2012 13" MBPr + GTX570@8Gbps-TB1 (TH05) + Win7 [kloper]

[boony1]

Try turning Physx off in the Nividia Control Panel as well.

Thanks again for entertaining my requests.

I've set it to low through bl2, makes a massive difference, everything still left on max settings other than physx, I don't think it ever really dipped below 60fps.

[maven1975]

Batman should give you the same results. Did you try retina resolution?

I might need some help with mine as I had to settle with the sonnet product. Really hope you can help out.

Hope you don't mind, but I linked your youtube videos on a few other sites. Looks like you hit 1k views on your first one already

[boony1]

Batman should give you the same results. Did you try retina resolution?

I might need some help with mine as I had to settle with the sonnet product. Really hope you can help out.

Hope you don't mind, but I linked your youtube videos on a few other sites. Looks like you hit 1k views on your first one already

I have only tried retina on dirt 3, others seems to be too much pixels to push for the little mac. Although it's playable but for me I prefer smooth fps.

Yeah no worries, I'll try and help out. I'm sure it won't be too different to other setups. Although I'm trying to provide as much video/info as I can I am on holiday on Thursday so I doubt I'd be online if at all.

Link whatever you want, the more people get notice of this eGPU thing the better it is. I've also provided this forum link as well. Much thanks to Nando of course I don't think many would stumble across this community without him.

[maven1975]

I have been able to utilize several tips and tricks from Nando in the past. While not directly, it always seems to point back to a few of those out there that truly want to be helpful. Nando is one of those types.

Looks like I might have found an enclosure company that is willing to work with the public... and my spending frenzy. LOL

Netstor, the makers of the NA211TB, has offered to create me a Thunderbolt box with the needed two internal six pin leads. It has a 250w power supply and I will be sticking a GTX670 inside.

Thunderbolt Expansion, Thunderbolt PCIe Expansion for Mac mini, iMac and MacBook Pro, NA-211TB

They were unaware that there were some of us out there that knew how to make the cards "Aware" in Thunderbolt applications.

They sold this item with the needed power in the past.

TurboBox, NA211A-LD, External PCI-Express(PCIe) Expansion, Enclosure for up to 4* 2.5, NA210A-LD

Their representative Brian, willingly reviewed all the data I sent over and adjusted their hardware accordingly. Brian indicated that all new NA211TB hardware will be changed to accommodate us wanting to use high end GPU.

Thats some pretty good service.

If anyone is looking for this product, and would like to speak with Brian directly, I will put his email below.

[email protected]

[Tech Inferno Fan]

This thread is getting some serious readership so glad to help out to make it happen.

@maven1975, could you ask netstor if their product has a user settable PERST# delay? That delay is necessary in bios mode to boot say into the Apple option screen (ALT). If it's set too low or there isn't one then upon poweron, the firmware running in bios mode will power the system down upon detecting the eGPU on my 13" MBP. Likely does the same on other Macbooks.

Would netstor be willing to sell us just the Thunderbolt-to-pcie board with say a floppy PSU connector? That would be cost-effective solution for users that want to use their own PSU and run the GPU without an enclosure.

Did you want to disclose how much you are paying for the 250W netstor ready-to-go TB chassis? Last ebay link you sent had it at ~US$950.

[maven1975]

Hey Nando,

Wish I could get my hands on a TH05, but no such luck.

Thats sounds about right. The business will pay for half of it. However, it's absolutely, 1000%, grossly overpriced. Although, if their willing to make me a single box, with one cord, I will be the tester for the rest of us.

Perhaps if they are willing to help the community, we could get a bulk price.

Just sent the request over to Netstor. Brian has been pretty quick at getting back with me.

Will keep you posted.

[boony1]

Diablo 3 gameplay video added,

Will be adding Starcraft 2 and black ops 2 tonight gameplay vids tonight.

RE5 benchmark will be added soon as well, seems to be a good benchmark for comparison.

[maven1975]

Awesome! BO2 is one I would like to see at native resolution. It runs @ 60/70 FPS on the 650m without shaders and low FOV @1080p.

[maven1975]

@maven1975, could you ask netstor if their product has a user settable PERST# delay? That delay is necessary in bios mode to boot say into the Apple option screen (ALT). If it's set too low or there isn't one then upon poweron, the firmware running in bios mode will power the system down upon detecting the eGPU on my 13" MBP. Likely does the same on other Macbooks.

Would netstor be willing to sell us just the Thunderbolt-to-pcie board with say a floppy PSU connector? That would be cost-effective solution for users that want to use their own PSU and run the GPU without an enclosure.

This is what I received back. I did respond once more to see if they knew what the shipped setting would be. Waiting for that reply.

"Now the PERST# is not settable. And we are not allowed to sell the board alone, since both Apple and Intel are approval our products in complete units."

Now, on to the noob questions. What does this mean for me? Will I need to run it under windows with rEFI? I hope it does not mean I'm SOL. :/

[Tech Inferno Fan]

This is what I received back. I did respond once more to see if they knew what the shipped setting would be. Waiting for that reply.

"Now the PERST# is not settable. And we are not allowed to sell the board alone, since both Apple and Intel are approval our products in complete units."

Now, on to the noob questions. What does this mean for me? Will I need to run it under windows with rEFI? I hope it does not mean I'm SOL. :/

Thunderbolt products get certified if they are plug'n'play. You can see that on the MBPr, the EFI framework doesn't allow plug-n-play where the iGPU is enabled alongside the eGPU. kloper resorted to going back to bios mode, using PERST# delay and Setup 1.1x to get it all functional. There the PERST# delay was necessary to allow the eGPU to get detected after the firmware has booted.

May I suggest you ask them to at least provide a toggle switch that lets you manually toggle PERST#. Something that is easy enough for them to manually add if necessary. You shouldn't have to solder in for a $950 device? Without it you might have trouble getting internal LCD mode working. Good thing is the netstor will give you full 10Gbps performance, approx x2 2.0 + 12.5%, so is a little faster than a TH05. Other additional benefit being it allows daisy chaining of TB devices.

[maven1975]

Thunderbolt products get certified if they are plug'n'play. You can see that on the MBPr, the EFI framework doesn't allow plug-n-play where the iGPU is enabled alongside the eGPU. kloper resorted to going back to bios mode, using PERST# delay and Setup 1.1x to get it all functional. There the PERST# delay was necessary to allow the eGPU to get detected after the firmware has booted.

May I suggest you ask them to at least provide a toggle switch that lets you manually toggle PERST#. Something that is easy enough for them to manually add if necessary. You shouldn't have to solder in for a $950 device? Without it you might have trouble getting internal LCD mode working. Good thing is the netstor will give you full 10Gbps performance, approx x2 2.0 + 12.5%, so is a little faster than a TH05. Other additional benefit being it allows daisy chaining of TB devices.

I agree with you there. Sent an email over to see if this would be possible.

If they don't want to do this, is it really that easy to complete? Is this something easily detectable and installed?

[boony1]

Black ops 2 video gameplay uploaded, max resolution the rMBP offers.

Starcraft 2 video gameplay uploaded.

RE5 benchmark results/videos up later and that's pretty much it.

[maven1975]

Thinking of sending the rMBP back. :/ Looks like the only way to get the eGPU working is with the TH05. I have posted several places offering $450 shipped even without luck. :/

It's really disappointing. I can still attempt the PL4E mod on the rMBP. Although, there's no telling if that will even work.

Still have my SVZ still and it's an option. MikjoA has proven that to work, but still I'd regather have the MBP.

Although, I have thought about getting a 15" rMBP and wait it out. However, just don't want to tote that larger footprint around. (Too large for tight working conditions)

What to do ladies and gentlemen?

[boony1]

Thinking of sending the rMBP back. :/ Looks like the only way to get the eGPU working is with the TH05. I have posted several places offering $450 shipped even without luck. :/

It's really disappointing. I can still attempt the PL4E mod on the rMBP. Although, there's no telling if that will even work.

Still have my SVZ still and it's an option. MikjoA has proven that to work, but still I'd regather have the MBP.

Although, I have thought about getting a 15" rMBP and wait it out. However, just don't want to tote that larger footprint around. (Too large for tight working conditions)

What to do ladies and gentlemen?

I assume you are a mac user,

I primarly use mac os for work, hobbies photography, but for gaming hands down windows laptop is the way to go.

If you are to go the mac route, since TH04 will be coming out later this year, if you can wait you may as well wait for the 13" rMBP refresh with Haswell CPU and by then most likely next gen of GPU will be out.

Otherwise the only other suggestion is get a windows based laptop. I'm not sure what the best choice would be in the end it's up to you.

[maven1975]

I assume you are a mac user,

I primarly use mac os for work, hobbies photography, but for gaming hands down windows laptop is the way to go.

If you are to go the mac route, since TH04 will be coming out later this year, if you can wait you may as well wait for the 13" rMBP refresh with Haswell CPU and by then most likely next gen of GPU will be out.

Otherwise the only other suggestion is get a windows based laptop. I'm not sure what the best choice would be in the end it's up to you.

Let's see what Netstor can do for us. I have sent them a direct link to this thread hoping they will be able to get a better grasp on our needs. (At their request)

Netstor, you are welcomed to openly ask any questions you might have. Registration in this forum is easy and free.

[herpusderpus]

Great to see eGPU forums really starting to pick up like this. It seems like more and more people are becoming aware of the viability of setting one up for themselves.

I myself am highly considering a setup virtually identical to @boony1's, except possibly with a different version of the GTX 670, and a Sonnet Echo Express Pro instead of a TH05 (The Sonnet costs way too much but I like the overall aesthetics and personally, I don't see Intel allowing the release of the TH04 any time soon.)

In any case, I was wondering whether or not I would get significantly better performance with an external monitor? If so, what kind of performance are we talking in relation to games like Crysis 2 and Battlefield 3?

If so I'll probably set up the eGPU in a Sonnet with the rMBP, and then a run a DVI to Mini Display Port adapter from the GPU into an external 2560x1600 monitor.

[33773]

PE4L is very interesting, but not very suitable for beginners. Besides performance notebook is not good. Why not choose CLEVO OR MSI.

[maven1975]

I am confused about these results.

This link has results with an eGPU on Sony Z connected to the pci slot.

http://www.3dmark.com/3dmv/4315228

When I compare them to boony1's on the first page of this thread, it seems to be 4000 points faster.

I was under the impression that the TH05 thunderbolt implementation was superior.

Sorry if the answer is plain as day. Still trying to learn how to digest the data correctly.

[Shelltoe]

boony's Graphics Score is actually at the same level (GTX 670 = 23572 vs. GTX 660 TI = 24543) but the sony one has a better CPU. Does the Sony use x1.1Opt or x2?

[maven1975]

boony's Graphics Score is actually at the same level (GTX 670 = 23572 vs. GTX 660 TI = 24543) but the sony one has a better CPU. Does the Sony use x1.1Opt or x2?

It has x1.2 Opt

[Tech Inferno Fan]

It has Opt x1.2

x1.2Opt: when using a x1 2.0 link with a NVidia Fermi/Keplar card and a Intel HD3000+ iGPU, the NVidia driver will engage pci-e compression. x1.2Opt will outbench x2.2 in some cases where compressible data is being transmitted. This has a massive effect on 3dmark06 (DX9). 3dmark vantage (DX10) is also affected.

The Thunderbolt x2.2 link can be changed to x1.2Opt by cellophane taping the video card pins that correspond to lane2 as shown below. Something worth trying with DX9 games to see if you see better performance.

[NamesLucky]

I'm sorry if I missed this somewhere in the main egpu thread, but how much of an %fps advantage does the current thunderbolt solution have over a 1.2opt connection for dx10 and dx11 games? Using say, the OPs gtx 670? I don't want to hijack a thread, but very curious about this as I'm currently putting together an egpu setup.

[EpicBlob]

I second that. I'm planning on upgrading from a 560 to a 660ti or 670, so I want to know how much of a boost I will obtain at 1.2opt. I have a desktop quad core i7 ivy so that shouldn't bottleneck at all.

[maven1975]

After looking through the data and results, it appears to currently only offer incremental advantages to dx10 & 11 games. It's the plug and play that's most appealing without having to open or mod your system.

[maven1975]

x1.2Opt: when using a x1 2.0 link with a NVidia Fermi/Keplar card and a Intel HD3000+ iGPU, the NVidia driver will engage pci-e compression. x1.2Opt will outbench x2.2 in some cases where compressible data is being transmitted. This has a massive effect on 3dmark06 (DX9). 3dmark vantage (DX10) is also affected.

The Thunderbolt x2.2 link can be changed to x1.2Opt by cellophane taping the video card pins that correspond to lane2 as shown below. Something worth trying with DX9 games to see if you see better performance.

Nando,

If one were to use the tape method, what drawbacks would there be?

Just by looking over data from other setups (Like the Z) the DX10/11 scores seem to be pretty close.

Would this effectively just balance the setup to 1x without side effects?

Thanks!