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2015 15" MBP R9_M370X + GTX660@16Gbps (AKiTiO Thunder2) + Win10/8.1 [danielbrown941]


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Hi all,

You may have seen my other thread where I got an eGPU working on my 2011 Macbook pro. Based on this success, I decided to take the plunge and do a full desktop replacement, replacing my own-build Alienware x51 desktop for a 2015 15" Macbook Pro with AMD discrete GPU.

Spec of desktop & new MBP

Item/Machine Alienware x51 2015 Macbook Pro 15"
CPU i5 3570k i7 4780HQ
RAM 16GB 16GB
Storage 128 SSD/750GB HDD 512GB m.2 SSD
GPU GTX 660 AMD R9 M370X + GTX 660

 

My previous build had me using my eGPU from a (poorly) made aluminium case for portability so that I could take the build on a flight to Sweden for the Dreamhack Summer 2015 festival. For this build, I knew I was unlikely to get nVidia Optimus running, so this eGPU would be primarily desk-bound. As a result, I opened my AKiTiO case to enhance cooling and provide a more secure implementation.

Benchmarks to follow (I will update my previous thread also!)

Ran benchmarks using free version of 3DMark, settings may be incorrect as I have not paid to change the default res, I wonder if anybody could confirm if I need to buy it or not?

Win 8.1 eGPU 660 External Monitor

3DMark13

Fire Strike 1.1 - 4211

Sky Diver 1.0 - 12855

Cloud Gate 1.1 - 25386

Ice Storm 1.2 - 173245

Win 10 eGPU 660 External Monitor

3DMark13

Fire Strike 1.1 - 4215

AMD Radeon R9 M370X video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-4870HQ Processor,Apple Inc. Mac-06F11F11946D27C5

I'll be upgrading the machine to Windows 10 tomorrow evening and will re-run benchmarks for comparison. I also plan to purchase either a 970,980 or 980ti in the near future and benchmarks for the card I choose to purchase will be added.

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Re-worked desk & purchased a laptop-cooler:

post-35556-14495000744491_thumb.jpg

post-35556-1449500060625_thumb.jpg

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  • 4 weeks later...

Tried some fancy installation with Ubuntu at the weekend with the aim to run OSX and Windows in VM's and use qemu-kvm to perform pcie-passthrough. In the end I managed to corrupt all OS's on the disk and started again.

I'm looking to hopefully use OSX as my primary OS, but noticed very poor fps performance last night when trying to play League of Legends. It seems I'm getting better performance when using the OS X drivers, not the nVidia Web Driver. As the OS X drivers are for AMD on this machine, I assume this means that the m370x is powering the external display. I'm finding debugging very difficult without a nice utility like GPU-Z.

I'll be posting some additional updates/benchmarks tonight and hopefully I can get to the bottom of this.

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