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Help with manual pci.bat in eGPU Setup 1.2 - 15" MBP + Sonnet Echo Express + ATI 7850


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Hi all,

I am really hoping that someone with an understanding of PCI Memory allocation will be able to help me finally get my eGPU setup running. Spec: Early 2011 15" MBP (core i7 2635QM @ 2.00GHz, 16GB Ram, Crucial 512GB SSD). iGPU - Intel HD3000. dGPU - AMD 6490M. eGPU AMD HD 7850 -> PCI Extender with break-out cabling for ATX power and PCI Powergood -> Sonnet Echo Express Pro (total overkill but I'd hoped for an easy install in the enclosure) -> Macbook Pro Thunderbolt port.

I've made four seperate attempts to get this system to boot in EFI mode by doing the following:

Windows 8 DVD EFI Boot = Fails to write boot code Windows 8 USB EFI Boot = Fails to write boot code Windows 8 EFI install on second laptop then transfer SSD to Macbook = Fails with well documented IRQ Not Equal error, even after disconnecting the Facetime Camera and removing the igdkm64.sys driver. Windows 8 USB EFI Boot using restore system image from working 15" Retina Macbook Pro = Fails with well documented IRQ Not Equal error same deal as above.

At this point, I am pretty sure that EFI boot on this particular model is not going to work. I am aware that others have managed this but unfortunately, being an Apple product, there is likely a slight difference between their hardware architectures and mine that is causing this to fail.

So I am relegated to working on a MBR booting Windows 8 system. I have DIY eGPU Setup 1.2 from Nando installed. I have previously tried on the same system with Windows 7 loaded, a DSDT override to create 36bit memory space but cannot get setup 1.2 PCI compaction to put this into use, the reason, I am told, being that this setup has got a large number of PCI bridges between the thunderbolt controller and the VGA card...

I also tried to just disable every single device except the eGPU vga device and its bridges on all PCI buses based on posts saying that Windows might be able to set the memory space up itself by doing this. Unfortunately again this didnt work for me and I still had error 12 - not enough resources.

I am now desperately in need to help to manually setup the pci.bat file so that I can set the contiguous memory block for the eGPU card.

The Device locations are as follows:

Device Name PCI Bus Device Function
Xeon E3-1200 PCI Express Root Port 00 01 1
PCI Bridge 05 00 0
PCI Bridge 06 04 0
PCI Bridge 09 00 0
PCI Bridge 0a 03 0
PCI Bridge 0b 00 0
PCI Bridge 0c 02 0
AMD Radeon HD 7850 0e 00 0


I've used the Windows Device Manager to get this info because I really struggled to understand the PCI bus relationship using the text dump output from the PCI Dump tool in Setup 1.2. I've linked it (here) though if anyone wanted to check what I've worked out.

Based on this, would anyone be able to offer any input, even just to point me in the right direction for understanding the syntax to generate the correct commands in my pci.bat file.
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Summary: OP solved issue and managed to get EFI and BIOS mode working by working through pci allocation. Maybe can post the pci.bat used?

Thanks for your time, I managed to get both systems running in the end (rMBP in EFI and MBP in BIOS) - massive learning curve but logically tabling the PCI memory config space worked for me! absolutely blown away with the results so I think it was worth the effort
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  • 1 month later...
Summary: OP solved issue and managed to get EFI and BIOS mode working by working through pci allocation. Maybe can post the pci.bat used?

Absolutely - MrHaPPyPiLLs, this would be extremely helpful to me. Please could you post the pci.bat file?

Thanks in advance!

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Hey everyone, I stumbled upon this thread and I ordered everything I need to get started. I'm only concerned about one thing...

I have a rMBP 15". I've seen people do this eGPU thing with 13" rMBP. But I don't know if a 15" would work. I know that it has a dedicated GPU planted inside of it, which I heard could prevent this from working.

I also am in need of a GPU.BAT for my rMBP 15" if that is possible. I get my Sonnet tomorrow and I'm excited to try this out.

Thanks guys.

My specs:

rMBP 15"

Processor 2.7 GHz Intel Core i7

Memory 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3

Graphics NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M 1024 MB

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Agh! Okay, I've invested all of this money into this thing and I'm going to be super bummed if I just can't get it to work. I didn't know it was going to be this complicated haha.

SO!

I'll start with my specs:

15" Retina Macbook Pro

Intel i7 2.7GHz (Probably Ivy)

16GB DDR3 RAM (I've read that this causes problems but the override thing is insanely complicated)

Geforce 650M dedicated graphics

I have Intel HD 4000, but I don't think Windows recognizes it.

I've got the whole shabang:

PE4L 2.1b

Sonnet Expresscard Pro

Some 700W PSU

A GTX 760

A Riser (to get the PE4L to a x16)

and a 2m TB cable.

Here's a picture I took when I was in the menu screen I managed to stumble upon...

post-17059-14494996011534_thumb.jpeg

I've gotten as far as installing the SETUP 1.2x. after that, I can't get rid of the error 12.

I've been digging around the site and there's some really awesome people here that are giving really great advise! I've tried a lot of what is suggested, I just wish I could understand the instructions as clearly as you guys do. I'm not tech retarded though.

So if there's anyone that can walk me through this, I'll be really grateful/impressed haha.

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Agh! Okay, I've invested all of this money into this thing and I'm going to be super bummed if I just can't get it to work. I didn't know it was going to be this complicated haha.

SO!

I'll start with my specs:

15" Retina Macbook Pro

Intel i7 2.7GHz (Probably Ivy)

16GB DDR3 RAM (I've read that this causes problems but the override thing is insanely complicated)

Geforce 650M dedicated graphics

I have Intel HD 4000, but I don't think Windows recognizes it.

I've got the whole shabang:

PE4L 2.1b

Sonnet Expresscard Pro

Some 700W PSU

A GTX 760

A Riser (to get the PE4L to a x16)

and a 2m TB cable.

Here's a picture I took when I was in the menu screen I managed to stumble upon...

[ATTACH=CONFIG]8841[/ATTACH]

I've gotten as far as installing the SETUP 1.2x. after that, I can't get rid of the error 12.

I've been digging around the site and there's some really awesome people here that are giving really great advise! I've tried a lot of what is suggested, I just wish I could understand the instructions as clearly as you guys do. I'm not tech retarded though.

So if there's anyone that can walk me through this, I'll be really grateful/impressed haha.

MystPhysX did a 2012 15" rMBP eGPU implementation with a GTX560Ti and HD5850/HD7950. Setup 1.20's PCI compaction was successfully used to generate a pci.bat file to overcome error 12, no manual pci.bat needed.

See MystPhysX' comments of how this was done along with specific driver requirements when running the GT650M + NVidia eGPU at http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/4570-%5Bguide%5D-2012-13-rmbp-gtx660-sonnet-echo-express-se-%40-10gbps.html#post64007

Also note that a PE4L 2.1b is an open ended x1 slot. So a x16 card does fit into it and works. There is no need for the riser.

You also have no active iGPU, meaning x1 pci-e compression won't engage meaning somewhat poor DX9 performance. That can be corrected by activating the iGPU in Windows via EFI boot as was successfully done at http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/2367-macbook-pro-retina-15-gtx-560-ti-%40-th05.html#post31469 . Another solution is to get a native 10Gbps Thunderbolt solution like shown at http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/4570-%5Bguide%5D-2012-13-rmbp-gtx660-sonnet-echo-express-se-%40-10gbps.html .

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I've tried doing it the normal way described in the Setup 1.20's via USB, but it won't label the pci_written as Yes. I then decided to follow MystPhysX thread and make my own pci.bat file and that doesn't work either.

And if I wait until the menu prompts me to power up the eGPU, it won't discover it at all. But it does if I power the eGPU before I enter the BIOS. I tried to follow the instructions to get it discovered but it won't do a PCI compaction because it doesn't know that the eGPU exists. Basically, I don't know which thing to do the compaction on, so I just did it for all 3 options and those still didn't work.

When I wait for the prompt for the eGPU, I get the allocation to YES, but I can't get my card discovered.

I did that diagnosis in the menu if that would help anyhow...

Tech Inferno Fan>> Scanty figured how to get it all working here.

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I've tried doing it the normal way described in the Setup 1.20's via USB, but it won't label the pci_written as Yes. I then decided to follow MystPhysX thread and make my own pci.bat file and that doesn't work either.

And if I wait until the menu prompts me to power up the eGPU, it won't discover it at all. But it does if I power the eGPU before I enter the BIOS. I tried to follow the instructions to get it discovered but it won't do a PCI compaction because it doesn't know that the eGPU exists. Basically, I don't know which thing to do the compaction on, so I just did it for all 3 options and those still didn't work.

When I wait for the prompt for the eGPU, I get the allocation to YES, but I can't get my card discovered.

I did that diagnosis in the menu if that would help anyhow...

Before you can do anything in Setup 1.x, the eGPU must be detected. Typically that means setting PCI Reset Delay SW1=3 (6.9s) on the PE4L 2.1b. Then powering everything off, powering on the eGPU a fraction before powering on the Macbook and booting into Setup 1.x. I was running it as a disk image on a bootcamped Win7/8 .

So the PCI Reset Delay (SW1=3) keeps the eGPU "hidden" but the pci-e bus active so the THunderbolt controller is enabled until I've well and truly booted into Setup 1.x. On my 2012" 13" Macbook Pro if the Apple firmware sees the eGPU then when I trying boot Win7/8 (BIOS/MBR) the system shutdowns completely.

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So I power the eGPU right before turning on the macbook. Then I boot onto my USB (because I'm using a macbook), and when it gets to the blue screen do I do option 1 or 2? And is that it? Or is there a lot more to this than that?

I think that one of my biggest problems is the fact that my rMBP can't see the Intel HD 4000. I was reading that the setup 1.2 allows you to do PCI remapping to allow it to see it. I'm not sure how to go about doing that though.

agh there's so many ways to do this haha.

Tech Inferno Fan>> Scanty figured how to get it all working here.

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So I power the eGPU right before turning on the macbook. Then I boot onto my USB (because I'm using a macbook), and when it gets to the blue screen do I do option 1 or 2? And is that it? Or is there a lot more to this than that?

I think that one of my biggest problems is the fact that my rMBP can't see the Intel HD 4000. I was reading that the setup 1.2 allows you to do PCI remapping to allow it to see it. I'm not sure how to go about doing that though.

agh there's so many ways to do this haha.

Apple firmware locks out the HD4000 on a 15" rMBP when booting in BIOS-MBR mode, as you are trying to do now using Setup 1.20.

Instead you'd need to do a EFI-GPT installation of Win8 and follow Shelltoe's guide to enable the HD4000 : http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/2367-macbook-pro-retina-15-gtx-560-ti-%40-th05.html#post31469 . That's what would be recommended to get at least the x1 pci-e compression component of NVidia Optimus activated with your eGPU hardware. The Optimus internal LCD mode still appears to be buggered as can't get the gmux to switch the HD4000 to drive the internal LCD in Windows.

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I got it figured out without having to delete my partition and boot into EFI mode!

The GTX 760 is working just fine on my 15" rMBP, although I had to go at it in a little bit different way than suggested.

It seems that the performance of the eGPU is worse on my 15" than my friend's 13" MBP... I'm using the same setup and pci.bat/startup.bat

I know that without the iGPU, my 15" performs worse at DX9, but I'm playing at DX11, so I wouldn't think it would have an effect.

My friend's 13" MBP is getting 60fps on ultra at 800p.

My 15" rMBP is getting 24-30fps on ultra at 800p

What the heck.

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I got it figured out without having to delete my partition and boot into EFI mode!

The GTX 760 is working just fine on my 15" rMBP, although I had to go at it in a little bit different way than suggested.

It seems that the performance of the eGPU is worse on my 15" than my friend's 13" MBP... I'm using the same setup and pci.bat/startup.bat

I know that without the iGPU, my 15" performs worse at DX9, but I'm playing at DX11, so I wouldn't think it would have an effect.

My friend's 13" MBP is getting 60fps on ultra at 800p.

My 15" rMBP is getting 24-30fps on ultra at 800p

What the heck.

Good to hear you're all up and running.

Reason why DX9 is faster on the 13" MBP than your 15" rMBP has been previously explained with corrective solutions at http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/4163-help-manual-pci-bat-egpu-setup-1-2-15-mbp-sonnet-echo-express-ati-7850-a.html#post64599 .

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I know that without the iGPU, my 15" performs worse at DX9, but I'm playing at DX11, so I wouldn't think it would have an effect.

What the heck.

Good to hear you're all up and running.

Reason why DX9 is faster on the 13" MBP than your 15" rMBP has been previously explained with corrective solutions at http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/4163-help-manual-pci-bat-egpu-setup-1-2-15-mbp-sonnet-echo-express-ati-7850-a.html#post64599 .

I was wondering if it would have any effect on the performance if we were only playing a game on DX11.

Also, I THINK (I may be wrong) that my friend's 13" has 512MB of pci compaction available, and I have 256MB. Is there any way I can increase this to 512MB?

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OK, scratch what I just said... So I found out that MY computer was just displaying my GTX 760 in the device manager with no errors. Says it's working properly.

BUT! My computer is still using my dGPU! I tried going into the Nvidia control panel and messing with some stuff there but it didn't work. Does anyone know what could be causing this or how it could be fixed? I'm sooooooo close!

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OK, scratch what I just said... So I found out that MY computer was just displaying my GTX 760 in the device manager with no errors. Says it's working properly.

BUT! My computer is still using my dGPU! I tried going into the Nvidia control panel and messing with some stuff there but it didn't work. Does anyone know what could be causing this or how it could be fixed? I'm sooooooo close!

Attach external LCD to the eGPU and ensure it's detected. Then set the eGPU-attached LCD as the main display as shown below. Your desktop will then appear on the eGPU-attached LCD and run whatever game/app will default to using the eGPU.

Win7_SelectMain.png

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AH! Thank you. I was definitely going to do that when I get another screen. But for now I can only use my internal LCD.

As your 15" rMBP doesn't have an active iGPU in Windows you can't run a game and have it render on the internal LCD via the Optimus driver. Shelltoe was able to activate the iGPU in EFI mode but was not able to display to it. The activation at least important for your x1 implementation as you'd get x1 pci-e compression to accelerate DX9.

Best thing you can do without an external LCD is use the Ultramon method to drag a *windowed* app from dummy external VGA display to the internal LCD. The internal lCD display data uses some of the bandwidth so there is a performance penalty in doing this.

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OK! So I got a separate monitor and everything is working exactly like I dreamed! WOW what an adventure.

I was wondering if it would be helpful if I made a guide for how I got everything setup and running with a rMBP 15" with a PE4L and Sonnet Expresscard Pro.

I would be glad to make a thread and/or video for how to do this. At least with my configuration.

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OK! So I got a separate monitor and everything is working exactly like I dreamed! WOW what an adventure.

I was wondering if it would be helpful if I made a guide for how I got everything setup and running with a rMBP 15" with a PE4L and Sonnet Expresscard Pro.

I would be glad to make a thread and/or video for how to do this. At least with my configuration.

Yes, by all means feel free to create a dedicated thread for a BIOS mode 15" rMBP eGPU implementation. We are lacking an easy to follow guide for that configuration as you have found out. We have numerous BIOS mode ones for 11-13" MBA and 13" rMBP/MBP.

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  • 2 weeks later...
OK! So I got a separate monitor and everything is working exactly like I dreamed! WOW what an adventure.

I was wondering if it would be helpful if I made a guide for how I got everything setup and running with a rMBP 15" with a PE4L and Sonnet Expresscard Pro.

I would be glad to make a thread and/or video for how to do this. At least with my configuration.

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  • 5 months later...
Is there a chance that you can post your guide? Or at least post just some key steps and config files?

I'm in pretty much exact same boat: Same computer, same bootcamp Windows and all. Seeing how Nando's Setup 1.20 Automated PCI Compaction didn't do the trick for you makes me worried that I just won't be able to get this working. You mentioned that you had to do something slightly different than what was suggested - can you at least explain what that step(s) involved?

Hey, I made a tutorial! I'm sorry it took so long. I'm in college and this totally slipped my mind.

Anyway, here you go. http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/6345-guide-2012-15-inch-retina-mbp.html#post86835

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