E-GPU Options?

I just ran across this on PC Gamer, anyone have any idea how this would connect to our M18x R2 without USB-C or Thunderbolt?

http://www.pcgamer.com/gigabyte-may-have-finally-made-an-external-graphics-enclosure-practical-and-affordable

 

I wouldn't bother honestly. If it's still TB3 it will bottleneck a 1070 by a decent bit and a 1080/1080 Ti by a lot. The bandwidth limitations can easily be seen on Razer's Core device over on Linus' channel. He tested the AW Graphics Amp (full PCIe 4X speed to the eGPU) vs shared TB3 speeds. The TB3 eGPU solution was MUCH slower in every single test.

 

I thought that actually the Alienware Amplifier exhibited higher speed than the Razer Core?

 

That's what I said - the AW GA performed better in every way possible.

 

Ah I see, and AW GA is connected how, via USB C? So there are no options for us? I like the Gigabyte enclosure + GTX 1070, size and price wise. $600 you can't beat that. I could carry that with my R2 no problem.

 

Nope thats just an extension of the PCIe 3.0 x4 port with a proprietary connector.

 

If only you got the full performance, I'd say yes. But considering the bottlenecking that goes on, I wouldn't waste my money personally on a 1070.

 

Here is a full PCIe 3.0 x4 vs TB3 eGPU comparison using a GTX 1080 -

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...-g-gtx1080-tb3-hdk-pe4c-v4-1-m-2-ngff.796773/

 

18.5k GPU Firestrike 1.1 that's not that bad actually!

What enclosure and how would I accomplish this with M18x R2? Is Gigabytes offering out of the question?

 

Unless that laptop has a TB3 port (full duplex) you will need to go with the M.2 based solution.

 

If going with the m.2 solution any good for vr? What's the lag with this solution please? Thanks

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

 

I have no idea how well it will perform with VR. But with M.2 i dont think there will be too much of a lag. TB3 however will have quite a bit of it because of the signal conversion and stuff.

 

How do I go with the M.2 solution with an M18x R2?

 

Im really not familiar with the M18x R2's internal tbh.
Do you know if it has a NGFF / mPCIe slot?

 

To be honest I don't know but I don't believe it does.

 

Hmm then you might want to try the express card based solution. But your bandwidth will be seriously limited if you use anything other than a full duplex TB3 port or a PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 slot.
Thus rendering a 1080/1070 a waste of money.

 

wonder if we have mxm to pcie?

 

Still havent seen any real progress on those. All of the devs who were working something like that, seem to have gone underground.

 

Well, yes and no, a GTX 1080 is going for $450 and does 18.5k GPU Firestrike 1.1. I paid $500 for my 980M that does 10.5k GPU Firestrike 1.1.

THIS is why I have renewed interested in an E-GPU solution, after reading the PC Gamer article I posted in my initial post here.

Hell even jury rigging a 1060 and running that in Optimus mode is around $700+ and that's only maybe 20% faster?

I think at this point, we need to start looking into portable, economic, E-GPU options.

Following up, if Volta cannot be shoehorned into the R2, i.e. GTX 1160, then E-GPU will become the only relevant upgrade path at that point. Imagine a GTX 1170 or 1180 in that aforementioned Gigabyte enclosure.

 

Again you are missing the point, if you use anything that has less bandwidth than a full duplex TB3 port then that 1.8.5K GPU score will drop to somewhere around 13-15k at the very least.

 

eGpu enclosure= 150/200$
PSU=100$
Gpu=450$

At starting point the cost is pretty same as a MSI 1070 mxm gpu, plus the portability goes to hell.

If you must push a 4k screen maybe isn't enough but it is fine for all the rest of gaming at FullHD (maybe till next-gen consoles).

Why are you telling that next gen will not go? as far is standard mxm 3.0b/3.1 all is fine. Optimus is not evil as I think before.

(Maybe next AMD/Nvidia Gpus generation do crossfire/sli without need of cable as desktop counterpart?)

 

No the 18.5k GPU was what someone pulled with PCI-E speed 4x. GTX 1080 is good for 24k GPU out of the box, 18k.5k GPU is indicative of a 33% performance loss at 4x PCI-E vs. 16x.

 

http://www.pcgamer.com/gigabyte-may...-graphics-enclosure-practical-and-affordable/

$600 for all of the above, small footprint, hence the necromancy of the E-GPU subject with this thread.

 

Yeap and that is why i dont even find TB3 to be worth it for anything more than 1080p gaming. Anything less and it will be pointless unless used with a GPU lower than the 1070. (borderline 1070 , is kinda worthit)

 

Is MXM 1070 not possible with our R2 or is it a power delivery issue? I'm curious to see what a voltage reduced 1070 can do at 120W TDP vs. the 1060, assuming it's possible.

 

I really don't know if a MSI 1070 mxm has enough clereance to mount. Besides of it, MXM 3.0b/3.1 slot can pull 175w so no power issue.

But Look:



m18x-r2 motherboard

 

The MSI cards will not fit.

As for eGPU, you can look at an expresscard solution (though you will certainly lose a ton of GPU performance)

 

So that means that our only hope is the 1060?

Is there anyone who has testes this? Would like to see how of a big GPU lose we are talking about here.

 

Expect 20-25% performance loss.

 

Nope that 18.5k gpu is using tb3.. Using PCIe 4x 3.0 it was 23k +.
You need to look closely at my thread man.. lots of good info there.

 

Ok I know people are running E-GPU with the M18x R2, how isth

There are other 1070's, maybe the Zotac will fit, whose the brave pioneer with money flowing out of their pockets? Please help us!

 

A zotac 1070 with a MSI vBIOS will work in optimus mode only

 

Zotac 1070 & GeCube 1070 will both fit and most likely work in Optimus mode with the M18xR2.

eGPU with M18xR2 is using express card solution and will have a big performance hit as well.

I think MSI 1060 or Zotac/GeCube 1070 is the best upgrade besides 980M SLI for the M18xR2.

It would be interesting to see the express card solution using a 1080Ti though.

 

Ok whose getting one? Are they on ebay? I can't seem to find the correct one.

 

The 1070? Is this one but it's out of stock: https://world.taobao.com/item/550426620322.htm?fromSite=main&spm=a21m2.8232368.0.0.avdyrI

 

That should be the one. Flash with a MSI vBIOS, plug in play and go in optimus mode.

 

IIRC MSI Bios's have been killing those cards. If they are Ge-Cube ones at least. Mainly because the VRM's arent as robust as on the MSI versions.

 

lol, where can someone in the U.S. purchase one?

 

Is that the reason they died? What's wrong with the GeCube vBIOS though?

As of right now, no where. Either have to use a forwarder service or wait for a reseller to get those. Expect an increased price as well of course.

 

Probably doesn't work with most systems.

 

Guys I was looking into this whole expresscard eGPU stuff and found this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/V8-0-EXP-GD...769245&hash=item3617a6236e:g:jzQAAOSwPWRZQPeX

Says it works on Dell Precision M6600. Now I have a couple of questions...

1) What is the expresscard bandwith in our Alienware M18x R1 AND R2 models?

2) It says running intel integrated is required, using mux switch do you think it'll work?

I'm very curious and KINDA want to try it out with the M18xR1 but I'm trying to figure out how much performance will be lost using expresscard.

Apparently expresscard can do PCIe 2.0 (5Gbit/s) is that what we got in our Alienwares?

@bloodhawk @Raidriar

There's also this option..

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mini-PCI-E-...id=100005&rk=2&rkt=6&mehot=pp&sd=122498233515

 

I dont think Expresscard will be as fast as the mPCIe solution. I remember seeing a thread of someone using the mPCie version with their M18x R2 along with a Titan. and the performance loss was about 20-25% iirc.

 

That's what I was thinking but what is the bandwidth of the mPCIe port? If the m18x supports full PCIe 2.0 5Gbit/s through expresscard then I'd think there really wouldn't be a difference unless mPCIe has full 3.0 x1 speeds or something.

 

Found the thread -

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/titan-x-pascal-on-aw18.796626/#post-10360645

He didn't post too much useful info, but still kinda informative.

 

I think the connection speed was usually x1 for both. Don't remember how you could get the x2 speeds.

I thought I can't use this on my M6700 as I don't have Optimus, but I see it might work with external monitor which is just what I need anyway. Does this work on windows 10 as well?