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[GUIDE] Enabling Intel Iris Pro (HD5200) in Win8.1 on 15" Macbook Pro with GT750M


parczefal

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I looks like Optimus.dmg is the old grub implementation of apple_set_os.efi, which does exactly the same thing as apple_set_os.efi, just as a grub command instead of a standalone EFI application. You don't need both, one is enough and I think apple_set_os.efi is the better implementation. In particular since less can go wrong, like grub not finding stuff.

I'm a bit surprised to see that it does anything on systems without a dedicated GPU, but who knows what exactly Apple does.

So if I wanted to use apple_set_os.efi for Optimus purposes without altering my boot loader(no reFind etc.), would I have any chance to do so?

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I looks like Optimus.dmg is the old grub implementation of apple_set_os.efi, which does exactly the same thing as apple_set_os.efi, just as a grub command instead of a standalone EFI application. You don't need both, one is enough and I think apple_set_os.efi is the better implementation. In particular since less can go wrong, like grub not finding stuff.

I'm a bit surprised to see that it does anything on systems without a dedicated GPU, but who knows what exactly Apple does.

Thanks for the info, you’re right- I removed reFind and installed the Optimus.dmg/grub and it seems to work as expected. The one downside is that I've lost the ability to boot Windows without apple_set_os automatically being applied on every boot.

@ah- I think the black screen issue is caused when the wrong GPU is set as primary. I had this happen when I disabled the 750m in device manager and rebooted with dedicated.bat. I thought I could switch back by setting “Integrated-only” in gfxCardStatus but that didn’t work. The solution was to boot into safe mode, and switch the 750m back on. However, I’m sure the problem is more complex then that.

I've been trying to enable Optimus with an Iris, 750m, and 970 that are visible in device manager after rebooting with gpu-switch's dedicated.bat + patched grub. When all devices are active, device manager puts up an out of resources warning on the second Nvidia GPU. If I then disable the 750m the 970 will become active, but only when outputting to a an external display, I can't change the Optimus settings in nvcpl as with the 750m.

I assumed the solution would be to boot with the 750m + Iris, enable Optimus, disable the 750m in device manager, then reboot with the eGPU plugged in. I figured this might trick the system to enable Optimus but unfortunately it causes Windows 8 to freeze (the wheel just stops) during boot. No other combination of settings caused Windows 8 to freeze this way. I tried this both with an external display attached to the eGPU and without, no luck!

The only thing I didn't try was to enable Optimus with the 750m+Iris, immediately uninstall the 750m driver in device manager, then reboot with the Iris + eGPU combo.

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Could someone with a discrete GPU macbook do me a huge favour and please try the following steps?

--

1. Install Optimus.dmg, download the gpu-switch windows binary and set your startup disk (in OSX) to Bootcamp

2. Boot into Windows, run gpu-switch (integrated.bat) -- reboot

3. Wait for windows to auto install the drivers for the Intel Iris

4. After the Iris drivers are installed, run gpu-switch

(dedicated.bat) -- reboot

5. When Windows loads, open the nvcpl and enable Optimus/confirm that it's running

6. Disable the discrete GPU in device manager

7. Run gpu-switch (integrated.bat) and set your startup disk to Windows in the bootcamp cfg tool.

8. Shut down and prepare your eGPU

9. Boot with the eGPU plugged in and be sure it's actually working (I noticed the fans spin faster when properly activated during boot)

10. Check if Optimus works and please let us know!

Thanks!

cc: @garytyler @rossfrederick @squinks @Mark @iregret @tre87 @th3v3rn @thomas_price1 @gianni @328115208 @ah- @tamer1009 @Verizon

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Hi Eeevan, sorry for the late response, at the moment i´m on vacation :-D

I will check this as soon as I´m back at home, probably Tuesday, are the changes on the eft-partition fully revertible?

How can I check if Optimus is working fine?

Best regards Verizon

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  • 2 weeks later...
Could someone with a discrete GPU macbook do me a huge favour and please try the following steps?

--

1. Install Optimus.dmg, download the gpu-switch windows binary and set your startup disk (in OSX) to Bootcamp

2. Boot into Windows, run gpu-switch (integrated.bat) -- reboot

3. Wait for windows to auto install the drivers for the Intel Iris

4. After the Iris drivers are installed, run gpu-switch

(dedicated.bat) -- reboot

5. When Windows loads, open the nvcpl and enable Optimus/confirm that it's running

6. Disable the discrete GPU in device manager

7. Run gpu-switch (integrated.bat) and set your startup disk to Windows in the bootcamp cfg tool.

8. Shut down and prepare your eGPU

9. Boot with the eGPU plugged in and be sure it's actually working (I noticed the fans spin faster when properly activated during boot)

10. Check if Optimus works and please let us know!

Thanks!

cc: @garytyler @rossfrederick @squinks @Mark @iregret @tre87 @th3v3rn @thomas_price1 @gianni @328115208 @ah- @tamer1009 @Verizon

Hi, i´ve tried it without success, after I´ve installed the optimus dmg on my efi-partition I only get an black screen with the white cursor when booting windows.

I also tried this graphics changer script without any success, it does nothing on my windows 8.1 x64, I´ve started it as administrator.

On Macbook Pro Mid 2014 with GT 750m.

Best regards

Daniel

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hello,

I have a MacBook Pro Retina 15" with intel iris 5200 and nvidia 750. I'm using bootcamp with windows 8.1 pro. I really want the siwtch to the intel iris because the Macbook get to hot.

How to do it easily and not to have to reinstall both system ?

Thanks,

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hey guys. I have the 2012 15" Retina Macbook with GT650M. Not iris but hoping the instillation instructions will be the same for me. I wanted to ask, is the Linux install necessary? I just want Windows and OSX, also re-installing your OSX from a Time Machine backup is okay when you re-install? I don't really wanna lose my OSX partition if I can help it.

Also I really wanna get my Mac working on the internal display from my GTX970, any progress on that?

Edit: Nevermind. Got Windows installed in EFI mode and my OS X restored. Now just having a headache getting display drivers to work.

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Hey guys,

I was able to get the integrated card active, but I run into the problem that I can't have both cards active at the same time. (Macbook Pro 15", mid 2014, nvidia 750m)

I can run with the dedicated card active, and if I want to switch to the integrated one, I first have to disable the dedicated card in device management (this makes my screen go black, because there is no display adapter anymore). Next I shutdown the laptop, select the EFI entry to active the integrated card, boot and I get a view, this time through the integrated card. In device management, I can see my dedicated is disabled.

However, when I re-enable my dedicated card, reboot with the entry for the integrated card, I get a black log-in screen with the icon of the ethernet connection sometimes flashing.

Has anybody else encountered this problem as well? Are there specific steps to follow to have them both active at the same time? Or is this simply wishful thinking? :/

Thanks in advance.

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Hey guys,

I was able to get the integrated card active, but I run into the problem that I can't have both cards active at the same time. (Macbook Pro 15", mid 2014, nvidia 750m)

I can run with the dedicated card active, and if I want to switch to the integrated one, I first have to disable the dedicated card in device management (this makes my screen go black, because there is no display adapter anymore). Next I shutdown the laptop, select the EFI entry to active the integrated card, boot and I get a view, this time through the integrated card. In device management, I can see my dedicated is disabled.

However, when I re-enable my dedicated card, reboot with the entry for the integrated card, I get a black log-in screen with the icon of the ethernet connection sometimes flashing.

Has anybody else encountered this problem as well? Are there specific steps to follow to have them both active at the same time? Or is this simply wishful thinking? :/

Thanks in advance.

I can confirm this. Same Macbook model, same issues. Additionally, I see that the dGPU is somehow recovering magically, i.e. the drivers are reinstalled at a random time and then the screen gets black. I assume that this is recovering because I can't even get the screen black when I deactivate the dGPU. It is instantly reinstalled and I wonder how... I wonder why...

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  • 2 weeks later...
Hi everyone, you might be interested in this: https://github.com/0xbb/apple_set_os.efi

Download it from releases, install refind, sudo mount -t msdos /dev/disk0s1 /efi, copy apple_set_os.efi to /efi/EFI/custom/apple_set_os.efi.

You should then see an entry for apple_set_os.efi in refit. Before you boot Windows, just quickly start that, which will flash the screen while it runs and then just boot Windows. This enables the Intel GPU so it's visible in the device manager. No more grub/Linux required. (To clarify, this disables the hiding of the Intel GPU and makes it appear in the device manager, nothing else. NVIDIA could still remain your primary GPU).

There is now also a Windows version of gpu-switch at https://github.com/0xbb/gpu-switch, which you can use to set the primary GPU for the next boot.

I just tested it and was able to use the Intel GPU, but booting with both GPUs active and the NVIDIA driver installed often gives me black screens after booting. I have no idea why, when I uninstall the NVIDIA driver it works perfectly, I just see two displays, one for each GPU.

Hi @ah- , Im having trouble executing this on terminal, specifically it says the efi/EFI/custom/ isn't a file or directory. I've installed reFIND.

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@TheGrreatGatsby

So you have rEFInd installed, right?

The /efi/EFI/custom directory is not standard available on the EFI partition, even if you have installed rEFInd, so you have to create the directory using the mkdir command, like in the instructions on Github first, like so:

<code>mkdir /boot/efi/EFI/custom</code>

You might have to do that as root to get it to make the directory.

Although I have a MacBook Pro, I don't have OS X installed, only Windows. I managed to install rEFInd and the apple_set_os.efi file from Windows. The installation instructions for rEFInd for Windows were, in my opinion, easier.

However, when installing the apple_set_os.efi file from Windows, you must be aware of the differences in paths to place the apple_set_os.efi file. These instructions were not available on Github.

For OS X the pa<code></code>th is: /boot/efi/EFI/custom/

For Windows, this path is: S:\EFI\custom\ (S is the letter of the drive you assigned to the EFI partition when mounting it in the commandline tool or powershell, this may change depending on what letter you gave it.)

I hope this helps.

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@juniordiscart First off, thanks for the response!

I installed reFIND using Mac OS X but can I just switch to windows and continue from there? Or do i have to reinstall reFIND using Windows instead of Mac.

Also do you think you can give me the exact commands you used in order in the cmd on Windows?

And finally, for the (S is the letter....) part, I installed reFIND using my Mac OS X partition, I dragged the install.sh into terminal and installed it from there. Now in Finder I see Bootcamp, and EFI. But theres no Drive letter for EFI.

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Once rEFInd is installed on the EFI partition, then you can certainly just continue from Windows on.

That's correct, there is no drive letter for the EFI-boot partition. Windows hides it.

I'll try to summarize the steps for Windows, assuming you indeed have rEFInd installed. Sorry if some of the commands sound too simple or obvious, but I just want to make sure everything is clear to what you have to do.

Also, download the apple_set_os.efi file and place it in an easy-to-access location. I'll here assume that this is your Desktop, for me that would be: C:\Users\Jan\Desktop\. Yours will probably be different, just make sure you switch out the name of my user account for yours.

Alright, so open a command line or Powershell window as administrator (search for "cmd" or "powershell", right click the program and select to run it as administrator.

Enter the following commands:

mountvol S: /S

This will mount the EFI partition in Windows and assign it the drive letter S. You won't be able to see it appear in "My Computer" however, it remains hidden.

S:

cd EFI

dir

Check the output after these commands. If you see a directory for refind, then you have refind installed and you can proceed with the next set of commands. Otherwise, make sure you follow the installation instructions for rEFInd for Windows on this link: The rEFInd Boot Manager: Installing rEFInd

xcopy /E C:\Users\Jan\Desktop\apple_set_os.efi S:\EFI\custom\

This last one copies the efi file to the custom folder of the EFI partition. Make sure you get all of the "\" right and that your path to your apple_set_os.efi file is correct. It should ask you to create any custom directory if you don't have one already.

After this, you should see an extra entry in the boot menu when you reboot. This should be it. :)

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It worked! Thanks so much man I really appreciate the help. I dont think I would've been able to do that if it werent for you lol. My Windows now shows Intel Iris Pro Graphics 5200, is it normal for the fans to kick into overdrive the first 5 minutes then calm down?

Edit: Alright so everything is set for me, now i just have to wait for my parts to come in so I can build the eGPU, disable my AMD dGPU and see if it actually works. I also noticed your issue and how you can't have both enabled at the same time. How do you know which one is enabled or if both of them are enabled. I went into device manager, right clicked on both of them and both had the option to disable, which means that both are enabled right?

Edit 2: I tried installing updated Intel drivers but my screen instantly went black and all i saw was a cursor. I let it sit like that for about 4 minutes, then just shut it down, and re started it. Now I have the Intel Graphics Control Panel on my Desktop but it doesn't work/open.

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Hmm, no idea if that is normal behaviour. I wasn't satisfied with enabling the Iris internal GPU because I would have to disable the nvidia GPU all the time, otherwise I would boot with a black screen, flashing some icons periodically. So I'm just running Windows with the dedicated GPU only now with just the e-GPU.

You indeed have to re-select the new EFI entry in the boot menu in order to enable the Iris GPU. Maybe there is a way to automate it, but I'm not an expert in that, so you'll have to figure out that yourself, or see if someone else can help you with that.

Glad you got it working now though. :)

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Alright so everything is set for me, now i just have to wait for my parts to come in so I can build the eGPU, disable my AMD dGPU and see if it actually works. I also noticed your issue and how you can't have both enabled at the same time. How do you know which one is enabled or if both of them are enabled. I went into device manager, right clicked on both of them and both had the option to disable, which means that both are enabled right?

I tried installing updated Intel drivers but my screen instantly went black and all i saw was a cursor. I let it sit like that for about 4 minutes, then just shut it down, and re started it. Now I have the Intel Graphics Control Panel on my Desktop but it doesn't work/open.

Again thanks for the help

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If you can select "Disable" for both the GPU's in the device manager, then yes, both are enabled. I guess the 2015 MBPr models have the same issues then as the mid 2014 ones.

For me, it wasn't worth all the hassle to get that bit more out of the battery by using only the Iris GPU, since it didn't allow me to dim my display either, so I just gave up and went back to the dedicated nvidia GPU only.

I hope you can get more success with your system than me, and if you do, make sure to post about it. :)

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Alright the fact that I can enable 2 GPU's makes me very optimistic. The reason I'm trying to deactivate my dGPU and enable my iGPU is because the new 2015 line of MBPr's have AMD dedicated GPU's, so Optimus is out of the question when trying to install an eGPU.

Which leads me to why I did all this. First I had to find a way for the Intel GPU to show up, next I had to disable the AMD dGPU so that my Macbook recognizes the eGPU as the new dGPU. No one has done it on these new Macs, but the 2 people who tried never did all this stuff so that might be why.

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  • 1 month later...
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On 5/5/2015 at 4:09 PM, ah- said:

Hi everyone, you might be interested in this: https://github.com/0xbb/apple_set_os.efi

Download it from releases, install refind, sudo mount -t msdos /dev/disk0s1 /efi, copy apple_set_os.efi to /efi/EFI/custom/apple_set_os.efi.

You should then see an entry for apple_set_os.efi in refit. Before you boot Windows, just quickly start that, which will flash the screen while it runs and then just boot Windows. This enables the Intel GPU so it's visible in the device manager. No more grub/Linux required. (To clarify, this disables the hiding of the Intel GPU and makes it appear in the device manager, nothing else. NVIDIA could still remain your primary GPU).

There is now also a Windows version of gpu-switch at https://github.com/0xbb/gpu-switch, which you can use to set the primary GPU for the next boot.

 

Hi everyone,

 

I am interested in running an eGPU on my Macbook Pro 15 with 750M dGPU and 5200 iGPU. I want to run this in Windows 10 to play games.

 

If I follow everything in this thread, this seems to work for external displays on windows, but not with the internal LCD using Optimus.

(Does it work in OSX with Optimus?)

 

So to get it working do I just:

- Install rEFInd (from OSX using the install script)

- Set apple_set_os with rEFInd to enable the iGPU in Windows

- Boot into windows 10 and use the gpu-switch from Github to set it to the 5200 iGPU.

- Reboot?

- Disable the dGPU in device manager? (is this necessary to be able to use the eGPU?)

- Reboot with eGPU hooked up to external display?

 

Is this how it would work? Or am I missing something?

 

Also, my Bootcamp OS X and Windows 10 seem to be installed via "GPT", not UEFI.

Is this a problem? Do I need to reformat everything and reinstall with UEFI to be able to install rEFInd? Or is GPT the same as UEFI?

 

Thanks a lot for any advice!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Last time I looked at this I got it working, but under Windows 10 it kept having some CPU load and I couldn't figure out why. I eventually ended up just reverting back the the 750M as I always have external monitors connected to the eGPU.

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