DIY eGPU experiences

Another simple question to which I can't seem to find an Answer:

The PE4L v2.1 supports a bandwidth of up to 500MB/s, so basically PCI Express 2.0 (Sandy-Bridge)

What about the PE4H v2.4?

 

Usually someone would email you a link.

 

Currently only PCIe 1.0 so 250MB/s each direction

The future PE4H v3.0 will be able to deliver 500MB/s each direction so compliant to PCIe 2.0 x1

Capping the FPS to 60 resolved completely the issue to me ( PE4L 2.1 + GTX 670). The problem is related to the bandwidth: when the framerate grows too much and too many coordinates need to be sent, the framerate istantly drops; considering the amount of "objects" present on the scene is easy to understand why there are constant drops on the framerate. Limiting it can fix the issue completely.

 

Wow thanks! This is GREAT News, because it means I will have the same performance with a ThinkPad X201 (Arrandale!). Yay!

 

Background FPS cap to 60 fixed the low frame rates in large environment issue in D3 for me. Haven't had sudden drops to low frame rates since. Everything still on high, AA, shadows on, etc.

 

Hey guys
I've managed to get the DSDT override sorted (big thanks to Nando) however I'm having some really awkward problems getting drivers installed for my PowerColor HD5770.
I am using Win7 64 and have seen that various other have had problems with drivers.

Basically, in the Device Manager, it will recognises the card "ATI Radeon 5700 Series", but says "drivers are not installed for this device".

I've tried using Catalyst (various versions), and tried just installing the driver by locating the C7 driver file.

I'm getting nowhere. I've used Driver Sweeper and tried Removing Old entries in the Registry and starting again, but still can't get the drivers installed.

I feel so close as it is recognised, but frustrated I can't get it to work at this stage.

Any advice is massively appreciated as always
Cheers guys.
Matt

 

Have you tried to install drivers via the Device Manager?

Simple, but often overlooked.

 

Yep tried that, it just says "drivers are not installed for this device"

But thanks. I'll have another try with that to exhaust the option though.
M

 

Hi,

I am a lenovo x200 user with following setup:

x200, win7 32bit, 4 GB RAM
gtx 560 ti
430CX power supply
PE4H 2.4

I am able to setup the x1 link, but the performance in Diablo 3 is really bad so I have to consider Optimus.

I followed this page to install the verde driver, but then I get error code 43. (I use F8 key to halt the startup of Win7 and at that time plug the egpu)

Tried several ways without luck:
- only use 2 GB ram
- Use F8 to halt the win7 and select enable unsigned driver.

The verde driver works on x1 link (without optimus), so I think it is not the problem of the HDMI cable or the driver. I check the problem code in the detail tab of the video card device, the code is 0000002B.

Have anyone experienced similar problems? Really appreciate your help. Thanks.

UPDATE:
I tried to put machine to sleep and then connect the egpu, this time no error 43, the driver works properly, however, the optimus is not enable. Any ideas? Thanks.

BR,
nevup

 

Thank you. I've made some research and I helped myself in Windows. Unfortunately I found that 8540p has motherboard resources, which you say are unmovable unless someone reprogrammes BIOS, in the middle of the PCI bus address space (D7600000-D7600FFF). Too bad

BTW dGPU mem space is unmovable as well? If so, I don't see any space where to fit 128+64+32MB because the only free space is D7601000-DFFFFFFF (137MB).
The dGPU takes C0000000-D1FFFFFF.

All the motherboard resources memory ranges according to the Windows reportings are as follows:

fed1c000-fed1ffff
fed10000-fed13fff
fed1b000-fed1bfff
fed19000-fed19fff
d7600000-d7600fff
e0000000-efffffff
fed20000-fed3ffff
fed90000-fed93fff
fed45000-fed8ffff
fec00000-fec00fff

Do you think there's still a chance to get Fermi cards working?

 

did you cap the FPS using Diablo 3 options, right? (no external program). I used the option available on Diablo 3 and the improvement was notorious

With the same topic, do you know a program to cap FPS globally (any game)?.

Thanks for the help

 

Yes Diablo 3 options. I believe there are 2 FPS options, one set at mid-high 100s fps, and the other to like 8 fps. I'm currently sitting at 60/12 for the two options.

No idea on global FPS cap

 

I was getting microstuttering on my x220 + gtx460 until I changed the FPS cap to 60 from 75. Works great now even with the DarkD3 graphics overlay.

 

Hi,

I am configuring a pe4h+Pm3n on my laptop through my mpcie that my wireless card was plugged into. I am having an issue starting windows with the egpu connected, both the psu and gpu fans power on when I switch the atx psu on but my computer won't resume from standby or boot, it just lights up and the off and then back on again etc. so I was wondering if I need to setup 1.x or if it is a different issue? My laptop is an acer aspire 5745g i7 720qm with just a nvidia gpu and I want to use a gtx550 to egpu on it.

Cheers

 

Hey Jemino; I'm an x220 user too just getting my PE4L 2.1b and also planning to get the GTX560. I am not too good at looking / comparing the scores, but are you able to run the most current games (i.e. battlefield 3, d3) smoothly on high / max settings?

Would just like to have some sort of expectation since I know your system config is way better than mine..

Thx

 

Two things: (1) the modded driver page highlighted that NVidia 2.95.xx or newer desktop drivers provide the x1.Opt features, namely internal LCD mode and pci-e compression so long as you have a supported iGPU. Means you no longer need the modded Verde drivers to do that.

(2) for the Optimus features you need the iGPU active. If booting with the eGPU powered on then a X200 will default to using that as the primary video device rather than the iGPU, so no x1.Opt. Need to halt bootup with F8 and poweron the eGPU or do a standby/resume after bootup.

Yes. We have a DSDT override available now allowing eGPUs to be hosted out of 36/64-bit PCI space if TOLUD and unmovable devices mean not enough 32-bit PCI space is available.

Not sure why you are aiming for a Fermi. If your 8540P has a dGPU then it's not going to get x1.Opt performance since it lacks a iGPU, in which case I'd suggest seeing if it's x2 capable or upgrade to a SB/IVB notebook with a iGPU so can do x1.2Opt (approx 4 times more bandwidth).

Some systems bios will not start with a powered eGPU attached to the expresscard/mPCIe slot. By the sounds of it yours is one of them. So the solution is to make sure the eGPU is seen by the system after boot either by (1) using the PCI Reset Delay switches on your PE4H (7/15s) or even on your PM3N or (2) hotplug after bootup.

The Reset delay switches make booting easier but if you standby an active eGPU then a resume will result in a BSOD since Win7 is expecting the device active now rather than 7 or 15secs later.

 

Cool, thanks nando i will try this when i get home. I also created a new thread with this question earlier today, i should most probably see to getting that removed

 

Thank you nando4!

My bad, I didn't see the note on top of the page. I will switch to desktop driver for any try.

I did halt win7 by F8 and then connect the express card, but got a error code 43 (with the verde driver)

 

PE4Ls out of stock... after i did my research and decided to invest in one of these babies....... nooooooooooooooooooo

 

migt have to fork out the extra and get the PE4H

 

Not until there is only PE4L v2.1 with PCI 2.0, but no PE4H 3.0 with PCI 2.0 available.

 

If you don't have a Sandy-Bridge Notebook, you might as well get the PE4H v2.4 now.

 

I couldn't find any info about ivy bridge and expresscard bandwidth. Are they 3.0 compliant? Planing to buy a thinkpad W530 june and a GTX 6XX in the future...

Thanks

edit: never mind here is the info: http://forum.notebookreview.com/8527484-post10185.html

 

Got it I'll take a look at 36 bit override possibility.
I'm aiming for Fermi because a friend of mine has one which is not using...
BTW 8540p has iGPU disabled. I don't know if this changes anything.
As far as I know there's a way to get x2 working on my laptop but I don't like the idea of connecting so many cables into the notebook. I'd still like to have it simply mobile with just unplugging the EC2C.

Nowadays I'm waiting for HP 8470p with iGPU and there I hope I'll get the best possible performance using just EC2C.

Got a question which one is better for my purposes?
I think PE4L v1.5 since I will use just 1 PCIe link or for some reason PE4H v2.4 ?

Thanks

 

So...
last evening I powered up my eGPU.
It's a PE4L 2.1b together with a GTX570 @ two XBOX PSUs in a custom case.

Notebook is a Lenovo X220 with i5-2520m (2x2.5GHz) and 8GB of RAM.

I am getting a 3D-Mark 06 of about 17.500 points which is a little too low I think. Am I missing something?
ExpressCard Speed is set to 'automatic' in BIOS (Generation 1 // Automatic)
Newest nVidia Driver, Optimus is enabled.
PE4L: Switches: SW1 = 1, SW2 = 2-3

With powering up the notebook with the eGPU attached and running it gets recognized.
If I try starting windows - sleep - plug in eGPU - resume, I get Error 12.

Is everything ok or should I do something? If I understood correct, my TOLUD is set 3.5GB (BIOS 1.29), which should disable compaction, right? This would require a DSDT override but on a quick look, my *.dsl file does not contain any 'DEVICE (PCI0)'...

Maybe somebody has some advice

I'll get some benches and photos when everything is up and running.


[EDIT] I asked the user jemino (also eGPU @ X220). Maybe its my Core i5 thats slowing down @ 3DM06? I will check this evening with some other benchmarks. But the Futuremark scores page told that the SM2.0 Score and the HDR/SM2.0 Score are below normal.

[EDIT2] 3D-Mark 11 give me a solid P4724. Thats ok, I guess...
[EDIT3] And a nice P5291 with some OC

 

Dang, unfortunatlely I could not get it to work. I tried a few variations:

1. I booted up the laptop with the pm3n card connected but not plugged into the gpu, I also had the gpu powered by my 500w atx psu which was also powering the pe4h with the cable supplied in the kit. Both gpu and psu fans were running. Both The delay switches were set to 1. Disable. I then plugged the mini hdmi cable into the pe4h and nothing happens, my laptop does not detect anything and neither in the device manager. I then restarted the laptop with everything still plugged in and on but it won't turn back on. I even tried booting up with the wireless card plugged in then swapping it over to the pm3n but it did not like this either.

2. I setup the same as in variation 1 (as above) except I had the laptop off and the mini hdmi cable connected to the laptop and the gpu, but the laptop just starts up as normal not detecting anything.

3. I try all variations of delay switches on both the pe3h and pm3n while the laptop is running or start from bootup but it always ends the same by either turning of the screen and running the laptop fan high and then turning off to not starting up at all.

Is there something I am completely missing? Or doing wrong? It is a gtx550 ti gpu with a 12v 500w atx psu, I have the latest nvidia GeForce beta graphics drivers that work with my dedicated gpu on the laptop (gt330m).

Is there maybe some setup I have not done yet, as I have not actually done any pre setup.

Any help is gratefully appreciated.

Cheers

 

Neither. PE4L 2.1b is the best one for you, which is pci-e 2.0 capable. Then you can use it with your 8470P to get highest performance.

Start by reading the Troubleshooting page, specifically 9. Upon powering my eGPU, the fan on the eGPU just spins faster and the card isn't detected. Boot with the wifi when doing this to avoid any whitelisting issues. Once you figure the method that is required to detect the eGPU can use Setup 1.x to streamline the connection process. Most likely it's undo-whitelisting and the PE4H's delay switches would do the job so could avoid hotplugging.

 

Hi Everyone
Great thread! Congrats to all pioneers (nando et al) for the great works. You guys give people like me a hope to enjoy gaming on a tight budget.

A bit of background about me. I have got a dell studio 1555 with integrated ati4570m running on vista 64.
I used to be mad gamer on PC but recently due to extra responsibilities, and ever evolving desktop PC graphic requirements, I had almost given up on PC gaming. So just to be a casual gamer playing once in a while when I can I was thinking of getting one of the consoles.

But then I the new Diablo came! I used to play Warcraft a lot but when they went WoW path I stopped. The new Diablo has reignited my passion and I went and bought the games.
Currently I am enjoying the games when I cam get the time to play and when the server is up and running and not being maintained.

Overall I am enjoying the game but can only play it with almost everything turned down. So I started thinking upgrading my system. Upon further investigation I cam realise I can’t upgrade my current laptop with new graphics card and such. So I came upon this thread of eGPU which I am really thinking of.

So can anyone please help me on a few questions regarding this setup? I was thinking of getting a kit from HW tools and adding a graphics card and PSU.
Again I have Dell Studio 1555 with ATI 4570 graphics card on vista 64 with 4gb stock dell memory and Core(TM) 2 Duo Processor T9550 (2.66GHz/ 1
1066 FSB/ 6MB Cache) . It has an express card slot.

In summary can you please answer my following queries?
• What kit should I buy from HWtools? I think my laptop has an express card slot so the one with E2C is ok? What about the other configurations? I saw one of the pioneers Kizwan who has studio 1557 used two mini PCie connectors? Is there a particular reason to go mini PCie way and two of them? In future if I face any significant lag issues I am thinking of getting a mini –PCIe and adding it to the E2C. Is mixing possible? I opened up my laptop and I think 2 out of 3 mini PCie slot were already in use. So I think I have to use one E2C at least.
• DO I have to worry about the slot number ie. 1.3.5 etc.
• I future I am planning to buy my better half one of the new ultrabooks or the new Macbooks with ivy bridge. Can you please suggest a kit that can be used on that?
• I am thinking of getting a getting a nvdia 560GTX from msy in Sydney as an eGPU. Since the integrated GPU is ATI will that cause issues on my VISTA 64 or should I just stick with ATI? If yes then which will be ok around that budget? My reference is from http://www.msy.com.au/Parts/PARTS.pdf. i think msy are selling normal 560GTX. Should I go one step up with 560GTX Ti.
• Can anyone please suggest a power supply again reference msy is good or any other good store in Sydney? Too many choices and I don’t know a quality product at reasonable price.
• Do I need to do anything else with my studio other than connecting the parts and setting up the eGPU. My question is about any software changes etc. I am an engineer and good and dismantling and connecting stuff. But I fail to follow the guidelines when you guys use a lot of acronyms e.g. 1x 2x ToLUD etc and I have to go back and find answers to those acronyms and sometimes I wonder I have the correct meaning. I tried to follow the guidelines on TOLUD but I think I didn’t see a large memory tab and further is there a simpler way to go beyond that?
• Should I upgrade my memory or the current stock dell one( 2X2GB) DDR2 SDRAM Memory is ok?
• In future I am thinking of using this laptop as HTPC so can anyone recommend wireless gaming mouse and keyboard. For the mouse at the moment I am thinking of G700.
• Since I started playing Diablo on my current laptop heats up and shuts down. I have already dismantled, cleaned and changed the thermal compound. Since then it had become more stable. With new eGPU will heating still be issues? I am thinking of playing the game on my plasma through eGPU and 1080p with max settings.
• Currently the temp remains around 60C normal and max around 90to 95C on integrated ATI GPU, max 70-75c on one of the motherboards and lower on the CPU cores. It still shuts down after a long running time. Is that ok in the longer run? Before the cleanup it the internal ATIGPU used to shoot up beyond 100C and shut down more frequently. I saw a partially blackened/brown switches connected to the laptop power in. Is that of concern? The laptop still works through the charger since the batteries are gone?


It will be really appreciated if you could answers the above questions. Apologies for the long yarn.
Thanks again to everyone.

 

Hi Friendly Forum Folks!

@Nando: thanks so much for your help, i've gotten it up and running finally Quick picture below, i managed to stuff the entire thing into an old shoebox to make it more manageable.

1. One last kink that doesn't seem to be ironed out though - can't seem to get Optimus enabled, no matter what i try.. installed kizwan's modded 295.73 driver, swapped the nvam.inf file out and ran setup.exe again as in the instructions, but my 3D settings in the NVidia Control panel unfortunately still doesn't show the switch option for the eGPU's GTX560 Ti. Any suggestions on what I could do?

Thanks in advance!

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.ne...6252656222_507596221_9933333_1325983323_n.jpg

Best Regards,
JX
my eGPU: (Images below)
MSI 560 Ti Twin Frozr, GDDR5 1GB
PE4L 2.1b from hwtools with Molex cable, EC adaptor and switch
550W PSU

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

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.ne...6252656222_507596221_9933333_1325983323_n.jpg

 

Is Setup 1.x still free if you buy a PE4H/PE4L from HIT? If so, then how would I get it?

 

The reason why I connected eGPU to two mPCIe slot is because I want eGPU to operate at PCIe x2 link. The mPCIe ports I use are WLAN (PCIe port #2) & WWAN (PCIe port #1). The ExpressCard slot is PCIe port #4 & 1557 doesn't have extra mPCIe port like 1555. The PCIe port numbers are important because PCIe x2 link only possible with any of these combination:-
- PCIe port #1 & #2
OR
- PCIe port #3 & #4
OR
- PCIe port #5 & #6

You can't ganged up PCIe port #1 & PCIe port #3, for example. Intel chipset datasheet also did mention this. If you connected eGPU only to ExpressCard or only one mPCIe, eGPU will running at PCIe x1 link. So, I suggest PCIe x2 link setup instead. Because you will experiencing stuttering & lagging while playing games with PCIe x1 link.

On my 1557, I just need to connect eGPU before powering up my notebook. BIOS will take care everything. I think this should apply on 1555 too. If running at PCIe x2 link, you will need to use Setup 1.x to set PCIe x2 link. That's all.

Regarding overheating problem, you might want to try Shin-Etsu G751 thermal compound. It works great for me after others failed. ICD7 should works great too. You also want to apply copper shims. I think you can use 1557's copper shims guide. The dimensions should be the same.

As for Diablo III, each time I started the game (public games mode), there will be stuttering at the beginning, just a couple of seconds I think but after that it run smoothly even in battle. My settings is 1080p + High.

According to the specification (see Disclaimer #4), SH761 doesn't have active Intel HD 3000 iGPU. Only S761 have active Intel HD 3000 iGPU. So, your notebook doesn't support Optimus setup.

 

OK, BTW will I have any advantage with PE4L 2.1b connected to ExpressCard slot on system with PCIe 3.0 or will it still run in 2.0 mode ?

 

I bought my PE4H and GTS 450 + a 12v 120w ac adapter (which it needs a 12v supply) and just figure that PE4H ain't support 12v. What should I do?

 

I am not trying to do SLI/crossfire. I am just trying to connect and use 2 GPUs.

This apparently involves a pci switch, either one on the amfeltec minipcie splitter, or on the dual gpu card (gf590, 6990,...).

Anyone successfully connected a dualgpu card to mini-pcie? (sli/crossfire disabled)

 

Hi everybody! Thanks for all of the good info in here, I recently purchased a PE4H 2.4a from HIT, and an ATI 5770. I'm trying to get it to work with my Asus Z96J through the expresscard slot; it has a dedicated Mobility Radeon x1600.

I've messed with the Setup 1.x program that came with the card, I've booted to it and played with the settings, but I get the gray "eGPU has not been detected" screen everytime. I switched the selector switch (which I believe sets the pci delay) to all 3 settings as the gray screen suggested but no changes.

The only thing I can get to change is if I demote the dGPU then there is something in the port listing on the upper right that says "eGPU", but I'm not sure if this is actually my 5770 or if it just renamed my dGPU (they're both ati...). Either way, when I try chainloading nothing happens in windows. I haven't even been lucky enough to get an error message .

I initially was using Win XP, because I have all of the drivers, but I installed Win 7 to see if it would help, with no change, and now I can't even get Win 7 to recognize my dGPU...

One thing that could be a problem is my power supply is rather old, but I believe it has 9A on the 12V rail, and is plugged into the PE4H; I'm not sure if this is underpowered (from what I've read 108W should be enough), or if the GPU itself needs to be plugged in (PSU is so old it doesn't have the right connectors...)

I've tried searching through the forum, FAQ, and I've tried every option I can think of, I would appreciate any insight or suggestions or links to some kind of a walkthrough. Thanks,

Kaleb

EDIT: I just found something else to try (1000 pages is a lot to go through!), I'll post an update here tonight.

 

Thanks for the reply Kizwan.
So i am thniking of using one available miniPCIE slot and one Express card slot on the ports you mentioned.
What do you mean by Setup 1.x ? pardon my ignorance 
I am thinking of using the PE4h with the E@C at the start and may be another one miniPCIe. I think I have to cut the plastic bottom of the laptop for that which I am relucant to do.

Other main question is if I use nvdia 560 will that have any issue with my internal ATI 4570 drivers on a Vista64 operating system? Or should I change my operating sytem to Win7.
Also will the 560Ti offer any significant better performance over the 560 since both of them will be running at reduced level when connected externally.

Thanks for the heating solutions as well. I’ll give them a shot starting with the thermal compound. My current observations are that the CPU and GPU are not the issue now as they are running at a lot less temp than the front of the laptop underside, away from the fan area. I can physically observe by touching my hands. Do you think it could be motherboard or other internal parts such as WIFi etc.

 

Setup 1.x: http://forum.notebookreview.com/6295529-post641.html

You don't need Setup 1.x if you're running PCIe x1 link only. If you want to run eGPU @ x2 link, then you need Setup 1.x.

You don't need to cut anything. You can open the bottom cover where you can access mPCIe/HDD/RAM compartment. ExpressCard slot on 1555 is PCIe port #4, which means if you want to do x2 link setup, you need mPCIe port at PCIe port #3. If not, you will need to sacrifice WLAN (PCIe port #2) & WWAN (PCIe port #1). You just need to confirm the empty mPCIe port is PCIe port #3. To know, you can connect WIFI card to the empty mPCIe port & check in AIDA64 (Motherboard >> Chipset >> South Bridge), see where WIFI card show up now. If WIFI show up at PCIe port #3, then you can use ExpressCard + mPCIe port. So, the kit you need is PE4H + PM3N (mPCIe card) + EC2C (ExpressCard). To be honest I doubt the empty mPCIe port is PCIe port #3 because Dell Studio 1555 1558 schematic show PCIe port #3 is not connected.

Under the touchpad is where chipset is located. You just need to change the thermal pad with better thermal paste. That's all.

For example, if the graphic card have 1000MHz Core Clock, it will & can run up to 1000MHz if the games demand for it but because limited bandwidth (5Gb/s concurrent), performance will reduced a little bit. The card still running at their full power but PCIe x1 bandwidth with only 5Gb/s concurrent, a lot of data travel across that small link which will hurt performance a little bit. Let say with eGPU, GTX560Ti will loose around 20-30% of performance, which means GTX560 will also loose around 20-30%. Using this calculation, GTX560Ti is always better than GTX560 & GTX460.

In your case, I'd recommend ATI Radeon HD 6000 series card instead but I always wanted to see GTX560Ti perform at x2 link.

EDIT: Vista doesn't support multiple graphic card. You'll need Win 7 for eGPU to work properly.

 

EDIT: figured it out.

 

Hey everyone, I stumbled upon this thread and became interested in making a eGPU for my laptop. The problem is, I don't really know what I need. I read the FaQ and I don't know how to tell if I have an ExpressCard slot or a mPCIe slot. My laptop has a wifi adapter thing. I have no idea what all these acronyms mean so any help would be appreciated. I'll post all the specs for my laptop.

Model: Sony Vaio VGN-FW270J
Intel Core2 Duo CPU P8400 @ 2.26 GHz
4.00 GB of RAM
Windows Vista 64bit
The "Video card" I have is: Mobile Intel(R) 4 Series Express Chipset Family. (According to the box my laptop came with the sticker says it is a "Mobile intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD)

My goal is to be able to play Diablo III with my friends but it won't even launch because it says my video card isn't supported. If I need to post any other info, let me know. I'm sorry if I'm coming off as a bit of a leech, I just don't really know what to do. Also my price range would probably be between 150-200$. Thanks!

 

Sony Vaio VGN-FW270J does have ExpressCard slot.

Source:-
Sony eSupport - VGN-FW270J - Support
http://www.docs.sony.com/release/SPECS/VGNFW270JH_mksp.pdf
http://www.docs.sony.com/release/SPECS/VGNFW270JB_mksp.pdf

Picture showing where ExpressCard /34 slot is located:-


It also have Intel GMA 4500MHD. This means your notebook support Optimus setup. Optimus provide data compression which boost performance via PCIe x1 link. Optimus is possible with any Nvidia Fermi graphic card, e.g. GTX460, GTX560Ti, GTX680. The kit you need is either PE4H-EC2C or PE4L-EC2C v1.5 or PE4L-EC2C v2.1. They all deliver the same performance on your computer. If you're located in the US, you can get it from HIT. If not, you can get it from hwtools.net.

 

Hey Kizwan, thank you for the reply and the information. It helped me out a lot. I just want to double check that I'm buying the right stuff, I hope you don't mind. For the PE4L thing I'm going to buy this

ExpressCard External Graphics x1

For the GPU I found two that are similar prices and I don't really know which one is better. Both are Fermi, whatever that means. One is the GTX 460 and the other is the GTX 550 Ti Here is a link for both would you mind explaining which one is better? I'm not sure what the difference is but the 550 Ti seems to be the better buy. Thank you so much!

EVGA GTX 460

EVGA GTX 550 Ti

Now for the power supply how much wattage should I need? I have an old desktop at my house that is a 300W power supply unit. Is that enough power? It is from an e machine and here is a link of what it is.

Bestect ATX 300 12E PSU

Again thank you very much for your help! I really appreciate it. Any feedback you can give me would be greatly appreciated. I would hate to buy the wrong thing and waste that money. Thanks!

 

GTX 460 is much faster. But at that price, I don't think it's a very good deal. I would either wait for another deal (there was just an MSI one going for $90 a few days ago), or throw in another $10 and get the GTX 560 (after mail in rebate) Newegg.com - Galaxy 56NGH6HS3KXZ GeForce GTX 560 (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

 

Hey thanks for the input. Is the 560 significantly better than the 550 Ti? The link you posted was about 150$ after mail in rebate for the 560 but the 550 Ti was only 120$ after the mail in rebate. That 30$ jump is a lot for me. Trying to keep it under 200$ in total. Would I be better off just waiting for the GTX 460 to go on sale again?

I also found the 550 Ti for a cheaper price at about 110$ except it says it is "superclocked" is that good or bad? Is it still a Fermi Nvidia card too? Here is the link I found it at. Sorry for all the questions. I'm trying to figure this out on my own but I don't want to mess up.

Superclocked 550 ti

Also do you know if that PSU has enough power for the video card and PE4L express card thing. Thanks!

 

GTX550Ti = 192 cores
GTX460SE/GTX560E = 288 cores
GTX460-768MB/GTX460v2-1GB = 336 cores / 192-bit vram BUS
GTX460-1GB/GTX560 = 336 cores / 256-bit vram BUS
GTX560Ti = 384 cores
GTX560Ti-448/GTX570 = 448 cores
GTX580 = 512 cores

Newegg.com - EVGA 01G-P3-1361-KR GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) 1GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

It's $115AR, a good deal for a GTX460v2. It's certainly a better card than the GTX550Ti. You'll need at least a 12V/14A rail to run it. The PSU you link gives no specs so check on the 12V sticker on the PSU itself. It is rare now to see any ATX PSUs have less than 12V/15A rating so it's likely your PSU would be fine.

 

SUCCESS ​

Thankyou nando for your help! I have gotten my eGPU setup to work. Here is just a quick guide to how i got it to work for anyone setting theres up similar to mine:

My setup

• Acer Aspire 5745g
• Intel i7 720QM
• Windows 7 Home Premium
• 6GB of DDR3 RAM
• Nvidia GT330m 1GB GPU
• 23" Acer 1080p Monitor

My eGPU setup

• PE4H+PM3N v2.4a
• 500W 12V Aywun ATX PSU
• Asus Nvidia GTX550 ti GPU

To get it to work was a bit of fiddle but pretty much connected the PSU to the PE4H and to my GTX550 ti, with the swtich that came with the PE4H+PM3N kit. I set the delay switches on the PE4H and the PM3N to 1 (default) and plugged my eGPU to my external monitor.

I then cut the plastic casing off one end of the mini HDMI cable so it would fit nicer into my laptop as well as cutting the ends (after the first set of screw holes) off the PM3N.

I booted up my computer with my wireless card still plugged into my mPCIe slot, and once the OS started up i put the computer to sleep. I then unplugged the wireless card and swapped it with the PM3N with the mini HDMI cable plugged into it as well as the PE4H. I then switched the PSU and eGPU on by the ATX PSU switch provided in the kit and then woke my laptop up from sleep and allowed the drivers to install.

I then had to turn my laptop off (not allowing the restart to occur). I plugged the wireless card back in (taking out the PM3N) and then booted the computer back on. I also bought a usb wireless dongle as i would have my wireless card unplugged when ever i had the eGPU setup. So i then put the laptop to sleep again (once the OS started), i unplugged the wireless card and also had the wireless usb dongle plugged in and setup. I put the PM3N into the mPCIe slot and woke my laptop up.

I then navigated to the device manager and saw my car in the display adapters but had a yellow icon next to it so i had to right click it and select "update driver software" (this required the internet hence the wireless usb dongle). Once the drivers were installed it flickered and then my external monitor kicked in running off my eGPU setup.

Done!!

I do though have a couple of issues, it seems to have intermittent performance. When i ran my benchmarks (msi) i noticed a couple of tests my GT330m gpu was also processing. Is this normal and should i have to do something to disable it?

I also found alan wakes performance was not imrpoved at all, could this be because it is running of my first gpu (the gt330m)?

maybe it is my egpu (gtx 550 ti), should i have a better gpu if i am only plugging it into 1 x mPCIe?

 

Congrats on getting it all going. However, it would help to read the Pre-purchase FAQ -> 7. (Performance) What recommended candidate notebooks should I buy for best performance?, 5. (Performance) What affects the performance of a eGPU? and First steps -> 2. Which video card do you recommend for best performance on my system? before spending the $$ to set realistic expectations on the eGPU performance your notebook could achieve.

 

Oh the gtx 550 ti is just a card i was given from a friend, so didn't cost me anything. But i will try some tweaks suggested in those links. I already changed the cards colours form 32bit to 16bit and noticed a difference.

 

Another success here. x220t i7 with an old Radeon x800 gto (actually worse than the hd3000), until I get a better power supply next week. Thanks to everyone on the thread!

Right I just came across an interesting/annoying problem. I've got a USB HDD attached to my PE4L and safely removing it caused the external display to turn off. I'm not sure what exactly happened- the card wasn't disabled in device manager but disabling it and enabling it got it working again.

Has anyone else had this issue?

 

Hi, I posted earlier; I am trying to hook up a Sapphire 5770 using a PE4H in the expresscard port of my Asus Z96JS (dGPU Mobility x1600). I've had no success so far, I've installed Win 7, updated the bios, messed with Setup 1.x, and tried the suggestions in the FAQ. I am wondering a couple things:

1) Do I need to do the Setup 1.x stuff in windows (mkdevcon, etc)? I haven't done that in Win 7 because the admin security won't let me run anything (I disabled UAC and ran as admin, no luck).

2) Do I need to plug the PSU into the GPU itself, or is it enough to plug it into the PE4H? My PSU has 9A on the 12V rail, so I think it should be enough (the fans spin up), but my PSU is so old it doesn't have the connector for the GPU, I can buy a new one, I would just rather not if it's not a problem

If somebody here could help me clear up these issues I would really appreciate it! Thanks,

Kaleb

 

Thanks for all that information, nando4. The PSU says the output for the 12V line is 15A so that should work. My last question is do I need windows 7 for the eGPU to work? I have windows vista 64bit. The FAQ doesn't say which windows OS works and which ones don't. I'm assuming vista 64bit will work.