Plug & Play External Graphics Card Solution for Precision laptops?

I now have three external displays driven from the egpu rx470. one is via HDMI to the 1080 TV and two 2560 displays via DP. Plus the internal display. I still have an open DP on the RX470 plus an open DVI port. FYI, the laptops own DP port and ePort Dock DPs (one and two) do not appear to be functional while eGPU is in use. I suspect this is because Intel GPU is not connected to the DP on this laptop model (only connected via dGPU which is not in use while eGPU is active).

I'll run one last test from the eGPU, but this time to one of the 2560 displays (scaled at 1080p in the bench, not via windows OS scaling but scaled in the bench test). I'll disconnect the others prior to testing.



This one dropped in frame rate only near the very end at the final scene change. For me an average of 60+fps at 1080p is pretty decent. Especially when compared to low FPS in the 10s using the dGPU. Later this week I'll be playing some games (Cities Skylines and Civ6) via eGPU. Not sure if those are CPU intensive or GPU, but will be interesting. I might play some GTAV too as that is always fun.

 

Thanks so much for posting your results.

I'm sort of disappointed that hot-plugging does not work but I wonder if it would be different with a system that supports Optimus (Intel GPU is enabled all of the time, rather than having to switch back and forth). It sounds like you did not have much trouble getting it set up and performance is a good bit better than the dGPU despite the limited bandwidth of the ExpressCard slot. I'm still thinking about trying this with a GeForce 1060 with my M6700, but I'm torn between that and just applying the funds towards a new system, since my dGPU is still good enough to run every game I throw at it reasonably (though perhaps not at highest graphics settings).

 

You may very well be able to hotswap if Optimus is present. Many variables from system to system. I expected having to modify DSDT memory tables to extend PCIe space or something crazy, but that was not necessary. I am thankful it worked for me right out of the box.

edit: *I may still have to do something with DSDT mem table as I docked at a different desk today with the m6500 with more devices attached and I get an code 12 error on the rx470 device, implying DSDT table may need re-addressing. I rebooted and it cleared up. See link describing how to fix error 12 by editting DSDT: https://www.techinferno.com/index.php?/forums/topic/5874-guide-dsdt-override-to-fix-error-12/

One thing to research though if selecting a GTX10XX and if choose to use an mPCIe connection (I don't think this is a problem with ExpressCard solutionS, older gen GTX9xx, or with AMD cards):
https://egpu.io/forums/expresscard-...-off-mpciengff-m2-egpus-error-43-with-372-90/

If I were buying again I might try a BPlus PE4H 2.4 or EXP GDC Beast 9.0. Those eGPU adapters each have two lanes to the laptop (one for mPCIe + one for an ExpressCard) for possible PCIe x2 bandwidth. I was thankful for the parts I got (beast version 8.4 via expresscard). It worked first time out of the box.

 

to try help you decide aaron, here is benchmark using 7710 M5000M dGPU only (switchable graphics disabled)





and with switchable graphics optimas enabled:


In my opinion, if I already had an m6700 and if I knew which adapter works and by which port, I may go with eGPU solution as it was not far behind the above with modern eqpt. The drop in FPS was even very much the same. But I like to experiment with this kindof stuff, and I hope I don't encourage you to indulge if it doesn't end up working. Meaning, proceed at your own risk. And don't spend too much on a GPU even if it is a good deal, as a modern GPU through x1 is not super great (there are PCIe x2 and x4 possibilities). But if you are a hobbyist and like this kind of thing, it is extremely gratifying


A brand new laptop though, mmmm especially a P series GPU if thats what you are considering?... hmmm. If funds allow, Id go for the new laptop. And then come back and order an eGPU adapter

 

Yes a whole new laptop would be about three years away or so... an eGPU solution could be a decent stepping stone to hold me over, as the GPU is one of the main things that is feeling limiting on my current system. (GPU technology is still making big gains every year, unlike a lot of other computational technologies.) Anyway, still mulling it over, but glad to hear that setup was not a big issue.

 

I'll try out some games this week using eGPU using m6500 and egpu RX470 and post my experience although I don't know how to show FPS in games. But if it sucks I'll let you.

 

Cities Skylines is first up review. I loaded a game I had on my 7710 to play on the m6500 and I didn't see a difference using eGPU. I'm using same external monitor. Although without benchmarks is impossible if I can see differences. I can try this again though with dGPU FX3800m and I suspect differences will be obvious. But your m6700 may not have as striking differing affect as your dGPU is more advanced than FX3800m. I'll let you know how the fx3800m does though

 

Yeah, cannot even play the game "Cities Skylines" using i7-920xm and quadro FX3800m on m6500. I waited 30 minutes just to load the empty city country land.

on eGPU RX470 it appears same gameplay as that on my 7710 which was great but without benchmarks I cannot measure ) as it looked same on m6500 using eGpu vs 7710

I'll try my other steam games, I don't have alot

 

Here is image from GPUZ showing the PCIe bus is v1.1 on my M6500.


Although Intel Ark shows the P55 chipset in my m6500 is PCIe v2.0 it only pertaining to the powersaving feature in v2.0, bus speed is still same as v1.1. But even at just x1 v1.1 the RX470 via ExpressCard eGPU solution worked alot better than I expected.

An m6700 which has true PCIe v2 should see far better results

I logged the GPUZ sensor readings as I was running one of the eGPU benchmarks. It shows that the Dell 220W DA-2 (thats the 8 pin power supply brick) is more than enough for this GPU. I recommend that DELL-220W-DA2 and if you don't get it in an eGPU bundle you can order seperate online at amazon for about $20 US Dollars. I believe they are all "used" as they don't make these bricks anymore.

*edit: just remembered that i7-920xm in the m6500 does not have integrated graphics. SO that answers my early question about which GPU is driving the laptop display. I originally thought it must be the iGPU since the nvidia driver is absent from device manager when AMD driver and eGPU are active. The fx3800m must be driving the laptop display, using the MS Basic Video driver. It is interesting that GPUz doesn't see the fx3800m at all while the eGPU is active. HWiNFO does though. And I couldn't figure out why neither would show the iGPU. Well now I know why

 

I did get an FPS comparison between eGPU vs dGPU in Cities Skylines. The city was quite small and in early stage of development.

the fx3800m dGPU would not play at high settings at 1080p. The city map was completely blank if I tried. I dropped settings to medium but with serious lag in camera movement/rotation. Then I dropped graphic settings in the game to low.


upper left corner shows that Steam is reporting 16FPS. The game is playable and honestly looks great to my eyes, but camera/rotation movement is very jumpy and laggy.


The eGPU RX470 Pcie x1 v1.1 with game graphics set to highest settings at 1080p and was smooth to play at 35 - 60 FPS (the more you zoom out the higher the FPS).



eGPU at same low settings as in the first screenshot for "apples to apples" comparison

52FPS in this screen capture