DIY eGPU experiences

Could you provide some info about performance increase in Premiere with GTX460?

Are you able to play HD1080p videos without any lags and did you get advantages of encoding speed with it?

I have Lenovo T510 with Quadro NVS 3100 now and I can't even play 1080p video preview in Premiere and want to use older GTX260 or 280 as accelerator for Premiere.

Previously on my desktop computer I'v got GTS 450 and with HW acceleration I was able to play any HD content in Premiere smooth and get some advantage of acceleration during encoding final files.

BTW GTS 450 is not so good card for Premiere, only 10-15% speed increase above 8800-9800GTX

 

Move to a dedicated DIY eGPU host?

A user (who wishes not to be named) has volunteered a vbulletin/phpbb equipped system to host a dedicated DIY eGPU forum.

I wanted to see how users feel if we made such a move? Some brief pros/cons:

Pros:
+ subforums so info could be partitioned better
+ wiki would allow user-wide editting of the current quicklinked info

Cons:
- new website, new user registration, no guarantee on uptime, split off from other NBR discussion.

I'm also watching if NBR can implement an all-edittable first post summary as requested in http://forum.notebookreview.com/sit...nbr-forums-suggestion-box-13.html#post8497355 . NBR could help us also to just make a dedicated eGPU or external graphics areas that has been denied on two previous attempts to get going.

 

I personally think it should stay here, but get its own subforum in the Gaming section. Seeing as is is a big part of the NBR community, I think it would be a bad idea to make a whole new site.

 

I agree but my two previous attempts during PMed discussion with the head moderator, Charles P Jefferies, failed to get us a dedicated area. I recall it was passed for discussion with the moderators who didn't allow it to proceed. I initiated the first discussion and the second one upon SimoxTav's initiative.

It was also not clear why the moderators resisted allowing such a subforum. I would have assumed there is not really that much to moderate in our discussion area. Only really responding to flagged posts, which are also a rarity here.

Can anybody propose a different approach a third time round such that we may get a subforum? We do now have the option to go elsewhere if there is resistence on NBR to provide the tools deemed as necessary. I was thinking a polled question along the lines of Does NBR require a dedicated external graphics subforum? YES/NO/candy with as many YES votes as possible would be the most likely way for us to get such a subforum.

 

I created a poll that can be found here:


Dedicated External GPU (eGPU) subforum POLL.

 

Nando, that seems like a great idea. I'll be voting in the poll ASAP. Someone can get the ball rolling with the mods, but we should wait until after the poll has gathered sufficient votes.

 

I ordered everything today... hopefully shipping won't take too long. I'll update with results when it all gets here:

Latitude E6420
* 8Gb RAM
* i7 2720qm

eGPU:
PE4L from BPlus
COOLMAX ZX Power Supply
GeForce GTX 570 HD 2560MB

 

[TPU] Ivy Bridge PCI-Express Scaling with HD 7970 and GTX 680

Btw is there still no one that have tried AMD cards with pcie2.0 ?

 

This is an AWESOME news. This means GTX670 is my next purchase

 

an 1.2opt is equal with what ? x4 1.1 ?
it could be good perf with a gtx680

 

Yeah ^_^ (not in every circumstance but often).

Assuming that:

GTX680 16x 2.0 = 100%
GTX580 16x 2.0 = ~74% ( Source)
GTX680 4x 1.1 = 73%

PCI 1.1 4x =~ PCI 2.0 1x + Optimus Compression

Now using the internal screen, part of the bandwidth is used to render the image, so we can expect about 3/4 of the available bandwidth (@720p) so to me it means that the GTX680 can give the performance of a GTX 570 @16x 2.0.

I'm going to take the GTX 670 due its small form factor. The final result should be around the performance of a 560 Ti 448 @ 16x 2.0 on the internal screen @720p. On the external one should be between the 570 and the 580 IMHO.

 

Well, there are too many variables that are different between your egpu setup and mine, but still if you need help to resolve your issues, feel free to ask me for anything that will help you diagnose the problem. To be honest, it will most likely help me as much as it will help you, for I intend to upgrade real soon to a setup like yours.

I have a T520 (dgpu model) i5-2520M, 8GB, vidock 2 (found a cheap one on ebay) + 8800gt setup and windows 7. I used to get code 43 when dgpu was enabled (but that's to be expected I guess) and with it disabled, it's been very smooth sailing, almost plug and play. So forgive me if I'm missing an obvious thing, but unless the gpu/system memory size or whetever hardware difference between the adapters (vidock 2 - p4el) makes a drastic difference, operating system might be the real culprit. Perhaps a screenshot of the device manager from my setup might be of help to compare with yours.

Well, good luck.

 

@simoxtav : why this choice ? results will be visible compare with your actual gtx560 ?

 

Do we have an indication of 670 price? Just think 660 is too far away (Q3 from what I heard) and might need something to play D3 properly

If thats true then I think I will wait for the 660

 

The choice is based on four major features:

A- Power Consumption: with 180W it consumes the same (or a bit less) than the GTX560

B- Size: The card is smaller than the GTX560 so it fits perfectly in my enclosure (and my next mini ITX solution )

C- Price: The GTX680 would be a beast but 500€ are out of budget. The GTX670 (that will be released on May 10th) should cost around 400€ and oc'd can match the 680. It's expensive but considering the results of the first preview/review seems a right price than the 680). Sadly, the 660 is too far away from the release
In my case I'm going to use the EVGA Step-Up program paying only the difference from what I paid for the GTX560 to the retail price of the GTX670 (so about 240€)

D- Performance: Considering that now the GTX560 delivers about 80% of the nominal power @16x, the gap should be relevant with a card that can deliver about 40% more power (consuming less).

The only problem is related to the reference design that has a vapor chamber in front of the PCB, instead to have it ON the PCB. I hope to find aftermarket heatsinks soon.

 

OK thanks for explain !!

 

I will be very soon, I'm just waiting on a molex to 6-pin adapter. My laptop is an i7 x220 tablet and I picked up 2 HD4890s for a very good price. I was thinking I'd probably sell the two and pick up a cheap optimus compatible card, but for the moment i'll be giving these two a go. It is my first eGPU build though so it might take me a while to solve any issues

I've got a cheap 300w power supply which i believe is single rail running at 12v 15A. The power draw under load had been recorded to be 120W, but I was wondering what would break if anything did due to overload- I am right in assuming it would just be the PSU? or does this risk damage to the card/ PE4L?

 

has anyone made an unmounting program yet, when ran it switches back to intel hd graphics and allows you to dismount the graphics card ie unplug expresscard 34 while HOT?

 

Hi Friendly Forum Folks!

I've tried doing a search through the forums but no one seems to have tried building an eGPU for the fujitsu SH761 yet. I must confess that even after having done quite a lot of reading there are some bits of this that continue to elude me, so i was hoping some kind soul would help me clarify my planned setup:

My current Fujitsu Lifebook SH761 specs:

- Sandy Bridge i5-2520M processor
- 8GB DDR3 RAM
- GT520M 1GB (800Mhz Engine Clock, 740Mhz Memory)
- EC 1.0, @ x1 1.0 PCIe

Planned eGPU:
- PE4H 2.4 from BPlus Tech with EC2C (my EC port is a x1 1.0)
- GTX560 OC 1GB GDDR5
( PALIT GTX 560 OC and 2GB Review by VR-Zone.com)
- ASX PSU

Aims and Problems:
1. my main motivation for this would be to run games on a larger resolution (1920 x 1080) with decent (need not be tip-top) graphics and fps.. my current 520M that came with the laptop lags terribly whenever i go above its native resolution of (1366 x 768), and it can't be overclocked much. Diablo 3 beta and starcraft 2 can barely run above the minimum settings at the higher resolution =/

2. i'm not sure if getting the GTX560 OC 1GB GDDR5 will be worthwhile, because i'm not sure if the x1 1.0 EC will be a significant bottleneck. Would i be better off with my native GT520M card?

Thanks in advance to any kind souls who can help me with this!
- Jayax

 

*some* system's bios sets expresscard slot config registers such that the eject devices systemtray icon will show the eGPU making unplugging very easy. Your 2760P, like my 2560P, won't have that set.

The method to use there use is to disable the eGPU in Device Manager, then unplug. devcon can be used to automated it into a single click of a shortcut on your desktop.

There's a Fujitsu AH531 implementation on the first page that has similar specs (ie: iGPU+GT520M dGPU+eGPU). You should also be getting a PE4L 2.1b instead of the PE4H 2.4 to gain the doubling of bandwidth your Series-6 chipset can provide, ie: x1.2Opt.

A GTX560 has the same cores with slightly upped clocks as a GTX460-1GB. The latter usually available for low prices on the s/h market. So it only makes sense then to jump up to a GTX560Ti (384 cores) or get a s/h GTX460-1GB (336 cores) overclock edition. A s/h GTX460 is the highest bang-per-buck card for eGPU implementations.

 

Ha.. Not exactly. The reason I asked Nando to propose the idea in the thread is because of the group psychology. If the idea came from me it would probably be ignored or flamed. So I pushed the idea to Nando and Nando pushed it here. Since it is coming from "leader" then its most likely to be considered by others because "leader" is thinking it too. Something along those lines.

Now.. I generally think that getting a sub-forum might not cut it. It will sort some of the discussion but we are bound to get thousands of threads asking if it will work on their systems. And since no one gets a mod rights it will just become a huge dump of 2 posts a thread threads. Again, something along those lines (can't seem to express myself today).

Wolf

 

Thanks much for the help Nando =D

1. Is this the PE4L 2.1b you were talking about? the Bplus website lists it as PE4L 2.1a though: PE4L ( PCIe Adapter ver2.1 )

2. I read in your post at http://forum.notebookreview.com/6542661-post1222.html that Opt is only avail if it detects a 4500MHD, Intel HD or x3150 (Pine Trail) primary adapter? Since mine's using a GT520M, doesn't that preclude it from the list? Or am i outdated in this

3. nice! yah that makes sense, i'll prolly get the GTX560 Ti then
Many Thanks,
Jayax

 

Hey guys,

Was wondering if anyone was interested in benchmarking their x1.2 Opt fermi-powered egpu's and competing on PPBM5 Benchmark which is basically a tool to assess how one's system stacks up against other systems in video editing prowess.

This is a huge and unexplored opportunity because if a DIY egpu can compete well against other very expensive editing systems, (see laptops section in benchmark results), the people in this segment of a market would be very excited.

A free trial version of Adobe premiere can be found at: Download Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 5.5.2 Free Trial - Capture, edit, and deliver video online, on air, on disc, or on device - Softpedia

If anyone can put up their results on the benchmark, that would be cool.

Thanks.

 

In the past you used to hear of cheap PSUs failing catastrophically, particularly when overloaded, but you don't really hear of this anymore. This failure would take out multiple system components. When a non-cheap PSU is overloaded it will simply shut down.

But since the PSU is rated for 180W and you'll only be putting 120W on it, I think you'll be fine. I know that the PE4H has a fuse built in to protect the laptop from a power surge. I do not know if the PE4L has this.

 

Thanks! I'll post the results up here soon hopefully!

 

IVB Lenovo E430/E530 no longer havean expresscard slot

Lenovo's next-gen budget business offering will no longer be a DIY eGPU candidate. Means interested DIY eGPU users may want to get a runout-deal on a E420/E520 instead which do have an expresscard slot.

I'm wondering if the IVB HP Probooks and Dell Vostros will also drop the expresscard slot?

 

Hi guys! I'm new to this and would greatly appreciate some help with my setup.

Specs: Dell e6320 with Core i5-2520M, Intel HD3000, 4GB of RAM, 128 Gb SSD + 250 Gb HDD and Windows 7 64-bit. Could not figure out TOLUD from PCI bus values:
[00000000000A0000 - 00000000000BFFFF] PCI bus
[00000000CFA00000 - 00000000FEAFFFFF] PCI bus
[00000000FED40000 - 00000000FED44FFF] PCI bus

eGPU: PE4L 2.1b + Gigabyte GeForce GTX 550 Ti (~116W) and a 120W/12V DC adapter.

I bought a molex gender changer (single, so one of two molex connectors from 6-pin adapter is not connected) and connected floppy socket on PE4L to one of the molex connectors of the 6-pin adapter that came with the card. SW2 = 2-3, SW1 = 3, J1 is closed.

I turned on the DC adapter, then laptop and plugged in E2C2 right after the first BIOS screen. The card's fan became quieter as expected. Windows recognized new display adapter: PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1244&SUBSYS_35361458

Then I installed 296.10 desktop driver.

In NVIDIA Control Panel I am able to select "Preferred graphics processor" (High-performance NVIDIA processor or Integrated Graphics), which I assume means that Optimus is activated.
Device manager reports that "The device is working properly" for GeForce GTX 550 Ti.
I do not have an external screen and only use internal display.

Today I figured out that I need to re-install the driver after each VGA crash. So after a fresh install I'm able to run 3DMark06 for about 20 seconds and then the system crashes. My guess is that the card does not get enough power.

Should I get a molex splitter instead of molex gender changer? Or should I get a PSU?

 

Hey there, so I received all my parts today :
-PE4H v2.4
-PM3N
and a GTX 460

My computer is a Dell Latitude E5510, win7 32bits, 4G of RAM.

I plugged everything in ( pm3n was kinda hard to fit into my comp because its usually a half-lenght card that fits in that mpcie port )

I boot up my comp, power egpu at windows loading and everything loads fine. There is 3 green lights on the PE4H and the gtx fan spins quite fast. There is 2 lights on the pm3n that will light on a yellow and green one.

One problem, nothing is happening... I tried to use the Verde 293.XX driver with modified nvam.inf file, drivers tell me cant find the card.

So the card fan just spins but nothing happens, no error no nothing

What now ? I dont know what to do ?

Ive read some more pages of this thread, and I just realized my psu doesnt have any pcie connector. So I think that may be my problem, i need a new psu with pcie connector to connect to my card ?

 

so I was able to get my gtx680 working on my t520, but only with 4gb ram.

not sure what the issue is, but I'd like to get 16gb back, so will perform a dsdt override

I have been able to get the aml compiled (with a couple warnings), and loaded, but did not get the large memory in the device resources, and with reboot I get a bsod.

so..

here are the warnings I got:

PHP:

C:\root>iasl dsdt.dsl

Intel ACPI Component Architecture
ASL Optimizing Compiler version 20091214 [Dec 14 2009]
Copyright (C) 2000 - 2009 Intel Corporation
Supports ACPI Specification Revision 4.0

dsdt.dsl  5020:                     Method (_Q16, 0, NotSerialized)
Warning  1088 -                                ^ Not all control paths return a
value (_Q16)

dsdt.dsl  7073:                     Method (_DSM, 4, NotSerialized)
Warning  1088 -                                ^ Not all control paths return a
value (_DSM)

dsdt.dsl  7073:                     Method (_DSM, 4, NotSerialized)
Warning  1081 -                                ^ Reserved method must return a v
alue (_DSM)

dsdt.dsl 12086:                 Name (_T_0, Zero)
Remark   5111 -                          ^ Use of compiler reserved name (_T_0)

ASL Input:  dsdt.dsl - 13889 lines, 464875 bytes, 5836 keywords
AML Output: DSDT.aml - 52235 bytes, 1133 named objects, 4703 executable opcodes

Compilation complete. 0 Errors, 3 Warnings, 1 Remarks, 2562 Optimizations


also attached are the orginal dsl, the dsl I added the qword to, and a screenshot of my device resources

not sure what to try next to get the dsdt to working

any help would be great!

 

Not sure if this was mentioned before, but it seems that ESET NOD32's latest signatures aren't liking the file: tianocore_uefi_udk_duet_x86_64.img provided by Setup 1.x (for putting on a flash drive). I had to disable my AV temporarily for the final step where it copies the files to the USB drive since I previously had it actively scanning files on access. An interesting false positive, though it could cause trouble.

See:
tianocore_uefi_udk_duet_x86_64.img MD5:2a706311a2c93e801c7ae3e07990c2ee - VirSCAN.org 3% Scanner(s) (1/36) found malware!

I've submitted the file for analysis as a false-positive. Hopefully this will be cleared up shortly. The quick fix is just a temporary disable

 

Some of them might have Thunderbolt instead, at least S430 has Lenovo ThinkPad Edge S430 is the first Windows laptop with Intel's Thunderbolt; Edge E430 and E530 also announced | The Verge seems like a pretty sleek laptop

 

Sadly, it seems also that the HP 2570p and the newcomers 2170p will lack the EC2C slot.

HP EliteBook 2170p and 2570p hands-on - SlashGear

Seems like TB ports are becoming a serious business for Intel (even if not all the NB are equipped with it yet).

 

EDIT: Looks like slashgear are confusing things.. 2570P does have an EC slot. See http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-...ebook-2560p-owners-lounge-18.html#post8507297 for details.

 

I'm facing a problem try to search in this thread to find someone who has the problem like me but cannot find the resolve.
PS. i'm super noob -_-

Lenovo t410 8GB Ram
EVGA 01G-P3-1366-RX GeForce GTX 460 SE (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
APEVIA ATX-CW500WP4 500W ATX Power Supply
pe4h
and
install fermi driver with mod nvam.inf
and do the bios setting following mide instruction from thread

5) Go into the BIOS and set "Boot Display Device" to "Digital on Thinkpad"
BIOS>Config>Display

Everything look like work fine
try to boot with everything connected , window detected the card
try to put on sleep mode first and then connect the card , window detected the card.

But both way have the same problem
1. everytime i try to open starcraft 2 the fan of the gpu spinning real fast, and t410 freeze.
2. sometime during do something after turn on the computer 5 mins , computer pop up the blue screen with nvlddmkm.sys error

After searching more info in this thread
- i found that my psu has not enough power to give to gpu , is it correct? if yes i going to buy a new one today
- the second i found is about dsdt 36 bit , i really don't understand what is that but i just saw 4GB+ram , do i need to do that?


Thank you

THE PROBLEM WAS SOLVE...
so it's psu problem , it's doesn't give gpu enough power . After buy a new psu everything work fine

Thank you again for the best diy ever

 

HP EliteBook 2570p Notebook PC specifications - HP Small & Medium Business products

it is written that there is an ExpressCard/34

you can see it on 3 and 5 photo --> http://www.engadget.com/photos/hp-elitebook-2570p-0/#5004287

 

The photos on Engadget differs from the Slashgear ones and to me sounds the engadget one are like a recycling of the 2560p (the specs too). I would be happy to be denied, but also the photos of the 8470 in the HP section on NBR shows 2 buttons instead of three and the lack of the EC2C slot.

 

Heey,

Just one question : I've got a Clevo W150HRM, chipstet 65-series, can I plug an eGPU in 2x mPCI-e 2.0 ?

Thank you

 

im not sure if you got expresscard slot.

EDIT: yes, you don't have EC slot.

 

So, I tried today with another psu with 2 pcie connector, nothing changed, no errors, the card is still not detected.. The slot im pluggin the pm3n in is a WLAN slot. Am I doing something wrong ??

 

After successfully setting up egpu on a Sony Vaio Z series all Thanks to Nando and Kizwan.

Games like LoL and WoW run well at high settings but when i ran a 3dmark11 it shows a poor result.

3DMark Score P2822
This Score is Low Compared to Similar Systems.
There may be a problem. (From 3DMArk11)

Is the result normal? or is there something else im missing out.
Thanks

 

Edited to be more concise:

My Setup is:
* GTX 570HD
* 8GB RAM
* i7 2720QM
* Dell Lat. E6420
* PE4L

So far, most things seem to be going as planned. I did encounter a slight issue when I had my laptop monitor set to "extend" mode (that is the external and internal were both on at the same time) where the computer froze entirely when launching League of Legends. All the Steam games I had readily available ran beautiful, with only a slight microstutter every so often (all maxxed out).

Some questions if you have the time:

* I have replaced my ODD in my laptop with a HDD caddy where I have a second HDD. When the second (not the bootable one) is unplugged, I can chainload with MBR just fine from Setup 1.x. However, when the second drive is plugged in, I just get the no operating system error. Admittedly this could be something in the BIOS that I have fiddled with and forgotten though. I know I also have troubles booting (not using Setup 1.x or egpu or anything) if I previously had a HDD/ODD plugged in via the eSATA port... for some reason it seems the Intel Raid driver fiddles with something and the BIOS decides to make the second HDD the primary one for boot sequence... any thoughts?

* Is there a quick way to confirm that I am getting the Optimus speed boost? All I'm doing special is booting to Setup 1.x on a USB drive, disabling the dGPU under PCI config, and chainloading from there. No compaction or anything since I don't know what those do.

* What is TOLUD? I don't seem to be having any troubles, but I keep seeing the E6*** referenced in the Troubleshooting guides as being peculiar. Are there supposed to be problems with my 8GB setup? Does this effect the fact that my video card is supposed to have 2.5Gb VRAM?


Thanks for the help everyone. So far I am really enjoying being able to really game on my otherwise overpowered laptop

 

X220 + PE4L + ATi HD4670 successful on arch linux x86_64

 

@above why would you do that? Are there any games out for linux?

 

Finally, it works. It turns out that last PE4L2.1b I received was a faulty one. They exchanged a new one for me and it works fine. 3Dmark11 GPU score 4216 is on par with other GTX 560 ti users on the forum.
Special thank to Fausts, arsenal243 and jemino who helped me test the old unit.

And BTW, I got an old version PE4L1.5 lying around in perfect condition and willing to sell it to anyone with PCI-e 1.0/1.1 only systems. Just PM me.

Thanks,

 

Could you please describe the process step by step? I'm interested in eGPU running under Linux.

 

how do I know if im able to do a 1.2Opt connection? I'm running a hp dm4 1160us. I'm almost done setting up my egpu but i'm kind of interested in the 1.2Opt

 

If in NVIDIA Control Panel you see "Preferred graphics processor" (High-performance NVIDIA processor or Integrated Graphics), then Optimus is activated. Link speed can be checked by GPU-Z.
Got 2.0 link on my Dell E6320. Had to power-off PSU and remove EC2C and then power-on and plugin EC2C. My 3DMark06 is 15,360 on 1024x768. Overclocking the card does not change the score much

 

can you describe how to activate eGPU od E6320? i was trying to do it but i couldn't. i swap latitude with elitebook where eGPU works perfectly.

 

hi guys,

i'm back with a new laptop.

an acer Aspire 5750G (i7 2630qm (2GHz - 2.9GHz)/ 4Go/SSD 64Go samsung/GT540m)

i'm not able to use my PE4H on it (it freeze at everytime i use it) unable to boot or to hotplug it.

i've saw a 2.75Gb TOLUD in egpu tools, do you think that's the reason why i can't use my GTX570 on it

(this GPU works with my old amilo ...)

thanks by advannce

 

AFAIK if the problem were related to memory allocation (ie TOLUD) you should get error 12 but still be able to boot with egpu into windows. Anyway 2,75 is good: you certainly have enough space to accomodate an egpu. If you're unlucky you'll have to use setup 1.x, but in the end you'll be able to solve any memory problems.