Shelltoe

HDMI is pretty limited (resolution / refresh rate / hardware calibration etc.) so it's worse in general... but it shouldn't make a big difference in your case. The image might look kinda different though. eg. at the office I'm using these Quato monsters and even bigger ones which shouldn't be driven by HDMI at all as I need hardware calibration, the resolution is way higher than 1920x1080 and 60hz would hurt my eyes after hours of graphical work Samsung screens are great though I'm using one at home too. Just stick with your displayport or DVI. I'll usually try to avoid HDMI if possible.

alright. so you already made it though the trickiest part. (btw. as I read your signature ... you're connecting the external to your GTX 670 not your MBA's thunderbolt/displayport right? )

Your setup isn't really clear to me. If you're trying to run your eGPU with Windows in EFI mode I'd recommand installing rEFInd. Startup EFI shell and find your Thunderbolt controllers address using "pci -i -b" (you can also use Windows Device Manager to do so). In my case it's "00 01 01". After that follow the first steps of my openingpost (omitting the experimental part as well as "mm 00020004 1 ;PCI :0" ). (you probably won't have to do this if you're using a midrange card but atleast I have to using a GTX 660 TI. I'd guess is the same for a GTX 670 as they're almost the same.) Be sure to deactivate Intel HD. Your internal screen will fallback to basic display drivers. Your Startup script should like this: mm (YOUR_ADDRESS_HERE)<youraddresshere>3E 1 ;PCI :8 fs0:\EFI\Boot\bootx64.efi If you're trying to run your eGPU with Windows in BIOS mode (eg. BootCamp) use eGPU Setup with Nandos intructions. Your can't/shouldn't combine both methods.</youraddresshere> If you're not really sure whether you installed EFI or BIOS mode check back and we'll tell you how to find out.

same for me. enabling thunderbolts vga out via efi shell fixes this problem. can't work as thunderbolt doesn't support hotplug I doubt your intel hd is actually working properly (see previous posts) this should enable your egpu (without any glitches). try to use only mm 0001013E 1 ;PCI :8 (you might want to check if your mbp uses the same pci bus by using "PCI -i -b") the experimental part can be skipped until working intel drivers are released as it's only purpose is to enable intel hd as primary vga device which would allow us to use optimus how about your 560 ti? do you have a desktop pc to test its functionality? I'm using sw1=1 sw2=2-3 but this shouldn't matter anyways yeah did so to as its broken anyways for now I didn't notice any performance differences in game and again i doubt your intel video card works properly in windows. what cpu and ram do you have? what games did you test? whats your 3dMark score?

Yeah, too bad. Tried latest Intel Beta Drivers (dated 04.12.2012) aswell. So I guess we're done, until there's a way to fix them. I'd love to see if graphics switching works for 2010/2011 models booting windows efi mode though!

He has late 2011 15" Model.

Same results without Intel HD drivers. Screen can't be activated EDIT: Screen can now be activated without screenoutput. Not connected to Intel HD in Device Manager. EDIT2: Using gfxCardStatus 2.2.1 my MacBook definitely boots with Intel HD. LCD-Output is cut at Loginscreen and systems reboots after some time. So i guess its igdkmd64.sys again. EDIT3: Got LCD-Output by deactivating Intel HD in Device Manager and using Basic Display Driver (Just like the 13" single GPU guys). Does anyone know where to find a tool which is able to measure energy consumption in windows (aida or sandra maybe)? This allready should save some energy. We still have to fix Intel drivers for functional Optimus. For some reason it's unable the build in LCD. Don't know if its possible to fix this without Intels help.

Ok. I guess now my LCD gets recognized in Device Manager. It's still not connected to Intel HD though. If I try to activate it nothing happens. I read about some patches for Intel i915 on Linux systems. This kinda matches what happens to current MacBooks booting Windows EFI Mode; based on my experience with previous versions of Intel Drivers and I've even seen single GPU machines (booty posted an image in the "eGPU expierence" thread) with the same problem. Especially the "screen looks for a second scaled to 2/3 (black border)" part. I'll try to uninstall Intel Drivers as Basic Display Port drivers seem to work without problems.

Yeah sure, all changes are tested with and without EGPU + MM -PCI command. Adding "stall 100000" doesn't help for now. gfxCardStatus 2.2.1 set to integrated only doesn't change anything as far as I can tell.

Just found posts about bernard froemels last patch gmux patch (25 Aug 2012). [i know its already included in the version you posted.] Waiting for the device seems to pretty important for current models. I'll do some more tests regarding this. I'll also try to install an old version of gfxCardStatus (2.2.1), activate Intel HD in Mac OS and reboot, as suggested by some forum posts.

Ok. I have to use mm -IO commands before "mm 0001013E 1 ;PCI :8" to make them work. My startup.nsh looks like this: mm 7c2 ;IO :1 mm 7d4 ;IO :28 mm 7c2 ;IO :2 mm 7d4 ;IO :10 mm 7c2 ;IO :2 mm 7d4 ;IO :40 mm 0001013E 1 ;PCI :8 This switches my LCD off again. Device manager shows no screen connected to my GT650m + Intel HD! If I hot plug a screen it still gets connected to GT650m though. (As far I know HDMI is connected to GT650m so I used my second Thunderbolt port.) mm 7c2 ;IO :1 mm 7d4 ;IO :50 mm 7c2 ;IO :0 mm 7d4 ;IO :50 Adding this to startup.nsh makes my fans spin up and windows wont boot.

I'll do some more tests regarding this later today. Well as far as I can tell it doesn't I'll also do some more tests. Maybe I missed something. Which model do you have? Does it work for you? Guess we're getting closer. Danke nochmal!

Okay did some quick tests. I tried to set IO in EFI shell using mm command but everything's set to 0xFF as mentioned before and can't be written. (maybe there's no efi driver for the device?) Booted eGPU Setup's freedos and used "pt IO peek/poke" commands which show everything's set to 0xFF and nothing can be written aswell. After that I used RW Everything. Here's a screen of my IO Space: Guess this looks pretty nice and matches your updated commands. >wait{1,100,o 0x7c2 2}; o 0x7d4 0x28; >wait{1,100,o 0x7c2 3}; o 0x7d4 0x10; >wait{1,100,o 0x7c2 3}; o 0x7d4 0x40; This actually does nothing as far as I can tell. >wait{1,100,o 0x7c2 1}; o 0x7d4 0x28; >wait{1,100,o 0x7c2 2}; o 0x7d4 0x10; >wait{1,100,o 0x7c2 2}; o 0x7d4 0x40; This will turn off my LCD. It's still connected to GT650m though. Added 0x7c2 0; 0x7d4 0x50; which should shutdown the dGPU if I got it right. My LCD turns black, windows freezes shortly after that and reboots. if my egpu is connected my external screen shows "VIDEO_DXGKRNL_FATAL_ERROR" Thanks a lot for your help!

Oh great! I'll take a look at it tonight. As far as I know it's not that easy to trigger IO Ports in Windows cause it's blocked by default for some security reasons. It can be done using some libs though. For now RW Everything was the most useful (out of the box) IO Tool I could find. I'm not really sure how to make use of the message box interface in Windows. Bootcamps NullDevice allocates 0x700 - 0x7FE IO space so I tried to trigger 0x728, 0x710, 0x740 and 0x750 after uninstalling the NullDevice drivers. Maybe my conclusions where totally wrong?!

Yeah I know this driver for quite a while. That's basically why I haven't lost hope yet. Linux apple_gmux is part of vgaswitcheroo so it's not that simple. I allready tried to trigger the IOports via EFI shell and form within Windows (using a tool called RW Everything) without results. In my case all ports triggered by the Linux driver are set to 0xFF and nothing happens if set. BootCamp Drivers by default installs a NullDevice driver which has to be replaced by something like vgaswitcheroo I guess. I tried to get in touch with some Linux developers involved in vgaswitcheroo/apple_gmux but didn't receive any response yet. Let me know if you have some more hints as I'm not _that_ much into Linux.

Have seen this message too but its usually gone after one reboot. Try to boot savemode or low VGA.

Screen stays black while using Virtu MVP. no chance without switching the gmux device. I guess single GPU MBP's / MBA's will have less trouble. Still noone managed to install Intel HD without errors?

Well I've optimus running offscreen ... but we have to switch GPU/LCD Output. Apple uses an actual hardware device so we'll probably need some kind of fake driver to trigger the graphical multiplexer or we won't be able to use Intel HD on internal screen. I already tried to toggle the gmux device using efi shell but the IO space isn't set at all before windows boots up. Also tried to change the "gpu-policy" variable in NVRAM with out success. Virtu MVP needs Intel HD to work, too... so it won't work for now i guess. I'll probably do some tests tonight. Having Virtu up and running is good news anyways!

All new drivers will say Win8 but they work for Win7, too. You don't have to stay with 305. Is your Intel iGPU installed properly? Could you check if your eGPU works with some Desktop PC?

You cann't use the whole 6GB because you're are using windows 32bit which cann't handle more than 4GB. The RAM is still there so you'll probably have to do DSDT override anyways

Oh. I was just curious / didn't get the simplicity part. 32 / 64 Bit refer to your CPUs processing and i3 is a 64 bit one. Applications written for 64 bit technology will run faster. The downhand: some 32 bit legacy drivers and applications won't work. In the past it was hard to get 64bit applications and drivers but that shouldn't be a problem for your system. You probably won't even notice it. I guess you can run window 32bit without hugh performence differences anyways. To my knowledge there shouldn't be a problem with DSDT override running windows 64bit. But wait for nando to be sure.

my Intel HD has several unused VGA connections. maybe you could render offscreen like I did. the HDMI port is connected to GT 650M so probably won't work while running Optimus with eGPU though. Sure there are modified inf files even for current beta 310. Try this one. Click on INF Modified and copy nvwi.inf to your mobile drivers "Display.Driver" folder. besides the fact you'll might lose some CPU and RAM performance I don't get your simplicity argument. thats the difference?

Got my Optimus back up. btw. some time ago I stumbled upon a pretty nice source for modded inf files which might help someone. Just click on "INF Modified" and copy the resulting file to mobile drivers "Display.Driver" folder and you'll be fine. As far as I can tell Optimus is functional. 3D Mark 2011 shows 6816p for offscreen Intel HD. Remember when I tried before my score was 800p. I'm a bit confused though. 3D Mark shows GTX 660 at the top and 0 Mhz for Intel HD. I'll try to get a 3D Mark 06 result aswell. Now I'll have to switch those IO ports of Apples gmux device. It's working for Linux so it should be possible for Windows aswell. To bad there are no mobile Virtu Win 8 Drivers. desktop drivers released like 3 weeks ago. Is it possible to fool the installer?

I'll have to figure out how to replace "COMMAND" and "BASE_ADDRESS". I assume the first line basically executes 6 commands right?

from the eGPU experiences thread: there are some problems with HD 4000 right now. i guess it should be possible to make the Intel HD work as i can run it offscreen without igdkmxd64.sys problems using the latest drivers 15.288 ... i can't really use it anyways. so you'll be stuck with external only for now i guess.