iMac+egpu+VR : external monitor ?

[Nutella76]

Hello,

I'm using an iMac 5K 2017 with both MacOS (for work) and Bootcamp/Windows (for games). Recently, I bought a HTC Vive and it works quite well with my system under Bootcamp and Windows 10 (internal graphic card: Radeon Pro 580). However, I have to run recent VR games with low details or no Anti-Aliasing Techniques (supersampling is GPU consuming). For this reason, I would like boost my iMac and buy a Sonnet Breakaway + 1080Ti egpu solution and connect it to my iMac via Thunderbolt 3 port.

I must admit that I am a little bit confused and I have several questions:
1 ) Do I need to buy an external monitor display since I just want to plug and use my HTC Vive with the egpu system ?
2 ) Is there any problem with Bootcamp and Windows ?
3 ) What about Nvidia drivers ? So far, I am using AMD Drivers from bootcampdrivers.com and I would like to know if it is easy to find Nvidia drivers working properly with Bootcamp ?

Thanks !

PS : I do not plan to use MacOS for VR.

 

[mreg376]

I can answer Question 1 only. As of now, you do need an external display if you use an eGPU. There's some talk about an eventual update that will allow the use of the iMac's own display with an eGPU, but it's not there yet.

 

[Nutella76]

Thanks for your fast answer. Do you mean an external monitor ? I believed that the HTC Vive would be the external display. And indeed, this is an external display.

 

[mreg376]

Thanks for your fast answer. Do you mean an external monitor ? I believed that the HTC Vive would be the external display. And indeed, this is an external display.

Oh, I see. I wasn't familiar with the Vive. I guess as along as you can connect the Vive directly to the eGPU output you should be good. But you won't be able to monitor the output on your Mac. Right now the eGPU will not feed your Mac display. Am I understanding your question?

 

[Nutella76]

You perfectly understand my question, yes. And sorry for my approximate level of English !
In that case, I will deactivate the "mirroring" feature in SteamVR.

Thanks again !

 

[mreg376]

You have a better level of English than some of my friends here in Brooklyn...