egpu slow

[wondermike]

Hi, I'm trying to get an egpu setup running and I've already tried with the BEAST v8.4d EXP GDC but that turned out to be too slow. Soon I realized: ExpressCard is my bottle neck. So I had to come to the following setup:

• 6 x Dell U2417H Monitor (DP-input, Mini-DP-input, HDMI-input)
• Akitio Thunder2 PCIe Box
• Gigabyte ATI HD5870 Eyefinity x6 with 6x MiniDP-output
• 600W-PSU
• Mac Mini end 2014

With the Akitio, I had to take out the board in order to fit the card into the slot. The Card is being recognized by El Capitan immediately, the 6 monitors are showing a picutre, I can arrange the monitors. All fine. Not. Because: The speed is not fine. Even with simple operations like moving around a window, it's slow as hell. It seems that there is no acceleration active. How can I find out which is the missing brick to the full solution? Is the Akitio Box the bottle neck and the whole thing is condemned to not work? Or do I have to check the drivers under Macos? Where can I look next?
Any help would be appreciated.
Kind regards

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello and welcome.

I don't have any experience with eGPU setups at all. I do know that most eGPU setups are geared more for PCs than Macs. I did a quick Internet search, and it looks like most folks have to do some mods to get them to work with OS X.

I would recommend looking at some of the eGPU forums around the Internet to get advice from folks that have eGPU setups running with their Macs...i.e. MacRumors > eGPU.

It could be a driver issue, as that is a third-party ATI card. Apple only provides drivers for their built-in video devices, and gone are the days of the user-replaceable video card in Macs like the older Mac Pro.

Sorry I couldn't help more,

C