Breakaway Box 350/550/650
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Manual (4)
FAQ (33)
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
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
Internal video acceleration for games is supported only under macOS 10.14+.

If you are using macOS 10.14.6+, you can accelerate applications and games with the eGPU if they support GPU acceleration...
• Select the app in Finder
• Get Info
• Select Prefer External GPU

To get the maximum game acceleration, connect a game display to external graphics.
 
938 What power cable do I need for the Avid HDX card?Jun-21-21
Sonnet has made a power cable for the Avid HDX card that is compatible with the Breakaway Box. The part number is TCB-HDXB and is available from Sonnet or Sonnet-authorized resellers.
 
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
The LG Ultrafine 5K Display connects via Thunderbolt 3. To give both the display and the Breakaway Box/Puck each maximum bandwidth, connect them to independent Thunderbolt 3 controllers, if possible.

The 13" Macbook Pro with Touchbar, 15" MacBook Pro, Mac mini and iMac Pro have two independent Thunderbolt controllers. Connect the Display and the Breakaway Box/Puck to ports on different sides.

The 13" MacBook Pro without Touchbar and the iMac with Retina display and the have only one Thunderbolt controller. The LG Ultrafine Display will reserve all the bandwidth it needs, and the Breakaway Box/Puck will be allocated the remaining bandwidth, which may affect performance of the Breakaway Box/Puck.

If you are using macOS 10.14.6+, you can accelerate applications and games with the eGPU if they support GPU acceleration...
• Select the app in Finder
• Get Info
• Select Prefer External GPU

Do not select Prefer External GPU for Adobe Premiere or Apple Final Cut Pro. These applications automatically manage eGPU usage.

Professional applications that use an external GPU generally may have a preference selection inside the app to select the external GPU.
 
978 Sonnet's macOS-compatible external graphics supports up to 5 displays. How can I tile them into one large display?Jan-06-21
991 What is the maximum size GPU card that will fit in a Breakaway Box?Jan-06-21
The maximum size GPU card that will fit in a Breakaway Box is 312mm x 160mm* x 54mm.

*At maximum size, the auxillary power connector must be recessed by 30mm.
 
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
Choose Apple menu > System Preferences, then click Displays. If your Mac doesn't recognize a display you've just connected, hold down the Option key to make the Detect Displays button appear, then click that button.
 
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
1025 Will a Sonnet eGPU accelerate internal video on a Mac?Jun-21-21
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
If you are connecting from a DVI (or sometimes DP) port on your GPU Card--via an adapter cable--to an HDMI port on your monitor and the display looks magenta, you can fix the issue in the monitor control panel. Go to the monitor Color Settings; select Input Color Format; change from RGB to YPbPr. That should solve the problem.
 
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
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