GPU upgrade in Y460 - how to [ Edited ]

[madseason]

I wanted to share 'how to' on upgrading GPU performance in y460 - may apply to other ideapad laptops as well, but first I wanted to check if you are interested.

Let me know if you would like me to share detailed steps on this setup.

Some facts:

The witcher 2 - fullHD high details (bit laggy on ultra)

GTA IV - fullHD high details - smoth graphics.

som benchmarks still to be done.

Cheers

link to image

image(s) >50k converted to link(s). 

[zitnikp]

Well if not anyone else, I'd be interested about the guide. I wanted to do this for quite some time but haven't found a good guide to start off with. I've got a radeon hd 6990 lying in my room(got it for a gift hah) and a 500w PSU(I think that should do it) but you can tell us or do photo-by-photo or a video guide on how to connect it to laptop

[velenoso666]

Although I too am interested in the external GPU docks, I'm still somewhat not sold on them for a few reasons which might or might not gel with others. The cost for one thing couldn't be that far away from buying a laptop with a good GPU in the first place: laptop+card+dock+PSU= ?
And then you'll have the factor that in 2 years the microarchitecture of the laptop and your external GPU will have advanced and if you're like me you'll want to buy at least the best latest GPU you can afford which will run from $200-$400 depending on how hardcore you are about gaming, if not a new laptop as well.
Then you have the extra leads which if you're like most who are buying this for gaming, you already have a gaming key/b+mouse+larger screen+external HHD plus who knows maybe a cooling pad.
When I buy any piece of hardware nowadays my biggest concern isn't of the cost, performance or style. It's how long before this becomes antiquated, I don't know about others but I'm getting pretty pi$$ed off with buying things and they become antiquated before I fully learn or how best to utilise them!

[zitnikp]

Well it's good if you have gpu and psu just lying around at home and don't have the heart to sell it. And yes, you usually need an external screen as i don't think that external gpu can run on laptop screen. Buying a laptop for gaming is(not trying to offend anyone in any possible way) really dumb. I mean I know a lot of people from my town that bought their laptop for "gaming" and none of them is really happy with the performance of the laptop. Well except one that got the sager with gtx570m(or 580m, sth like that), and an i7 2920xm..But that did cost him about/if not over 2000eur. So buying a laptop for gaming is the worst investment in my opinion which one can make. Go get a laptop for let's say 400€ so you can check your mail and things like that, and get a desktop for 1000€ and I can bet anything that it'll server it's purpose at least twice longer than a 1400€ laptop. That's for sure

So as I said, if you have the things lying around(gpu,psu), why not taking on this project and try to see if and how it works with the laptop.

[madseason]

zitnikp, I do not have good new for you.
1. The best performance you can get using nVidia graphics cards due to Optimus technology (while desktop PCI cards are x16, laptop PCI-e will use x1 speed, except for new intel architecture, that will allow PCI3.0 and x2 speed)
Optimus technologu can use at the same time you integrated intel CPU for phisics and in addition it is compressing data between computer and external GPU, that allow much better performance. ATI unfortunatly is way behind in this field. The only soultion for ATI is to negotiate x1.2 link that is almost twice as fast as standard PCI x1.0 but I could not check it due to some problem with drivers. Could not detect external card (maybe because I was using my ATI5650m graphics card)
2. It is possible to use external GPU for internal laptop screen, but again, due to PCI link limitation it will get only around 60%-80% of external screen performance.

I am using nVidia optimus technology, and external 27' HD monitor at home, and never thought to use it on internal screen. Still it is nice to have internal ATI 5650m on board to have fun on the go while high.
This solution is grat for me - powerfull machine at home, but when I go mobile I can just unplug eGPU and run (no worries about file I was working on, movies on the other computer I forgot to copy etc).
As for the price - I paid almost the price of new xbox 360, but I get power of true fullHD gaming, diversity of PC games - love it! (fyi I have an xbox as well, but since i have this setup I is drowning in dust)

[velenoso666]

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zitnikp wrote:

So buying a laptop for gaming is the worst investment in my opinion which one can make. 

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Yea you're better off buying an xbox or sony at least everyone is on the same playing field. Playing against ppl with much better gaming rigs just makes them look good and u not so good, plus the neighbours must be sick of the screaming.

[Mark_Lenovo Administrator]

madseason,

We see this kind question come up frequently in the forum and I really appreciate your taking the time to share your results here with others.  We are interested in hearing more about the benchmarks, some more details about how you configured this - which pieces, the dock, the card, the power supply, and the cables used.  

More pics would be great.  I've never put one of these together, so I'd like to learn about it as well.   

Also, it would be good to know if there were any memory mapping considerations. 

Many thanks for your contributions here!

Mark

[Sp0rk1859]

I too would like to hear about this, new to the forum but i have  a y570, and a gtx 570 in a desktop that isn't in used anymore, i'd drool to be able the run this next to the 55", and 1080p game in glory, so yes yes yes lol!!

As a side note, what other software is needed to do this? It's all in the Optimus technology already? I really hope that's the case, because that would be awesome!

[thegreatkewat]

yes please tell i wanna know how i can use the e-gpu with the laptop.....are sure it gonna increase the performance level???

[madseason]

Let me introduce results of my tests.

Both made on external fullHD LCD with the same 3DMark settings (default)

dGPU - ATI hd 5650m overclocked to 650/1000

eGPU - MSI GTX 560 Ti, 2GB GDDR5 880/2004

Laptop Full specs:

- i7 640m (2.8 / 3.46 GHz turbo)

- 2x4GB RAM - 1066MHz (dual channel)

- PCI-e 80GB Intell 310 SSD (system only)

- 500GB standard WD HDD (data only)

- Clean Window 7 Ultimate x64 with Lenovo drivers

Windows Experience index (with eGPU):

CPU 7.0

RAM 7.0

GPU 7.8

GPU 7.8

Disk 7.6

(when I bought it, it was i3 370m, 2GB 800Mhz Elpida RAM, 500HDD, no SSD) 

- RESULTS:

http://3dmark.com/3dmv/4038742

http://3dmark.com/3dm06/16615374;jsessionid=tsjl6mapx1jvfiu03uqrn481

http://3dmark.com/3dm11/3252172

3Dmark06 dGPU - 8130 

3Dmark06 eGPU - 15974

3Dmark11 dGPU - P1217 

3Dmark11 eGPU - P3754

Both made on external HD LCD withthe same other settings (default)

Seems that eGPU is 2x better than the regular GPU

Screens from 3Dmark tests on eGPU:

http://pokazywarka.pl/38xukf/

This is it for now. I will be visiting this topic to answer any questions.

I will try to make some more detailed pictures, instructions etc as soon as possible.

PS, as for Driver status: FM not approved - I have installed nVidia Beta driver.

Cheers!