After installing my Akitio egpu on my mac as discussed in the previous post, I faced an annoying issue: when opening a window like in a browser; the screen on my laptop would go black whereas the screen in my external monitor connected to the egpu would stay on. This is a weird issue that seemed to pertain to a configuration of some type or a glitch on the driver. After spending more time than I wanted to put on this issue, I found this post that helped me solve the problem:
https://egpu.io/forums/mac-setup/wip-nvidia-egpu-support-for-high-sierra/paged/43/
Basically one of the people were having a similar problem and noticed that the energy saving setting was not set properly.
He basically did this:
System Preferences > Energy Saver > to uncheck "Automatic Graphics Switching"
That seemed to make the problem go away and now I am up in business again. The only other issue I notice is that sometimes my monitors are a little laggy for some reason. I am not sure how much it is related to the egpu or a totally different issue with my computer but in the meantime I expect I will be able to get some work done with my computer in this state. Thanks all the people out there posting their solutions. It really helped.
Update: the screen going black when opening Chrome was an issue of Chrome and also there are other applications that might also have a similar problems. The issue is related to having the graphics switching enable which allows to switch between integrated or discrete GPU in order to save energy. Most applications do not need the GPU for regular tasks. However, for some reason Chrome does need to run the discrete GPU and since I am running an external GPU, there is a conflict with my eGPU and the discrete GPU. I tried to see if there is a way to disable the the discrete GPU and although there is some commands that could help doing such, it seemed a lot of work for trying to run just Chrome. I noticed that if I stop running Chrome, then everything else works well. So in the meantime I have decided to use other browsers to avoid the "black screen of death" :)
I am still yet looking for a solution for this issue so if you know of a good solution for high Sierra please let me know.
Update: One of the posts I saw suggested to close the laptop when using the GPU on an external monitor in order to make sure the discrete GPU is being used. So I turned on the graphics switching and connected two external monitors. I close the laptop and just used the external monitor. I can report that so far my setup is pretty good. It is sometimes laggy with Chrome and other apps that use GPU, however, they still work and don't crash the screen like with the laptop screen. I can at least get some work done now.
Thanks
Wednesday, October 17, 2018
Installing Akitio Thunder 3 Nvidia egpu on MacBook Pro 2016 with AMD built-in gpu
Installing an egpu on a mac should straight forward except when you run into some issues like I did that made me spent more time than I wanted on this.
By following the steps in this tool it should have you up and running the Akitio box with this configuration:
https://github.com/learex/macOS-eGPU/tree/master#macos-egpush
Other scripts that might be helpful are:
https://github.com/marnovo/
It would be a good idea to start a fresh installation and remove all previous drivers and solutions as well as even clearing nvram just in case (optional):
https://www.macworld.com/article/2881177/macs/how-to-reset-your-macs-nvram-pram-and-smc.html
After running the first script mentioned here, I was able to get the card recognized and running on my Mac. However, I encountered an issue when opening a window like for a browser; the screen on my laptop would go black whereas the screen in my external monitor connected to the egpu would stay on. This seem a weird issue that seemed to pertain to a configuration of some type or a glitch on the driver. The way I solved this is explain in the next post. I hope you didn't have any issues and that your were happily able to get your Akitio box working.
By following the steps in this tool it should have you up and running the Akitio box with this configuration:
https://github.com/learex/macOS-eGPU/tree/master#macos-egpush
Other scripts that might be helpful are:
https://github.com/marnovo/
It would be a good idea to start a fresh installation and remove all previous drivers and solutions as well as even clearing nvram just in case (optional):
https://www.macworld.com/article/2881177/macs/how-to-reset-your-macs-nvram-pram-and-smc.html
After running the first script mentioned here, I was able to get the card recognized and running on my Mac. However, I encountered an issue when opening a window like for a browser; the screen on my laptop would go black whereas the screen in my external monitor connected to the egpu would stay on. This seem a weird issue that seemed to pertain to a configuration of some type or a glitch on the driver. The way I solved this is explain in the next post. I hope you didn't have any issues and that your were happily able to get your Akitio box working.
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