Macbook Pro External Hard Drive Thunderbolt

1. Macbook Pro External Hard Drive Thunderbolt Port
2. Macbook Pro External Hard Drive Thunderbolt Adapter
3. Macbook Pro External Hard Drive Thunderbolt 3

Information about these and other types of Mac ports is in the specifications for your Mac: Choose Apple menu  > About This Mac, click Support, then click Specifications. Or check your Mac user guide.

To back up to an external hard drive Time Machine needs either a directly attached USB, Thunderbolt or Firewire external hard drive. Time Machine can also back up to a configured Apple Time Capsule. A Time Capsule with a hard drive that's on the same network as your MacBook. Of course, with a 7200RPM hard disk drive, Thunderbolt 3 is drastically overkill. This is another product aimed at people who own Macbooks or Macbook Pros and don't want to use a dock.

Thunderbolt 3

Use Thunderbolt 3 with displays and other devices that connect using either a Thunderbolt 3 cable or USB-C cable. You can also connect a USB-C power adapter and cable to charge your notebook computer. If you have a device that doesn't connect to this port, you might be able to use an adapter to connect it.

These Mac models have Thunderbolt 3 ports:

• MacBook Pro introduced in 2016 or later
• MacBook Air introduced in 2018 or later
• iMac introduced in 2017 or later
• iMac Pro (all models)
• Mac mini introduced in 2018
• Mac Pro introduced in 2019
  

If your Mac notebook or desktop computer has more than one port like this, each port supports ThunderBolt 3 and USB-C.

USB-C

Use USB-C with displays and other devices that connect using a USB-C cable. You can also connect a USB-C power adapter and cable to charge your notebook computer. If you have a device that doesn't connect to this port, you might be able to use an adapter to connect it.

MacBook models introduced in 2015 or later have a single USB-C port. This port doesn't support Thunderbolt devices.

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If your Mac has only one port like this, it's a MacBook that supports USB-C but not Thunderbolt.

Thunderbolt

Use Thunderbolt or Thunderbolt 2 with displays and other devices that connect using a Thunderbolt cable.

These Mac models have Thunderbolt or Thunderbolt 2 ports:

• MacBook Pro introduced in 2011 through 2015
• MacBook Air introduced in 2011 through 2017
• Mac mini introduced in 2011 through 2014
• iMac introduced in 2011 through 2015
• Mac Pro introduced in 2013

Thunderbolt and Thunderbolt 2 are not the same as Mini DisplayPort . They have the same shape, but use different symbols on the cable and port. However, this port does support Mini DisplayPort for video output, so you can use a Mini DisplayPort cable to connect a Mini DisplayPort display.

Mini DisplayPort

Use Mini DisplayPort with displays that connect using a Mini DisplayPort cable.

These Mac models have Mini DisplayPort:

• MacBook Pro introduced in late 2008 through 2010
• MacBook Air introduced in late 2008 through 2010
• Mac mini introduced in 2009 and 2010
• iMac introduced in 2009 and 2010
• Mac Pro introduced in 2009 through 2012

Mini DisplayPort is not the same as Thunderbolt or Thunderbolt 2 . They have the same shape, but use different symbols on the cable and port.

USB-A

Use USB-A with devices that connect using a USB cable. USB ports are sometimes known by the USB specification of the port, such as USB 2 or USB 3.

Left to right: power, two Thunderbolt, USB-A, and Audio-Out.

HDMI

Use HDMI with displays and TVs that connect using an HDMI cable.
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Ethernet

Use Ethernet with networks and devices that connect using an Ethernet (RJ45) cable.

FireWire

Use FireWire with devices that connect using a FireWire 400 or FireWire 800 cable.

SD card

Use the SD card slot with SD, SDHC, SDXC, MMC, and UHS-II media cards, such as those used by digital cameras.

Audio

Use Audio-Out — or — with headphones, speakers, and other audio-output devices that connect using an audio cable that has a 3.5 mm (1/8 inch) audio jack.

Luger serial numbers dwm properties. Use Audio-In with a microphone or other audio-input device that connects using an audio cable that has a 3.5 mm (1/8 inch) audio jack.

Power

Use the power port , if available, to connect your computer to AC power using a MagSafe cable or adapter. This port isn't available on newer Mac notebook computers, which use Thunderbolt 3 or USB-C for power and charging. Learn more about power adapters and cables for Mac notebook computers.

Learn more

My plan was to attempt to run an external Graphics Card (GPU) via the Thunderbolt port of my MacBook Pro 13' (Retina, Late 2012) and see see if I could improve on the poor performance of the built-in Intel 4000 GPU (included in my Macbook Pro's 2.5GHz i5 processor).

The theory is as follows, GPU's are typically connected via PCIe ports and since there are several manufacturers that provide Thunderbolt to PCIe expansion chassis for MacOS, physically connecting a GPU to a Thunderbolt equipped Macintosh is easy. However, there is a catch; as delivered MacOS doesn't support or recognize a GPU connected to an external PCIe chassis via Thunderbolt.

Conducting some pre-purchase research on the internet was not encouraging since most of the opinions confirmed that MacOS will not drive displays over Thunderbolt and even if it would, since the PCIe bus is so much faster than Thunderbolt, a GPU will be continuously constrained by the bandwidth of the Thunderbolt interface. There were also a few articles by people that had successfully enabled video cards over Thunderbolt. Total war: empire 1 5 0 – historical strategy game.

Due to the increasing popularity of Thunderbolt accessories, the price of PCIe Thunderbolt docks has dropped to the point where I was prepared to take the plunge and buy an AKiTiO 'Thunder2 PCIe Box' to connect to my MacBook Pro (Retina, 13, Late 2012). This particular AKiTiO box supports a single half length PCIe card and supplies 25W of bus power (as per the PCIe specification).

Macbook Pro External Hard Drive Thunderbolt Port

Since my Macbook is fitted with a Thunderbolt 1 interface and the AKiTiO chassis has a Thunderbolt 2 interface (2x the transfer rate of Thunderbolt 1), my chosen combination will have the Thunderbolt 1 port on the MacBook Pro as the speed limiting bottleneck, however I still wanted to see what performance could be possible.

Half length GPU's are much rarer than full length ones which tends to limit the available choice, notwithstanding since MacOS 10.10 natively supports NVIDIA cards, I acquired a cheap Gigabyte GT 740 GPU (with 2 gig of ram), and a 600w AT (ATX?) Power supply to power the GPU (actually the GPU would have also been fine with a much less powerful power supply).
(See 'Troubleshooting' notes below for general info on external power supply, jumpering and cables.)

I then followed the excellent instructions found on www.journaldulapin.com/2013/08/24/a-thunderbolt-gpu-on-a-mac-how-to. In addition to the guide, I used 'Nano' contained within the MacOS terminal to actually perform the editing of the files and I also needed to issue the command 'sudo kextcache -system-caches' to actually get the MacOS to boot and recognise the revised kext files. (and check permissions after editing.) With these tasks complete, I rebooted my MacBook with the GPU connected via Thunderbolt, startup was normal on the MacBook and the external screen remained blank. Once the log-on screen was completed, the external screen came to life and I was running two screens. NB I have successfully run this modification on pretty much all versions of MacOS 10.10 (up to 10.10.5 at the time of writing).

'About this Mac' reported the two screens and also identified the Intel GPU for the MacBook Screen and the NVIDIA Card for the external display.

Interestingly the 'System Information' correctly identifies the GPU and screens under 'Graphics and Displays', but is unable to identify the NVIDIA card under PCI. (Because it's used via Thunderbolt?)

Macbook Pro External Hard Drive Thunderbolt Adapter

How does it perform, in short - very well.

I ran two benchmark tests, firstly the FurMark test from Geeks3D GPU Test, this reported 8fps for the Intel HD4000 GPU and 19fps on the NVIDIA GT 740.

I also ran Cinebench R15, this test generated much more interesting results, since under Cinebench the same GPU operated both screens, that is if I set the MacBook to run its built-in screen as the main display then Cinebench rendered using the Intel HD 4000 GPU on both displays, however if I started the application with the external screen connected to the Thunderbolt port as the main screen, then Cinebench would use the NVIDIA GT 740 to render on both screens. (? I'd think the internal display only uses the internal graphics, as that's the only connection it has. The 740's output is only connected to the external display. Unless it's using the 740 for rendering and passing that data to the Intel 4000's shared vram onboard memory? Like a 2013 Mac Pro uses the 2nd GPU for rendering/computations.)

This was a surprise, as all of my prior research had suggested that MacOS was incapable of using an external Thunderbolt GPU to render on the built-in MacBook Screen (only an Apple supplied discrete GPU such as the one fitted to the MacBook Pro 15' was capable of displaying on internal screen)

For Cinebench the following was observed:

• Intel HD 4000 GPU: MacBook Screen 15.25fps : External Screen 14.47fps
• NVIDIA GT 740 (T'Bolt): MacBook Screen 40.32fps : External Screen 43.73fps.

Macbook Pro External Hard Drive Thunderbolt 3

Following loading of the NVIDIA 'Web Driver' (and re-modifying the kext files since they were reset), I ran Cinebench again and now 48.32fps was returned on the external screen and 41.34fps on the MacBook screen. so the NVIDIA driver is worth about 10% more speed on an external display for this test, however it had no real effect on the internal display. Clearly there is some additional overhead needed to pass a signal back along the Thunderbolt connection to the built-un display after it has been rendered by the external GPU.
(FYI: Nvidia web drivers are specific to OS X version/build numbers (and build numbers change when applying OS X security updates, which means another Nvidia driver update is required). I try to keep links to the latest (non-beta) drivers and CUDA posted at Nvidia's website for OS X 10.9.5 and later on the Video topics page. As noted above however, they will need to be modified for cards used in a Thunderbolt case. (Updates appear first in Nvidia Web Driver Prefs before they post a D/L page.)
BTW: Resetting the Mac's nvram will clear Nvidia Web driver setting and revert to the standard OS X driver, which doesn't support some PC Nvidia card models. (For instance as of this post date (fall 2015), the Nvidia GTX 780Ti and Titan Black require the Nvidia Web drivers *and* OS X 10.9.2 or later. The Nvidia GTX 750Ti, GTX950/960/970/980/980 Ti and Titan X require OS X Yosemite or later *and* the Nvidia web drivers.) I don't use OS X 10.11 El Capitan but I suspect these driver edits/mods will not work with 'System Integrity Protection' enabled.)

Based on the benchmark tests, the NVIDIA GT 740 over Thunderbolt 1 offers over double (and almost triple) the performance of the Intel HD 4000 GPU, and you also get CUDA enabled with the GT 740.

Regardless of the selected GPU or screen, Cinebench returned the same CPU performance index. (GPU not used for that test.)

While I don't generally play games, I own a copy of Deus Ex - Macintosh Edition (not steam) and I also purchased a copy of Bioshock Infinity to see how the system would perform in this environment. In both cases I had the GPU connected to a HD TV and set the game to 1920 x 1080 resolution and standard quality settings. Deus Ex comfortably ran at a average of 55 - 60 fps and Bioshock made 25 - 30 fps. Increasing Bioshock to high quality settings has the frame count remain at about 25 - 30 fps. Both game exhibited some vertical sync issues (resulting in some screen tearing when panning the view)

A faster GPU would no doubt work better, and with modifications to the AKiTiO enclosure, a full length GPU card could be accommodated.

The GT 740 does not appear to be limited by the Thunderbolt 1 interface speed, however this is not a particularly fast GPU and maybe a faster card would show limitations to the Thunderbolt 1 standard. Recent Macintoshes have the faster Thunderbolt 2 ports and will be less affected.

Notwithstanding this simple and relatively cheap peripheral has effectively extended the life of my MacBook Pro and also made it more flexible. If Apple improves the Mac mini specification (bring back the Quad Core i7 option please) I think that the combination of its Thunderbolt 2 ports and the external GPU will make quite powerful and cheap alternative to a desktop Macintosh (which was my original motivation for this experiment).

A final word of warning, MacOS needs to be hacked for the card to be recognised and while Thunderbolt is a hot-pluggable standard, unplugging the Thunderbolt box with a GPU while the mac is running causes a Kernel Panic that requires a restart to clear.
-Andrew'