08-17-2011, 08:30 PM
|
#1815 (permalink)
|
|
Lord Pringles
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Malaysia
Posts: 3,190
|
Re: Dell Studio 1557
DIY eGPU implementation: 15" Dell Studio 1557 + ATI Radeon HD 5870 @x2
Link:-
Specification:-
Method (x1 setup):-- Power ON the notebook with eGPU already connected & powered ON.
- Using modified drivers: D.N.A. Method (x2 setup):-- connected everything
- power on eGPU
- power on system
- set x2 on Port1 using Setup 1.x
- Reboot (using Reboot command in Setup 1.x)
- boot into windows
OR can use automated script in STARTUP.BAT:-
Code:
:: enable disk caching to improve performance
call speedup lbacache
:: enable x2 on port1
call iport x2 1
:: wait for HD5870 to be attached
:: call vidwait 60 1002:6898
:: check that it's a x2 link
call iport scan
:: give a prompted countdown for 7 seconds
call wait_e 7 "Confirm link is x2 - if not hit CTRL+ALT+DEL and try again"
:: run result of last PCI compaction
call pci
:: chainload to MBR
:: call grub4dos mbr
:: need to reboot to re-detect the eGPU
reboot
With the above script, only need to:-
- choose Setup 1.x at Windows/Setup 1.x boot menu
- choose first option to use STARTUP.BAT
- it will reboot automatically
- finally, choose Windows at boot menu.
DRIVER:-
- Using modified drivers: D.N.A.
OR
- dGPU HD4570 use mobile driver where driver is installed manually in Device Manager. eGPU HD5870 use desktop driver (using the .EXE file). First PCI bus with 8 digits memory address = TOLM1
1 On (first gen) Intel i7 quad-core processor, this register is called TOLM, not TOLUD.
Boot without eGPU connected (0xC8000000: TOLM=3.125GB):-
 | Boot with eGPU connected (0xA8000000: TOLM=2.625GB):-
 |
eGPU ATI HD5870 @x1 link Setup:-
eGPU ATI HD5870 @x2 link Setup:-
| DirectX 11 | | 3DMark 11 | Heaven Benchmark v2.5 Basic | Detailed Scores| | x1 link | x2 link | | 3DMark Score | P3156 | P3659 | | Graphics Score | 3220 | 3667 | | Physics Score | 3391 | 3868 | | Combined Score | 2520 | 3335 | | GraphicsTest1 | 15 FPS | 18 FPS | | GraphicsTest2 | 18 FPS | 19 FPS | | GraphicsTest3 | 21 FPS | 23 FPS | | GraphicsTest4 | 8 FPS | 9 FPS | | PhysicsTest | 10 FPS | 12 FPS | | CombinedTest | 11 FPS | 15 FPS |
| | | x1 link | | | x2 link | | FPS: | 22.7 | | | 28.3 | | Scores: | 572 | | | 714 | | Min FPS: | 13.2 | | | 13.8 | | Max FPS: | 60.0 | | | 71.2 |
Hardware| Binary: | Windows 32bit Visual C++ 1600 Release Mar 1 2011 | | Operating system: | Windows 7 (build 7601, Service Pack 1) 64bit | | CPU model: | Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU Q 720 @ 1.60GHz | | CPU flags: | 1595MHz MMX SSE SSE2 SSE3 SSSE3 SSE41 SSE42 HTT | | GPU model: | ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series 8.850.6.0 1024Mb |
Settings| Render: | direct3d11 | | Mode: | 1920x1080 fullscreen | | Shaders: | high | | Textures: | high | | Filter: | trilinear | | Anisotropy: | 4x | | Occlusion: | enabled | | Refraction: | enabled | | Volumetric: | enabled | | Tessellation: | normal |
|
Summary/Conclusion:-
When compared with Nvidia games experience on x1 link, the ATI graphic card unable to deliver comfortable performance when running on x1 link. This issue can be fixed with x2 link. Fortunately, Dell Studio 1557, just like Studio 1555 & 1558, can support x2 link configuration (PCIe port 1 & 2). Also it seems, there are enough PCI bus space to support SLI/CFX configuration. So, my next plan are:-
Last edited by kizwan : 01-01-2012 at 09:19 PM.
Reason: add x2 link benchmarks
|
|
|