eGPU Results - Clevo P870DM-G + GTX1080 + TB3 HDK / PE4C v4.1 (M.2 NGFF)

I will use it mostly for some medium rendering and modeling in Maya and 3ds Max (character designs, environment...) and for games like FarCry Primal, Witcher etc. If i can upgrade laptop with eGPU then i won't buy Desktop PC in few years. When i decide to do it, ill use that card for new PC.

 

Maya and 3DS Max wont really benefit from an eGPU, they are more CPU dependent. The GPU will come into play only if you are dealing with really heavy geo caches that you might need to load into the video memory.
Other than that, unless you use VRAY RT a lot, the GPU doesn't do much work.
Games however will definitely benefit, but for games like Witcher 3, you might hit a CPU bottleneck at higher resolutions.
For both the use cases you mentioned you will be better off getting something with a beefier processor and a GTX 1070, or something with a good processor. Specially since you want to render stuff, like environments.
Now even if an eGPU will be beneficial for gaming, over TB3 there is a pretty decent performance hit, but it will for sure be a decent bump over the 1050Ti/1060 if you use a 1070/1080. BUT only if you use an external monitor and dont do loop back.

All of this is assuming that eGPU's will work with the Lenovo systems that you mentioned earlier, there are a lot of new BIOS/Nvidia driver related hurdles these days using M.2 based eGPU solutions, TB3 based solutions work, buy they are very dependent on the system AND only worth it if the TB3 implementation is full 32Gbps and not the halved out 16-20Gbps one.

 

Hey Bloodhawk,

I've finally got around to attempting this (pe4c, 1080 and PSU) but struggling with a few things in trying to have the P870DM work correctly with it. Examined your photos closely to ensure I've setup them the same. I've tried both M2 port for sanity check, now setup in the same manner as your images using the vertical M2 slow.

Device manager is constantly reporting a code 43 with the 1080 pretty much no matter what I attempt.

Few points:
1) Reinstalled Nvidia drivers multiple times without any changes
2) Device is listed correctly in device manager, just code 43
3) GPU Z correctly identifies everything, though appears it's reporting my M2 slot @ x2 v1.1 - very different to your screenshots
4) This is a Metabox P870DM-G, so thought it shouldn't be a problem. Not sure if I'd need Prema's bios?

And unfortunately broke the keyboard in the process - the LED just snapped as I was reinstalling it, no pressure was being applied. It seems without this the laptop doesn't even recognise the keyboard anymore - incredibly stupid.

Sorry to turn to you for tech support here but haven't found anyone else doing this.

 

Are you using 1080 card? Where this card is coming from? What is VBIOS? We support for now gtx 1060 and 1070 but not 1080.

 

Hey!

So from what i can remember before i tore the setup down, was that the Code 43 was coming up with any driver that was newer than 372.59 (if i remember correctly). Only way to get past this was to enable PCIe Hotplugging in the BIOS. Which is only available on the @Prema BIOS.

Hes using an eGPU setup not an internal MXM GPU.

 

Thanks for the quick reply Bloodhawk!

I've tried downgrading the drivers, seems no luck for me. I did some digging around regarding Prema's bios (and the backstory there) so if I could get a copy from Prema I'm not sure if it would work as it's a different reseller (Metabox are the only ones in Australia).

I guess the other option I could entertain right now is going back to a desktop and just keeping the laptop for travel where the 980 is sufficient for the 1080p scren it has.

Thanks again for all the help Bloodhawk.

 

@theinsaneaussie

Hello. I am glad that you posted your initial results of your eGPU experiment with the P870DM here. I also want to try recreating @bloodhawk eGPU setup on my P870DM since the setup is pretty much the cheaper option to restore the laptop's performance when the internal GPUs die. After the 980m in my P750ZM died for no apparent reasons after less than 2 years of moderate use, my interest in eGPU grew. The quote I got for refurbishing my 980m ($435 minus shipping and at least a week of repair time if it can be done at all), was definitely more than enough to get a eGPU setup with a GTX 1060. I lucked out and found a decent P870DM listed on craigslist for "marginally" more expensive than a brand new 980m, but the thought of the 980m failing unexpectedly kept me searching for eGPU options for the P870DM. Ultimately that led me here a couple of months ago.

I don't have a desktop NVIDIA GPU to test the following method, but I think it is currently the only option to solve your Error 43 issue. https://egpu.io/forums/expresscard-...otplug-eGPU-interfaces-applicable-to-GTX10xx/

Please note that there are numerous .inf files with each associated to a different laptop manufacturer. For our case, modify nvcvi.inf or something that looks close enough to that according to step 4 of this guide on NVIDIA driver modding http://null-bin.blogspot.com/2015/08/how-to-modify-nvidia-notebook-driver.html
I can vouch that nvcvi.inf is the right one since I modded the driver at one point to make a 765m work on my P750ZM.

Good luck, and please keep us updated with your results.

 

Well, don't get me wrong, i dont use any of these benchmark, so can you tell just by words, if i have a 1080 mxm in my clevo , and in other clevo i use e GPU 1080 via Tb3, how much performance loss should i expect.?¿

 

About 25-30% depending on if you are using the internal or external display.

 

@bloodhawk @Zoltan@HIDevolution , on phone with HID Evolution, trying to get a power color EGPU to work on a @Prema Bios P870DM3-G , Dual 1080 SLI , sadly wont let EGPU work , keeps saying [/URL][/IMG] [/URL][/IMG] Egpu suport -no , i dont understand as i have seen you have got this working as well , HID is confused at this as well , we are all LOST AND CONFUSED ON THIS IDEAL LOL.... i tired a 1080 ti , amd 7870 oc, a titan x , still no option to use as well.....

 

First question...

Whhy are you trying to run an eGPU with 2 x 1080's? You will barely have enough lanes for Thundebolt 3 to work off of.

Second, what exactly happens when you connect it? Is the GPU inside the enclosure not getting detected? Check if its showing up in the device manager...

If it is showing up then the problem is something else..the External GPUs not supported thing is not really relevant.

 

You may not have the right firmware. The TB3 port does not have the correct Intel technology licensing for eGPU use.

 

That too... like a pointless performance downgrade using an eGPU if you have an internal 1080.

 

i use this for other purposes , as well the gpu doesnt show up the egpu box does get detectedbut the actual gpu is not seen , i did not plan to game on it , i just planed to use for other options as coding or rendering.....

 

i saw you got it to work on a p870dm3, i would like to get this to work for card testing as well on other purposes ....

 

any more info on this @bloodhawk , as i saw you got a egpu to work on a p870dm series???? i just want to see if i have to option for trhis at a later time as i have a power color devil box that has been sitting on a shelf...

 

Not really. For me the Razer Core/Akitio PCIe Box/ Akitio Node / TB3 HDK all worked just fine using the standard TB3 firmware.. As well as with a custom TB3 firmware.

I would try and update TB3 firmware to the latest available maybe, along with the drivers to see if it helps.

 

how and where do i get the firmware and drivers for the p870dm3-g , hid envolved version ?

 

Umm yeah the stock firmware updates (if any) should be available through them or Clevo. They dont have any custom TB3 firmware.

 

havent had no luck what egpu where you testing a while back right now mine says no epgu , but i am in dual 1080 sli

 

Even mine says no eGPu support.

And your existing GPU's have no relation to the TB3 eGPU support or otherwise.

 

oh ok , i thought you posted a while back on a post that showed y4ou had egpu support on a p870dm3

 

Ok i think you are mis understanding me here.. for me on the Dm3, eGPU's (the ones i listed above) work just fine, even though the TB3 panel says "No eGPU Support".

If your GPU inside the Devil Box is not being detected AT ALL, then there is some other problem elsewhere. Also you should be able to use the GPU inside the Devil Box for compute/coding purposes without any eGPU support.

 

so correct me but thats what i understand, EGPU doesent work with the p870dm-g? Is this right? What Modell does work with the Stock Firmware? I do have a HP Omen Accelerator and it doesent showup, it starts for 1 sec and turns off.

 

Worked for me just fine.
But i was on the Prema BIOS. Thunderbolt firmware was stock.

 

I wish i could have a prema bios

 

Before anything though, i would look into why its not showing up at all. Because at the very least it should show up as a Thunderbolt device.

 

When i connect it to the port i hear the connection sound but it dosent show up at all, maybe i need to update my tb3 Firmware

 

so strange thing, Thunderbolt Details has no Details in the down part

Controller-Driver-Version is Unknown and Networking-Driver-Version Unknown so maybe is there some how has a idea

 

Needs the new driver/firmware.

I would try the latest driver first.

 

Same new/old Driver dosent change anything, where can i get the Firmware?
I do now a fresh Win install maybe it solves the Problem

 

For the firmware you will need to check with your reseller.

 

Well i bought this used so i don’t know what reseller it was, the only thing i know boot screen is a style Note.

 

so Firmware is on 21 newest driver but no luck, EGPU dosent work

 

@bloodhawk With your setup, could you choose to run one external monitor with the eGPU, and another External monitor with the dGPU?

 

Hello, this thread is what im looking for, i have a p751dm-g with the following TB3 FW and Bios:



My question is, can i use my gtx1070FE on a Egpu enclosure ? if yes, it's easy to setup ?

as i know upgrading my gtx970m to a gtx1060\70 MXM3.0b sounds like impossible....


P.S:
i also forgot to say, i'm already using my notebook with external monitor 2560x1440

 

@bloodhawk When you setup the TB3 enclosure, did you run into any issue with the 1080's fans spinning at 100% all the time? If you did, how did you resolve it, if at all?

 

Nope didn't have any issues like that. I was controlling GPU fans using afterburner as always.

 

Thanks. For some reasons mine is stuck at full blast with the Razer Core X. I'm trying to determine if the base system is the issue as opposed to driver/Windows/card/etc...

 

I would definitely give something like Afterburner a shot and see if that helps.

 

Thanks. Tried that. Didn't work unfortunately. However I do noticed the card is running at 1911 Mhz as opposed to the advertised 1759 Mhz boost clock. I think there might be some overclocking going on that wasn't made clear to me when I purchased it.