[MikjoA]

VPC-Z1 & eGPU GTX 480 & 560 Ti mini review/tutorial
The installation setup may vary for other laptop but it should be helpful if you are a bit lost though. The green lines only concerns VPC-Z1 owners.

● Here is my eGPU setup



● A view from above



Originally, our family computer has a GTX 480 and in my flat I had my VPC-Z1 only.
First I thought that anything more powerfull than a GTX 460 was useless due to limited bandwidth.
But the MSI N560 GTX Ti Twin Frozr II OC was really attracting and I didn't resist.
I've mainly played at TES IV Oblivion with a lot of enhancing mods to the point that
whatever my two cards, it made not much difference and it runs 10 fps or little less into
Oblivion's towns. (but most of the time I get comfortable FPS). But since I have two card
why not comparing them into further tests and games.

● Equipment

- Sony VAIO laptop VPC-Z11Z9E
(i7 620M - HM57 - switchable Intel HD Graphics & GT 330M - 4x4Gb DDR3 - Quad-SSD RAID 0)
- PEAH 2.4 + EC2C + Mini-HDMI 1m
- MSI N480 GTX & N560 GTX Ti Twin Frozr II OC
- LEPA Gold 87+ 700W (Enermax Modu87+ 700W clone) I want a silent, efficient, modular and safe PSU.
- SAMSUNG F2380M & DELL U2311H

● Installation setup

First I'd recommend for VPC-Z1 owners (experienced one only) to flash your BIOS to enable advanced options.
Please leave it if you don't understand the whole flashing process, you cant still use eGPU with an other and safer method.

1. First get Verde 275.33 and this custom nvam.inf and the latest intel HD graphics
2. Uninstall any graphic driver nVIDIA/Intel then instal the new intel one.
3. If you have enabled advanced features in your bios, do not change switching gpu policy yet, just let it on AUTO.
3bis. If you don't have VPC-Z1 or enabled advanced option in bios, then install the Setup 1.x but do not disable your dGPU yet.
4.Shut down, then Assemble the eGPU, power on your laptop and when windows 7 is loading connect your eGPU.
(If you connect before powering on VPC-Z1 it will freeze it. Connecting the eGPU once windows 7 has loaded could freeze your USB ports, bluetooth and the VPC-Z1 won't shutdown.)
5. Once windows 7 has loaded, you should notice that windows found a new hardware and tries to install it. Let it try to then restart just like asked. (if no hardware detected then do 4. again)
6. When your system has restarted, install the nVIDIA driver, select advanced option if you do not want 3D Driver/nvidia update soft.
7. Restart, then your laptop should recognize your eGPU correctly, set your external monitor and enjoy the power of your eGPU!

● GPU Clocks

First of all, my graphic card are running higher clocks for every test, but always the same. The clock are my 24/7 settings. They are quite high.

GPU	Core clock	Shader Clock	Memory Clock
GTX 560 Ti	1010Mhz (823 Mhz)	2020 Mhz (1646Mhz)	2205 Mhz (2004 Mhz)
GTX 480	866Mhz (700Mhz)	1732Mhz (1401Mhz)	2001Mhz (1848Mhz)

● 3DMark Series !

GTX 560 Ti

3DMark06	SM2.0	SM3.0	CPU	Proxycon	Firefly	Canyon	Deep Freeze
15648	6484	8535	3221	53.96FPS	54.10FPS	103.28FPS	67.42FPS

3DMarkVantage GPU	TEST 1	TEST 2	FEATURE 1	FEATURE 2	FEATURE 3	FEATURE 4	FEATURE 5	FEATURE 6
15393	48.80FPS	41.25FPS	55.69FPS	7.19FPS	43.96FPS	45.59FPS	70.55FPS	100.28FPS

3DMark11	Graphics Score	Physics	Combined Score	GT1	GT2	GT3	GT4	Physics Test	Combined Test
P3904	4316	2997	3095	20FPS	21FPS	26FPS	12FPS	9FPS	14FPS

GTX 480

3dmark06	SM2.0	SM3.0	CPU	Proxycon	Firefly	Canyon	Deep Freeze
15793	6521	8756	3190	54.32FPS	54.37FPS	108FPS	67.13FPS

3DMarkVantage GPU	TEST 1	TEST 2	FEATURE 1	FEATURE 2	FEATURE 3	FEATURE 4	FEATURE 5	FEATURE 6
16359	52.12FPS	43.57FPS	47.36FPS	9.34FPS	58.12FPS	53.74FPS	84.38FPS	114.58FPS

3DMark11	Graphics Score	Physics	Combined Score	GT1	GT2	GT3	GT4	Physics Test	Combined Test
P4496	5277	3116	3113	22FPS	25FPS	33FPS	16FPS	9FPS	14FPS

DX9 = No significant difference
DX10 = Slight difference
DX11 = More important difference particularly with tessellation test.


● DX11 + Tessellation

Here are my favorites benchmark, they focuses on DirectX 11 technology, and particularly on Tessellation, which brings an incredible amount of surface details.

STONE GIANT



GTX 560 Ti

Stone Giant	Resolution	Tessellation	Depht Of Field	Anti Aliasing	Anisotropic Filtering
58FPS	1920*1080	High	OFF	OFF	OFF

GTX 480

Stone Giant	Resolution	Tessellation	Depht Of Field	Anti Aliasing	Anisotropic Filtering
78FPS	1920*1080	High	OFF	OFF	OFF

Unigine Heaven 2.5



GTX 560 Ti

Heaven 2.5	Av. FPS	Min FPS	MAX FPS	Resolution	Shaders	Textures	Filter	Anisotropy	Occlusion	Refraction	Volumetric	Tessellation
900 pts	35.7	8.3	106.7	1920*1080	High	High	Trilinear	16X	OFF	ON	ON	EXTREME

GTX 480

Heaven 2.5	Av. FPS	Min FPS	MAX FPS	Resolution	Shaders	Textures	Filter	Anisotropy	Occlusion	Refraction	Volumetric	Tessellation
1083 pts	43.0	25.2	123.9	1920*1080	High	High	Trilinear	16X	OFF	ON	ON	EXTREME

● Games benchmarks


CRYSIS 2



Crysis 2 Patch 1.9 + DirectX 11 Patch + HD Texture
(Tessellation inside)

GTX 560 Ti

Crysis 2	Quality	API	Resolution	Anti-Aliasing	Anisotropy	EdgeAA	Textures	Map
32.59FPS	ULTRA	DirectX 11	1920*1080	0X	0X	OFF	ON	Central Park
30.32FPS	ULTRA	DirectX 11	1920*1080	4X	8X	ON	ON	Central Park

GTX 480

Crysis 2	Quality	API	Resolution	Anti-Aliasing	Anisotropy	EdgeAA	Textures	Map
38.14FPS	ULTRA	DirectX 11	1920*1080	0X	0X	OFF	ON	Central Park
34.83FPS	ULTRA	DirectX 11	1920*1080	4X	8X	ON	ON	Central Park

As expected, with DX 11 activated, GTX 480 took the lead significantly
enough once again. Enough to make the game quite more playable.
Though, against my expectation, the GTX 560 Ti suffered less from
activating AA and EdgeAA.



Unreal Tournament III




GTX 560 Ti

UT3	Resolution	Quality	Motion Blur	Anti Aliasing	Anisotropy	Map	Mode
126FPS	1920*1080	Highest	ON	0X	16X	DM-ShangriLa	FlyBy

GTX 480

UT3	Resolution	Quality	Motion Blur	Anti Aliasing	Anisotropy	Map	Mode
128FPS	1920*1080	Highest	ON	0X	16X	DM-ShangriLa	FlyBy

● Conclusion

I go to bed !
edit : I'll complete that mini review after some rest.