
Going back to HS with patched dosdude's installer

Aaaaand... Nothing.
Glitches in HS.
Moving forward to Mojave, RX560 it's on the road.

With "Compatible" iMac in HS, I can't put a Nvidia eGpu. And in Mojave we don't have Compatible drivers... So, Mojave + AMD Gpu

 

[kautame]

Aaaaand... Nothing.
Glitches in HS. With "Compatible" iMac in HS, I can't put a Nvidia eGpu.

Why do you say that? Did you try a different Nvidia card? You previously said that maybe the problem is the GTX 500.

I'm using the GDC Beast with an iMac 7,1 (late 2007) and GTX 1050, and even if I'm using Dosdude's High Sierra Patch, I didn't install a GPU patch (as you can see in the screenshot), because my Mac doesn't need it.

 

[panwato]

Why do you say that? Did you try a different Nvidia card? You previously said that maybe the problem is the GTX 500.

I'm using the GDC Beast with an iMac 7,1 (late 2007) and GTX 1050, and even if I'm using Dosdude's High Sierra Patch, I didn't install a GPU patch (as you can see in the screenshot), because my Mac doesn't need it.
View attachment 822243

I tried the GTX 550 Ti in Mojave and it's working, (no acceleration, no drivers). So it's not the card itself.
I ordered a RX 560, it came tomorrow, and I post the results.

 

[panwato]

Why?

With the RX560 Installed, IT DOESN'T BOOT! (No chime, no image)
If I put the power on GDC When chime's, it boot normally, but no kext loaded in system information. (The card is recognized with ID, but no kext loaded)

 

[kautame]

Why?

With the RX560 Installed, IT DOESN'T BOOT! (No chime, no image)
If I put the power on GDC When chime's, it boot normally, but no kext loaded in system information. (The card is recognized with ID, but no kext loaded)

Are you talking about Mojave or High Sierra?

 

[panwato]

Are you talking about Mojave or High Sierra?

Mojave

 

[kautame]

Mojave

I had the same problem (RX560 recognized in Mojave with ID but no kext loaded), but according to Dosdude that was because of my Core 2 Duo CPU. But I remember that Larsvonhier was not completely convinced by that reason.

Now we have to understand the problem. For example:
- Did you try with a different cable (Displayport, for example)?
- Does that card work in High Sierra?
- Could it be the brand of your card? Not every RX560 is the same.
- Have you read any success stories about using this card in Mojave (or High Sierra) with a Mac and the GDC Beast?

 

[panwato]

I had the same problem (RX560 recognized in Mojave with ID but no kext loaded), but according to Dosdude that was because of my Core 2 Duo CPU. But I remember that Larsvonhier was not completely convinced by that reason.

Now we have to understand the problem. For example:
- Did you try with a different cable (Displayport, for example)?
- Does that card work in High Sierra?
- Could it be the brand of your card? Not every RX560 is the same.
- Have you read any success stories about using this card in Mojave (or High Sierra) with a Mac and the GDC Beast?

My problem is the iMac itself doesn't boot, no chime and no image with the RX560 plugged.

I wanna try tonight with HS

 

[kautame]

My problem is the iMac itself doesn't boot, no chime and no image with the RX560 plugged.

Is SIP disabled in your system? (Double check it, because sometimes it's enabled again without you knowing it). Mine is always disabled because I'm using Dosdude's patch, and I've read stories about eGPUs not working when SIP is enabled.

 

[panwato]

Is SIP disabled in your system? (Double check it, because sometimes it's enabled again without you knowing it). Mine is always disabled because I'm using Dosdude's patch, and I've read stories about eGPUs not working when SIP is enabled.

I'm in Mojave with dosdude patches, so I think is disabled...
But anyways, my problem is before any system related config (or at least I think so..), mi iMac with the RX560 plugged don't pass the self-test of hardware before the system turn on

 

[panwato]

I'm in Mojave with dosdude patches, so I think is disabled...
But anyways, my problem is before any system related config (or at least I think so..), mi iMac with the RX560 plugged don't pass the self-test of hardware before the system turn on

Ok. Partial setup "successful"
In High Sierra, I have RX560 working at full acceleration, 40-50 fps in valley (Ultra).

BUT! If i turn on the iMac with the GPU plugged, not booting. (No chime, no image)
And if i plug the GPU after the chime, everything works fine.

Any advice?

 

[kautame]

If i turn on the iMac with the GPU plugged, not booting. (No chime, no image)
And if i plug the GPU after the chime, everything works fine.

I have some questions:

- when you say "plug the CPU after the chime" you mean physically plug the cable?
Does it work if you leave the cable plugged in and just turn on the GDC after the chime? If this is the case, you could add a switch to the electric plug, and maybe a little cord extension (something like this), so that you just have to turn on your Mac and the eGPU a few seconds apart.

- what happens when your Mac goes to sleep? Does the eGPU continue to work after you wake the Mac from sleep?

 

[panwato]

I have some questions:

- when you say "plug the CPU after the chime" you mean physically plug the cable?
Does it work if you leave the cable plugged in and just turn on the GDC after the chime? If this is the case, you could add a switch to the electric plug, and maybe a little cord extension (something like this), so that you just have to turn on your Mac and the eGPU a few seconds apart.

- what happens when your Mac goes to sleep? Does the eGPU continue to work after you wake the Mac from sleep?

1.- Yes. Now i disconnect the "HDMI" (mPCIe connector), and plug in after the chime. But if I do the same with the power, is working fine too.

2.- I don't put the iMac to sleep, only turn off the screen, (and the image of the eGpu turn off too). When I move the mouse the two screens wake up.