DIY eGPU experiences

Hello, we maybe need details on your notebook (CPU/ iGPU or dGPU ...)

 

I don't think you need any more details as it just depends on the express card slots and whether you can physically access the ports, also what layout the ports are in.
Here is the info anyway;
Dell Inspiron 1545
Core 2 Duo T9400
dGPU Ati Mobility Radeon HD 4330
eGPU AMD Radeon HD 6850 PE4H 2.4a x1e
4GB Ram

 

I'm not sure but your CPU isn't a sandybridge serie so you can't do a x2 link through ExpressCard. (not 2.0)
You can do two links @1x by using both mPCIe AND EC slot. (need to be confirmed by experimented users !)

That's what we needed to know which CPU you have.

 

Inspiron 1545 has the same port layout as a Inspiron 1440, expresscard=port5, wifi=port2. So no, a x2 link is not possible as that requires [port1+2], [port3+4] or [port5+6] port ganging. Your x1E link is the best you can get with your HD4330 equipped 1545. If you could find someone willing to swap a 4500MHD systemboard in place of your HD4330 one then could do a x1.Opt link with a NVidia Fermi card.

You may want to investigate if any PLL overclocking is possible. I was able to get a 25% overclock on a Core2Duo 2530P's pci-e bus. That's a nice dollop of extra bandwidth.

With Sandy Bridge notebook prices being so low you may consider doing a system upgrade to one of those instead and enjoy significantly faster x1 2.0 performance levels, eg: Lenovo E420/E520, Dell Vostro 3450/3550, HP Probook 4530s.

 

What are you talking about? I am already running a PE4H at x1e with one
express card. I do not have any other express card ports. I have no wish to try to do x2 on one link as it is impossible. On PE4H there are spaces for 4 mini hdmi cables, which means in theory if you have that many spaces then you could run it at x4 link. So I have 3 spare slots available on the PE4H board and was simply wondering if anyone has tried using my laptop to do a x2 link with an express card and a pm3n, meaning two physical cables into the Laptop.

EDIT: Read Nando's post and found out all I needed to know.

 

OK. i didn't see you already had PE4H ! sorry for that !
nando answered you that it is not possible to do a x2 link

 

Oh @Nando
I haven't tried the PLL pin overclock as I can't even enable Intel dynamic acceleration overclock method. When I've disabled the speedstep I get BSOD so I don't think I should try PLL modding.

 

Whats the deal with 2.0 and 1.Opt. The Optimus is the chipset + 4xx gfx combo is it not allowing 1.Opt? And the 2.0 is doable with a SB notebook. So what if you have a SB notebook (HD3000) + 4xx GFX. Is that 1.2Opt? (Forget this Kizwan's explanation sorted this bit for me)

Sorry for my ignorance, which would be the faster / simpler?

 

These are list of successful eGPU implementation on Dell XPS M1530:-
http://forum.notebookreview.com/5550354-post67.html
http://forum.notebookreview.com/5526451-post53.html
http://forum.notebookreview.com/6341297-post815.html
http://forum.notebookreview.com/6748415-post1768.html

"x2" link means two physical connection connecting eGPU & notebook using either two mPCIe ports OR mPCIe+ExpressCard. x2 only possible with any of these combinations:-
PCIe port #1 + #2
OR
PCIe port #3 + #4
OR
PCIe port #5 + #6

Referring to this post: http://forum.notebookreview.com/7326927-post3313.html , x2 setup is possible using two mPCIe ports (WWAN + TurboMemory) [PCIe port #3 + #4 ].

I checked Dell XPS M1530 DSDT & I found it already have the necessary entry for 36-bit PCI space. You should see "Large Memory" tree in Device Manager >> View >> "Resources by connection" window. But all the previous successful eGPU implementation on this notebook use 3GB of RAM only. So, I guess "Large Memory" somehow not applicable on this notebook (OR chipset in this notebook).

This is the list of SB notebooks you might interested: http://forum.notebookreview.com/7585042-post4052.html

These are some of notebooks that support almost plug and play eGPU implementation:-

1. HP 2560P
   (read "How to startup the eGPU" in that post)
2. Fujitsu AH531 (&)
   (basically just need to disabled dGPU using Setup 1.x & boot with eGPU connected)
3. HP ProBook 4330s (so far only tested with older PE4L v1.5 which only support PCIe rev 1.1 but eGPU should work on PCIe rev 2.0 with PE4L v2.1)
   (just need to connect eGPU after windows loaded)
4. Dell E6320/E6420/E6520
   (will need to re-connect eGPU when in windows to be able to use PCIe 2.0 speed)

x2 or x4 setup are not supported on SB notebooks due to hardware/BIOS limitation. The port configuration on Intel 5 & 6 Series chipset is set by soft straps in the Flash Descriptor. However, on Intel 6 Series chipset, the port configuration is ignored when trying to set x2 or x4 link. It most likely PCIe ports on Intel 6 Series chipsets are forced to PCIe x1 link only.

If you want to buy SB notebooks, look for one with active Intel HD 3000. You also can get Nvidia Optimus powered notebook because with this notebook, you don't have to worried with TOLUD register. With combination of Intel HD 3000 + Nvidia Fermi desktop graphic card, you can do x1. 2Opt setup, where " 2Opt" means Optimus setup with PCIe rev 2.0 speed/bandwidth support. Optimus provide PCIe data compression which boost performance over PCIe x1 link. Bandwidth comparison: x1.2Opt ≃ 2 x x1.Opt ≃ 4 x PCIe x1

 

Ok I understand that I can do 1.2Opt (express card link, PCIE 2.0 1x with optimus) with E6420 + PE4L (v2.1a or newer) + EC2C + Fermi Nvidia card but is it problem-free solution with this Dell? Is this configuration confirmed to work stable? I saw in thread that people are having problems running PE4L in PCI 2.0 and Optimus. Will I need any hardware changes (soldering) in eGPU?
I have enought knowledge to do some more difficult steps to make eGPU running but if I would be forced to make milions of steps every time I want to connect it will be annoying. I am looking for the most plug'n'play solution available.
Also what about CPU? Will Intel Core i7-2640M (2.80GHz, 4MB cache, Dual Core) be good or I need the Quad Core one? From what I see in my local Dell shop I can't buy Quad Core cpu without dedicated nvidia NVS Card and I don't want it if I am going for eGPU...

 

you don't need a quad core but this is a best option. on first page you have results obtained by various configurations so check it and make choice

 

Found a few potential options for my eGPU notebook after some great advice from Kizwan + Nal.

1. HP ProBook 4430s 2.20GHz-3.10GHz i7-2670QM 4GB 500GB 5400rpm W7 Pro x64 Fgr Redr | eBay (£488 + Shipping to UK of about £50/60 - HP Probook 4430)

2. eBay - The UK's Online Marketplace (£500 - Elitebook 8460p)

3. ThinkPad Edge 14" E420s Intel i5 2430M 2.40GHz 4GB 128GB SSD WXGA HD 3000 R | eBay (£500 Thinkpad E420)

4. Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E520 Core i5, Windows 7 Pro Laptop | eBay (£440 - Thinkpad E520)

5. eBay - The UK's Online Marketplace (£500 - Vostro 3450)

6. Lenovo ThinkPad E420s NWD4PUK SSD Laptop Only £ 598.79 inc VAT (£580 -Thinkpad E420s)

7. Fujitsu Lifebook AH531 Laptop - Laptops | Ebuyer.com (£419 - Fujitsu AH531)

8. http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/HP_EliteBook_2540p_954390.html (Elitebook 2540p £580, unfortunately only 2gb ram standard)

Any stand out winners? Bearing in mind I'm trying to keep total cost as close to £700-750 (800 at push).

All the best,

Ben.

 

Thanks for all replies so far! I think I have made my choice. I'll go into this configuration:

HP ELITEBOOK 2560P
display: 12,5" 1366 x 768
cpu: Intel Core i7 2640M
chipset: Intel QM67
ram: 8 GB ddr3 1333Mhz
hdd: 160GB SSD
GPU: Intel HD Graphics 3000

+ PE4L ( PCIe Adapter ver2.1 )
+ Gigabyte GeForce GTX 460 SE 1GB DDR5
+ BeQuiet Pure Power L7 430W

Can anyone say if above will do just good? As far as i have read from
http://forum.notebookreview.com/8042288-post37.html
no hardware changes are necessery and connecting eGPU will be nearly plug'n'play. I would be happy if anyone can confirm that the new PE4L v2.1 is working with ELITEBOOK 2560P in 1.2Opt mode without problems.

Thanks in advance.

 

Yeah I think a 2.8ghz dual core i7 should be sufficient. Games like Battlefield 3 would love the quad core goodness, but you get what you can.

 

The 2560P can be user upgraded to a i7-quad (eg: i7-2670QM, i7-2720QM, i7-2820QM). So if you want best performance I'd suggest get the lowest end i5 2560P and self-install a quad. The 2560P has a service cover that just slides off revealing a heatsink secured by 4 screws and a fan secured by 2. Undo those, then loosen the CPU socket, remove previous CPU, install new CPU, add new thermal paste, re-mount fan and heatsink, install service cover and your done. Can be done in 5mins even by a novice.

Advise *at least* a proper 1GB GTX460, 336 cores, preferrably a OC version. The SE only has 288 cores.

I've confirmed the 2560P does negotiate a successful pci-e 2.0 link (see sig) with a PE4L 2.1. Only issue has been the solder rework necessary on engineering samples to get them to detect the eGPU. PE4L 2.1 units purchased after 22nd of March will not have this problem - they will be plug'n'play.

 

I like two of them partly because I can easily access the CPU/heatsink if I want to change the thermal paste:-

1. Review Fujitsu Lifebook AH531 Notebook - Notebookcheck.net Reviews
   eGPU experience: Fujitsu AH531 (&)
2. Review HP EliteBook 8460p Notebook - Notebookcheck.net Reviews (this one have discrete GPU only. make sure you get the one with Intel HD 3000)
   eGPU experience: HP Elitebook 8460p

Some interesting facts of the other notebooks:-

1. Review Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E420s Notebook - Notebookcheck.net Reviews (Thinkpad E420s)
   Have CPU & 4GB of RAM integrated on the motherboard. You can add 4GB stick to get a total of 8GB of RAM.
2. Review Dell Vostro 3450 Notebook - Notebookcheck.net Reviews (Vostro 3450)
   Only RAM is accessible.
   eGPU experience: Vostro 3450

 

Thanks Kizwan for the explanation.

Finally understood how to determined TOLUD
Anyway,I have made purchase for PE4L V1.5 + EC2C +SWEX +60cm Flat HDMI+SPB087 PCI Express To PCI-E Slot Adapter package and upgraded OS to Win 7 32bit. Will try it out once it arrives. Cant wait

Still looking for a good deal on optimus tech gfx to go with else i will
probably just hooked it up with my current HD5770.
Will the performance of GTX 550 work just like the 460 ? Only good deals around are on the Gtx 550.

 

Well in fact I am not buying that laptop by myself but my company does, so the laptop will not be mine in strict point of view therefore I don't want to invest my money in it. So I'll stay with best CPU available from HP.

I just checked prices for OC version of GTX460 and GIGABYTE GTX 560 Ti 1GB DDR5 OC 900/4000MHz and its like only 15% more expensive. Worth going with this 560TI OC or stay with GTX460 OC?

I will have new laptop like in 2 months so I hope the PE4L 2.1 unit I will order will already be plug'n'play for ELITEBOOK 2560P

 

So again my question:
Is the PE4L V2.1a now available with 60cm cable? Or with 100cm too?
Is the cable a soldered HDMI cable or still such flat cable, as on the engineering sample? Because the flat one is not so convenient for a portable/enclosure.
Did hwtools say, they sell limited quantities for 70$ and than for 105$? I didn`t got that price discussion right. Should i order it from ebay, or from their site?

 

ask them (hwtools, redtrontech) about hdmi cable. I made my order by ebay and we've been maintaining a good email contact

 

Is that GTX550 without "Ti"? For GTX560 Ti vs. GTX460, you can refer to first post.

 

Hi Folks,

I have some infos and questions for you.

1. PCIe 2.0 with PE4l is only working on my DELL E6520 on external Screen. On Internal I always have 1.1.

2. I have a Vostro 3750 with the old PE4H that is working without trouble (egpu powered on first, than notebook). But the PE4L give me Error 12 in Windows. Now the Strange part: If i connect an external monitor via DVI the Card gets recognized without Error 12.

3. On the DELL E6520 i can use the safety remove hardware tool to eject my GTX560. This option is not available on the Vostro. I mean if i plug in the card i dont get the icon in the tray.

4. I tried all different methods that i found in this thread but i can not get PCie 2.0 working on the Vostro 3750.

best regards,
Andreas

 

Ok, thank to your great help I have clear plans for new laptop. Now back to my old XPS m1530 (T9300, 4 gigs ram, 8600m gt). Diablo 3 is launching soon (yaaay!) and I thought that I could buy the PE4L and 560TI just now and try to get it work. I know I will have very limited bandwith due to lack of Optimus and Pci-e 2.0. But can I achieve x1E configuration using PE4L (ver 2.1a) with Express Card slot in my m1530 (mini pci-e port #5)? If yes then how to do this?

 

Hi i tried the following solution for error 12:

Code:

[quote="nando4, post: 8377566"][COLOR=darkred][B][span=style='font-size:x-large']no more 4GB+ issues: extending the ACPI root bridge into 36-bit space[/span][/B][/COLOR]

[TABLE=border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=1 style='width: 100%;'][TR][TD=style='background-color: rgb(133, 184, 247);'][span=style='font-family:verdana,geneva,sans-serif;'][B][span=style='font-size: 18px;']Introduction>>>[/span][/B][/span][/TD][/TR][/TABLE]
A small number of problematic systems like the Dell Latitude Ex410 series, Samsung Series-4, Sony F-Series and MSI CRx20 have insufficient free 32-bit PCI space to accomodate a eGPU if have 4GB or more of RAM installed.  They can't use [URL="http://forum.notebookreview.com/6295529-post641.html"]Setup 1.x's[/URL] PCI compaction to create sufficient space because they either have TOLUD=3.5GB, or a lower TOLUD like 3.25GB but with an unmovable systemboard device occupying candidate free pci space making it unusable. 

[B]Need a 36-bit root bridge DSDT override[/B]

I happened to run into one of these problematic systems - a Dell E4310 with TOLUD=3.5G, which can be maxxed out at 16GB of RAM. It's too nice an ultraportable to be need to resort to 3GB of RAM to use an eGPU. So I set of in pursuit of how to add a DIY eGPU to it which is documented below. The same solution can be applied to any 3-gens older PM965 chipsets (2007) or newer system. They have a 64-bit CPU and are PAE/64-bit. It may even mean not requiring Setup 1.x at all, so is really quite a nice way of fixing this problem.

The solution requires the eGPU to be hosted in 36-bit PCI space. However, just using [URL="http://forum.notebookreview.com/6295529-post641.html"]Setup 1.x's[/URL] 36-bit PCI compaction on the eGPU to relocate it in such space will see the eGPU still give an error 12 in Device Manager. Why is that?

Avlan [URL="http://forum.notebookreview.com/8052097-post6515.html"]confirmed[/URL] that the 32-bit root bridge definition limited allocation only to 32-bit space. The fix being a modified DSDT loaded as a registry override that extends the root bridge (ACPI PNP0A08 or PNP0A03 device) into 36-bit space.  Avlan's fix was cryptic so wasn't attempted on other systems.

After a bit of digging I found the [B]QWORDMemory[/B] DSDT static resource entry can be used to easily extend root bridge entry into 36-bit space. 

[B]Ref[/B]: [URL="http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/qemu-devel/2012-03/msg00036.html"][Qemu-devel] [PATCH 6/6] 64bit PCI range in _CRS table[/URL] plus two examples at [URL="http://www.virtualbox.org/svn/vbox/trunk/src/VBox/Devices/PC/vbox.dsl"]virtualbox[/URL] and [URL="http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/msg33876.html"]Coreboot[/URL].

[TABLE=border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=1 style='width: 100%;'][TR][TD=style='background-color: rgb(133, 184, 247);'][span=style='font-family:verdana,geneva,sans-serif;'][B][span=style='font-size: 18px;']Example 36-bit root bridge DSDT override>>>[/span][/B][/span][/TD][/TR][/TABLE]
We can do extend the E4310's root bridge into 36-bit space with the following steps. The iasl and asl tools used plus the modified E4310 DSDT table are in [URL="http://www.mediafire.com/file/apo3ubr71n5k2aq/DELL-36b-root-bridge.rar"]DELL-36b-root-bridge.rar[/URL].

1. Identify the resources used by the PNP0A08 or PNP0A03 devices in Windows. This can be found by perusing Device Manager->Resources by connection->Memory. Then check the last PCI BUS entry. Eg:
[SPOILER][IMG]http://img848.imageshack.us/img848/1747/pcibusresources.jpg[/IMG][/SPOILER]2. Capture the DSDT table using:[CODE]iasl -g

3. Open the resultant [].dsl file and look for the PNP0A08/PNP0A03 'DWordMemory' resource entries. In the same area, add a 'QWordMemory' (64-bit) entry such as the one in RED below. I ensure that I stay in the 36-bit range (< 64GB) so the location is compatible with the PAE-capable Win7 32-bit. I also chose a location above 48GB as then we won't have issues with users maxing out memory in the their systems that Win7 maintains without moving it around. The range chosen was 48.5GB to 60.25GB.

Code:

DWordMemory (ResourceProducer, PosDecode, MinFixed, MaxFixed, Cacheable, ReadWrite,
   0x00000000,         // Granularity
   0x000A0000,         // Range Minimum
   0x000BFFFF,         // Range Maximum
   0x00000000,         // Translation Offset
   0x00020000,         // Length
   ,, , AddressRangeMemory, TypeStatic)

[COLOR="Red"][B]QWordMemory (ResourceProducer, PosDecode, MinFixed, MaxFixed, Cacheable, ReadWrite,
   0x0000000000000000, // Granularity
   0x000000C20000000,  // Range Minimum,  set it to 48.5GB
   0x000000E0FFFFFFF,  // Range Maximum,  set it to 60.25GB
   0x0000000000000000, // Translation Offset
   0x00000001F0000000, // Length calculated by Range Max - Range Min.
   ,, , AddressRangeMemory, TypeStatic)[/COLOR][/B]

4. Create a [].aml file with the 'iasl [].dsl' compiler directive. It may fail to compile because of of some minor syntax errors in the dsl file. Those will need to be corrected, then try again.

Code:

iasl E4310.dsl

5. Loading the [].aml file into into the registry as a DSDT override using 'asl /loadtable [].aml'.

Code:

asl /loadtable E4310.aml

6. Check you now have a 36-bit PCI BUS (> 0x100000000) entry in Device Manager->Resources by Connection->Memory as shown below:

Spoiler

7. While my PE4L 2.1 isn't working atm, so I can't confirm it on the E4310, I can say the same fix was done on a Dell E4300 and Win7 did automatically allocate the eGPU into the 36-bit space.

If it happens that Win7 doesn't automatically do it for you, then can use Setup 1.x to do. The next Setup 1.10b6 will include a new '36-bitB (60.25GB)' compaction method added into the menus. With older versions, can create a new pci.bat relocating the eGPU to 60.25GB using the DOS prompt:

Code:

cd %DRV%:\config
compact pciend E10000000 useonly [eGPU PCI ID] makebatch pci.bat import devcon.txt
call pci
:: Chainload the MBR
call grub4dos mbr

The result will be similar to that shown in the spoiler in step 6 above, but with the eGPU rather then the Intel HD iGPU being in 36-bit PCI space. Can then proceed to automate this by editting your %DRV%:\config\startup.bat (or V:\config\startup.bat in windows) so can just select the Automated startup via startup.bat Setup 1.x bootitem and have it do everything for you:

Code:

call speedup lbacache
call vidwait -d [eGPU PCIID]
call vidinit -d [eGPU PCIID]
call pci
call grub4dos mbr

Testing results>>>

* Dell E4310 (nando4): SUCCESS! I relocated the Intel HD iGPU into 36-bit space using Setup 1.x as shown in step 6 above freeing 256MB of contiguous 32-bit space to host an eGPU, so it will definitely work. Plus there is plenty of 36-bit space for the eGPU too. Unfortunately my PE4L 2.1 isn't working so I can't show the iGPU+eGPU both being active but it will work

This fix means the Troubleshooting Page needs to be altered with a new technique to overcome error 12.

36-bit DSDT override user contribution repository>>>

I'd suggest we help affected users to come up with a DSDT override and maintain a listing of those for other's to benefit from, linked here to easily find them. So I'll get the ball rolling:

Dell: E4300, E4310[/QUOTE]

[/CODE]

It results in a bluescreen. I have a Thinkpad L520 and as far as i can tell Setup1.x won`t work either. (Found a user (with the L520) in another forum who tried it with Setup1.x but didn`t succeed.)

So my Question is, is there another possiblity to get past this error? Or is there a way to modify the quoted possiblity to make it work?

The only thing that worked for me is using only 2 Gb ram, but thats not a solution for me.

 

fermi based cards (4xx and 5xx Nvidia cards) do not benefit/need 1xE for full x1 performance.

Also pure x1 offers pretty bad performance. In some cases your 8600m GT will offer better performance. When I 1st got an eGPU for my previous C2D laptop, I would have preferred to use the 9600m GT over the 460 if I was not able to do x2.

 

Does the BSOD related to the driver, e.g. "atikmdag.sys"? If yes, uninstall & reinstall the driver.

 

Was considering this: ASUS GeForce GTX 550 Ti 910MHZ 1GB.

 

Wow. I think what P4EH 2.4 reduce performance of GTX560 around 30%( Really, i want see result for 7970! But i think notebook CPU will be are bottleneck(
p.s. 7970 overckocked at 1200mhz make 10000 points in 2011 Perfomance preset. I think on notebook we can't see more 8000(icore i2520\Q2630).

 

Wow actually a nice score for a laptop. I can get around 9500+ on my desktop.

My laptop i7 is only a dual core, so i'm not sure how that will affect the score.

 

Thanks for the picture Xav. I got the expresscard opened up and i was able to get the card to detect.

</img>

It seems like everything is working fine. The odd thing is that I was going to follow apac's instruction as I have the same laptop, but for some reason I didnt need to do any compaction or anything. It was almost too easy to install. I just started up Windows, and then it installed the standard VGA adapter. After that, i restarted my computer, installed the modded 295.73 drivers, and then i was good to go.

System:
Lenovo E420
Core i5-2410
4 GB Ram
MSI GTX 460 Cyclone
Corsair 430cx
PE4L 2.1a

Internal LCD Scores:

3dMark06 15169

I'll do 3dMark11 tomorrow.



Now I have a few questions about the Internal LCD setup. My laptop screen just works. I didn't change any settings or anything, it just worked. Is my card doing the Clone Display, without needing any settings changes from me? The reason why I'm asking, is because it seems like I'm actually getting lower scores than apac, who has the exact same laptop and a similar card but is not using the PE4L 2.1. Do you think I'm getting lower scores because I'm using the internal LCD?

 

At around 33fps, 2.0 int will have the same bandwidth as 1.0 ext as 1280x800 with 32bit color. Any higher resolution or at higher fps, 1.0 external will beat 2.0 internal due to internal's requirement to transfer the framebuffer over the PCI-E bus.

You can get much higher internal screen fps in games with a windowed mode option (virtually all of them) by setting your desktop color depth to 16 bit. Windowed games run the same color depth as the desktop, so you're cutting the PCI-E overhead from transferring the frame buffer in half. With this method you do have the color quality loss though, but in some cases the fps is worth it.

The best of both worlds for internal screen fps would be to use 24bit color. 24bit color has the same color spectrum as 32bit, but drops the 8 rarely used transparency bits that mainly just take up bandwidth. I have not yet found out how to drop the 8 "extra" bits.

 

I tried undercloking my egpu , i tried another psu same , another graphic card still the same .
I unfortunately don't have another laptop to try , so i think i'm gonna give up :/

The thing is when i Enable/Disable my Egpu from device manager everything works pretty good , but when i unplug it (only when i unplug it ) once in a while it works but 90% of the time i just have a black screen and i have to manually turn off the laptop , so i cant figure out where the problem is , it looks like a psu problem but i already tried 2 differents and 2 graphic card ...

So my last hope is another mHDMI cable , or my PE4H is just dead , it drives me crazy :x

 

GTX550 Ti is OK. I can't think any reason it won't work good. Of course GTX460 is better card but GTX550Ti is OK too.

That score on internal LCD look OK to me. I believe apac's scores are on external monitor. So, this show your PE4L v2.1 worked OK. The score with PE4L v2.1 on internal LCD should be similar to the score with PE4L v1.5 on external monitor.

The symptom doesn't fit to suggest PE4H is failing. I don't think mHDMI cable either but for the sake of argument, try get another one anyway. Fortunately they're cheap. How often you unplugged & replugged the mHDMI cable (from EC2C or PE4H)? I don't unplugged the mHDMI cable from PE4H or EC2C/PM3N. My PE4H & GPU are in a casing. I can see a lot of dust accumulating in the casing. I have USB-powered very mini-vacuum cleaner to clean it up.

It's more like software/driver glitch but if I'm not mistaken you said you already reinstall windows. I got a couple of BSOD last or two week ago (due to experimenting something). It stop doing that after I uninstall & reinstall the driver who causing the BSOD. You might want to look in Event Viewer in case it can give you a clue what is going on.

 

No it doesn`t. Here is my bluescreen:


Directupload.net - Dznehd568.jpg

 

I see. Mine is a bit different.

Uninstall & reinstall the ATI driver fixed the problem for me.

I successfully relocated eGPU to 36-bit space but weirdly I got Error Code 12. It already given the required 256MB PCI space but refused to use them.

Spoiler

 

If my laptop VGA is not working, will I still be able to use eGPU ? I'm looking for a cheaper solution other than replacing the VGA (GTX260M) which would cost like ~500 USD and I can still reuse the eGPU for my future desktop. THx

 

Wow GTX 680 is amazing in benchies and has low tdp.

It smells good for egpu. Powerful mid-range nvidia gpus with low tdp incoming

 

yes, 195 TDP is good result but for example in poland, GTX680 will be at least 3 times more expensive than 560Ti.

 

Yes it's damn expensive for a gpu supposed to be the GTX 560 ti successor...but there will be some readjustment of the price i hope when their whole range of gpus will be released. Anyway, i'll keep my GTX 560 till there is a decent priced gpu which gives noticeable perf improvement out there...

 

I have a Dell Latitude e6320, and I cannot get the PCIe slot to go into 2.0 mode. Unlike many other manufactures Dell has no options in the BIOS to set the PCIe speed. I eventually was able to get Dell to escalate the the issue to the engineering team and I just got this reply.

"I heard back from the engineers. Intel won’t let them change the bus speed on the system. Intel did this by design to make 2.0 cards standards compliant. By Intel changing the design to be 2.0 standards compliant this made 1.x cards either perform slowly or not work at all on the newer systems."

This does not sound legit to me, but at any rate it sounds like they are not going to do anything about it. Has anyone got the e6320 into 2.0 mode? Can anyone confirm setup 1.x will let me change it? I am already over budget on this project and really don't want to spend any more money.

 

few pages ago, is written how to try make 2.0. try to "remove device" from tray icon and after this, plug it on one more time. in GPU-Z, mark rendering and it should go to 2.0. I also have E6320 and wait for PE4L 2.1a, it would be great if you try this manner and write here about results.

P.S. could be a good choice instead of tagan, be quiet and corsair ( http://www.amazon.co.uk/GE-R460-V1-efficiency-Over-voltage-over-current-under-voltage/dp/B000XAE9UO) ?

 

It sounds not good to me. I do not have any pci switch options in my Vostro bios. I haven't purchased a PE4L 2.1 yet and still hesitates to go for it.

 

When PCIe ports (including ExpressCard slot) are set to Gen2 (PCIe rev 2.0 10Gb/s concurrent), they will support both PCIe 1.1 (2.5Gb/s on each directions) & 2.0 (5Gb/s on each directions) links.

This is my suggestion to Joss27 to get his eGPU to engage PCIe 2.0 link which does work on his E6420. It should work on E6320 too.

 

hello
i have problem with my NB hp elitebook 8540p. eGPU is turned off and notebook too, when i switch to eGPU in windows 7. can someone help me please?

 

Kizwan, thanks for all your help.
For Joss27 gpuz was showing gen2 support but was negotiated at gen1, mine only shows support for gen1. I have tried "Safely Remove Hardware" trick too, but I can never get it to reconnect after doing that.

 

It seems like i will only get past error 12 with a reduction of my ram. I tried it with 2gb and its working. In the "troubleshoot" section there is 2,5gb and 3 gb ram mentioned to work. So which value is it? Or ist it different from Notebook to Notebook and i have to try?

 

3GB will work. It is the same for every notebook, just some may require reallocation.

 

How are you reconnecting the eGPU after you remove it? Some will work by just turning the card off and on, but other require a full hotplug, or else they are not detected.

If you haven't tried it yet, after removing the card in windows through "safely remove hardware", turn the card off, disconnect it, turn it on, then reconnect it. You can also skip having the card on and removing it in the first place by just hotplugging after windows has started and is running.

 

Do i have to use the DVI port or HDMI port on my video card to see the performance increase of using an external monitor? I just tried using the VGA output on my laptop, and I didn't see any performance gains versus the internal LCD.

 

What are the implications of the upcoming IVB (IVY) update for those of us who are thinking about doing this set up soon? The laptops I'm looking at come with QM processors and as KHenglish pointed out to me I could be buying a laptop that is out of date in 2 weeks.

My question is:

1. What are the chances of incompatibility
2. What kind of performance difference would we see, will 1.2Opt soon be superseeded?
3. What does it mean for eGPU's in general?
4. Should I hold off? I'm fairly impatient so chances were I was going to start this project within the next few weeks also my current laptop is affecting my ability to work (too slow for big spreadsheets).
5. Are IVB ready laptops going to be prohibitively expensive in comparison so some of the higher end model sandys now being relatively cheaper? Will it take awhile for people to sort out eGPU set ups / iron out bugs on these laptops?




All the best.