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ZapCord

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Posts posted by ZapCord

  1. On 3/5/2016 at 1:57 PM, razvani said:

    Guys,

     

    I'm trying to make a 970 work with a 2013 15'' iris MBP and it's only working with an external screen. I'm getting a black screen every time I start with the eGPU connected. I tried several startup procedures.

     

    How do I get Optimus working?

     

     

    I'm using the newest nvidia 362 drivers on Win10 64bit.

    Sorry for being really, really late. Uni has been taking time...

     

    Just the other day, I accidentally broke Optimus and the eGPU only worked only on an external monitor. Confused about why it was doing so, I thought of an SMC and PRAM reset.

     

    Link to SMC reset: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295

    Link to PRAM reset: http://guides.macrumors.com/Zapping_The_PRAM

     

    Everything went back to normal after those were reset; Optimus worked again on Windows 10 for me.

    Maybe try those?

     

     

  2. On 3/6/2016 at 1:57 PM, razvani said:

    Guys,

     

    I'm trying to make a 970 work with a 2013 15'' iris MBP and it's only working with an external screen. I'm getting a black screen every time I start with the eGPU connected. I tried several startup procedures.

     

    How do I get Optimus working?

     

     

    I'm using the newest nvidia 362 drivers on Win10 64bit.

    Hmm, that is really weird. I have upgraded to 362.00 as well and it hasn't affected Optimus for me.

     

    Did you clean install the drivers or were they "express installed?"

    If you didn't clean install the drivers, perhaps you should try it.

     

    However, it probably isn't a good idea to try the 364.47 driver yet as it is known to cause various problems. More on that here

     

    I hope that helps somehow.

     

    Anyone else have any ideas?

  3. 1 hour ago, Dschijn said:

    @ZapCord Awesome! Having Windows 10 working with Optimus as well (15" mid 2014 MBPr).

    Can you confirm that the internal display is limited to 60FPS?

    E.g. try Ungine Heaven/Valley at the lowest settings possible and look at the FPS counter.

    @Dschijn No, the internal display for me isn't limited to 60fps.

    Tested Heaven at very low settings

    HeavenLow.thumb.JPG.eec4cf908f2278d4325c

    IMAG0984.thumb.jpg.86cd3128f1ff8abb784c4

    As you can see, it is at 92 fps here.

     

    But, the results were a lot lower than I anticipated for such a reduction in quality from extreme (only rose maybe 1000 points at the most).

    HeavenOptimusLow.thumb.JPG.aae76c769fd48

    @DschijnMaybe vsync is on somewhere?

  4. On 2/7/2016 at 5:39 AM, xorgal said:

     

    That's correct Dschijn, both Iris and GTX can be seen in device manager. Did a bit of search on forum, looks like Optimus is not working properly with Win 10, at least for now... So I would guess downgrading to Win 8.1 wil solve that issue?

     

    Cannot test with external display for a moment, do not have any. :)

     

     

     

     

     

    Thanks for info !

     

    ?? It is running well for me as well, but only  with Iris, e-GPU is not active during tests and gaming...

    I know you already reverted back to Windows 8.1 but for everyone else out there. Try out different boot procedures! Every setup is unique and there is no one-size-fits-all for boot procedures. Sometimes, even though the EGPU is seen, it wasn't actually initialized correctly, leading to it not actually working; yes, it does take a bit of fiddling around to get it to work properly.

     

    But in my case, I found that Windows 10 works perfectly fine for Optimus for me with a mid-2014 15" MBP with Iris only.

    I use a Gigabyte miniITX 970

  5. 2 hours ago, xorgal said:

    Just finished assembling my build couple of days ago and also didn't manage to run e-GPU on internal display using Windows 10.  Downgrade to 8.1 fixed problem with first boot! :) 15" MBPr (2014) + Akitio box + Zotac GTX 970.

    Anyways, time for me to upload my proof.

    Using this Boot procedure:

    58 minutes ago, ZapCord said:

    Interesting that a lot of people aren't able to get Optimus working in Windows 10. I am honestly surprised.

     

    Another boot procedure that works (for me):

    -external displays aren't plugged in to start

    1. connect thunderbolt cable from egpu to laptop
    2. boot laptop while holding alt to get to boot select screen
    3. Start EGPU
    4. wait 30 seconds
    5. Select Windows
      1. Once Login screen is reached, plug monitors in if external displays are needed
      2. Otherwise, just log in

    I hope this helps someone.

     

    EDIT: And no, I did not use Evo's guide to enable optimus


    IMAG0981_BURST002.thumb.jpg.8e62d8bb9c88

    I decided to run firestrike from the 3dMark demo on steam with only the internal display on (no external monitors plugged in) to show everyone optimus works in Windows 10 (at least for the mid 2014 15in MBP Iris Only...still need confirmation for other systems)

    Proof.thumb.JPG.a394ac6cba702a184eebc62f

    Note the display size and the operating system. 2880 x 1800 is obviously the internal display for 15" Macbook Pros since 2012.

    But, Geforce experience doesn't show you the performance.

    IMAG0982.thumb.jpg.78948e06f377108fc6028

    Here is my 3Dmark Result with the internal display:

    http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/10694991?

    Int.thumb.JPG.eb78c3e4af9cc6861a2089642f

    Compare this with the 3DMark Result on an external display with the same clock speeds:

    http://www.3dmark.com/fs/7439086

    ext.thumb.JPG.42cd760ffcfe6c44b06fba4bec

    These results are totally consistent with the performance loss (-14% performance) due to Optimus.

    It is also quite obvious that the egpu is working with a score of ~7700 in firestrike.

    Hence, please continue to ask me questions and don't give up on Windows 10 so easily! I will try my best to answer ones I know about. @Dschijn can answer the rest

    -ZapCord

  6. 1 hour ago, xorgal said:

    Just finished assembling my build couple of days ago and also didn't manage to run e-GPU on internal display using Windows 10.  Downgrade to 8.1 fixed problem with first boot! :) 15" MBPr (2014) + Akitio box + Zotac GTX 970.

    Interesting that a lot of people aren't able to get Optimus working in Windows 10. I am honestly surprised.

     

    Another boot procedure that works (for me):

    -external displays aren't plugged in to start

    1. connect thunderbolt cable from egpu to laptop
    2. boot laptop while holding alt to get to boot select screen
    3. Start EGPU
    4. wait 30 seconds
    5. Select Windows
      1. Once Login screen is reached, plug monitors in if external displays are needed
      2. Otherwise, just log in

    I hope this helps someone.

     

    EDIT: And no, I did not use Evo's guide to enable optimus

    • Thumbs Up 1
  7. @stemoac interesting, maybe try booting up with only the egpu and internal monitor connected at first (same procedure) and then connect the external monitor to the gpu after boot.

    You'll get a few screen flickers right after boot but it is ok.

    Are you sure you are using driver version 361.75? 

     

    My setup during the test was:

    GTX 970 with 361.75 (none of this worked pre 361.75 and the computer was using integrated only on internal display)

    2 1920x1080 external monitors connected by DVI

    Internal display was primary display.

    -All of these were on extended display mode.

     

  8. 2 hours ago, stemoac said:

    Hello ZapCord,

     

     

    today i followed your guide and installed Windows 10 on my iMac with BootCamp on a 1TB Fusiondrive.

    The installation and the described boot sequence works fine (from 10 tries the system comes up 9 times without any problems).

     

    Is this correct that the internal monitor still uses the internal graphics card and only the external monitor will be powered by the 980 TI?

    I have tried both: cloning the display (both monitors showing the same) and extended display.

     

    If i look into the preferences, there is still the intel graphics card (see screenshots).

     

    Is it possible, that both displays running with the nvideaß

     

    Greetings Stemoac

     

    @stemoac Greetings!

     

    It is very much possible to run both displays with nvidia.

     

    However, the internal display will not show the egpu as its display adapter.

    -That is due to the fact that the internal display is connected to the integrated graphics no matter what; however, the brunt-work is still handled by the egpu.

     

    You can see this in the spoiler below.

    -Notice that the score is a little bit less than the one I posted above in my original post as it is run on the internal monitor.

    -That is due to the inefficiency of having to route all traffic through the integrated graphics no matter what for the internal display.

     

    I hope this clears it up!

    EDIT: grammar errors

    Spoiler

    Here is my internal display accelerated with the egpu while having 2 other monitors connected to the egpu.

    I ran Heaven 4.0 on extreme settings at 1080p for comparison with the scores above. Note that I did lower the overclocking from +190/+350 to +150/+200.

    So, compare the internal monitor's score of 1137 here to an external monitor's score of ~1295 with those overclocking settings.

    HeavenInternal.thumb.jpg.bd923f00ce1b62f

    IMAG0968.thumb.jpg.d11c94bfb3fd011be5887

    IMAG0971.thumb.jpg.8a0a34a1bca298b625971

    • Thumbs Up 1
  9. CAN CONFIRM OPTIMUS NOW WORKS!!!

     

     

    Tested on Warframe and the game looks nice on the internal screen (yay).

    To get Optimus working on Windows 10, install driver version 361.75 released 1/27/2016

    Spoiler

    Under the heading "Gaming Tech" in the driver update, Nvidia says there is beta support for external graphics over TB3!! AKA optimus no longer broken

     

    Boot procedure is now:

    1. plug everything in
    2. start egpu
    3. start laptop
    4. wait 30 seconds
    5. boot
    6. Profit

    Big Thanks to Everyone!

    • Thumbs Up 2
  10. First of all, big thanks to Dschijn, nando, goalque and the rest for their fantastic guides!

     

    EDIT:MUCH THANKS TO @goalque FOR THE SCRIPT TO GET THIS WORKING ON OSX!!

     

    Tested Computer:

    2014 15" MBP with Iris Pro only; i7-4770hq @ 2.2 GHz (Turbo to 3.4); 500 gb ssd

     

    Parts List:

    PSU: EVGA 600 B1 80+ BRONZE

    GPU: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 Mini ITX Overclocked GV-N970IXOC-4GD

    Thunderbolt 2 Enclosure: AKiTiO Thunder2 PCIE box

    Cables: 2 Molex to 1 PCIE cable (to make a molex to barrel adapter)

    2.5mm x 5.5 mm male DC Barrel Plug  (screw terminals are the easiest)

    Monitor: Dell 1920x1080

    ^^Not sure why there are links there...

     

    Procedure:

    1) Install Windows 10 via bootcamp instructions here

    2) Download latest Nvidia drivers here

    3) Open Akitio enclosure

    4) Line up the x16 on the graphics card with the physical x16 slot on the Akitio. Push in the graphics card and screw the top screws on the Akitio to hold the graphics card steady. Plug in the PCIe 6/8 pin connector(s)  from the PSU into the graphics card. 

    5) Make a Molex to Barrel Adapter using the 2 molex to 1 PCIE cable in conjunction with the barrel plug instructions here

    • As Dschijn suggested, I made the barrel plug with 2x molex instead of 1x molex by twisting together 1 yellow  wire (12V) from each molex connector and 1 ground from each molex.
    • The yellows go in the positive terminal while the grounds go in the negative; make sure the plug is center positive!
    • Be sure to check polarity of the barrel plug with a multi meter to make sure it is center positive!
    Spoiler

    If you don't know how to check polarity:

    1. plug in your power supply to an outlet. Make sure nothing is plugged into the PSU's connectors at the start
    2. apply the paper clip trick instructions here or use an adapter on the 20/24 pin connector
    3. plug in the made 2x molex to barrel into 2 of the PSU's molex connectors 
    4. Plug the black lead of the multimeter into COM and the red lead into the red female
    5. Turn on the PSU
    6. Flip the switch on the multimeter to "20V"
    7. Put the red lead into the barrel and touch the black lead to the outside of the barrel
    8. If the read voltage is ~ + 12 V, congratulations, your barrel plug works!
    9. If not, switch the wiring on the barrel plug so that it is center positive or make a new one and try again
    10. remember to turn off the PSU when you are finished testing.

    6) Plug in the molex to barrel adapter into the PSU's molex connectors. Apply the paperclip trick or adapter on the PSU's 20/24 pin connector

    7) Plug the barrel into the Akitio's power input

    8) Connect the thunderbolt cable from the Akitio into the Macbook

    9) Connect the video output cable from the eGPU to your desired monitor

    10) Turn on the Mac while holding "Alt"

    11) When the boot selection screen appears, turn on the PSU (I use a power strip)

    12) Count to 5/wait for the fans on the GPU to spin up

    13) Select "Windows" on the boot screen

    14) Install Nvidia drivers

    15) Follow the prompts to restart the computer and what not.

    16) Profit

     

    The Boot Procedure that works most of the time for me:

    1. Assuming everything is plugged in, power on the macbook while holding Alt
    2. When boot selection appears, turn on the PSU with a power strip
    3. Count to 5 or wait for GPU fans to spin up
    4. Select Windows

    Both screens should work. If not, turn everything off and try again.

     

    I use Intel's XTU tool to undervolt and underclock its boost speed to reduce heat output. I underclocked it to 3.0 GHz and undervolted it by -75 mV. There are UV guides on the internet

    I used EVGA's Precision tool to OC the Graphics card. I managed to get +190 MHz on the core clock and +350 MHz (+700 MHz effective) on the memory (probably could push further).

    I also use a custom fan curve on the GPU via EVGA's Precision Tool. Temps never go above 61 degrees Celsius.

     

    Games:

    World of Tanks runs everything on Max/High 60fps @ 1080p with VSync and Triple Buffering on

    Witcher 3 runs Max/High no hairworks smoothly with no noticeable drops

    Naval Action (In alpha) runs everything on max no AA (kills fps in this game at this moment) @ 1080p open world and combat

    CSGO obviously no problems

    BF4 high in multiplayer @ 1080p and 60 fps

    Warframe is smooth everywhere on Max including Physx @ 1080p and 60fps

    Fallout 4 is same as above as far as I could tell

     

    Questions are welcome even though I might not be able to answer all of them.

     

    EDIT: Almost forgot to mention the paperclip trick

     

    Images:

    http://imgur.com/a/I9jaf

     

    External 1920x1080 Monitor:

    Heaven 4.0: Extreme settings at 1920x1080 with extreme Tess. and 8x AA

    GPU OC: +190/+350

    Score: 1310

    HeavenExtreme.JPG

    Valley: Extreme HD settings 1920x1080

    GPU OC: +190/+200

    score: 2318

    00000.png

    Firestrike:

    +150/+200

    Score: 8980

    ext.thumb.JPG.61da174d5ff58f625400fae29f

    +190/+200

    Score: 9154

    FirestrikeExt190200.thumb.JPG.afaddda5c4

    SteamVR Performance Test:

    VR Ready

    +150/+200 Fidelity could be higher with a higher overclock

    CPU: limited to 3.0 Ghz and undervolted by 75 mV via Intel XTU

    Note: It says Iris Pro Graphics for GPU but it actually tested the GTX 970

    Fidelity: High 6.2

    Frames below 90 fps: 0

    Frames CPU Bound: 0

    VRReady.thumb.JPG.0d58c6ba746562a36b1faf

    Windows 10 Optimus

    Heaven: same settings as above, +150/+200

    Score: 1137

    ~13% performance loss

    HeavenInternal.thumb.jpg.3aa788d5b6dde7f

    Firestrike (demo version on steam):

    +150/+200

    Score: 7754

    ~14% performance loss

    Int.thumb.JPG.b90ace89ffed42ffccb679877b

     

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