ha1o2surfer

I am having the same exact issues with external eGPUs and optimus in Windows 10 (worked fine in 8.1); it even shows the optimus indicator at the bottom but 3D apps refuse to run on the eGPU. Stuff like my BOINC client, and GPU compute apps run fine though... Funny enough optimus works with the dGPU just fine. Here is something I did to force it to kinda work for like 5 minutes before it bluescreened. I disabled the GTX660m (dGPU) in windows first restarted into Setup 1.3x then did the config normally. I believe my bluescreens are power related so you may want to ignore that as I'm making modifications to my loud power supply hehe EDIT: oh I use an Asus G46VW - - - Updated - - - Eh I have those drivers, no go.

Yup those steps are verified to work. The latest Intel HD drivers are also key so good call! Thanks bud!! I used to have it down but I just needed to step back and get some input. lol I was getting confused. This method also survives driver updates which is great.

I will post my picture after work! sorry for the late-ish reply.

Since my new 970 and ThunderTek PX are stable I decided to start playing around with my customization TOLUD. Below are my options and how stable they might be; I explain after each option. 1) Dymanic (super stable, no weird issues, just works) 2) .5GB (not stable, initializing an eGPU in Setup 1.x causes windows not to load and or setup 1.x to lock up and will not boot afterwards unless eGPU is unplugged. Windows has no idea an eGPU has been plugged in) 3) 1GB (stable, only when rebooting 3 times after disabling the dGPU in Setup 1.x. Windows sees the eGPU but without setup 1.x, always claims drivers are not installed or Code 12 and optimus will NOT function) 4) 1.5GB (same as above) 5) 2GB (Stable) 6) 2.5GB (Stable) 7) 3GB (stable) 8) 3.5GB (stable) Other than an eGPU the system functions fine no matter what setting I choose. just thought I'd share my small findings.

I would just cut your 12volt cable going into the thunderbolt card and wire them up to the 12volt going into your GPU. That is what I had to do to make it stable.

After messing around with my TOLUD and installing brand new nVidia drivers, I noticed this new counter in GPUz. Very cool thing to have and I can easily tell what games are being bandwidth limited by Thunderbolt. Anybody else have/notice this counter? (Bus Interface Load)

Hey there! I wanted to ask your exact steps that you had success with? I seem to get it to work then once the drivers are updated, all hell breaks loose. I have been battling with it all night again. I do my usual steps and when I go to plug in my thunderbolt cable, the computer just locks up. No blue screen or any warning. Would you be so kind to share your exact steps? Thanks!

You need to make sure your dGPU is fully disabled before trying to plug in an eGPU. Try disabling it then do a restart and once windows is at the desktop, plug in your eGPU. Then right click on the desktop and click screen resolution and see if an external monitor appears. You may also have to do a clean install of the nvidia drivers after you've followed these steps.

UPDATE: So it looks like it was a power issue. the GTX 970 has lots of small spikes which caused my PSU to shut off. Weird.. I am now using a Corsair 450 watt and all is well! Man.. so annoying tracking down an issue that happens only *somtimes* hehe EDIT: Ok so optimus works perfectly. This time it doesn't work just with Windows 8.1 uEFI. You need Setup 1.x to get this working. (for maxwell cards and a G46VW) 1) boot into Setup 1.x 2) First, Disable the dGPU (or choose on-demoted if you want to use it for physx) 3) Init. the eGPU 4) chainload into windows (or edit your startup.bat at this time for easier eGPU...ing hehe) and there is optimus.. not too much work, I don't really care doing it this way. Works fine for me. Also if you want to use your eGPU without shutting down the laptop (this only seems to work with Maxwell cards FYI) 1) disable your dGPU in the Windows Device Manager 2) plug in your eGPU and connect an external screen.. done 3) unplug your eGPU then renable your dGPU and now you are back to optimus again on the dGPU ( I have not found a way to enable optimus without shutting down the laptop....)

Oh Sorry, I say Windows 8 but I really mean 8.1 uEFI. I got optimus to work once but the minute a high 3D load is put on the card, the thundertek lights flicker and the computer crashes. I thought it was a power issue but this same setup worked for a 780Ti so, I am trying again and attaching the 12 volt DC of the thundertek to my Power Supplies 12 volt rail.

No matter what, every time I run a compaction, windows fails to boot. It gets stuck at the windows logo and I have to shut it off. I am making a fresh UEFI install of Windows on a flash drive right now to rule out my current OS being weird.

Hey Man! Love your eGPU write up on the G46VW. That is some impressive work and laid out very cleanly. Much better than I what I posted! Congrats! So... I tried what your steps on your write up and no go, so I got to work this morning and tried it again.. and bam... it works. I just can't get Optimus to work reliably. idk what I did wrong before.. I'll give this fix to you! Thanks man

So I don't have a Macbook but I have a simliar issue with my thunderbolt connected 970. My setup worked great with a 780ti until I tried a 970. I noticed doing a clean install of the nvidia drivers helped and I can use my eGPU for a couple minutes before the driver seems to reset. (this can be see by the Geforce GTX light getting brighter". I can't seem to figure this one out either! My card works great as a secondary card to my GTX 660m.. but I want optimus lol I'll let you know if I find anything interesting.

Hi everyone! I'm back again after not being able to play with any of my projects for a while. I had a 780Ti working perfectly on my Asus G46VW and I upgraded to a 970 for many reasons. Well long story short Windows 8.1 is not playing nice at all with my thunderbolt setup and to make matters even more interesting neither will any other cards aymore (after the I played around with the 970). I went back to using Setup 1.x and it's quite spotty for some reason. The only way to get the 970 to work (sometimes) is to disable the dGPU first then initialize the eGPU. I use to do a compact while ignoring the dGPU, disable eGPU then compact again with iGPU and eGPU. That method seemed to work every time. I know another guy on here has a working eGPU setup using the same laptop as me but different TB hardware. So anyways, I have read through all the literature again seeing as I haven't used Setup 1.x in so long.. I feel like I am missing a very small step to get this to work reliably. I will post information about my setup and hardware details below in a little bit. I would appreciate any help in the correct direction HM77: gen=2 p=8 TOLUD:2.000GB DSDT: no PCIw: no I have a bios where I can customize the TOLUD, not sure if that is worth a shot. EDIT: also, any information I should be including with my post I will fix it right away. I explained my steps I used to take to get it working in the past with a 780ti

Apple's Thunderbolt Display will only work on a mDP that is also Thunderbolt Enabled. So any desktop GPU is out of the question. Sorry.

I'm not sure this is something I like.. like someone else said, you can't really use the laptop while it's on the dock... I guess that is the price you pay for having an actual PCIe connector on the back of your laptop, no hot swapping support lol

Check out this link! MSI Unveils the GS30 Shadow Laptop and GamingDock | techPowerUp Maybe MSI will allow us to upgrade GPUs as well. I can't wait to hear the details.

On Paper it should but you need to double check the chip is installed. Refer to past posts for more information!

I'm not sure what the problem could be? I did mention this already but I am not using an Apple Branded Thunderbolt cable. I wonder if that has anything to do with it? - - - Updated - - - I'm not quite sure what those dimensions refer too? The adapter is tip is the same size as most external harddrives adapters. It just provides 2amps instead of 1. I would be against using anything higher for fear of the traces on the actually thunderbolt card not being large enough to support the '75' watt spec on PCIe.

I have seen first hand what parts are missing on the motherboard as I have a Rev 2.0 board as well as a 2.2 board. It would be way to difficult to add a Thunderbolt chip to a non thunderbolt Asus G46VW board. I would say there is over 50 different parts missing from the non TB motherboard.

For Windows 8 (with Setup 1.x) 1) Plug in eGPU while the laptop is off (be sure everything has power...) 2) boot into Setup 1.x, Disable dGPU 3) Compact iGPU and eGPU 4) Chainload into Windows and install drivers normally like any desktop or built in laptop GPU For Windows 8.1 (without setup 1.x) 1) plug in eGPU and be sure everything has power (also be sure a monitor is attached to the card. If not, it'll claim it can't extend monitors because no monitor/projector is detected) 2) Boot windows normally and install drivers. Make sure to do a clean install of the nvidia drivers and that at least the iGPU drivers are totally up to date ( the chipset drivers should also be up to date or I get issues when waking up from sleep with a eGPU attached. For example, my dGPU becomes active again and kills the entire setup to the point of re installing drivers. I am still playing around with thunderbolt wake delays and such.

I was thinking about this but there are SO many parts missing on the non thunderbolt motherboard. I would guess this would be impossible.

You would be right but it actually causes weird results with me. around 38-45c (while the fan is off) I caught NBFC quickly cycling my fan on and off until I restarted my laptop. Might be a bug.. idk? - - - Updated - - - Ambient temp of 20c and my CPU idling around 2.8watts with the default fan control of the BIOS

The G46VW cycles the fan when the CPU temp is below 45c. It'll shut off for a couple minutes and then spin for 30-40 seconds. My Current CPU temp is 38c and the fan is completely off. The GPU fan will always come on regardless of temp at the lowest settings.

There is a stress test of some software suite that showed it.. darn, let me do some looking around. Sorry guys