Breakaway Box 850 T5 Support Library

Description: This is the quick start guide for the Sonnet Breakaway Box 850 T5 Thunderbolt 5 external graphics processing unit system for Windows. This is revision B of this document.

Description: This is the Windows 11 eGPU setup guide for Sonnet Breakaway Box 850 T5 and eGPU Breakaway Box 750/750ex. This is version A of this document.

To see which GPU cards are supported in each of the Breakaway Boxes, please see our list here . If your preferred card is not on the list, it is because we have not hand an opportunity to review the specs of the card. Please send us a link to the card, and we will determine whether it it is compatible or not.

Sonnet recommends that you remove the card and ship it separately. Because graphics card lengths vary, the Breakaway Box could not offer support for the back end of cards. Some cards have stiffeners, but many do not, and are at risk when shipped inside the box.

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.

Win10/11 solutions for eGPU BSOD, crashing, freezing and stuttering - Link State Power Mgmt, Nvidia Power Mgmt, TdrDelay/TdrDdiDelay, Disable iGPU/dGPU, Disable DynamickTick, Use AMD PCIe (3GIO) Driver, Disable Nvidia reBAR + more

If Win10/11 solutions for eGPU BSOD, crashing, freezing and stuttering, try the following troubleshooting steps.

- Turn off bitlocker, especially for the boot drive. a lot of people reported trying to boot with a new thunderbolt device plugged in for the first time causing failure to boot at all, blue screen, or bitlocker violation flag.
- The old XPS 15 doesn't have a video gpu outside of the cpu, the new XPS 17 has an Nvidia RTX 4060 on the motherboard as well as the Intel GPU inside the cpu. So trying to get windows to recognize and install the 3090 while there was a functioning 4060 on the motherboard just wasn't going to work. It is no simple task to uninstall and disable the internal discrete gpu, as you will see from the attached document from egpu.io.
- Using the free program DUU.exe to completely remove all traces of anything other than the gpu inside the cpu was necessary (BUT NOT RISK FREE, THE PROGRAM ITSELF SAYS DO THIS IN SAFE MODE ONLY).
- Windows fights the thunderbolt to pcie installation all the way by continually trying to update any driver changes in the background, such that one is certain that they are losing their mind and seeing things ... it wasn't that way a second ago ... I had to disconnect my internet router.
- Here is the critical web address for the egpu.io installation secrets:
https://egpu.io/forums/pc-setup/guide-generic-windows-10-solutions-for-egpu-bsod-crashing-and-system-freezing-link-state-power-management-tdrdelay-tdrddidelay-nvidia-power-management-settings/

1) We have seen that some Windows OEMs may have additional options within the BIOS/UEFI or firmware of the computer.

Try entering the BIOS/EFI screen of your host computer, then look for settings like 'Thunderbolt Security' 'DMA Kernel Protection' 'DMA Access' 'PCI Security' 'Boot Security' or similar, and set them to 'disable'. Then save and exit, then try again.
Whereas, other settings like 'PCIe Tunneling' and 'DisplayPort Tunneling' must be set to 'enable'.
Seemingly unrelated settings like 'Intel Virtualization', 'Intel VT-d', or the use of a hypervisor can all allocate resources away from the PCIe/Thunderbolt bus, which can cause unusual problems.

The host computer may also have proprietary software that interferes with the use of third party peripherals such as ours.
For example, Asus may have an 'Asus Support Center' application that may need to be disabled, along with the firmware changes mentioned above.

Windows will also install other applications natively (like Xbox live) which may also automatically enable at startup, but can interfere with Thunderbolt connectivity and other third-party hardware like ours.

We also recommend disabling this and similar applications as well.

We recommend consulting the host computer manual for additional options.

If available, does the same issue occur on other Thunderbolt equipped host-computers, as well as with other video cards (Mac/Windows, AMD/Nvidia)?

2) Symptoms like this can sometimes be caused by a faulty Thunderbolt 3 or power cable.
Have you also tried testing new known-good Thunderbolt cables, as well as power cables with this?

Additionally, we have seen similar symptoms occur with debris in the chassis or cable line.
We would also recommend removing the PCIe card(s) from the enclosure, cleaning the card, chassis, PCIe slot channel, and cable-plug-ends, with a can of compressed air, re-seating the card(s), and testing this again with known-good cables.

Also, if available, an application of contact cleaner like this here and using 91% isopropyl alcohol (or higher) and a q-tip on the cable-plug-ends and ports can also help with connectivity issues.

3) Also, make sure to have the latest generic Nvidia/AMD drivers installed for the eGPU.
The Asus may include a built-in (discrete or integrated) graphics card from Nvidia/AMD, that has it’s own proprietary driver that may interfere with eGPU usage.

See our tech note here for more information on removal of other drivers.

As an alternative, you can disable the driver (not uninstall) by entering Device Manager, finding the discrete GPU, right-clicking, and choosing ‘disable.’ The monitors will blink and may change, but you can then try installation of other drivers for the eGPU at that point.

4) Not all applications will natively use an eGPU. Other applications will need to have their in-app settings modified (under 'Options' > ‘Graphics’ in most games.) Additionally, some applications are used within other applications.

As an example for games: Some applications, like Steam games, are generally opened from within Steam, and the game has it’s own application separate from Steam. Both Steam, and the application, must be set to ‘High Performance’ under Settings > Display > graphics settings.

Some game platforms must also have the game launcher (not the app or Steam) set to ‘high performance’ as the application by itself, Steam itself, or their respective shortcuts, are insufficient.

You may need to navigate to the file path where your Steam games (applications) are installed on your computer, modify these settings within the directory (choose ‘high performance’ there), and the executables, then try re-launching the game.

This is the case for other applications like Epic Game Launcher, Origin, etc.

This is also the case for general applications as well as benchmarks like the Geeks3d

Has this been tested with other graphically intense applications like, the Unigine Heaven Benchmark, or games/applications from ~2018 and beyond like 'Tomb Raider' or the 'Battlefield' series for example?

If so, do you see any eGPU utilization, or, does changing the 'performance settings' like above change any results?

If you open Task Manager then check >Performance does the GPU tab show any use when applications are in ‘high performance’ mode?

Additionally, there are some applications or games that may not be able to utilize an eGPU altogether.

We would also recommend referring to the software developer to verify if eGPU’s can be used with their application.

5) Windows will often require additional setup for optimal use with an eGPU, and sadly, Windows updates can break optimal settings in one configuration.

Have you also updated your BIOS/EFI, Thunderbolt firmware, and Windows OS of the host-computer, then tried this again?

Our Windows eGPU setup guide here has additional steps that may help.

Once updated, enter BIOS/UEFI again and look for the ‘hybrid graphics’ or ’Thunderbolt Security' settings as above, and set to ‘disable’ then make sure Nvidia drivers are installed as well.

6) Lastly, if this was working for you previously, but stopped suddenly, a Windows update may have 'broken' working settings in a previous configuration, as many of these updates (e.g. a .NET framework update) may change settings on the host-computer without user-consent, or user-knowledge.
If this is the case, you may be able to go to the search bar, and type RSTRUI.EXE, and restore the system to a previous known-good working state.
We recommend performing a backup of data prior to this, and only performing this action if you feel comfortable with its limitations and caveats.
This action can sometimes help, if the problem is isolated away from a hardware problem (e.g. cabling) or a setting (BIOS/UEFI changes have no effect).
See this Microsoft article here for more information on this action.

Let us know more when you can, and if any of this helps, or if issues persist, and we can proceed from there.

Thank you for your patience while we work through this.

Regards,
Sonnet Team

Which GPUs are compatible with the 850 Breakaway TB5 Box

GPU Card Compatibility

- Cards
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 50, 40, or 30 series
AMD Radeon RX 9000, 7000, or 6000 series
- Size
Triple-wide GPU card, not exceeding 345 mm x 155 mm x 70 mm in any dimension
- Power Connectors
Three 8-pin or one 16-pin (12VHPWR)