Shelltoe

Hi,

I have two questions: Can you tell me the exact problems you run into when you try eqpu with Win 7 in EFI Mode? Theoretically i cannot see the difference to Win 8 in EFI Mode.

And my second question would be: I have a Macbook Air 2012. Do you see any fundamental difference to the Macbook Pro that would interfere with an egpu on my system with windows?

well you will have to inject some boot files into your win7 image. even pc-based uefi systems run into problems without it.

mba can be compared to mbp 13" i guess. there's no dgpu right?

If x1.2Opt engages then you'll get a 3dmark06 score that's higher than your x2 2.0 results.

thanks i'll try it.

Yup.. MBP eGPU owners should avoid Win7 and bootcamp. Go straight to Win8 installed in UEFI mode for a plug-and-play eGPU implementation.

According to EFI shell help the mm command has the syntax is as follows:

MM Address [Value] [-w 1|2|4|8] [-MEM | -MMIO | -IO | -PCI | -PCIE] [-n]

...

I forced a x1 link on the TH05 by cellophane taping all tracks past the seventh on the second section of the PCIe slot. The NVidia driver will see the 13" MBP's HD4000 and the x1 link, engaging pci-e compression so I get x1.2Opt. We see clearly the x2 2.0 link does significantly better than the x1.2Opt link when using the internal LCD.

yeah i actually tried the mm command allready (guess they are active right now) but without results. that's why id like to modfiy the values while i'm in windows which seems quiet hard to do.

could you provide an image of your taping? i tried it some day's ago but failed maybe i should try it again.

virtu drivers don't work for me. they fail with some error.

regarding my Intel HD:

here are some of those strange 3D Mark results

and some screens of the UI:

Nice Nando. Yeah imho setting up an EGPU is actually easier in EFI ... if you know how to install windows EFI mode which can be a bit tricky though.

On NBR there's a guy who says he's got optimus running by default on his MBPr 15". But I guess he's talkin trash as he doesn't want to answer my questions.

Had Optimus installed once but GT 650m was used allways (tray shows: used by "displayport"). I can force VGA OUT on Intel HD and its actually running off screen. Received some strangly low results for 3D mark 11 while using Intel HD (like 800p?) with gt GT650 / GTX 660 ti showing up in resultsbrowser.

Found some hints on switching GPU/Display.

Like 4 IO-Ports need to be changed while Windows is up:

echo Switch select
outb 0x728 1
echo Switch display
outb 0x710 2
echo Switch DDC
outb 0x740 2
echo Power down discrete graphics
outb 0x750 0

Which has to be coded into a programm some way cause windows blocks those modifications by default.

Found some libraries that could actually help.

Seems OK. i5 dualcore isn't that bad. a quadcore would almost double your physics score though.

GTX 660 ti has auto-overclocking and will allways show 705 Mhz in 3D Mark. should be somewhere between 900 and 1100 during stress.

bandwidth limitations of egpu solutions may have the largest negative impact on fps during the most graphically intensive moments

that sounds pretty logical O.o

could you link your sources please? i don't know those analysis.

i'm running th05 with a gtx680ti but have no ati card available for tests.

my fps seem pretty stable though. there will allways be bandwith limitations no matter how the eGPU is connected.

3. Install Windows 8 on another machine that is UEFI compatible. Make sure that the boot order is configured so that it boots the Windows 8 install DVD as UEFI and not regular boot.

Note:

A good way to confirm you are in UEFI mode during Windows setup is that you will get four partitions created by the partition/format tool when setting up the installation on a fresh, unformatted drive with no previous partitions.

another note: Windows 8 installation uses native screen resolution if EFI gets recognized. If it's not you'll see the common lowres installation.

3D Mark 06 / Vantage / 2011 standard tests are free

Are you using Optimus to push the image to the internal display? I'm interesting in seeing if Optimus works with the 600 series cards.

No Optimus for now as Intel HD 4000 is no primary Bootdevice. Probably wont happen in the near future.

I've documented my setup instructions for a 17" MacBook Late 2011 + TH05 + Win 8 here:

http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/2385-17-macbook-pro-late-2011-th05-win-8-setup-guide.html

Nice. Looking forward for some benchmarks.

You should receive almost the same results using a 13" MacBook Pro with Quad-Core CPU.

EDIT:

Managed to launch with Intel HD enabled. It's not functional as no resources are allocated but maybe this can be done too.

There is a driver called apple-gmux for linux which enables GPU switching:

https://github.com/ah-/gmux/blob/master/apple_gmux.c

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/MacBookPro_Retina

It sets several values using "outb" so it could work.

I don't know how I did it exactly but I'm currently running GTX660Ti.

I'd love to run benchmarks but 3DMark shows 3.7 fps during physics test. Seems like it only uses 1 core.

Already noticed this yesterday so its not because of the GTX660ti.

Anyone got a hint to fix this? Maybe i should restore my windows install as it worked some days ago.

EDIT:

Restoring a clean install solved all problems. GTX660Ti works with OPs startup.nsh

3D Mark 2011: 7056p

3D Mark Vantage: 23810p

3D Mark 2006: 17923p

According to this guide on NBR, your iGpu should work by removing a file in windows.

So maybe you can get optimus working

Posted this guide earlier in this thread.

By removing "igdkmd64.sys" Windows will fallback to standard VGA drivers. That's not what I'd call "a working iGPU". Windows wont even boot if you don't do it.

That means the HD4000 iGPU isn't on the pci-e bus. Explains why Optimus isn't possible in Win7.

Yeah its not

The vidinit eradicates error43 by setting register 0x114 to 0x1 on the NVidia video card. Maybe you can use mm to do that? Do note that a lot of utilities won't allow pci-e registers beyond 0xFF to be modified. If mm is affected, but can work on a memory address then it's possible to calculate the mem offset where 0x114 of the NVidia video card is. MCFG + bus + slot + reg (google).

Thanks. I'll try it as i saw some pcie options for mm. IMHO it would be great to have an efi only solution. New notebooks with uefi and preinstalled windows8 will probably have the same issues in the future.

Maybe its not even that hard. Found some grub files which I'll try later.

setpci -s 0:2.0 4.b=0 

returns in 'Warning: No device selected for "4.b=0"'

:: Run result of PCI compaction (if any)
if exist pci.bat call pci.bat

compaction hangs after a success while trying to reenter the menu

calling pci.bat at startup results in hang too

call grub4dos uefi

results in systemfailure and reboot (I saw error message followed by some lines of HexCode flashing up)

Yeah i know. I'm going to try this today.

560 Ti runs smoothly though.

No OSX for now. Maybe the Hackintosh community has some information eg. Mulitbeast looks interessting

Graphics

Install to enable QE/CI full Graphics acceleration. Only install if the default

GraphicsEnabler=Yes is not working correctly.

NVIDIA Fermi > 2GB OpenCL Patch

These patches enable OpenCL for Fermi 4xx/5xx cards with 2GB or more of RAM.

10.8.0 OpenCL Patch

This will patch the 10.8.0 /System/Library/Frameworks/OpenCL.framework/Versions/A/OpenCL using patch info from netkas.org.

NVIDIA GTX 470/480/560Ti 448/570/580 Support

These patches enable OpenCL for Fermi 4xx/5xx cards.

10.8.0 OpenCL Enabler

This will patch the 10.8.0 /System/Library/Extensions/GeForceGLDriver.bundle using patch info from netkas.org.

NVIDIA GTX 670/680/690 Support

10.8.0 Patched GeForceGLDriver.bundle

This will update the GeForceGLDriver.bundle in /System/Library/Extensions/ with a patched libclh.dylib from netkas.org to allow OpenCL on GTX 670, GTX 680 and GTX

690 cards.

Tested an GTX 660 Ti and received error 43 in Device Manager.

I used these instruction but had less trouble so I could skip some steps.

No Bootcamp and "# diskutil resizevolume /dev/disk0s2 250G" beeing the most important part.

If you cann't make it work I'll describe my steps.

Workaround for MBP 2012 with iGPU and dGPU

I noticed some "fast back to back capabilities" which aren't enabled for Intel HD 4000 aswell.

NOTE: The US$180 BPlus TH05 (inc Thunderbolt cable) native Thunderbolt adapter used in this implementation was recalled in Jan 2013 due to (presumably) threats by Intel/Apple per TH05 recall notice. As a result refer to this solution that can be implemented today: [URL]http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/4570-%5Bguide%5D-2012-13-rmbp-gtx660-sonnet-echo-express-se-%40-10gbps.html#post63754[/URL] (recommended for 15" rMBP/MBP due to iGPU issues) or 2013 11" Macbook Air + Win7 + Sonnet Echo ExpressCard + PE4L + Internal LCD [US$250].





While reading some threads about EFI-Boot on Mac I finally made my eGPU work.

I fixed my "error 12" by enabling VGA Output on the PCI bridge connected to my Thunderbolt ports using the EFI-Shell.



For this task I installed rEFIt and used "pci -i -b" / "pci xx xx xx -i -b" to find VGA devices and their bridges.

I noted all Bus/Dev/Func as well as the required registars. After that I had to set those registars using "mm".





On a Mac Book Pro 15" 2012 you'll have to do the following:



1. Install rEFIt



2. In Mac OS mount the EFI partition using terminal:

mkdir /Volumes/EFI

sudo mount -t msdos /dev/disk0s1 /Volumes/EFI

3. Create a textfile called "startup.nsh" in it's root:

echo -off

echo "Setting Registars"

# IGPU Intel HD 4000

# I noticed some improvements in boottimings while deactivating the Intel HD

# (don't use this if your running a 13" single gpu model)

mm 00020004 1 ;PCI :0



# eGPU PCI Bridge

# this line does the magic by enabling VGA Output

mm 0001013E 1 ;PCI :8



echo "Booting Windows"

fs0:EFIBootootx64.efi

4. Reboot while eGPU is connected (SW1=1) and select "start EFI-Shell" in rEFIt.

"startup.nsh" launches and Windows 8 starts up with eGPU enabled.





Update:

Replaced rEFIt with rEFInd which is is a fork of rEFIt.

I'm now able to create an menuentry which boots Windows using my startup script. I'm also able to hide the non functional Windows entries.



Here's my current refind.conf:

timeout 20

hideui banner

showtools shell, reboot, shutdown

dont_scan_dirs EFI/Boot, EFI/Microsoft



menuentry "Windows 8 with eGPU" {

  icon EFI
efindiconsos_win.icns

  loader EFI	oolsshell.efi

  options "fs0:StartupseGPU.nsh"

}

Update (experimental):

Thanks to Linux's "apple-gmux" developer Andreas Heider I was able to switch graphics before booting Windows and enable Intel HD as primary VGA device. Though Intel HD is still bugged this probably allow us to enable Optimus functionality in the future.



You can also boot with Intel HD enable by installing gfxCardStatus 2.1.1(!) and setting it to integrated only, too.



For now you'll receive a black screen and reboot due to some "igdkmd64.sys" error.



Add this to your startup.nsh before "mm 0001013E 1 ;PCI :8":

echo Switch select

mm 7C2 1 ;IO :1

stall 100000

mm 7D4 1 ;IO :28



echo Switch display

mm 7C2 1 ;IO :2

stall 100000

mm 7D4 1 ;IO :10



echo Switch DDC

mm 7C2 1 ;IO :2

stall 100000

mm 7D4 1 ;IO :40



echo Power down discrete graphics

mm 7C2 1 ;IO :1

stall 100000

mm 7D4 1 ;IO :50



mm 7C2 1 ;IO :0

stall 100000

mm 7D4 1 ;IO :50



echo enable eGPU

mm 0001013E 1 ;PCI :8



echo Boot Windows

fs0:EFIBootootx64.efi

Some numbers:

Model:	rMBP 15"
OS:	Windows 8 EFI-Boot
CPU:	Intel-i7 3820QM @ 2.7gHz
RAM:	16GB
iGPU:	Intel HD Graphics 4000 (broken for Win8)
dGPU:	Nvidia GT 650m
Adapter:	TH05

I tried some overclocking and ended up with some strange results for 3D Mark 06. No matter what you change you'll have lower points than default settings.

	dGPU GT650m	eGPU GT X 560Ti	eGPU GTX660Ti	eGPU GTX660Ti OC
3DMark 2011:	2431p	4415p	71 10 p	74 63 p
3DMark Vantage:	10633p	16 755 p	23810p	24702p
3DMark 2006:	15289p	17479p	179 79 p	like 15900?

This might work for BIOS boot aswell but I don't know how to launch an MBR partition. (Update: BIOS method by nando)



I'll try to tweak this a bit and hope for an Intel fix.

Is there anyone with some more knowledge in EFI Shell?

Theres someone on NBR who got a thunderbolt egpu x4.2 working on a mba, with igpu working.

He used efi +windows 8.

as said this works for macbooks with only iGPU (MBA / MBP 13") not for pro models with iGPU + dGPU

Stuck are all MBP owners with iGPUs + dGPUs. See Enabling Hybrid/Optimus Graphics on Unibody MPB - MacRumors Forums for a progress status. First thing is to get Optimus running with your GT650M dGPU.

IMHO I dont think Optimus will happen. We got 3D Vision which conflicts with Optimus + even Nvidia developers have no clue if its possible at all.

Tried Win8 in EFI mode but my eGPU still shows errorcode 12 (rMBP 15"). Besides the sound problem is runs flawless though.

I actually managed to boot into windows with a working iGPU once with no dGPU in my device manager at all but were unable to reproduce it (saddly my eGPU wasn't plugged in).

iGPU actually tries to launch but conflicts with the dGPU (screenflickering) and windows shuts down with an error.

Also took a look at rEFIts EFI Shell which has indeed commands for pci mapping. I'd love to disable/remap my dGPU in EFI which might give us some resources for the eGPU.

But even if I find the right syntax I could imagine Apple blocks it. Maybe I should try to contact rEFIt developers and ask for their opinion.

You cann't pass the EFI-Bootmanager with the eGPU initialised (maybe allready not enough resources at that point?).

EDIT:

some efi shell screens of pci and mm commands

PCI -i -b: ImageShack® - Online Photo and Video Hosting

PCI -?: ImageShack® - Online Photo and Video Hosting

MM -?: ImageShack® - Online Photo and Video Hosting

Setup 1.1x is confirmed to have issues when used on a Macbook platform. Namely, need to do a USB installation and the pci compaction doesn't work right. Those problems have been passed on to the developer of the compact utility.

There seems to be some success installing Windows in EFI mode (without sound as usual). Another blog about TH05 and MAC.

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

Try this but i heared some guys had no problems using egpu setup on mbp 2011.

The USB disk isn't shown as a bootoption? maybe you should try another stick.

Oh sry wrong subtraction. different numbers but you'll get the idea. you wont need 900W at all

They used a very low test pc thats probably why their watts are way higher compared to the i7 one.

It's only the GPU that needs an PSU. The article says the whole system used 350W during tests. the card itself 181W (page 17). cann't find 450W anywhere. Found another TwinFrozor review telling the same.

EDIT: OH you're talking about what the packaging says? Donn't care about that.

I wouldn't replace the CPU cause it's only a small upgrade compared to an i5 or i7 which won't fit your system. i'd probably choose a smaller GTX 6xx card but the GTX 660 is fine too.