DIY eGPU experiences

You can use the attachment function.

 

If anyone don't know yet, there is a contest to choose the best thread:-
http://forum.notebookreview.com/roundup/641438-nbr-amazing-content-contest.html

Please vote this thread!

 

Ok so I have the file and it's a ACPi.zip. Do you know where I can send attachments to you? :l sorry I probably sound like a complete noob right now.

 

Reply to this thread by pressing this button (located at bottom-left corner of this page):

Look at below the message box, in "Additional Options" section, click <button type="button">Manage Attachments</button> button.

You also can upload to mediafire or sendspace & post the download link here.

 

Here you are. If this is the wrong file, just message me back

 

TOLUD is very low. So, you will have no problem using 4GB or more RAM with eGPU.

Code:

OperationRegion (GNVS, SystemMemory, 0x8AD50E18, 0x0173)

TOLUD is 2.17 GB.

 

+1 from me.

 

+1 from me too. So far it is first with 19 votes.

 

+1 too. This topic is predestined for winning

 

Hello guys!Just for the note i get an ati 5870 working with my ferrari one .I connect the egpu to the wifi mini port under the bottom.I had to boot with the wifi card attached and than stand by the system then change the wi fi card and attach the egpu.It was than recognized as generic vga...and the external screen did not work i use than the moddeed drive and it work!.
The performance are better that the one i get with the amilo graphic booster..yes i know that is a 3870 and now i use a 5870 but the amilo is connected via xgp(8line!!).I really woud like to use this xgp connection for the desktop card but so far i have no idea how could i do...If some one has some idea is welcome

 

Woot! . Well I think given that my laptop can use pci-e 2.0, the thunderbolt adapter should work, and my TOLUD is low means I should have my system up and running a few days after the 20th of February. You have been a HUGE help, learned a lot about egpus. Thank you very very much for all the help!

 

I dont get it running...
It seems to me that I have to sell my both graphiccards.
But thanks for helping me.

 

Voted for DIY eGPU experiences, hope that helps to win.

I would like to thank everybody in this forum, especially Khenglish and nando4, who helped me building my own DIY vidock and made me enjoyed the game experiences.

Recently, me and nando4 are discussing about a problem that seems -to be impossible- to solve. On February, if the solution worked, I will explain the problem briefly here and what cause the problem to appear, and how to solve it.

Thank you very much.

 

Alright, thanks a bunch

An external is no issue, I don't really see why I'd want to game on a 15" when I could use the 24", especially when I'd have to be at the desk anyways

 

I'm pretty sure that the newer 4xx and 5xx Nvidia cards use CUDA which pretty much lets to do this without an external monitor.

I too will be using this with an external (27inch), but build a decent case for the egpu and it can be portable.

 

Ok i managed to run my PE4H with my GTX 560 just using the P4 connector (it's rated at 192W) of my psu by splitting it to two molex. And then powered all the stuff via adapters.

So the same setup with that kind of power adapter should work :

eBay | 168W 12V AC/DC Adapter für picoPSU, Effizienz > 85%, active PFC

eBay | 192W Netzteil / power supply for picoPSU, mini-ITX

Problem is that i don't know if it would work on a PE4L since 5V is lacking on the floppy connector. No 5V to 3,3V conversion.

 

5V isn't needed for PCI-E. It's only there for the USB connector.

 

The PE4L has a 5V to 3,3V converter to provide 3,3V/10W to the pci-e slot.
That's what i understood. Even if the 3,3V/1,3A provided by the expresscard seems to be enough in most cases.

 

While trying to figure out how to do a powerful eGPU i found out this PSU :
SilverStone Technology Co., Ltd.- ST45SF

What do you think about it ? should be powerful enough to run gtx 570 or 580 no ?

 

This may be the most powerful SFX/mini-ITX power supply. I use it to power my gtx 460.

At least evga rates amperage requirements (12V) as follows, while the psu deliveres 36A:

• gtx460: 24A
• gtx560: 24A
• gtx570: 38A
• gtx580: 42A

But this is usually the combined value for a desktop rig.

Silverstone's gpu support sheet (last page) lists GTX470 as compatible... which requires 46A: GeForce GTX 470 - Graphic solutions GeForce & Radeon

I guess that it should work

 

No. Only PE4L 2.x will have such converter. PE4L 1.x will rely on the EC 3.3V.
At least that's about my PE4L v1.4.

 

My PE4L 1.5 has a step-down converter that provides 3.3V out of the 5V from the floppy connector.

 

Hello everyone!

Have been following this thred since summer and I am almost finished with my setup.

Already have PE4H 2.4v (with 1m cable) as well as lenovo x220 and gtx460SE (Palit 1Gb). When parts arrived I quick tested the setup following the instructions in this thread. Everything went without a hic and results on internal display were 12048 on PCMark 06. I winder what the results will be on external =)
(My laptop is X220 I7 2640, 8Gb DDRIII 1333.)

I am now waiting for the xbox 203w power brick to arrive in order to make an enclosure and small neat package.

Nevertheless, the question I have is the following:

I plan to buy ViewSonic V3D245 display as a final piece of my setup and was wondering if it is possible to make 3d stereoscopic vision possible with my egpu? I read somewhere that modified verde driver will not work, is there an alternative?

Thank you for the infomation provided and this thread was a real jewel to be found!!! =))

 

I know this question has already been answered, but I want to double check with choosing between an EVGA gtx 460 1gb and an XFX Hd 6870 1gb.

I own a 2011 macbook pro 13inch with intel hd3000. I will be purchasing the PE4L version 2.1 with pci-e 2.0

I know people recommend the 460 and the use of it's optimus drivers, but seeing benchmarks of the 6870 just seems like it is a better card. They are both priced similar ($10 difference on new egg) so money isn't an issue.

Has anyone used a 6870 with an egpu? If you have, your input would be greatly appreciated.

P.S: Both cards work with mac os x.

 

Congratulations on a successful installation. You can use the standard desktop driver for 3D vision. That might come at the cost of losing the Verde internal LCD mode. While the desktop drive does give all the options and appears that Optimus is working so internal LCD mode would work, it simply would not engage on my internal LCD last I tested it on a 4500MHD iGPU.

If you are using Windows then the GTX460 will detect your HD3000, x1 link and engage pci-e compression. It will outperform the HD6870 because of greater pci-e traffic bandwidth.

If you are running MacOS exclusively then I'd confirm which card is compatible. Without pci-e compression we've found ATiAMD cards perform better in DX9 and NVidia cards are faster in DX10. A HD6870 was found to be 15% faster than a GTX460 here in relative terms on a desktop Windows system. Not sure how that translates to Mac systems but as a guestimate I'd take the HD6870 for MacOS and GTX460 or GTX560 if running Windows.

The HD6870 has the added advantage of being able to drive more than 2 external LCDs (Eyefinity). A GTX460 can only drive two.

 

Hi, I'm interested about eGPU, but I've just a few doubt...

1- Can I use notebook's monitor in windows environment while I'm doing other things in external LCD (like playing games)?

2- I've a Dell XPS 1645 with i7-720 and oc'd 4670, I want to buy a 6850-6870 (x2 link), is a good idea? Now in 3dmark 06 I score 8750pts, but I'm interested about games fps boost

Sorry for my bad english

Thank you

 

To add something maybe useful the EVGA GTX460 WON'T work on OSX. At least not with original drivers. Maybe you can test with another brand but I used to own one and this is the reason that I sold it. I would recommend an Sapphire 6850/70 which are supposed to work out of the box. The performance should be slightly better than my 5850 @ DX9 &10 and much better on DX11. So as Nando said ati for mac osx & Nvidia for Windows depending on what you use most. Also before purchase refer to tonymax86.com to make sure that the specific card you are buying ( if Nvidia) will be easy to make work unless off course you are going to use the eGPU for Windows only.

 

Thanx Nando for quick replay, hope everything works out well with my setup.

+1 vote from me for this thread and looks like we will win this contest =))

 

Are you sure it doe not work? on tonymax86 custom builds, EVGA gtx 460 is a working card with os x. Also look here tonymacx86 Forum &bull; View topic - GTX 460 Mac Os Lion 10.7.2 work! perfectly in games.
Seems that it does work under mac os x lion. And if I will be using it with os x or windows, I have to make sure it works with os x because the only way my parents would agree to an egpu was if it worked with mac os x (buying mac mini as family computer).

And if the PE4L is 2.0, how much of an advantage is Optimus for nvidia cards? If it is not too much of a difference, then I will buy the 6870.

 

About EVGA I am pretty sure it doesn't work out of the box as my 5850. I had been trying for about a week and I couldnt make it work.
Sorry but I don't have it right now to test if it is working with some patch now... But I am sure that when I tried it I couldn't get it to fully work. However there are other 460 which are claimed to work. Just avoid the EVGA FPB since even if you are going to make it work you are going to have to add the Device ID in the kext, everytime you do a major update.

Hope this helps.

 

Alright. Well the fact that I am already trying something no one else has tested (thunderbolt adapter) I should probably go with the 6870. I mean as long as the 6870 doesn't suck on Windows I think I will be fine.

 

Here are the numbers I ran on my EVGA GTX 560Ti on my Fujitsu T901

16579 3DMarks




]

Just wanted to thanks to everyone who posted the info to make this all possible. I plan on using a plastic box I got with my minicruiser as a enclosure.

 

Or you can check for another brand 460 or 560ti that will work out of the box.
Don't forget that Nvidia card do support internal screen with Optimus driver while Ati GPUs don't have a stable solution so far.

 

Question, whats better a Pe4L 2.1 Or 1.5? Would it be worth it to buy a 1.5 one? Or should i just wait till February 20th and buy it?, also what about the Price? will it cost more?.

I have a small tight budget...Waiting for the refund from harmonictools for the PE4L i never got..

ALso will the new Pe4l v 2.1 be better than the latest\current version of the Pe4H?. or is it the same? is there performance difference?.

 

Hi Everyone,

I must admit I've been following this for a good couple of months and doing as much research as possible. I finally got my EGPU setup. PE4H v2.4, Fatality 550w psu and Gigabyte GTX560. Been super excited but over the past couple of days had immense troubles getting this thing working!

I've finally got it running thanks to all the troubleshooting you've given over this forum, I'm am typing off my external monitor now, but the performance is terrible. I got a score of 5546 in 3dmark 06 and am struggling to get any decent frames in most games in fact its worse than my inbuilt HD4650m. Just wondering if anyone has had a similar experience with NVIDIA?? Other people with this card seem to have much better results. I'm only running a x1 link and cannot do x2 but surely the PCI bandwidth wouldnt limit it that much?? Any help would be much appreciated! Specs below.

Cheers

- HP DV 7 2273
- HD4650 built in, no intel hd graphics
- 8gb ram
- Intel Core 2 duo t9800 2.8ghz

GTX560 is recognised in everest and used to have code 43 before applying the diy vidock boot fix. now seems to run fine after boot just terrible performance.

EDIT - forgot to add - whenever I try to load the dump through setup I get a cannot write message - wondering if this may have something to do with the fact that when i write r32 0xf8000000 into RW-everything I get 0x2A408086 not 0xto.... GTX560 is located on bus 4 and showing up under device manager and in the bootloader up the top right... Thanks again guys I'm at a loss!

 

3dmark06 of ~5k is what we see on systems not capable of running Optimus and gaining pci-e compression. See the modded drivers section for details.

Since you've specified that a x2 link is not possible to improve performance then the only solution is to either turf the eGPU parts and run the HD4650M or get a better DIY eGPU candidate notebook. Sandy Bridge iGPU systems can be had for under $500 with i5 + [email protected] getting > 16k in 3dmark06. See the thin and light link in my sig.

If it was me I'd turf the DV7 and get an inexpensive 14" Lenovo E420, Dell E5420 (Dell Outlet), or a ~$550-$600 12.5" HP 2560P s/h on ebay.

 

Still haven't got my lazy behind in order to set up a egpu for my Z1. With the recent development by hwtools, starting to think i should sell my Z1 (seen a similar one to mine on eBay that went for a £1000 (roughly $1500) a few weeks ago and unlike mine, had no warranty) and get a x220t, as I assume x220 would fare better in terms of egpu

Hmm.

I was thinking of already selling my Z1 and getting a Z2 but still not totally sold on the dock. Would have been if the gpu in the dock was better.

Love the screen of the Z and (fragile) styling

 

It really seems like all 4xx and 5xx cards that are within my price range ($200 MAX) are not supported/ need a lot of editing. I'm really tempted to purchase the 6870 since it is an overall better card than the 460, but I would lose the Optimus drivers. Are they really that much of a gain for pci-e 2.0?

 

It's not such a terrible loss @ performance while you lose @ internal screen gaming. Nvidia Optimus Driver allows you to run your GPU (4xx and 5xx only) on your internal screen, while there is no such stable solution for Ati. As far I am concerned I wouldn't say that in gaming my 460 running @ x1.1 Opt. was better than my 5850 @x 1.1... I think that it really depends on the games you prefer to play. Both RE5 and DMC4 when you start the game they do advertise Nvidia, meaning that they are supposed to work better with an Nvidia card while for example Dirt 3 and F1 2011 would perform better on an ATI GPU.
So make your choise regarding the games you play most. Judging by the results my 5850 is not far far away from nando's 560ti @ x1.2 while there is a huge difference in price. Also keep in mind that a 6870 will perform much better @ DX11 games.

If you don't need it for games but for developing or CUDA, then a used Nvidia 9800 @ x1.2 would be ideal regarding money/performance ratio in both worlds (win7/osx.

 

I was planning on using my egpu for mostly gaming purposes (Also some work with programming and 3D design. I am planning on running my games in DX11, such as Battlefield 3 and Skyrim (and of course some good ol' CSS ). I'd like to use the internal screen, but nvidia cards seem like too much of a hassle . I mean I have seen benchmarks for the hd 6870 and 460, and the fact that the 6870 is mac compatible just gives me more reason to buy it. The 9800 has been said to work perfectly for mac os x, but I am looking for a card that will last me a few years (6870 isn't a $500 high end card, but I have yet to play a game on PC that is relatively new on ultra settings so I will be very content with what this card has to offer).

 

first thunderbolt egpu product in the world:
Product :: RED ROCKET

 

g0

You'd be comparing a HD6870 to a GTX460, the latter of which appears to work on a Mac with a minor mod tonymacx86 Forum &bull; View topic - GTX 460 Mac Os Lion 10.7.2 work! perfectly in games.

Contrary to timohour's comments, a GTX460 will outperform the HD6870 on the Window's platform. The NVidia Optimus' pci-e compression gives faster results with faster CPUs. So timohour's i7-quad plus a comparatively priced GTX460 would outperform the HD5850 he gives as an example by a significant margin. Can see this for yourself by compare timohour's [email protected] vs Khenglish' [email protected], keeping in mind that Khenglish' result was with half the bandwidth yet still benchmarked faster overall.

If the x16 benchmark performance of a HD6870 vs a GTX460 being 15% faster is a bother then perhaps seek the cheapest GTX560Ti you can get your hands to cover all your bases. Eg:

Sparkle SX560T1024D5MH GTX 560 Ti 1GB 820MHz 169.99 AR + Tax - Slickdeals.net

$183AR Newegg.com - Galaxy 56NGH6HS4IXZ GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit DDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

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THIS PAGE IS A RUNNING SUMMARY OF THIS THREAD, NOW OVER 800 PAGES. CLICK for wide format.
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Off course a 560Ti is the best way to go but I don't know if it will be supported on osx.

460 easy fix you suggested is about the performance problem not the installation which is not an easy task for a non experienced person. I would personally recommend only a card that would work out of the box for Mac Pros, since on hackintoshes there is also the Chameleon bootloader that helps Video cards to work on OSX.
Further research needed and maybe we should make a thread (or dedicate a post) on graphic cards that could and will work on Macbooks with OSX...

6870 maybe the easiest way to go. Either flashing it ot not.
+ maximum of 4 External Screens on OSX
(my 5850 Extreme does support 4 screens too but there is a DVI port unsoldered )

 

Agreed. For a while I was planning on constructing a hackintosh, so I did about two months of research. I never ended up looking at the really detailed stuff, but if I really wanted to I could figure out how to get the nvidia cards to work. From the looks of it, an update to mac os x could have me redo the whole process; differently. That would mean waiting for a solution online, every update. With AMD 6870, I don't want to say its literally plug and play but the work needed to get things up and running would be far less of a hassle. I have talked to my parents and they said I've done a great job with figuring out a low-cost solution, so the 560ti would be a possibility. I just don't know if I wan't to put the effort in.

Also, I need to get this Optimus driver straight. I know it only works on windows and boosts performance. But does it only 'activate' when I use the egpu with my internal screen? If it is internal only, then I will purchase an AMD card because I honestly prefer my 27inch monitor to a 13 inch laptop .

 

Hey I have a couple questions.....

1. Can someone help me calculate my TOLUD? I cant figure out whether its the 0xBFA00000 or the 0xF0000000 and usually I would say its the F000... and say its not compatible but another user with an hp probook 4530s (2310m ver.) listed their laptop as working.
(I attached a screenshot of my device manager in the proper mode)

2. If my lappy is compatible, and since its pcie 2.0 (intel chipset 6) would current e-gpu kits work for 5gts transfer rate or would I need to wait for the new PE4L that is said to be coming on Feb.20.

 

I don't know how to check TOLUD (someone else check it for me ) but if you want pci-e 2.0, wait for the PE4L 2.1. From what I have seen, this is going to be the first that supports pci-e 2.0.

 

hello guys, i dont know if this has been mentioned before but i cant find it anywhere. Is there any way to permantly overcome error 12. i am currently using the setup1.x method

 

?????

I had to do the pci compaction via setup 1.x only one time to overcome error 12.

 

Can u please tell me a bit of step by step how exactly u do the compaction to become permanently? If you remember

Thnx

 

You said yourself, you will mostly use eGPU for gaming. So, gaming on windows vs eGPU on mac. Unfortunately, you can't get both. Well, you can get both but need more effort from you. I agree with nando assessment, Nvidia will give better performance than ATiAMD in windows & you'll definitely will be playing games in windows. With Intel HD 3000 iGPU, Nvidia Fermi graphic card will be able to use Optimus. Optimus provide PCIe data compression which double the traffic going through the PCIe 2.0 x1 link. With Nvidia + Optimus + PCIe 2.0 5Gb/s x1 = x1.2Opt = PCIe 1.0 x4 link. While ATI + PCIe 2.0 5Gb/s x1 = PCIe 1.0 x2. So, decide which one you want.

Look like Nvidia Fermi GF100 (gtx480/gtx470) are likely to work in Mac with little file/binary editing (source here). Look like MSI GTX 560 Ti 1024 MB will work too on Mac OS X Lion. Sorry, can't give you any link for MSI GTX 560 Ti 1024 MB being tested on Mac ( Forum Rules ). You can google yourself for "Mac OS X Lion Nvidia GTX560Ti". Just need to add device id & edit GeForceGLDriver binary to enable OpenCL.

1. Look for first PCI bus with 8 digits memory address.
2. Wait for new PE4L (v2.1) for better performance (only for Sandy Bridge/Intel 6 series chipset).