- Joined
- Sep 7, 2014
- Messages
- 48
- Motherboard
- Asus ROG 390-F
- CPU
- Coffee Lake i7
- Graphics
- RTX 2070 Super
So, as we all know, external GPUs are the hottest thing right now (or so I hear) and TB3 seems to delivery sufficient bandwith to keep the experience fun in spite of some loss compared to sticking the card straight onto your PCIe slot.
Enter the Alienware Graphics Amplifier. It uses a proprietary PCIe cable to connect to certain Dell products (Alienware series laptops to be more precise).
The connection chain looks a bit like this:
[LAPTOP] <---> [AGA + GPU (1080ti in my case)] ---> [EXT. MONITOR through DP cable]
The first thing that comes to mind is the higher PCIe bandwith compared to TB3 and connecting the external GPU will also disable the discrete GPU in your laptop. Switching GPUs requires rebooting, but it's a small hassle. It works flawlessly in Windows 10, but of course this forum is all about Hackintosh.
My questions is: how possible do you think it is to get this running on a Hackintosh system? I've checked last night and the external GPU is at least listed under PCIe devices, and as a nice bonus, the AGA has four USB 3.0 ports which all work in Sierra 10.12.4 without additional configuration needs. Thankfully, the discrete internal GPU isn't on/detected in Sierra (same as Windows 10) while the AGA is plugged in, so the disconnection seems physical and should make the hacking process easier, as disabling discrete graphics through patches shouldn't be necessary.
Some points of interest:
I am still learning a lot about Hackintosh and everything that goes into configuring a Hackintosh system, so please be gentle
. I think this hardware combination hasn't been touched on much - at least I couldn't find anything about it - so this could be interesting!
EDIT: OK, somebody move this to the right section, this is Desktop only, just seen...
Enter the Alienware Graphics Amplifier. It uses a proprietary PCIe cable to connect to certain Dell products (Alienware series laptops to be more precise).
The connection chain looks a bit like this:
[LAPTOP] <---> [AGA + GPU (1080ti in my case)] ---> [EXT. MONITOR through DP cable]
The first thing that comes to mind is the higher PCIe bandwith compared to TB3 and connecting the external GPU will also disable the discrete GPU in your laptop. Switching GPUs requires rebooting, but it's a small hassle. It works flawlessly in Windows 10, but of course this forum is all about Hackintosh.
My questions is: how possible do you think it is to get this running on a Hackintosh system? I've checked last night and the external GPU is at least listed under PCIe devices, and as a nice bonus, the AGA has four USB 3.0 ports which all work in Sierra 10.12.4 without additional configuration needs. Thankfully, the discrete internal GPU isn't on/detected in Sierra (same as Windows 10) while the AGA is plugged in, so the disconnection seems physical and should make the hacking process easier, as disabling discrete graphics through patches shouldn't be necessary.
Some points of interest:
- Optimus is still a concern and I don't think this setup will work with the laptop's own screen
- Since the external monitor is connected to the AGA's GPU similar to a desktop setup, I think this is the kind of setup where things could get really interesting
- Perhaps it would be more practical to use 2 config.plists: one for "desktop" use with the AGA, one for normal laptop use without
I am still learning a lot about Hackintosh and everything that goes into configuring a Hackintosh system, so please be gentle
. I think this hardware combination hasn't been touched on much - at least I couldn't find anything about it - so this could be interesting!EDIT: OK, somebody move this to the right section, this is Desktop only, just seen...
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