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2014 Mac Mini + Titan-X@16Gbps-TB2 (AKiTiO Thunder2) + Win8.1 [MVC]


MVC

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Most of my work so far on eGPU has been to find ways to make things work via EFI

Meanwhile I have found that with 2014 Mini running WIndows 8 it seems to not make much difference.

My 2014 Mini is the base 1.4 Ghz model. I have put an SSD and a PCIE blade in to increase disk performance. I have found the method I am going to outline here to work for most Nvidia cards with 2014 Mini. In oSX I have only been able to get display output by using custom EFI roms, but for WIndows it seems there is no need for WIndows.

The Mini is running Windows 8.1 Pro and has the 347.88 drivers for WIndows 8.1 64 bit. I am fairly certain that I have Bootcamp/Windows installed via EFI. If I make the entire disk viewable in OSX and look in the EFI partition there is a Microsoft folder that I didn't put there.

I am using an Asus PQ-321Q display. The ability to switch inputs from the display is part of how I am getting the eGPU to work in a predictable fashion.

My AKitio TB2 has the ugly "bend the end" mod to allow a long card. I have a 630 Watt PC power supply that is switched on via a SWEX. I leave the PSU on all of the time. I have one Akitio where I have brought the power pins of the PCIE card connector to a 6 pin power in plug so that I can use a PCIE power 6 pin to augment the barrel from Akitio.

I know that this runs counter to current trends but I leave the stock Akitio power run to the barrel and sometimes I don't use the chassis with the power run to the PCIE pins. So in other words, only the 6 & 8 are getting current from the PC PSU on some occasions. The only time I saw issues with power causing instability was when I ran a single cable from the PSU that had both a 6 and an 8 to the Titan-X. So both outputs to the card, in theory up to 225 Watts, down one set of wires. This when combined with Akitio to the barrel connector meant that high stress portions of Far Cry 4 would cause stuttering and then a freeze and crash. Using separate lines from the PSU solved this and I haven't had any more issues despite 4-6 hours a week of the game.

So here is what has worked for me.

1. Connect the HDMI input from Mini to PQ-321Q in HDMI port 2.

2. Connect Titan-X DP to the DP port on PQ-321Q.

3. Choose the HDMI port from the On Screen menu

4. Install Titan-X in the Akitio

5. Connect power to the 6 & 8 pin on Titan-X.

6. Turn on the PC PSU with SWEX.

7. Run TB line to the Akitio, but leave unplugged at back of Mini

8. Hit the Power button on Mini

9. As soon as boot chime finishes, plug the TB cable in to Mini

10. Wait for Windows to boot up and get to desktop.

11. Look in Device Manager and verify that the Titan-X has shown up under Display Adapters

12. If it has a yellow mark on it, double click and see what the issue is

13. If it has an issue about "No Driver Loaded" or "Driver attempting to load isn't correct" it is time to run the Nvidia Driver installer. Obviously use the one that works with your OS.

14. If it has the dreaded "Error 12 This device couldn't find enough resources...." worry not, usually right after you see this you will be prompted to "Restart due to the changes you have made". TUern off rather then restart. Go back to step 7 once the computer has turned off. As long as you plug TB in right after chime should be fine on next boot.

15. More often than not, the Titan-X in Device Manager will be fine with no yellow marks by it. If you click on it and it says it is "Working Normally", be happy.

16. Once you see that, or sense by other means* that the Titan-X is already outputting to your display via DP go into the onscreen menu and switch to the DP input.

17. If you have a display output there rejoice !!! You are up and running. Go ahead and unplug the HDMI connector. A right click of the mouse on the desktop should show the "Nvidia Control Panel" as an option, whereas it wasn't before. Any time you can right click and see this choice you have working Nvidia card.

18. If you were in 30Hz mode for OSX compliance, go ahead and switch the Asus 321 to MST mode at 60Hz. Occasionally this will cause a weird situation where the display flicks from normal to black repeatedley while the cursor remains a spinning ball. SOmetimes it snaps out of this, sometimes not. It is definitely triggered by turning on 60Hz. If you have to force quit, go back to step 7. (ie, disocnnect TB cable before restart)

19. If you install anything that requires a restart, give it a try. Sometimes a restart comes right back up on Titan-X, sometimes it boot loops, at which point it is back to step 7.

I have found this procedure very repeatable for booting. Trying same on nMP has been nothing but frustrating.

I have been able to forget what I am doing and play Far Cry 4 for several hours in a row. The only instability I had was when I ran the single power cable for both the 6 & 8, a no-no.

I would also point out that any time I tried a riser I got more trouble, not less.

I am quite certain that this is repeatable by anyone else with same equipment. I may add some screenshots. Happy to help anyone else with 2014 Mini trying to get an Nvidia card working in Akitio.

* "Know by other means" refers to the fact that sometimes when I have HDMI connected and am viewing from HDMI port 2 on Asus, the screen will go solid blue. This is because it has turned on Akitio and TItan-X and the sign-in screen is over on DP port. You can either blind type your password and watch desktop come up on HDMI which has become 2nd display or switch to DP and yank the HDMI plug. At first I thought this was the "BSOD" but it was in fact just the 2nd output during log in.

EDIT: I am adding some photos of the modded power boards. I ran a female 6 pin plug to the backside of the Aktitio PCIE board. The grounds come in from top and the positive lines go from bottom.

I also made a similar mod to one of the Akitio barrels so that it could be run from a PCIE 6 pin plug as well, though I have not found issues running with just Akitio power. Whenever possible I solder everything securely then use heat shrink tubing to insulate.

This is one of the power supplies I have been using: VisionTek Juice Box VT-450CD 450W SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Dedicated Graphics & CPU Power Supply - Newegg.com

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I will run the 3DMark tests but you previously thought my scores were low, likely due to 1.4 Ghz rated CPU. Anyhow, updates coming

3DMark11

P7422 <!-- Show result detailed cpu and gpu information, or for a benchmark run, the validation. --> with NVIDIA GTX TITAN X(1x) and Intel Core i5 4350U

NVIDIA GTX TITAN X video card benchmark result - Intel Core i5 4350U,Apple Inc. Mac-35C5E08120C7EEAF

3DMark Futuremark

NVIDIA GTX TITAN X video card benchmark result - Intel Core i5 4350U,Apple Inc. Mac-35C5E08120C7EEAF

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That is a crazy setup! Have you experienced any bottleneck issues because of the CPU? Could you run FC4 without any modifications? I thought FC4 wouldn't start at all on a 2 core CPU.

What kind of PSU are you using?

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It runs just fine, it is in a space with a nMP and a cMP and I frequently forget that it is not being run by one of the "Big Dogs".

i have used the Intel CPU monitor and it reports that the Mini CPU runs at 2.0 Ghz most of the time and is only using 13 Watts.

the Mini never even gets warm to the touch. Meanwhile the fan on the Titan-X is in jet fighter mode, as is the power supply fan. I have 2 different PSUs for that station. One is a Visiontek dedicated GPU PSU that supplies 450watts and has 2@ 6 pin and 2@ 8 pins. It has a tiny fan and when I stop gaming I can hear that little fan quite well.

the other PSU is an offbrand PSU rated for 630 watts.

has anyone found a Far Cry 4 benchmark mode? Would be an interesting thing.

and I am quite serious when I say that the setup is 100% stable. Played for 90 minutes last night, not a single hicup.

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@MVC, would you mind taking some photos and including them so can see you enclosure/power configuration? Also could you include 3dmark13-fs, 3dmark11 and 3dmark06 benchmark runs so we can see you near the top of the Leaderboard at http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/6578-implementations-hub-tb-ec-mpcie.html#Thunderbolt . You'll see that link has been heavily revised. We can now see that the majority of AKiTiO implementations are using a *LESS* stable PCIe riser to provide slot power AND extend outside of the chassis limits.

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