DIY eGPU experiences

try to reinstall the driver after it's detected or pick 260 from the list

 

I had time to finish my build a few days ago.

I'm using a HD 5850 (max power 150 W) with the PE4H, powering both using a 12 V 15 A power supply (180 W) that I got for $33 from an eBay seller from Hong Kong. I've mounted everything in a Raaco Assorter 13 case ($27) that I got at Clas Ohlson, a Scandinavian hardware/electronics chain. (I'm of course keeping the lid open whenever the card is powered on)

Everything works perfectly with Windows XP and Windows 7 32-bit (64-bit not tested yet) on my Fujitsu T5010 using the ExpressCard interface. 4 GB RAM, about 3 GB is usable in both operating systems. I'm using a slightly modified version of nando4's boot disk on a USB flash drive.

Driver version 9.11 was used in XP and 9.12 on Windows 7.

Benchmark results: (XP)
RE5 1280x800 fixed benchmark: 27.5
RE5 1280x800 variable benchmark: 58.7
Crysis Demo 1280x960 Quality High: 39.79
Crysis Demo 1680x1050 Quality High: 33.67
3DMark06 1280x1024, all default settings: 10752
UT3 1680x1050: 55.58 *)

I also tested RE5 and 3DMark06 in Windows 7, the results were almost identical.

*) Captured using the following command line options:
UT3.exe WAR-Torlan?numplay=12?timelimit=5?automatedperftesting=1 -seconds=60 -ResX=1680 -ResY=1050 -unattended -novsync -fixedseed -CaptureFPSChartInfo=1 -nomoviestartup

 

BENCHMARKS PLEASE PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

3ddmark06 PLEASE!!!!!
I really wanted to use an HD5850!!!!

Edit: Thanks, nice setup, congrats!, I believe you have the most powerful diy vidock for now .

 

Well i guess it was pretty easy. But you never know what problems you meet. Works without any problems on w7 x64 with 4gb ram.

I got a desktop computer now though so my adapter is for sale if anybody is interested!

 

Max Headroom just to confirm u are using the in PE4H x1 1.0 mode or x2 1.0 when u did the benchmark

 

Hmm well if the specs I've read are right he should be using a p8600 cpu. Most of the laptops that have used this setup have been using old slow cpu's so its nice to see the cpu is really holding back these gpu's.

 

Just the ExpressCard interface, i.e. x1 mode.

Correct, it's the P8600 CPU. Other details: GM45 chipset, ICH9-M south bridge, dual channel DDR3 memory.

 

so max headroom are u planning on going x2 to see how much better it performs with the benchmarks

 

Won't work, unfortunately. It looks like the T5010's mPCIe ports are connected to PCIe root ports 3 and 5, while the ExpressCard slot connects to root port 2.

 

Hi guys if I could have some help.

Nando I bought the Pe4H and express card adpater. It arrived quick however I recently got a letter from fed ex saying I owe around 35 dollars/ 17.60 GBP for delivery.
Did other guys get this billing letter? I thought I paid for the postage on the Hwtools.net website..

Also I bought a mini itx tower here: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Envizage-E-00...ponents_RL?hash=item53dea820b6#ht_1484wt_1165

This has an 300w PSU which I thought would be fine? I plug it the graphics card in, and all the bits, and I switch on and nothing works.
Does this need a motherboard or something because previous pictures of the DIY vidock didnt need a mobo.

Look forwards for reply!!!
Alex

 

has anyone successfully got the PE4H to work on X2

 

specifically you need to connect green wire with any black wire, google for pinouts if in doubt

 

Hi Nando. Thanks for the support I will try that. When I do this will that area be electrified or?

 

Using the paperclip trick to turn on the ATX PSU

Connectiong PS_ON (green) to COM (black) on the ATX motherboard plug using a paperclip as shown here turns the power supply on. Means the 12V/pci-e power outputs will then be active. If leave the paperclip attached in this way then when you connect attach the mains cable into the PSU, it will become active. If that's a bother, then can replace the paperclip with a small on/off switch OR have a switched mains lead into the PSU as Max_Headroom has. Shown here. No one has reported a successful x2 1.0 implementation as yet using a PE4H.

 

Could this paper clip technique blow up the PSU?

Also how dangerous is this?

 

Its not dangerous at all, if connected to a motherboard it does the same thing when you turn your computer on. Theres also no danger in working with 12v either, you could grab + and - leads and would not be electrocuted...

Once you get to around 50v+ there's the possibility of being electrocuted in general...

Both lights on the PE4H should turn on after you do this and the fan on the GPU will turn on as well...

 

I dun really understand all this stuff but i want to ask whether my acer ferrari one which has an ATI XGP port can be used and how can it be used. Hope someone would explain wat i shuld buy to make it possible that i link my laptop to an external display via a boost of external graphic card.

 

My Studio PM55 i7 720qm has been shipped so it will be available for testing and I could probably get a 2 video cards for testing if there is any speed improvement on the PM55 now I only need a PE4H or PE4L to try it out...
Maybe MexicanSnake can lend me his PE4L to do some bench marks wink wink elbow wink

 

could you give me more data on the power supply use?

thx

 

It's a no-name regulated switching power supply from Hong Kong, sold at eBay for $33, free shipping. It is not an ATX computer power supply, and only provides a 12 V output at 15 A (180 W). It is much smaller than standard ATX supplies because it omits the 5 V and 3.3 V outputs, and the 12 V output is weaker. As my graphics card draws about 150 W on maximum power, this is just about perfect.

The power supply contains a switch to select 110 V or 230 V operation. It is fanless, and can be used with grounded or ungrounded power outlets. I used standard cable lugs to fasten the cables to the input and output terminals of the power supply.

I've had time to test the power supply and external graphics card thoroughly during the last couple of weeks. The setup has worked perfectly, even for long continuous gaming sessions of up to 12 hours.

If you need more power, try searching for 12v 18a on eBay. You'll find some nice looking Dell thin client power supplies (216 W). I went with the lower rated 180 W supply because it was much cheaper for me when shipping cost was taken into account. (If you live in the US you'll probably get cheaper shipping though)

 

I've been following this project closely, and a few days ago my PE4L arrived. As I'm not the kind of person who likes to bug people with their solveable problems I've kept anonymous, but I've been struggling with the same obstacle for quite the while now and I was wondering whether anyone else is experiencing the same problem.

I've hooked up a 4670 that was sitting in my former desktop to a 400w PSU+PE4L, and Windows 7 is recognizing it alright. The problem, however, is the external montior. For some reason windows 7 isn't finding the monitor, and nor is the monitor receiving any signal. Any clues as to why this is happening? I
ve already made sure to use the 1.1 WDDM drivers and 2GB ram.

I'm using a Toshiba Satellite if that makes any difference. The monitor is an old STEP display, I'm not quite sure of the model as there is no model number on it. It was working when I used it in my desktop, so it's definitely not faulty.

I appreciate any help, thanks!

 

Maybe its because the resolution, it happened to me, I had to adjust the resolution first and then hook the monitor.

 

Well, I suppose I did something wrong. Because now it's working all of a sudden, but I had to disable the other card. Oh well, this is great.

 

Yeah, for example in my gateway I had to disable the other card, thats the answer . We should work in a better FAQ including such important things like this

 

Crysis, very high, 1920x1080 8xAA - 9.3 avg fps lol it's on xp so i had to substitute the config files to enable very high settings

 

I'd like to report that DealExtreme's 1.5 m mini-HDMI cable works perfectly with my laptop and the PE4H+EC2C. It's only $5.61 with free worldwide shipping - the cheapest cable so far?

 

Hey thats a good find!!! now its official! the mini hdmi´s work with this!

 

Guys I have been thinking in something... Maybe using a 128bit card will show better results in % of performance, since it is a lower bandwidth. Just check the difference between the HD 5850 and the HD 5770, it is almost negligible. My new theory is much Vram + less bandwidth results in a better % of performance.

To be honest guys I feel that the HD 5770 is the way to go if you want a cheap external card and the best % of performance.

 

>.> I don't see how a gpu with lower bandwidth would be better, the limiter on the bandwidth is and always will be for this setup the pciex1 You do get diminishing returns the higher up you go with the gpu. Higher bandwidth = higher gaming resolution, hence why no one is on here posting 30fps at in crysis at 1920x1080.

 

my 1.66 dual core gets 19fps 1920x1080 high vs their i5 oc'd to 3.8GHz 1920x1200 that gets 29 fps http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-5770,2446-7.html i blame the cpu, not the bandwidth

 

-.-' your system is running at pcix1 theirs is running at pcie2.0 x16 the bandwidth difference that can go between your graphics card and theirs is enormous.

 

are you implying that if i stick my 5750 into a desktop with a crappy cpu I will get 30 fps?

 

Dude, since this is limited to X1, you see a bandwidth decrease, it will NEVER make use of full 256bit bandwidth and the performance rated @ 256bit bus will be NEVER reached. So if the card works @ 128 bit and @ 128 bit it gives all the possible performance it will be better since there are less memory communications through the PCI structure.

Dude come on have you ever tested the diy vidock?

I have tested the HD 4850 and the HD 5770 and many other nvidia cards.

It seems that the HD 4850 (256bit bus) gives around a 65% of total performance, and the HD 5770 gives about 75% of total performance. Since these cards are almost on par, they score the same vantage and 3dmak06 scores, they give almost the same framerates.

The HD 5770 shines over all other cards I have tested...

Crysis is a cpu HOG!, the core i5 is a QUAD CORE PROCESSOR, almost 3 times more powerful than his cpu, this is a nice signal for his setup. IF the bandwidth difference is enormous then the cpu difference is more than titanic...
Also they use more ram @ those tests... The ram is very important for the processor and more if they are overclocking, come one its even faster DDR3...

 

Just got my PM55 Dell Studio laptop I will try to get as much info as I can about the ExpressCard slot to see i´ts bandwidth.
A couple offriends have agreed to let me test with their video cards but I still need to get the adapter.

 

I've tried with my Acer laptop on ICH7M with a Geforce GT240, connected with PE4H through the mpci express slot and unfortunately I get the dreaded error 12: cannot find resources.

I'm not sure about all the modifications I have to make to the HP 2510P.BAT pci config script:

-I don't have an HP Laptop
-My Acer Laptop does not use whitelists
-I have an NVidia card, not ATI ( replace atiflash with nvflash?)

I'm on Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit with 4gb of Ram

Thanks.

 

I am really really not following your point here? You say your 5770 is better than a 4850 well dur not rocket science thats true....you say that since the 4850 uses a 256bit "bus witch is not the bandwidth" it isn't being completely used. The 5770 is using 128bit bus with gddr5 memory which offers higher bandwidth they have also clocked it much higher so its no longer a simple twice the bandwidth of gddr3 its more now.

So by your own logic lower bandwidth is better, well that would mean the 4850 offers a better price to performance ratio. I don't get what your actually trying to point out but my point still stands and has been shown since the beginning of this project. YOU GET DIMINISHING RETURNS THE MORE POWERFUL OF A GPU USED.

Please check information before posting, someone new here could look at your post and become extremely confused on how things were labeled. Simple comparison of specs and gpu prices can be found here
http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?card1=566&card2=615

Laptops do often use slower cpu's than desktops, its pretty common for laptops to use 2ghz cpu's and desktops are pretty common with 3ghz cpu's. Overclocking the cpu should offer much better performance returns than upgrading to a gpu past a 4850.

Since I don't want words put in my mouth I'll give a better example. If you where to put your gpu in a desktop motherboard that supported pcie x16 with a cpu that is the exact same ghz and fsb, yes it would perform much better.

 

Guys I have found something that seems like a letdown if you were expecting a performance boost from the PM55:

from here: http://techreport.com/articles.x/17669

 

Hey Guys, just wondering (If it hasn't already been asked). My laptop doesn't have a Expresscard34 slot, only an Expresscard54 and a HDMI port - I can see that the PE4H uses a HDMI connector. Is it possible to just plug the HDMI cord into my HDMI slot without using the Expresscard? Or is the Expresscard needed in order to function.

EDIT: Just noticed it was a Mini HDMI cord...would an Adapter work? :s

 

maybe they locked it to 2.5GT/s in the bios somewhere...

i got an expresscard54 too, it has a 'guide' so if you push a 34 anywhere it's gonna go to the connector

hdmi is not mini-hdmi, and it provides the output from your onboard card to the external monitor

 

So would this work for Expresscard 54?

EDIT: Nvm, google info. 34 works in 54 slots because they have the same pins..



Thanks anyway

 

The HD 5770 offers a better price- performance ratio. PLEASE READ THE WHOLE THREAD!.
In real life performance the HD 5770 is ALMOST ON PAR WITH the HD 4850... If a Gpu has a better design and has the same performance of a gpu that uses more bandwidth, then it will be better with something that is very bandwidth limited.

What point man? I have even actually used the thing WE designed... Your point is wrong please compare the % of total performance of the hd 4850 and the hd 5770 while being paired with the diy vidock.


Key was comparing his low core 2 duo @ 1.6ghz with A DESKTOP QUAD CORED I5 OCed to more than 3ghz!!!. That is an INSANE comparisson. The design of the core i5 is even better than the core 2 duo, and it has extra features and more cores resulting in better performance per ghz and per fsb speeds.

Using the diy vidcok paired with the HD4850 results in 8500 3dmarks AT A LOWER RESOLUTION, the HD 5770 scores 10300 3dmarks AT STANDARD RESOLUTION. So what other performance returns?.

Again this thing is working @ x1 of course it would work better @ x16 dont repost things we already know that is useless man.



This is a brief of my theory...
Area = effectiveness.

 

Mexicansnake you are just plane wrong and rorschach is right....I can't even follow how you came to the conclusion that the 5770 has lower bandwidth? Did you even look at the specs or the links he provided? >.> well I did and I looked at page one like he said. And since the start of this vidock, when they compared a 3870 and a 4870 it was already shown that there was not a large improvement. They might have deleted rorschachs post but I still saw it and he made one very good point and you obviously edited your sig to hide it and thats that you are using a 4850 and not a 5770. His post might have been a little over the top but a lot of it holds true and its pretty obvious theres a language barrier issue. Your the one thats not posting anything new, I think he might be right and you don't understand what diminishing returns means.

How did you even come to that conclusion...he made no mention at all of a comparison to a core i7....holy crap no wonder rorschach went off on you. I concede in this little debate. Whats even more hypocritical is your on here telling people this stuff and you probably don't even use it anymore now that your laptop has a decent gpu in it.

 

>.> well then lets try to keep it to accurate information and not post things like a 4850 has more bandwidth than a 5770. That kind of stuff could really throw people off, since your kind of the headhancho on this be nice if you would give some input on it. I do beleive what rorschach said is true whats your take?

 

What do we know RE: HD4850 vs HD5770?

- x1 1.0 benchmarks results posted in the first post with a HD5770 outperforming a HD4850 on similar class CPUs (T9300-2.5/P9500-2.53)

- Anandtech review shows:
Perf.: HD4870 > HD5770 > HD5750 > HD4850 [at native x16 2.0]
Price: HD5770 (~$164) > HD4870 (~$158) > HD5750 (~$140) > HD4850 (~$114) [ref google shopping ]
Pow Reqd: HD4870 > HD4850 > HD5770 > HD5750

Hardly fair comparing the most expensive card here, the HD5770 to the cheapest, the HD4850. The gems imho being the other two. The HD4870 is the performance leader and costs less than a HD5770, so long as factor in a beefier PSU to run it and no DX11 as is on HD5770.

If I was looking to buy a HD4850, I'd do a detailed study of total cost/performance/package size when compared to a HD5750 (Green Edition). The HD5750 (Green Edition) can run off a compact 80W AC adapter and it's 40nm tech likely more overclockable.

May I suggest any more specific HD4850 vs HD5770 vs others discussion should otherwise go into the Lets figure out how to make a DIY ViDock thread? When have performance data to support usage in DIY ViDock arrangement, perhaps post a summary here?? It is certainly great to have all to compare.

 

I like that idea sort of a put your mouth where you money is is scenario +rep for you.

 

Hi all, ive been reading this post now for a few days and ordered a PE4H and the expresscard adapter.

They turned up today, but I REALLY need some help please.

What happens is:

1. If i leave the express card and everything else connected up and powered on connected to the laptop, then switch the laptop on i get 3 or more beeps and a blank screen on the laptop, no output on the external screen.

2.If i load up windows then turn on the PE4H and plug it into the express card, the first time it finds it, it installs the drivers or the card then the screen goes blank as if its trying to put an output the the other monitor, but both are blank, then if i remove the express card, my laptop screen stays blank and then restarts itself. From there on anytime i insert the express card and PE4H it acts as if its tranfering the output to the other monitor but both still stay blank.

3.Finaly, if i boot windows, go to device manager, deactivate the onboard graphics, plug in the PE4H it finds it and gives the CODE 12 error, this happens even if i leave the PE4H connect and enable/disable the onboard graphics.

This will make me sound very thick, but i dont understand how to do the DIY ViDock boot disk thing, plus i dont think it will work with this laptop and Nvidia? or will it?

Could someone give me a detailed step-by-step idea, either document or video how to do it.

My specifications are:
Clevo m76t Laptop (which is an alienware made by its syster company and rebranded)
2.20 GHz intel dual core
4gb ram
Inbuilt Intel 4 series express chipset adapter graphics
Windows 7 64 bit

I am trying to use a Nvidia geforce 6600 at the moment in the PE4H.
Please get back to me asap
Any help apreciated.

Thanks, Ben

 

I have pretty much the same problem. Are you sure that after you plugged in your PE4H that you went into device manager and on the VGA Graphics Adapter right clicked and clicked update software? I had to do this to get the drivers for my card to install correcty, and after a reboot, it worked fine.

 

Remove 2GB of ram if nando4's method doesn't work, it's what I had to do

 

Hi all, right, this may be a stupid question but;

when using the pe4h diy vidock, am i ment to first download the official vidock software and drivers from there online website to get it to work, or should this be a straight forward plug and play?

As everytime i attach the diy vidock it detects it, and then finish loading the nvidia graphics cards drivers on reboot it acts as if its tried to switch to the other display but both stay black.

Sorry if im just being plain retarded but im struggling with it now.

Any help reaaly apreciated.

Many thanks, Ben

 

Ive tried what youve said regarding the suspend and resume, i keep getting either error 43 10, or 1. I dont get error 12. It ether brings up the errors i mentioned before, or the screen flashes black then goes off until i remove the express card, then my laptop reboots itself.

(im trying to connect it to a normal old crt computer monitor if that makes any difference, but when i tried using our lcd tv it sort of worked and i got a code 12 error, but it shouldnt make a difference with monitor should it?)

I tried to do the diy vidock usb bootdisk but i didnt really understand the bit about the .bat files and creating the bootable usb.

When i tried this it booted the usb but just stayed on a black screen with a flashing white cursor.

Sorry if im getting anoying but i really want to get this to work as it cost me a fair bit and i dont like being defeated.

Can someone please spoonfeed me some instructions on creating the usb bootdisk. or even edit me a batch file and list the files needed?

I dont even know if you are suposed to leave both batch files on the usb, i basicaly copied and pasted all the files from the first post to my usb stick and tried rebooting. I really dont have a clue anymore. I thought it would be a lot easier than this.

If i can get the usb bootdisk working properly it will probably work

Please help, hopefully this will be the last time and il get it working haha.

Cheers, Ben