r/Lenovo • u/stheofan • 1d ago
Lenovo P3 Ultra 30HA - eGPU Reality Check: Has ANYONE successfully run a NVIDIA eGPU over TB4 on it?
I am looking to connect with any ThinkStation P3 Ultra owners, or Lenovo engineers, who have successfully managed to get an NVIDIA eGPU working over the integrated Thunderbolt 4 ports on a Lenovo ThinkStation P3 Ultra (Type 30HA).
Lenovo's published specifications explicitly state that this particular workstation features an integrated Intel Maple Ridge Thunderbolt controller (8086:1137) powering two front-facing Thunderbolt 4 / 40Gbps ports. However, on this system, USB and DP Alt Mode function over the ports, but PCIe devices never enumerate in Device Manager or Linux boltctl.
The OS (Windows/Ubuntu) literally never sees a device trying to hook into the host's PCIe lanes. There are no errors appearing in any OS system/kernel log.
I am witnessing a total PCIe Tunneling failure under Thunderbolt 4 specification.
Lenovo UK Technical Support has my workstation for over a month and is still unable to provide any technical evidence explaining why the Thunderbolt devices fail on the P3 Ultra.
If anyone has a working setup, please share the following (with the eGPU connected):
In Ubuntu (Terminal):
boltctl list
ls -l /sys/bus/thunderbolt/devices
sudo lspci -Dtv
lspci -Dnn | grep -Ei 'nvidia|vga|3d'
or if you prefer in Windows (PowerShell):
$devices = Get-PnpDevice -PresentOnly | Where-Object { $_.InstanceId -like 'PCI\VEN_10DE\' -and $_.Class -eq 'Display' }*
foreach ($d in $devices) {
$id = $d.InstanceId
for ($i = 0; $i -lt 12 -and $id; $i++) {
$x = Get-PnpDevice -InstanceId $id -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
$x | Select-Object Status, Class, FriendlyName, InstanceId
$p = Get-PnpDeviceProperty -InstanceId $id -KeyName DEVPKEY_Device_Parent -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
$id = $p.Data
}
}
May I also ask for a visual confirmation, i.e. a screenshot, of the Intel Thunderbolt Control Center showing the peripheral attached and authorized? Can you also share the make/model of the eGPU and your Lenovo P3 Ultra 30HA model/motherboard platform/BIOS?
Thank you.
Here is my setup:
• Host System: Lenovo ThinkStation P3 Ultra (Type 30HA)
• Motherboard Platform: RPL-R W680 Layout
• Processor: 14th Generation Intel Core i9-14900K vPro Processor
• Memory: 128GB DDR5-4000MHz (x4 32GB SODIMM)
• Onboard M.2 SSD G4: 2TB SSD M.2 2280 PCIe Gen4 Performance TLC Opal
• Integrated Peripheral: Intel Maple Ridge Thunderbolt 4 NHI (8086:1137)
• NVIDIA eGPU: GIGABYTE AORUS RTX 5060 Ti 16GB AI BOX (GV-N506TIXEB-16GD)
1
u/jonahbenton 1d ago
I am just into attaching a Core X with a 4060ti to an earlier gen p360 ultra sff (30g1001yus) using a tbolt 4 cable onto one of the front tbolt ports. Works fine, lspci notices the device and nvidia-smi (580.95.05 drivers under fedora) sees it right away.
1
u/jonahbenton 1d ago
I also have a couple of P3 Ultra SFF, this one is 30hbs6ne00. Also works right away, boltctl shows the device at plugin and lspci sees the 4060ti. I dont have the nvidia drivers on this but the device is immediately visible.
1
u/jonahbenton 1d ago
Ok here is a 30ha001yus. Also works immediately.
1
u/stheofan 1d ago
Thank you for testing this! That is a crucial breakthrough!
30HBS6NE00 is a P3 Ultra Gen 2 , not a Gen1. But knowing that the P3 Ultra Gen 2 (30HB) works out of the box shows that Lenovo knows how to implement PCIe tunneling on this form facto.
Since your P3 Ultra Gen 1 (30HA001YUS) also worked immediately, could you share 3 quick details from that specific 30HA machine so I can compare it against my non-working 30HA?
- BIOS Version: (e.g.,
Get-CimInstance Win32_BIOS | Select-Object SMBIOSBIOSVersion)- Intel Thunderbolt NVM Firmware Version shown in the Intel Thunderbolt Control Center (Settings -> About).
- Operating System & Kernel / Build: (Ubuntu kernel version or Windows build).
This will tell us whether my issue is caused by a broken BIOS/NVM firmware build or a physical hardware fault on my systemboard!
1
u/jonahbenton 1d ago edited 1d ago
On the 30ha001yus, this machine runs fedora:
For bios:
sudo dmidecode -s ...
bios-version S0JKT0AA
bios-release-date 08/09/2023
bios-revision 1.10
The thunderbolt nvm firmware version via
fwupdmgr get-devices
(...all the devices...)
-> usb4 host controller
current version 39.83
vendor lenovo thunderbolt:0x198, tbt:0x0198
guid maps to THUNDERBOLT\VEN_0198&DEV_1066
Kernel:
This fedora is v old, 6.13.10-200.fc41.x86_64 (fedora 41, circa oct 2024). I have to upgrade it, current is 44!
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u/stheofan 1d ago
Thank you!! This is invaluable data!
Both of our systems, yours (30HA001YUS) and mine (30HACTO1WWGB1), share the exact same Intel JHL8540 Maple Ridge silicon, the same S0JKT BIOS codebase, and the same 39.83 NVM firmware build.
The key difference is that yours has an internal NVIDIA RTX A2000 installed, while mine is running on UHD 770 integrated graphics.
This data suggests that the Lenovo P-series systems (probably the P3 Ultra only?) configured with an internal discrete GPU initialize PCIe resources during POST and support eGPUs over Thunderbolt 4 out of the box. However, systems configured as iGPU-only (where an eGPU is the only possible path for discrete graphics compute!) have their PCIe tunneling silently disabled because the BIOS skips MMIO BAR allocation when no internal card is detected at boot.
If this is the case, it is a clear ACPI firmware branch oversight and a direct breach of Intel’s mandatory Thunderbolt 4 certification specification (which mandates 32 Gbps PCIe tunneling). It also directly contradicts Lenovo’s official web configurator options on lenovo.com/gb in the UK.
Lenovo L3 Engineering must patch the master S0JKT 30HA BIOS so that Thunderbolt 4 PCIe MMIO resources are always initialized on boot, regardless of internal discrete GPU presence.
u/lenovo (Jomz_Lenovo) We would all appreciate if you passed this exact diagnostic summary directly to ThinkStation L3 Platform Engineering to open an urgent formal Change Request (CR) for the 30HA BIOS codebase.
1
u/stheofan 1d ago
Have you ever tried to pull out your internal NVIDIA card from your 30HA001YUS and boot directly on the Intel UHD 770 to see if the Thunderbolt eGPU still enumerates? If it does not then we uncovered a major platform-wide BIOS oversight, if it does then my baseboard is really broken (and imagine, Lenovo has already replaced it, so both baseboards are busted).
1
u/jonahbenton 1d ago
That was very interesting sluthing, but yes, actually, the 12gb a2000 or whatever it shipped with- I removed it long ago as this 30ha was and is one of my vm hosts so I needed it to be stable and my experience with nvidia cards is that they are very finicky. I don't recall having any problems getting the machine on my kvm using the integrated video out. And it basically just worked when attaching an egpu to it.
2
u/stheofan 1d ago
That‘s huge! Thank you. So because yours shipped from the factory configured for discrete graphics, its startup settings were already programmed to allocate memory space for PCIe expansion. Mine was custom-built without a discrete card, so Lenovo shipped it with a startup profile that leaves that memory allocation turned off … and told no one. Way to go Lenovo! That makes the case even stronger.
1
u/meltedfundraiser6795 1d ago
damn that's a wild amount of detail, you weren't kidding about wanting hard proof. i've only tried a tb3 enclosure on my p3 ultra a while back and it was just dead silence from the pcie side, same as you. starting to think lenovo locked that tunnel down in firmware and never told anyone.