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eGPU experiences [version 2.0]


Tech Inferno Fan

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I'm back, bringing you some update about my work:

1- I tried DNA-AMD gfx driver version 12.6b.2 , but it didn't work.

2- I tried Xtreme-g Driver version 12.10, it didn't work either.

My only solution: Need an easy instructions of how to mod legacy driver to include AMD of both iGPU and eGPU as a unified driver.

Hi @Tech Inferno Fan

After a whole of struggling to make AMD Radeon GPU work, I have sold it and bought GTX 550 Ti, it worked without a hassle. I'll do benchmarking later.

Sorry for replying late. I'm quite busy when you PM me (in the other forum). I see you already moved on & using Nvidia now. Anyway, I'll show how to mod AMD drivers to accept both integrated/mobility & desktop AMD GPUs.

  1. Download official drivers for integrated/mobility GPU from AMD/ATI website.
  2. Go to Packages\Drivers\Display\W76A_INF, open the C7xxxxxx.INF file & look for your device, for example:-
    post-5961-14494993911981_thumb.jpg
  3. Copy both lines & paste them in desktop drivers (C7xxxxxx.INF) in Packages\Drivers\Display\W76A_INF directory:-
    post-5961-14494993912843_thumb.jpg
    Note: If AMDxxxx.X is already exist, increment it. E.g. AMD9553.1 already exist, change the new entry to AMD9553.2, if AMD9553.2 already exist, change the new entry to AMD9553.3, and so on.
  4. Install the desktop driver.

For successful installation, you'll need to disable driver signature (F8 -> Disable Driver Signature Enforcement).

There is another trick to install both mobility & desktop drivers. What I did is install driver for integrated/mobility in Device Manager & for desktop driver, use the installer.

post-5961-14494993911639_thumb.jpg

post-5961-14494993912328_thumb.jpg

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Sorry for replying late. I'm quite busy when you PM me (in the other forum). I see you already moved on & using Nvidia now. Anyway, I'll show how to mod AMD drivers to accept both integrated/mobility & desktop AMD GPUs.

  1. Download official drivers for integrated/mobility GPU from AMD/ATI website.
  2. Go to Packages\Drivers\Display\W76A_INF, open the C7xxxxxx.INF file & look for your device, for example:-
    [ATTACH=CONFIG]5425[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]5426[/ATTACH]
  3. Copy both lines & paste them in desktop drivers (C7xxxxxx.INF) in Packages\Drivers\Display\W76A_INF directory:-
    [ATTACH=CONFIG]5427[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]5428[/ATTACH]
    Note: If AMDxxxx.X is already exist, increment it. E.g. AMD9553.1 already exist, change the new entry to AMD9553.2, if AMD9553.2 already exist, change the new entry to AMD9553.3, and so on.
  4. Install the desktop driver.

For successful installation, you'll need to disable driver signature (F8 -> Disable Driver Signature Enforcement).

There is another trick to install both mobility & desktop drivers. What I did is install driver for integrated/mobility in Device Manager & for desktop driver, use the installer.

Too late kizwan, but thanks for replying anyway.

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309 is working fine, i think the 305 update was just a bit glitchy. Also I think even the desktop version supports optimus now...(the nividia tray icon is just automatically switched off with the newer drivers, can be switched on under the nvidia options though)

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Bootcamp win7 on a rMBP13 auto-installed the TH05 adapter driver as long as no PCIe card was installed. Blank screen if I try to boot win7 with any card in the slot. Nvidia doesn't allow install unless it detects its own gpu plugged in.

I cannot install windows 8 because the game I play does not launch in windows 8.

Is there a way to force the nvidia driver install in win7? My hope is the only workarounds would be rEFInd menuentries that disable the iGPU and enable the eGPU. Once the pci address is known, I can use mm to do that, yes? Please let me know if this definitely won't work.

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Bootcamp win7 on a rMBP13 auto-installed the TH05 adapter driver as long as no PCIe card was installed. Blank screen if I try to boot win7 with any card in the slot. Nvidia doesn't allow install unless it detects its own gpu plugged in.

I cannot install windows 8 because the game I play does not launch in windows 8.

Is there a way to force the nvidia driver install in win7? My hope is the only workarounds would be rEFInd menuentries that disable the iGPU and enable the eGPU. Once the pci address is known, I can use mm to do that, yes? Please let me know if this definitely won't work.

Win7 does allow a UEFI install which is what I'd recommend you attempt for a simpler configuration. Can see my brief on the different eGPU behaviors a 13" MBP has when booting Win8 in UEFI mode versus MBR/BIOS mode here. The latter is what occurs when you bootcamp a Mac. You can see it's trickier to get the NVidia eGPU detected and requires pci-e fixups in a preboot environment (eg: setpci in Setup 1.1x or mm in rEFInd). UEFI mode gives a plug-and-play implementation in Win8.

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I am thinking about buying Thinkpad W530 (need 32 GB of RAM) and going the eGPU route. If I understand correctly, I would have to use setup 1.x every time I restart the computer in order to enjoy the benefits of eGPU because W530 has switchable graphics. In addition, hot swapping also won't work (for the same reason). Could someone please tell whether my understanding is correct or not?

Thank you.

P.S. I heard that it is possible to disable the dGPU in the W530 bios. If that's true, than would I still need to run setup 1.x?

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I am thinking about buying Thinkpad W530 (need 32 GB of RAM) and going the eGPU route. If I understand correctly, I would have to use setup 1.x every time I restart the computer in order to enjoy the benefits of eGPU because W530 has switchable graphics. In addition, hot swapping also won't work (for the same reason). Could someone please tell whether my understanding is correct or not?

Thank you.

If using a NVidia Fermi/Keplar eGPU and wanting the features provided by x1.2Opt (pci-e compression and internal LCD mode) rather than x1 2.0 then yes, you would need Setup 1.1x to disable the W530's NVidia dGPU since the bios doesn't provide that facility. That allows the eGPU to engage those features rather than the dGPU.

If are OK with just x1 2.0 performance and don't care for internal LCD mode, then can bootup without using Setup 1.1x. For the latter case you may even want to get a AMD eGPU which does give slightly better performance. REF: i5-3320M + GTX660/HD7870. Now if LucidLogix Virtu worked on Series-7 mobile systems I'd be suggesting go for an AMD eGPU + Virtu.

If wanting to avoid using Setup 1.1x but still use a NVidia eGPU at x1.2Opt then consider a notebook that has a iGPU only, eg: Lenovo T430/T530, HP 8470P/8570P or 6470b/6570b, Dell Latitude E6430/E6530 or Vostro 3460/3560. They tend to be cheaper than the workstation class systems like the W530 or Dell M4700. Do note that there has been reports of Lenovo notebooks having very poor eGPU performance when equipped with 16GB of RAM where reducing it to 8GB solves the issue. You could even consider a Thunderbolt-equipped notebook if wanting faster eGPU performance: a Macbook or certain Lenovo T430s/S430 systems.

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Thank you for such a thorough reply. I would prefer to have the features provided by x1.2Opt. Also, thank you for the notebook suggestions, but it doesn't seem like any of those models support more than 16 GB of RAM.

It looks like it is possible to disable dGPU in W520 according to this W520 bios emulator:

http://service.lenovo.partner-management.com/content/CoursewarePublic/15418/W520.swf

Do you think it would do the trick? I saw a couple of W520 owners' forum postings saying that they had to use setup 1.1x, but that was in 2011 and before Lenovo released the bios fix for the tolud issue.

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I'm putting together a build for my Lenovo X220t as follows:

GTS450 1GB DDR3 - Despite what it says here and to my surprise this card does not have any supplementary 6-pin connections.

BPLUS TECH - PE4L-EC060A v2.1b

120W CE approved AC Adapter Power Supply

I've got a few questions:

Hardware

- Do I simply plug the DC plug into the DC socket on the PE4L? I saw some older threads that talked about jumpers and having to use extra USB power but these seem rather outdated.

- The socket in the PE4L has no information, is it a 5.5mmx2.5mm like the power supply I am buying?

Software

- The laptop is currently running windows 8, as far as I can tell there are now NVIDIA Optimus drivers for Win 8, but will this be a problem?

To sum up, this is my understanding of what I need to do once everything has arrived.

Install latest NVIDIA drivers.

Plug GTS450 into PE4L.

Plug DC PSU into DC socket on PE4L. (Hopefully it fits)

Plug DC PSU into wall socket.

Plug expresscard into laptop slot.

Let me know if I've gotten anything horribly wrong.

Thanks!

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I have successfully put together a X230T with a PE4L 2.1b and a Gefore GTX 660TI. My computer has 8gb of ram, so it often encounters the TOULD issue.

Originally when I tried using the 1.x setup to compress the pci slot, it still would not work. I went ahead and did the DSDT trick, but encountered one single error that I could not resolve on my own, nor was there any mention of how to solve it. Of course I thought I might force the .aml file to write just to see if it would work, but instead it eventually gave me the blue screen of death on the next bootup and had to run the repair process to fix it. There was no large memory showing up either, so wasn't sure what I might have been missing.

Anyhow though, there is a method I figured out that allows me to make it work, but it is a real pain in the butt. If you uninstall the driver through device manager, and replug the pci card back in, it will detect and install the driver which take a bit to download and install. After that, you must reboot. Upon rebooting, I unplug the pci card and once it gets back onto windows, after a bit, I plug it in and it works. I also noticed that in order for it to work, my external screen must be off first thing as I think it is otherwise extra weight on the loadup somehow. I also have to re-install the 306.97 nvidia driver again to gain the full performance boosts (No restart required if previously installed extra parts are still left over).

I used to be able to boot up the computer a few times to then, after bootup, enter sleep mode and plug in the pci card and wake it in order for it to work (This is after having performed the trick above), but that no longer works anymore.

Anyone here know what is allowing this trick to essentially work? It would be nice if there was a quicker way to implement it or whatever the software is doing to provide the correct environment.

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Check out the project I just posted. Not quite "the utter ultimate".. there's a limit to how much cash I'm willing to spend on this, but it comes close, and beats anything you can do with an MXM card.

Conceivably doing an upgraded version of this rig by replacing the 660Ti with a 4GB 690 (or putting TWO Geforce 690's in SLI on retina macbook Pro), alongside a quaddie CPU and 16GB RAM would give you "The Ultimate" rig.

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Hi,

just wanted to say thanks to Tech Inferno Fan (and the others involved) for all the work on making egpu known and working.

I've juste put together a setup with : HP elitebook 6930p with t9400/ati hd3450 - ec2c - pe4h - ati HD3870, under vista business 32 bits. Total cost was: 50€ for the ec2c-pe4h-swex on ebay, 20€ for the hd3870, 38€ for a 400W antec psu= 108€ I also have a spare pm3n, not used for now.

3dmark06 gives me a score of 4123 (SM2.0 Score 1867, HDR/SM3.0 Score1273, CPU Score 2309). I could probably grab a few more points with less background programs running... A more modern gpu would certainly help too. It's all pretty old stuff and on a x1 link. But it still a significant upgrade as is.

I get a code 12 with 3gb of ram, so I'm with 2gb for now, I'll see in the future if I can find a fix.

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So I finally got everything in for my setup.

Plugged it all in, booted it all up, and no go. Not detecting anything.

I have an HP Probook 6460B, and I believe I've seen a couple people successful in getting an eGPU to work with it.

Running Windows 7 Ult 64-bit, 4gb ram. No TOLUD issues. Using a PE4L 2.1b and GTX580.

What gives?

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So I finally got everything in for my setup.

Plugged it all in, booted it all up, and no go. Not detecting anything.

I have an HP Probook 6460B, and I believe I've seen a couple people successful in getting an eGPU to work with it.

Running Windows 7 Ult 64-bit, 4gb ram. No TOLUD issues. Using a PE4L 2.1b and GTX580.

What gives?

Could you please post your laptop's specs so that we may help you?

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HP Probook 6460B

Core i3 2310 @ 2.1ghz

4gb ram

Intel HD 3000

Intel 335 240gb SSD

I've been reading through the FAQ and searching around looking at how others set their's up. Going to keep plugging away at this to see if there's something I've missed, just wondering if there was something I didn't catch. The Setup 1.1 is a little confusing to me, but reading through the troubleshooting is making it make a little more sense.

Thanks guys.

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Your latop can do optimus with GTX580, download and install Geforce official driver, reboot and after you past bios, press F8 unitil you reach to advanced boot menu, then connect your egpu to your laptop, wait for few seconds, then select start windows normally. If that doesn't work, let me know.

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Your latop can do optimus with GTX580, download and install Geforce official driver, reboot and after you past bios, press F8 unitil you reach to advanced boot menu, then connect your egpu to your laptop, wait for few seconds, then select start windows normally. If that doesn't work, let me know.

I can't install the driver if it my computer won't detect the eGPU?

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Alright, final update. I bought a used T9800 for my laptop, installed it, and it works beautifully.

Former processor was a P8700, with results posted here.

My specs:

Laptop: HP HDX16t

OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

Processor:Intel Core2 Duo T9800 @2.93GHz

RAM: 6 GB

iGPU: GeForce 9600M GT

eGPU: GeForce GTX 660 MSI OC

PSU: Corsair CX 430

and HDMI to expresscard adapter

(along with cardboard box enclosure, posted here.)

Benchmark results (all internal LCD, running the hdmi to expresscard adapter software and ultramon)[wanted to have this up before my ultramon free trial expires]:

3dmark11: 1280x720 res since that's what 3dmark11 basic allows, Graphics subscore: 5585 (Best part: notice the almost 500 point gain in physics and combined scores, f***ing awesome!)

Heaven: 1280x800 res (300 point score gain!)

3dmarkVantage: whatever res basic has, Graphics subscore: 14462 (what, why did my graphics score go up 300 points? [Not complaining] Also cpu score went up almost 1200 points!)

Devil May Cry 4: A 10 fps gain in the worst part from my previous result.

3dmark06:1280x1024 res, Only a 350 pt gain? (I guess I can blame that on my 1x connection, and I guess it is a significant improvement

RE5: 1280x800 res, variable, 10 fps gain on the whole, 5 fps in each area after the first which had a 30 fps boost (due to it being mostly cinematics).

Note: despite 3dmark's claims, I am using a T9800, not a T9900.

Overall: The CPU upgrade was VERY helpful. If anyone else is stuck with a core2duo chip like I am, I highly recommend doing a cpu upgrade. A used T9800 is priced just under $100 these days, and while installing it is a bit tricky (you might have to disassemble and reassemble your laptop in the process, like I had to), it's well worth it.

Maybe Tech Inferno Fan will link this under scaling analysis, for those stuck with older cpus, and considering upgrading?

I'm going to try this w/out ultramon, since I didn't need to use it in running my benchmarks today.

Also, I've said this before, but the difference between the hdmi to expresscard software and ultramon mirror method is drastic. I tried the mirror method one day (since it's only about $3 for resistors plus free trial of ultramon) and hated how much the cursor lagged. With the expresscard adapter, the lag is unnoticable, except in games, where there's a slight lag (simply from processor not being able to handle software and game at same time, haven't checked if this applies with my new processor as well).

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Don't think the PSU is the problem, provides 35A on the 12V rails, 500W. The card is rated for ~260W under load, so roughly 20A; there shouldn't be any issues.

I remember this issue a year ago. I think it's from the mini-HDMI cable itself. Try this cable:

Gold Plated 1080P HDMI Mini V1.3 M-M Connection Cable - Black (1.5M-Length) - Worldwide Free Shipping - DX

I tried this cable and it seems that it solved many issues, but I wouldn't hesitate buying it yet. If there is no way to solve your problem, buy the cable.

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Also, I've said this before, but the difference between the hdmi to expresscard software and ultramon mirror method is drastic. I tried the mirror method one day (since it's only about $3 for resistors plus free trial of ultramon) and hated how much the cursor lagged. With the expresscard adapter, the lag is unnoticable, except in games, where there's a slight lag (simply from processor not being able to handle software and game at same time, haven't checked if this applies with my new processor as well).

Ultramon's mirroring is only used to give a virtual view into your dummy monitor attached to your eGPU. The idea is then to grab the window and bring it onto your internal LCD. This solution only works only for windowed apps. To get full screen apps driven by your eGPU but displayed on your internal LCD would require using the expresscard HDMI input adapter as you are doing. LucidLogix Virtu is the other solution that can do that but you need a Sandy Bridge or newer CPU + iGPU as the active primary video adapter.

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Alright, final update. I bought a used T9800 for my laptop, installed it, and it works beautifully.

Former processor was a P8700, with results posted here.

Hey spaninq,

I also have an Intel PM45 motherboard (ASUS G71V Laptop) and was thinking about upgrading the cpu aswell. Currently I have the T9400 (def @ 2,53 ghz, oc @ 2,8 ghz). Was the upgrading really so easy? Why did you take the T9800 instead of the top of the line T9900?

Looking at the CPU benchmarks at Mobile Processors - Benchmarklist - Notebookcheck.net Tech: I see only a slight performance increase in 3D06: T9400 ~2300 points, (my oc gives me ~2400 points), T9800 ~2600points, T9900 ~2800points.

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