Hello,
I would like to show you two fully functional setups with the same notebook, but different eGPU's. 
System specs
2012 15" HP ENVY dv6-7240sg
- Windows 10, Version 1809, 64-Bit
- Intel Core i7-3630QM
- 8 GB DDR3 1600
- TOLUD of 2,5 GB (9FA00000)
- 500 GB Samsung SSD 580 EVO
- Intel HD Graphics 4000 (iGPU)
- NVIDIA GeForce GT 630M, 2 GB (dGPU) @x8 2.0
- 1366 x 768 screen
eGPU hardware
- EXP GDC 8.4d, mounted in a simple metal enclosure
- Dell DA-2 220 Watt PSU
- KFA² GeForce GTX 1060 OC, 6 GB (eGPU1) @x1 2.0 mPCIe2
- ASUS AREZ Dual Radeon RX 580 OC, 8 GB (eGPU2) @x1 2.0 mPCIe2
- Dell UltraSharp U2311H 23", 1920 x 1080 screen
Hardware pictures
Device Manager for Setup with GTX 1060 (eGPU1) on the left and RX 580 (eGPU2) on the right |
AIDA64 GPGPU Benchmark with RX 580 (eGPU2) |
Setup with GTX 1060 (eGPU1) |
Setup with RX 580 (eGPU2) |
Installation steps
First, I installed the GTX 1060 (eGPU1):
- Uninstalling dGPU driver (GeForce 391.35) with DDU in Safe Mode
- Disabling dGPU in device manager after restart
- Installing latest eGPU1 driver (GeForce 416.94) and restart again
- Fix error 43 in eGPU1 with Nando's script "nvidia-error43-fixer"
- Done!
For the RX 580 (eGPU2) i have repeated steps 1-3 as described above (by uninstalling eGPU1 instead of dGPU).
The installation of the RX 580 itself with the newest driver (AMD adrenalin 18.11.2) passed without recieving any error after restart. So i could proceed immediately with Battlefield and 3DMark as can be seen in the screenshots.
Benchmarks
So lets have a quick look on the benchmark results. Due to lack of time i used for testing the Battlefield 4 Test Range (DirectX 11) and 3DMark's Fire Strike (DirectX 11) and Time Spy (DirectX 12) on an external FHD display.
- Battlefield 4
Preset was 1920 x 1080 with details on Ultra.
As one can see, the framerate increases by the factor of 5 by moving from GT 630M (~12) to GTX 1060 and RX 580 (66~70). This is really impressive for an 6 year old laptop. While the FPS on both eGPU's were almost equal, the RX 580 without undervolting took almost twice (~120 W) as much Power as the GTX 1060 (~70 W). I couldn't get any power consumption data for the dedicated graphics.
Battlefield 4 Test Range with GT 630M, GTX 1060 and RX 580 (from upper left to lower right) |
Another interesting fact about my RX 580 is that Battlefield 5 keeps crashing after joining an active session when DirectX 12 is activated. Unfortunately i didn't test it with the GTX 1060.
Update: DirectX 12 is disabled in Battlefield 5 on mobile devices, which i didn't know at the time of testing.
- 3DMark
Lets focus on 3DMark scores. On Fire Strike (DirectX 11) the scores starts with 842 for the GT 630M, and goes up to 8378 (factor 10) for the GTX 1060 and even more 9790 (factor 12) for the RX 580. On Time Spy (DirectX 12) the Radeon is only marginally better than its companion.
Fire Strike (DirectX 11) with GT 630M, GTX 1060 and RX 580 |
Time Spy (DirectX 12) with GTX 1060 and RX 580 |
Even if the AMD results in my case are slightly better in both 3DMark benchmarks, i couldn't notice any big differences ingame between the two cards, which is probably due to the bottleneck of the data bus.
Cheers!
Hi Dude,
I finally got someone with the same kind of my laptop. I need your help for building egpu for me.
Jahir.
To do: Create my signature with system and expected eGPU configuration information to give context to my posts. I have no builds.
.
Hi, I'm using an Asus Gaming laptop with i7-6700HQ and i wanna set up eGPU with RX 580. My system has:
-
i7-6700HQ
-
GTX 965M
-
16 GB 2133 MHz DDR4 RAM
-
128 GB M.2 (PCIE) SSD
-
1 TB 7.2K RPM HDD
-
Intel® HM170 Chipset
-
A PCIE 3.0 Port that the Wi-Fi adapter is plugged
Thebottlenecker site says me that my cpu will work fine with RX 580 so I wanna know can I use AMD graphics cards with internal monitor. And did you even try using RX 580 with internal monitor?
To do: Create my signature with system and expected eGPU configuration information to give context to my posts. I have no builds.
.Hello Fruko,
i tested both eGPU's only on the external display at that time. In the meantime i sold my AMD RX 580 and bought a used AMD RX 480. Both cards are based on the same chip generation (Polaris), so from the performance point of view, this makes no noticeable difference here, because the bottleneck limits the performance of the graphics card.
So i repeated the benchmark test with Battlefield from the first post (of course with deactived dGPU). But this time with Battlefield 5 Testrange and Multiplayer (Conquest with 64 players) on low settings on both displays. Unfortunately i only had a smaller external display with lower screen resolution for testing.
eGPU hardware
- EXP GDC 8.4d, mounted in a simple metal enclosure
- Dell DA-2 220 Watt PSU
- PowerColor Red Dragon Radeon RX 480, 8 GB (eGPU) @x1 2.0 mPCIe2
- Samsung Syncmaster 740BF 17", 1280 x 1024 screen
Hardware pictures
Device Manager for Setup with RX 480 (eGPU) |
AIDA64 GPGPU Benchmark with RX 480 (eGPU) |
Benchmarks
To keep it short, i could drag the running game (see screenshots) from the external to the internal display. For the screenshots i had to run the game in window mode.
As far as the performance is concerned, the refresh rate drop by more than half on Battlefield 5 Testrange (75>30) and Multiplayer (54>22) when moving the window to the internal screen, which is understandable, because now only half of the original bandwidth is available for transmission for each directions. Btw. i have limited the FPS in Battlefield 5 with v-sync to 75 hz.
Battlefield 5 Test Range with RX 480 on external display |
Battlefield 5 Test Range with RX 480 on internal display |
Battlefield 5 Multiplayer (Conquest with 64 Players) with RX 480 on external display |
Battlefield 5 Multiplayer (Conquest with 64 Players) with RX 480 on internal display |
So from a technical point of view you should be able to use an AMD card on the internal display, at least in my case, it worked. As you can see from my test, this is really not recommended due to the huge performance drop.
Very nice and tidy built.
Did you connect it through the Wi-Fi slot?
My Future Build: AMD Laptop with Thunderbolt or M.2 PCIe x4 eGPU
Thank you very much.
Yes, exactly, via the interface on the underside of the notebook. But I had to tape the cable to the case, because the interior of the case didn't offer enough space to lay the cable internally.
Hi!
Will this EXP GDC work on my HP Dv 7014nr? It's the same chasis than the HP Envy you've showed. I've asked many youtubers but there's no answer to my question.
Thanks in advance.
To do: Create my signature with system and expected eGPU configuration information to give context to my posts. I have no builds.
.Hi autococker01,
I could imagine, however, that this would also work for you, since our devices only differ insignificantly from each other. You will probably have no choice but to test it. good luck with it. 🙂
In case you want to control the exp gdc ia the mini pci express interface of your wireless card, it depends on whether your bios allows other wireless cards (whitelist).
Thanks!
By the way, there are some specs i want to show:
Model: HP DV6 7014 NR
Product number: A5F76AV
Serial number: 2CE3014BPS
BIOS (configuration): F.2E - 09/07/2016 (latest)
Thanks in advance!
To do: Create my signature with system and expected eGPU configuration information to give context to my posts. I have no builds.
.Well, we have at least the same bios, Insyde F.2E (Revision A). at that time nobody could tell me if it would work on my notebook. So i just tried it out. Like I said, I can't tell you if it works with your notebook. I would just give it a try, since the exp gdc interface is not so expensive. For me it has been worth it, even if you have to make certain cuts in the graphics when gaming, it brings a significant gain compared to the dedicated graphics card.