eGPU experiences [version 2.0]

[Tech Inferno Fan]

Hi there! Im trying to get rid of error 12. Im using a MacBook Pro Retina + GTX560ti + TH05 Thunderbolt Kit. Tried DSDT Override aswell as eGPU setup with no luck. While using eGPU setup I'm unable to disable GT650m (hangs up) while HD4000 can't be started.

Any Ideas?

15" MBPs with GT650M doesn't have it's iGPU as the activate bootup video device. Means no Optimus features (eg: Internal LCD mode) unless Apple disclose how to switch the iGPU as the active video device. I can see that your last compaction was a 36-bit one that ignored the dGPU. Unless the DSDT override is in place, you should be doing a 32-bit compaction ensuring the dGPU is not ignored.

Though it's not going to be successful. I'm already aware compaction fails on the MBP/MBA and even disk writes of Setup 1.1x don't work correctly. For the first, please switch off the system, do a clean boot with the eGPU attached and do a !Save diags->Compact fails, upload the results saved in \diag somewhere and link here for analysis. This info will be passed to the compact developer.

[Shelltoe]

Thanks. I'll do so in a second.

It's hard to take screenshots without del-key thats why i just added a few images. TOLUD shouldn't be a problem on MBP right?

Edit: Uploaded the full diag folder http://ul.to/qfrudlya

BTW: just read up the thread and saw some problems using eGPU Setup combined with new MacBooks. I had the same problems while mounting the image (actually i couldn't launch eGPU Setup at all because of an OPCODE failure) but had almost no trouble using an usb flash drive.

[lontonsaivat]

Hi guys,

I just have a PE4L shipped from Taiwan, and start install the eGPU with these stuff: ATI 5570 & PSU ACBel 430W. After everything is set, I turn on my X220,boot into windows, and turn on the power for the eGPU, plug it into the x220. Windows 8 detect the new vga adapter correctly.

After install the latest driver for the eGPU, look like it's working now, but the bandwidth is only PCIE [email protected]. Is there anyway that I can improve it ?

Thanks alot.

[Mikahi]

I must confirm if Express card slot is working at all, as soon as I get some device to check it. So far I've never used it for anything. Soon I'm also able to plug whole eGpu to other laptop.

Setup 1.1x or Device manage is not detecting any new device, no matter in which order I plug it in/power it up. By the way, if everything is working well, I should see my external GPU (GTX560) in Display adaptors but should I see the board (PE4H) in system devices? Or somewhere else?

Today I tried with another laptop, but still nothing. Also that one was not able to detect any new hardware. PE4H board and Gpu card are brand new, maybe another one is faulted??

[Tech Inferno Fan]

After install the latest driver for the eGPU, look like it's working now, but the bandwidth is only PCIE [email protected]. Is there anyway that I can improve it ?

Refer to First Steps -> 2. Which video card do you recommend for best performance on my system?, Pre-purchase FAQ -> 5. (Performance) What affects the performance of a eGPU? and Pre-purchase FAQ -> 13. What do I need to run the fastest x1.2Opt link shown in the implementations?

Short answer: your system is x1.2Opt capable. Just get a NVidia GTX460-336, GTX560Ti or GTX660 to gain x1.2Opt performance. x1.2Opt is your x1 2.0 link but the driver and card uses pci-e compression to accelerate performance anywhere from 20%-333%.

[Teknotronix]

Thanks. I'll do so in a second.

It's hard to take screenshots without del-key thats why i just added a few images. TOLUD shouldn't be a problem on MBP right?

Edit: Uploaded the full diag folder MBP-R_GTX560ti_TH05_diag.zip (374,64 KB) - uploaded.to

BTW: just read up the thread and saw some problems using eGPU Setup combined with new MacBooks. I had the same problems while mounting the image (actually i couldn't launch eGPU Setup at all because of an OPCODE failure) but had almost no trouble using an usb flash drive.

Hi, Could you please explain your steps to install via USB?

[Shelltoe]

1. get a tool to create a bootable usb drive (eg. win32 image write) and use "eGPU-Setup-110b5.img" as source (which should be in c:\eGPU)

2. start your system with the usb drive plugged in and alt (option) - key pressed to fire up bootcamp

3. select your usb drive

4. start your egpu (make sure your egpu isn't started while you select the boot partition or put your TH05's SW1 to 3 which will give you 7 seconds for selection. else your mac will freeze)

5. hit "2" to enter menu based setup (nothing else or you'll be stuck aswell)

6. in menu based setup you're fine using arrowkeys and so on; besides the fact the build in text editor wont work. so you'll have to edit your files in windows

compact will popup errors and hang scanning all devices anyways

deactivating dGPU will result in hang too

EDIT:

i'll might try to remove the broadcom wifi + bluetooth devices in the future (those are the devices connected to bus 5 and 6 which cause errors with compact) but i'll have to order the right 5-point screwdriver to do so

i could imagine our problems are unfixable =/

[Teknotronix]

1. get a tool to create a bootable usb drive (eg. win32 image write) and use "eGPU-Setup-110b5.img" as source (which should be in c:\eGPU)

2. start your system with the usb drive plugged in and alt (option) - key pressed to fire up bootcamp

3. select your usb drive

4. start your egpu (make sure your egpu isn't started while you select the boot partition or put your TH05's SW1 to 3 which will give you 7 seconds for selection. else your mac will freeze)

5. hit "2" to enter menu based setup (nothing else or you'll be stuck aswell)

6. in menu based setup you're fine using arrowkeys and so on; besides the fact the build in text editor wont work. so you'll have to edit your files in windows

Great thanks. So I imagine you generate the pci.bat file from the compaction process using this method, then go back to the regular boot method?

[Shelltoe]

Great thanks. So I imagine you generate the pci.bat file from the compaction process using this method, then go back to the regular boot method?

Well atm you can't cause compaction will fail but you can boot into windows from your usb device

[Teknotronix]

Does it allow the TH05 with the card in it to work?

[Shelltoe]

Nope as nothing is fixed. The card is displayed in device manager (as it is without eGPU Setup) but you will receive error 12 "not enough resources".

Post your diag and wait for a fix which will hopefully be released. just like me.

[Teknotronix]

OK Cool. Once the compaction process and dGPU can be disabled, it should most likely work. Fingers crossed.

[Shelltoe]

Lets hope for the best because it would give us an awesome gaming+work setup

I wont mind anyways as my screen is way more expensive than 2 highend pc's.

[Tech Inferno Fan]

Well atm you can't cause compaction will fail but you can boot into windows from your usb device

Macbook Setup 1.1x keyboard compatibility testing

Shelltoe, this is great feedback which has been noted. Two other issues that we could address remotely is the keyboard response from the MBP to engage screen capture and a DOS editor that works. Can do that if you:

1. Download test-MBP-1.exe

2. Run test-MBP-1.exe from within windows. Extract the contents to your v:\ drive (DIY eGPU Setup 1.105 image) or your USB drive containing Setup 1.105. There it will create a \test directory.

3. Boot Setup 1.105, select command prompt option.

4. Navigate to the c:\test directory (c:, cd \test).

Then you'll have three things to play with: scancode, fedit\edit and setedit\bin\setedit. Running the first will return scancodes for key combinations. Eg: hitting ALT+ on my keyboard returns 0D (13 decimal). Hitting ALT+DEL returns 53 (83 decimal). From the returned keycode you can then edit \bin\capture.bat and change all occurences of the string "83" (ALT+DEL) to, for example, "13" (ALT+) so as to enable a screen capture using that hotkey.

The fedit\edit and setedit\bin\setedit are editors you can try to see if the keyboard responds OK. setedit looks good but is pretty big, so was hoping to find a smaller DOS edit replacement that is compatible with Macbooks. Maybe you can scout around and try a few different editors to see which works?

[Shelltoe]

yeah sure i'll do so but at first i'll need some hours of sleep as its 4:30 in germany

i'll do the tests when im back home from work.

[Teknotronix]

Great work guys. Look forward to the results.

[lontonsaivat]

Refer to First Steps -> 2. Which video card do you recommend for best performance on my system?, Pre-purchase FAQ -> 5. (Performance) What affects the performance of a eGPU? and Pre-purchase FAQ -> 13. What do I need to run the fastest x1.2Opt link shown in the implementations?

Short answer: your system is x1.2Opt capable. Just get a NVidia GTX460-336, GTX560Ti or GTX660 to gain x1.2Opt performance. x1.2Opt is your x1 2.0 link but the driver and card uses pci-e compression to accelerate performance anywhere from 20%-333%.

Can I use a GTX650 instead ? Or only those that you refer to can work with x1.2Opt ?

Thank you nando !

[Tech Inferno Fan]

OK Cool. Once the compaction process and dGPU can be disabled, it should most likely work. Fingers crossed.

15" MBP/MBPr has the issue with the dGPU, rather than the iGPU, being the primary bootup video device. That means the NVidia Optimus features like rendering the image to the internal LCD won't work. Those features only engage if the iGPU is the primary bootup video device. How to do that is something you'd probably need to investigate in the Apple forums. I hope it doesn't require placing a kill switch on the GT650M (dGPU) chip itself.

Can I use a GTX650 instead ? Or only those that you refer to can work with x1.2Opt ?

GTX650 is fine too. You want a system with a Intel HD iGPU as the primary bootup video device, then you need a Fermi (GTX460/GTX560Ti, etc) or Keplar (GTX650, GTX660, etc) NVidia eGPU, and a PE4L-EC060A 2.1b or PE4L-PM060A 2.1b. That combination will get you x1.2Opt performance.

[lontonsaivat]

15" MBP/MBPr has the issue with the dGPU, rather than the iGPU, being the primary bootup video device. That means the NVidia Optimus features like rendering the image to the internal LCD won't work. Those features only engage if the iGPU is the primary bootup video device. How to do that is something you'd probably need to investigate in the Apple forums. I hope it doesn't require placing a kill switch on the GT650M (dGPU) chip itself.

GTX650 is fine too. You want a system with a Intel HD iGPU as the primary bootup video device, then you need a Fermi (GTX460/GTX560Ti, etc) or Keplar (GTX650, GTX660, etc) NVidia eGPU, and a PE4L-EC060A 2.1b or PE4L-PM060A 2.1b. That combination will get you x1.2Opt performance.

Hi nando,

Just one more silly question: do I need to do anything special to enable Optimus compression for my Nvidia card?

Thanks a lot!

[Frula]

Hi all, i have hp 4530s. If i buy pe4l 2.1b i can achieve x1.2opt as far as i know. I dislike having my gaming pc because i'am 90% on my laptop.

My question is, will 4530s with pe4l lag in games or it would be normal ?

Thanks.

[Tech Inferno Fan]

Hi nando,

Just one more silly question: do I need to do anything special to enable Optimus compression for my Nvidia card?

Recent NVidia desktop drivers automatically enable pci-e compression on a x1 link if using a NVidia Fermi or Keplar card and the bootup video device is an Intel 4500MHD or HD iGPU. Meaning you don't need to do anything special.

yeah sure i'll do so but at first i'll need some hours of sleep as its 4:30 in germany

i'll do the tests when im back home from work.

Unfortunately I don't have a Macbook to test with so your help there is appreciated

I got a reply back about the Setup 1.1x disk image writes failing on a Macbook Pro from a grub4dos developer. tinybit wrote here

If I remember rightly, Mac should not be the first one with this problem.

Sevral years ago I encountered a DELL which had the similar issue.

The DELL has no EBIOS write(ie., a failed int13/AH=43h). Int13/AH=42h worked fine. Normal CHS mode BIOS calls(int13/ah=2 read, int13/ah=3 write) also work OK.

Workaround 1: You may place your IMG at (near) the very beginning of your disk and expect it could be accessed in CHS mode.

Workaround 2: You may "map --mem" your IMG so it could be written in memory.

So if you have an advanced defrag utility, you could see if placing the DIYeGPU-Setup-1105.img file at the front of the HDD allows disk writes.

[lontonsaivat]

I did all the setup and everything is running well till now, plug and play. Is there anyway i can check that my eGPU is using 1.2Opt?

I'm doing some benchmark with 3dmark11 and will update soon.

Thansk!

[ballubber]

I checked bios and the expresscard slot is enabled, when I go into setup 1.1x it says to cold boot past bios and set 7/15s pci delay, what does that mean and how do i "cold boot". The pci card was originally set to 6.9 delay and i moved it to 15 and still no change. should I try putting at 0 delay?

Also, I attempted to follow your directions, everything went fine until I tried to disable the dGPU. I click on video cards, and then hit enter on dgpu, the screen switches to the DOS screen and says that dGPU is being disabled, but it just hangs there and doesn't change at all, even when I hit f3 nothing happens.

Edit: I restarted the computer and "cold booted" the gpu past the bios which I assumed meant to turn on the eGpu after the bios option came up. After that the eGpu was recognized, but my dGpu card is still not disabled, should I still try to disable it?

Is simply installing drivers for the eGPU the only thing left for me to do?

[Shelltoe]

Unfortunately I don't have a Macbook to test with so your help there is appreciated

I got a reply back about the Setup 1.1x disk image writes failing on a Macbook Pro from a grub4dos developer. tinybit wrote here

So if you have an advanced defrag utility, you could see if placing the DIYeGPU-Setup-1105.img file at the front of the HDD allows disk writes.

how about rEFIt? macs disk utility and rEFIt should allow me to boot egpu without usb disk easily.

fedit works great while setedit hangs (as in all other situations with blinking cursor / no freeze)

scanmode.com results in hang too. i also tried another tool called SCODE.COM but with the same result.

maybe so problem with the shell?

i'll proceed to change the screenshotkey anyways and test some other things.

[Tech Inferno Fan]

how about rEFIt? macs disk utility and rEFIt should allow me to boot egpu without usb disk easily.

fedit works great while setedit hangs (as in all other situations with blinking cursor / no freeze)

scanmode.com results in hang too. i also tried another tool called SCODE.COM but with the same result.

maybe so problem with the shell?

i'll proceed to change the screenshotkey anyways and test some other things.

So fedit gives full edit capabilities without keys getting mangled? If so, I'll change pedit with fedit for the next version. Yes, please do try some other hotkeys in \bin\capture (snarfit screencapture utility) and advise if can get another good one to work. I avoid ones like ALT+S since they are editors to search or save, preferring ones like ALT+ or ALT+DEL.

I am unaware of any other bootloader that allows direct image writes like grub4dos does. Other utils like grub2 use memdisk so read the image into memory and writes occur to memory too. The disk image being a way to avoid needing to repartition the harddisk to boot. A couple of workarounds to the failing disk image writes come to mind, listed in order of complexity below:

1. Just stick with a USB stick install. It allows writes without issue.

2. Create a USB Setup 1.1x stick and do all write activity. That is, generate the requires pci.bat via pci compaction and your required startup.bat file. Then create a disk image install and copy across the \config directory from the USB stick to the disk image. The disk image's benefit over a USB stick being much faster response time and more convenience.

3. [experimental] Move the Setup 1.1x disk image to the first 2GB of space on the boot HDD using one of the better defrag utilities. Seems grub4dos may use CHS access with writes working if the Macbook bios emulation lacks EBIOS write support (per tinybit comment, a grub4dos developer).

4. [experimental] Create a FAT32 DOS partition and move the Setup 1.1x disk image contents across. Boot the FAT32 partition using your favorite bootloader. Then can use the disk image to do all write activities. This is by far the most complex workaround.

I did all the setup and everything is running well till now, plug and play. Is there anyway i can check that my eGPU is using 1.2Opt?

I'm doing some benchmark with 3dmark11 and will update soon.

Thansk!

Checking x1.2Opt is working

Check with GPU-Z. Does it report x1 2.0 as the link speed during the first few secs when it starts up? When you open the NVidia control panel, then 3D settings, is there a Program settings tab where you can choose whether to run a program using "Integrated graphics" or "High-performance NVidia processor". If yes to both, then x1.2Opt link speed is working. These are shown below: