The Thunderbolt barely disable graphic cards in practice. In my case, it worked with all the GPU tested.īe careful, the operation has to be repeated at each minor system update (e.g the move to 10.8.5). Once this is done in the three files (beware, there are several occurrences in IONDRVSupport.kext), just reboot and the card should be activated and operate. In this file, look for sections beginning with CFBundleIdentifier and add just before, the two following lines : You have to get each file, open the package (secondary click -> Show Package Contents) and open the file ist with a text editor that supports editing system files (for example TextWrangler, in its version not from the Mac App Store).

System/Library/Extensions/AppleHDA.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AppleHDAController.kext System/Library/Extensions/IONDRVSupport.kext System/Library/Extensions/NVDAStartup.kext The first two are related to the display, the third one is dedicated to the support of the sound via HDMI or DisplayPort. Then take care, if the computer cable is disconnected while on, the kernel panic is to be foreseen.įor NVIDIA graphic cards, there are three files to edit. But it is quite easy to add what is needed in the pilots to make them Thunderbolt-compatible, even if the hotplug is not supported. The reason is simple : you normally need drivers adapted to hotplug to work on Thunderbolt, and GPU drivers are not. Mac OS X, by default, simply does not support Thunderbolt GPU drivers. Overall, with a mid-range graphic card, you can manage for about 500 $.įirst, with OS X Yosemite, type this command and reboot, it’s important to load modified kext. The ViDock enclosure can be replaced by a BPlus PE4L, it’s cheaper and as effective. AMD cards work, but with big graphic bugs, so I’d advise you not to use it for the moment.Īttention : use only a Kepler or a Fermi NVIDIA card, not a Maxwell card (GTX 750 or GTX 970). For everyday use, I installed a fanless GeForce GT610 (low cost) only to manage screens. In my case, I use a ViDock 3 enclosure (an ExpressCard enclosure, already used on my old MacBook Pro), a Sonnet Thunderbolt to ExpressCard adapter (the Pro version, PCI-Express 2.0 compatible) and a Thunderbolt cable.Ĭoncerning the graphic card, any recent NVIDIA model – I tested a GeForce GTX 260 from Zotac, a GeForce GT120 from Apple and a Quadro K5000 for Mac – works. If you use OS X Yosemite and NVIDIA Maxwell cards, click here. This is not easy and there are a few issues, but it works pretty well. This is the holy grail for some: it is possible to use a Thunderbolt graphic card on a Mac. Today, a tutorial: how to use a Thunderbolt graphic card on Mac.

Mac mini late 2012 external gpu