E6520 Tolud

First off I originally posted this in the E6520 owner's thread. Later I decided that it was a bit out of place and I feel that making a new thread is a better choice. Feel free to delete my post there.

The original post:

I am very interested in buying this laptop for an eGPU system. I was wondering if guys who do NOT have the NVS 4200 option could answer my question, which is vital to whether or not I can run an external graphics card.

So the question is, what is the E6520's TOLUD value? This value determines what and how many devices can be attached to a system. All you have to do to help me out is to look at your device manager and their tell me the number you see or post a screenshot of what you see. Below is a screenshot of my device manager:



To get to here, all you have to do after opening up the device manager is click "view" in the top-left corner, then click "resources by type". Lastly, open up the "memory" option in the main window.

The value that was selected in my screen shot contains the TOLUD value. Note that My C0000000 corresponds to a TOLUD of 3GB, meaning that in 32bit device allocation I have 1GB to allocate system devices. I expect that your systems would have a TOLUD of 3.25GB, which would allow .75GB for device allocation space, which is also acceptable for my needs. A 3.25GB TOLUD will appear as D0000000 in the device manager. My fear is that the E6520 TOLUD is E0000000, which is 3.5GB, leaving only 512MB for system device allocation, which is too little to accommodate an external graphics card.

I know that this is a bit involved, but I would be HIGHLY appreciative if anyone could check this for me since this is the make or break of the system for me.

Thanks in advance!

 

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Here's the requested screenshot from my E6520 - looks like its what you wanted? Do you have any links for me to good info on setting an eGPU up with a system like this?

 

Sweet, the TOLUD is actually incredibly low, even lower than 3GB. You can definitely do an eGPU setup, likely even with the NVS 4200 active if you want, but you would have to disable it, which can be easily done in the bios, to enable optimus for an external nvidia card.

See here for more info.

Thank you so much for replying by the way. Even though your system is the NVS 4200 version, with a TOLUD that low with the card it seems that dell is allowing plenty of room for a card without the 4200. Ordering an e6520 right now.

 

This might complete idiocy to ask, but replacing the NVS 4200 is out of the question correct? I will have to look into this eGPU business more when I get my E6520 pretty quick here.

 

I don't know if the NVS 4200 is MXM format or not. I don't think it is but I am not sure. I'll check as soon as mine arrives. If it is MXM then there are a lot of upgrade options.

 

No, NVS4200 on E6420/E6520 is soldered to the main board. Perfectly good reason for eGPU at some point.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/7638656-post513.html