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Macbook Pro, GTX970 as eGPU, and DK2 -SUCCESS-

pjenness
Rising Star
Hiya

This thread was a question, now its more informational

The goal was to get the macbook as a portable vr solution, with DK2.
I have macbook, viDock, GTX970 and DK2. I have blogged the majority of the setup here, it would be worth reading if interested, especially in eGPU like viDock.

It has taken a few weeks, but finally success, and getting 75fps (on Tuscany demo) on macbook

Sadly the viDock thrad is gone s they keep screwing their site. So this thread has a few photos etc


displays3.jpg

Hope this is useful

-P
Drift VFX Visual, Virtual , Vertical Want 970GTX on Macbook for good FPS? https://forums.oculus.com/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=17349
13 REPLIES 13

pjenness
Rising Star
Just update this one as managed to get success.

Also, Iev read to not do it in ClamShell mode as your macbook can overheat badly . They are designed to be open to allow nice airflow. (Tho now Ive read that it is ok...oh well..jsut keep it in mind)

Hope the blog info is useful for people here.

Cheers

-P
Drift VFX Visual, Virtual , Vertical Want 970GTX on Macbook for good FPS? https://forums.oculus.com/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=17349

cybereality
Grand Champion
I'm impressed that even works at all.
AMD Ryzen 7 1800X | MSI X370 Titanium | G.Skill 16GB DDR4 3200 | EVGA SuperNOVA 1000 | Corsair Hydro H110i Gigabyte RX Vega 64 x2 | Samsung 960 Evo M.2 500GB | Seagate FireCuda SSHD 2TB | Phanteks ENTHOO EVOLV

WadeWatts
Honored Guest
Very impressed you were brave here with this rig and that it worked! Good news as I have the same Mac Book you do... So will follow your lead. Thanks!

pjenness
Rising Star
"WadeWatts" wrote:
Very impressed you were brave here with this rig and that it worked! Good news as I have the same Mac Book you do... So will follow your lead. Thanks!


Hi. Thanks
Yeah its a bit expensive and untidy solution, but it seems to work.

I recommend your main VR unit be a Windows Desktop (or Recent Win Laptop). As MAC OS is not well supported in this area. And the (working) demos forMacOS are few.

But if you really need to go this way, it does work.
Also Village Instruments are releasing a new viDock system soon. More capable and better connection options. Might be worth waiting if not in a hurry

Cheers

-P
Drift VFX Visual, Virtual , Vertical Want 970GTX on Macbook for good FPS? https://forums.oculus.com/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=17349

cybereality
Grand Champion
@pjenness: Would you mind taking a few photos of your setup? I'm interested in seeing this.
AMD Ryzen 7 1800X | MSI X370 Titanium | G.Skill 16GB DDR4 3200 | EVGA SuperNOVA 1000 | Corsair Hydro H110i Gigabyte RX Vega 64 x2 | Samsung 960 Evo M.2 500GB | Seagate FireCuda SSHD 2TB | Phanteks ENTHOO EVOLV

WadeWatts
Honored Guest
Yes that would be great. Could you post photos here of your rig? I am tempted to wait if they are coming out with a new version soon. Have you gotten this to work with BootCamp? I read the forums and it seems to work fine with it.

I wonder if that would work. If so you would have a true mobile dual boot laptop that would achieve 75FPS. This is tempting for a developer who uses Unity on the Mac but needs to compile/test to windows,

pjenness
Rising Star
"cybereality" wrote:
@pjenness: Would you mind taking a few photos of your setup? I'm interested in seeing this.

"WadeWatts" wrote:
Yes that would be great. Could you post photos here of your rig? I am tempted to wait if they are coming out with a new version soon.


OK yea will next time Im on it....and have tidied up my work area so it looks less amateur 😉

"WadeWatts" wrote:

Have you gotten this to work with BootCamp? I read the forums and it seems to work fine with it.
I wonder if that would work. If so you would have a true mobile dual boot laptop that would achieve 75FPS. This is tempting for a developer who uses Unity on the Mac but needs to compile/test to windows,


Im fairly sure it will work. It was instantly working with my win desktop. So as long as boot camp can use the thunderbolt port should be fine.

However my goal is to not need bootcamp, would love the MacOS to get better support, Cyber whats the future for Mac?

Cheers

-P
Drift VFX Visual, Virtual , Vertical Want 970GTX on Macbook for good FPS? https://forums.oculus.com/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=17349

pjenness
Rising Star
Ok.
Here are a few photos of my setup. Sorry its a bit of a mess. Couldnt be bothered cleaning up.

I have 2 DK2. Once new one second hand. The new one will be with my desktop for dev, and the second hand one will go with more portable setup to sites/clients etc.

The Portable setup will fit into the Black Plastic case you can see on the left.

The desktop is a Asus RampageV MB , with 32GB and a 980GTX. Can play anything 75FPS at the moment
The 2 monitors conenct to it also.
It also has a viCard from Village Instuments that can attahc to the viDock so I can have an additional 970GTX for cuda intensive stuff like Photoscan

IMG_2577.JPG

Here is a closer look at the setup. Its a bunch of cables connecting stuff. You can see on the screen the macbook utilising the external 970gtx. It connects from the thunderbolt, thru the sonnet to an expressCard interface, to the viDock containing the GTX970. The Dk2 is plugged into the 970GTX via the HDMI-> DVI adatper.
The Powered USB hub has a bunch of stuff plugged in since there are only 2 USB ports on the macbook pro
2x Oculus
1x mouse
1x USB fan base that the macbook sits on for extra cooling.
IMG_2578.JPG

IMG_2579.JPG

Cheers

-P
Drift VFX Visual, Virtual , Vertical Want 970GTX on Macbook for good FPS? https://forums.oculus.com/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=17349

WadeWatts
Honored Guest
Thanks very much for these pictures 🙂 I can see how you have set it up. I'm thinking of doing this now. Get the 970 now and upgrade later maybe. Nice setup!