Breakaway Box 350/550/650
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FAQ (34)
IDArticle TitlePost Date
907 Can I upgrade the power supply in the Sonnet eGFx Breakaway Box or Breakaway Box 550?Sep-20-19
Sonnet has Thunderbolt certified the eGFX Breakaway box including its power supply, and we cannot recommend changing the power supply.

Sonnet uses the FSP FSP550-50SGGBA in the Breakaway Box 550.

Sonnet uses the Enermax ERV650SWT SFX 80 Plus Gold in the original Breakaway Box 650. (The newest Breakaway Box 650OC uses an ATX power supply.) Sonnet uses the higher-performance Akasa AK-FN059 fan in Breakaway Box 650.

If you upgrade the power supply and fan, you will have more power available to a graphics card, but you will not alter the upstream power delivery, which is programmed into the unit. Note that upstream power continues to be provided even when the computer is sleeping.
 
913 Does an eGPU accelerate Adobe After Effects?Jun-21-21
914 Does the Breakaway Box support the AMD Radeon Vega 64, FE, WX8200 or WX9100, Radeon VII, or Radeon 5700 or 5700 XT?Jan-12-20
915 The GPU-350W-TB3 and GPU-350W-TB3Z both have 350W power supplies, but only GPU-350W-TB3Z supports some higher end cards. Why?Oct-21-19
925 My Breakaway Box won't turn on.Jan-06-21
For the eGFX Breakaway Box to turn on, you must (1) turn on the power switch AND (2) connect the Breakaway Box to a computer with the supplied Thunderbolt 3 cable.
 
926 I have a Windows computer with a discrete (internal) NVIDIA Quadro dGPU, and the external NViDIA GeForce or Titan eGPU is not recognized.Jun-21-21
929 Can I use a Sonnet eGPU with Boot Camp?Jun-21-21
Neither Apple, nor Sonnet, nor NVIDIA, nor AMD currently supports eGPUs with Boot Camp.
 
930 What kind of performance can I expect from the NVIDIA Titan Xp (Pascal) with the eGFX Breakaway Box?Nov-06-17
In a Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box, the Titan Xp was performing at:
Single-precision Float 12.4 Tflops/s
Double-precision Float 416 Gflop/s

Note: You may have read that some other manufacturers' external graphics boxes--even some with a higher power supply rating--fail under heavy load with the NVIDIA Titan Xp (Pascal) card. Not so with a Sonnet Breakaway Box. In choosing a power supply, Sonnet carefully considers not only the eGFX Box nominal power rating, but also its instantaneous peak power delivery capability. Sonnet runs many rigorous tests (including the CUDA-Z benchmark, set to Heavy Load Test Mode). The Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box must pass the most stringent tests before we put it in your hands.
 
932 How can I use the Sonnet eGPUs to accelerate games on the MacBook Pro or iMac internal video?Jun-21-21
938 What power cable do I need for the Avid HDX card?Jun-21-21
970 How do I use the Breakaway Box or RX 560/570 Puck with the LG Ultrafine 5K Display sold on the Apple store?Jan-06-21
978 Sonnet's macOS-compatible external graphics supports up to 5 displays. How can I tile them into one large display?Jan-06-21
In macOS:
Open System Preferences.
Open Mission Control.
Uncheck Displays have separate Spaces.
Log out.
Log in.
 
991 What is the maximum size GPU card that will fit in a Breakaway Box?Jan-06-21
995 Which NVIDIA cards are supported as external GPUs.Oct-21-19
998 I need to ship the Breakaway Box. Do I need to remove the card?Jan-06-21
999 How do I get external graphics working on a Gigabyte motherboard?Feb-03-23
1001 My display is not being detected on macOS.Jun-21-21
1002 My 4K display is connecting only at 30Hz. Why I can't set it to 60Hz?Jun-21-21
1004 How to Solve the DP No Video / Wrong Resolution Issue with the Dell P2715Q / P2415Q Flat Panel MonitorsJun-21-21
See this Dell support article.
 
1025 Will a Sonnet eGPU accelerate internal video on a Mac?Jun-21-21
If you are using macOS 10.14.6+, you can accelerate applications with the external GPU (if they support GPU acceleration)...
• Select the app in Finder
• Get Info
• Check Prefer External GPU

Adobe Premiere and Apple Final Cut Pro automatically use the eGPU when appropriate. Do not select Prefer External GPU for these applications.

Some professional applications let you select the external GPU (or multiple GPUs) in their preferences.
 
1026 Does Final Cut Pro use the external GPU in a Breakaway Box, or Breakaway Puck, or DuoModo eGPU Module?Jun-21-21
With macOS 10.14.6+, Final Cut Pro X 10.4.6+ automatically uses the GPU in the Breakaway Box, Breakaway Puck, or DuoModo eGPU Module is used to accelerate Final Cut Pro X.
 
1028 Does the Breakaway Box or RX 560/570 Puck support the LG UltraFine 4k Display sold by Apple?Jan-06-21
1038 I purchased a Breakaway Box bundled with a Radeon GPU card and now I need warranty service on the GPU card.Sep-20-19
1051 I'm connecting from a DVI (or sometimes DP) port on my GPU Card--via an adapter cable--to an HDMI port on my monitor and the display looks magenta.Jun-21-21
1054 How do I extend the length of a DisplayPort cable?Jun-21-21
1084 I connected my monitor to the Breakaway Box, Breakaway Puck, or DuoModo eGPU Module on my 2018 or newer Mac mini, but it boots with a black screen.Jun-21-21
If you have a 2018 or newer Mac mini with FileVault turned on, you must connect your primary display directly to the HDMI port on your Mac mini during startup in order to enter your encryption password. After you log in and see the macOS Desktop, you can unplug the display from Mac mini and connect it to your eGPU.

Under macOS 10.14.6, a 2018 Mac mini with some GPU cards must be booted with a monitor connected to the Mac mini's HDMI port. If you have a Mac mini with an affected GPU card, you must either:
(a) Update to macOS 10.15.7+

(b) Connect an HDMI display emulator plug to the Mac mini HDMI port and mirror displays. (You must make sure that the HDMI display emulator is the Master Mirror. Drag the menu bar to the HDMI display emulator window before mirroring.)

(c) Connect a monitor to the Mac mini's HDMI port to log in, and then move the HDMI monitor connection to the eGPU.
 
1110 I'm trying to use four HDMI monitors by adding DP-to-HDMI adapters, but it doesn't work.Jun-21-21
Use at least one active DP-to-HDMI adapter.

Display Port signal is not compatible with HDMI.

However, on most modern GPU cards, the DisplayPort output is a Dual mode DisplayPort (DP++), which has the ability to recognize and adjust the signal to HDMI when a passive DP-to-HDMI adapter cable is connected, but only up to a point. If the HDMI monitors you are trying to connect are identical (use identical video signal timings), then you should be able to use passive adapters for all. However, if the monitors are different, then there may be a limit of two special clocks to drive passive DP to HDMI adapters; ergo only two HDMI monitors may be supported with passive adapters; the third and subsequent monitor would need to be native DisplayPort or would need to use an active DP-to-HDMI adapter.

Older generation GPU cards require the use of active DP-to-HDMI adapters on every DP port.
 
1111 I'm trying to use an additional HDMI monitor by adding a DP-to-HDMI adapter, but it doesn't work.Jun-21-21
1145 Do not disconnect or power off you eGPU during sleep or your Mac will crash.Apr-20-21
macOS does not support disconnecting or powering off an eGPU during sleep. If you do so, your Mac will kernel panic. This is an issue that persists through at least macOS 11.2.3. Sonnet has reported the issue to Apple.
 
1191 I upgraded to macOS 12.4 and my Vega 56 is no longer seen by macOS.Nov-25-22
If you had Filevault turned on during the update, then you need to turn Filevault off and then on again. This should fix the issue.
 
1212 My computer will randomly freezeFeb-25-23
1225 My Windows PC freezes without a blue screen when using an NVIDIA GPU.Jun-05-23
1246 Disconnecting my eGPU crashes macOS 14+�Sep-09-24
1252 Acer Swift 5 does not support eGPUsOct-22-24