DIY eGPU experiences

Question im thinking about diy vidock but i would like to use the internal monitor on my gx720. Now my question is the chung gun way one of the best only if i wanna do it on certain games and not all the time. And is using the mini pci in the laptop or expresscard the best way? and what graphics card would be better for around $100-150 that shows a big difference from my 9600m gt. And if i do the chung gun method will i be limited to only 30fps?

 

nando can u help me configure my diyvidock setup
I got it running but it wouldn't recognize my video card
it's p300

 

what does 8600m say when you dbl click it?
in win7 you won't have the option to change the display to 5770 unless both 5770 and 8600m drivers have the same WDDM version.
or you can disable 8600 and install xp driver for 5770

 

Try a US$230 GTS450-1GB 12V/120W Portable setup detailed here, copied below.

US$230 GTS450-1GB Portable DIY ViDock setup (GTS450=105W TDP)

US$65-ground_shipped PE4L + US$130 GTS450-1GB+ US$30 12V/120W AC adapter + US$5 molex splitter/gender changer + US$2 pci-e to molex (male) adapter = US$230. Run a jumper lead from the floppy molex to the pci-e connector as shown here to split the power.

Chung gun/ultramon method is limited to 30FPS. Not sure what registry setting controls that. Other way way around that for NVidia users is to petition NVidia to unlock their Optimus drivers so their internal LCD cloning works regardless of the primary adapter OR try to hack the drivers: http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/469747-sony-z11-nvidia-optimus-29.html#post6539272

PM sent.

If the 8600M isn't enabled then Aero/sleep/hibernate and the HD5770 all won't work. Since you have 2GB only, disable all unnecessary devices in device manager and with the 8600M active try standby/attach HD5770, resume. If no go proceed to poweroff system, pull battery out, restart to DIY ViDock Setup 1.x, do a 32-bit allocation of the HD5770, chainload to Win7.

 

<strike>Awesome!</strike>
The slot seems to have been whitelisted.
After a BSOD or two it's working.
Now to try for x2 again...

EDIT-------

What exactly do I have to do to get the x2 working?
I did:
Boot > setup > enable p2 > restore > set p1 x2 > chainload W7 > sleep > turn on card > wake up

GPU-Z and everest still report it being on a x1 link

 

I ran "Performance Test" of full version DVMC4 scene 4. The results is 92.86.

The settings were used:
- resolution: 1280x800
- MSAA: off
- fullscreen: on
- Display frequency: 59Hz
- Texture Resolution: high
- Vsync: Off
- Frame Rate: high
- Shadown quality: high
- Quality: high

 

Hi,

did you recognized this? It seams that further versions will be imporoved over XGP and vidock x1. When it will arrive in stores there will be hacks for vga cards >HD5670 as soon as possible, I think.

MSI “GUS” Adds External GPU to Notebooks via Expresscard | Notebooks.com

Bye
Tom

 

Hi,

I'm searching for some diyvidock components atm.
Because of the standard ATX psu fan noise (GTX470...)
nando reported from, I like the fanless 12V ac/dc version
much more (HD5750 + 80W, GTS460 + 120W).

I found this great dell psu. What do you think about 220W
12V*18A passiv? Would this be an GTX460 option?
The connector must be modified - no problem, I think.

Bye
Tom

 

Alright, by setting 36bit for the 5770 and 32bit for the 8600gtm I got W7 to load without any problems



I don't have any games installed on my system yet but hopefully they should all work.

I just have 2 more questions:
1) I want to upgrade from 3GB ram to 4GB. Is there a chance that it will mess up the ViDock causing it not to work?
2) How can I tell if its working at x1E like it used to under XP? I set p5 to x2 mode and since I don't have anything in p6 I assume that I'm getting a x1E connection but is there a way to know for sure?


Thank you all very very much

 

@lazyboy the only sure way is to run benchmarks. As for upgrading to 4 gb there should not be any problems as far as i know of.

 

@jamesbond007 which benchmark should I run and to what should I compare the results to figure out if I'm getting x1E speeds.

I installed DOW2 and ran its built-in benchmark and on much higher settings than I used to (under XP) and I got a lot more FPS. I guess that despite using more ram W7-64 is more efficient when it comes to gaming.

 

@lazyboytry the resident evil or devil may cry benchmark. should be good enough. just run it with the x1E and without it and see if there is any difference. if there is then you are running in x1E

 

Now I must wait for a 8 hour battery life laptop with a 720qm.

 

Hello!

Long thread to read! But can't find any information about my laptop.

I have a Fujitsu-Siemens 3650Sa with and internal ATI 3200 GFX card and an external ATI 3870. The connection is made over an XGP port.

I took a screenshot in everest. There i can see PCI-E 2.0 x8 port #247(This is when the external 3870 is NOT connected)

Its an AMD chipset, 780G.

What do you think is it possible for some ViDock?

 

Hi, it's me again. I still don't know how thick the pm3n-adapter is (with / without a plugged mini-HDMI-connector). Even the support of bplus won't answer my question. I can't order the adapter before i know that it will fit.

So anyone is able to measure it for me?
Thank you guys!

 

It'd be better to try replace 3870 with other ATI card, than buy ViDock (no chance to use XGP).

 

@thinkpadx60 the thickness at the area where the mini hdmi port is about 4.5cm without the cable connected and with the cable should be 8cm. this is what i measured so give a plus 1cm just to be safe.

 

Hey James, thanks for your answer.
The x60 offers 7mm for the adapter with connected plug. This is gonna be real sticky...I have to search for a flat mini-HDMI cable with a real flat connector. Maybe it's possible to cut off a layer of the thick connector-coat.

Any suggestions anyone?

 

I am pretty sure this is impossible but I have 4 mpcie x1 and an expresscard54 what is the best way for me to connect the external graphics card?
also what problems would I run into since my gt240m is integrated into the motherboard.

 

hi, i just want to ask is it possible use diy vidock on my laptop (dell vostro 1310). because i plan to buy the component soon.

this is the screenshot of the PCI express controller

 

@thinkpadx60 ops i just realized. All the measurement are in mm not cm.

@lichtenstein It should be possible. What is your port 1 and 2. If it is a express card slot and a mini pcie then you could possibly do an x2. Also do you have a intel integrated card. Then you can even use optimus.

@lebob23 the best would be an x2 if it is possible. since you have a 240 gtx optimus seem to be out of the question now but other then that you should not face any other problem from your internal gpu

 

Oh i thought as much

 

Hey, well I was browsing the forum, saw no one from AMD has done an x2 link, was just wondering if it was possible. I posted my Everest screenshot and I have the AMD RS780/RS880, as it appears on Everest.

Also I was just wondering why my GTX 460 is listed like that on Everest as High Definition Audio, GTX 460. (I disabled the HD Audio from Device Manager)

 

@ualwayslose not sure about amd. The architecture is different from intel. You will have to ask nando for help on this

 

ok, but i didn't test before with port 1 and 2. should i change my OS into 64bit or not?because i have 4gb RAM on laptop..

 

Dell Vostro 1310 can do a port3+port4 x2 1.0 setup

Vostro 1310 schematic, relevant snippet above shows it has:

port2=expresscard
port3=turbo memory (Robson)
port4=wifi

So you could do a port3+4 x2 1.0 setup using PE4H-PM3N plus an extra PM3N and mini HDMI cable.

If your 4 mPCIe slots/expresscard slot are port1-port4, then you could do a x4 link. That hasn't been done by anyone as yet. You'd need to swap the wifi card over to map out what port the mPCIe slots are. Some may just be usb ones.

Vostro 1310 has Intel X3100 or NVidia 8400M graphics. So Optimus enhancements won't activate.

 

but i have port 1 and port 2 empty. it different schema that u give to me..so is it possible to do x2 1.0?

 

That is the correct schematic and my assessment is correct. Your port1 is the root port, must be enabled for all the other ports to work but is not electrically connected on your system. Port3 is the turbo memory slot. Your bios appears to disable port3 unless it detects a turbo memory card in it.

To do x2 1.0 on your system would need port3+port4. You can confirm it yourself:

If you can access another mPCIe slot via the rear covers, then swap the wifi card into it, boot DIY ViDock Setup 1.x, enable port3, and you should see your wifi card appear on port3.

 

oh, ok. i understand now. im gonna check the mPCIe slot by open the cover. btw thx nando

 

Hello all,

First off, great work! I've been able to get a GT 240 to work on my Thinkpad x200s (w7 pro x64) using a PE4L v1.5 and the 12v 72w laptop powersupply. It's great being able to play SCII on not low settings!

Just a few questions:

(1) I'm able to get things to work if I limit my RAM to one DIMM with 2 GB. At that point, if I start up with the PE4L plugged into the expresscard slot, the internal graphics are disabled and everything is run only through the GT 240. If i have any more than that the Thinkpad beeps twice before POST, and I get a blank screen.
(1a) I've tried to hotplug the card with 4 GB RAM installed, but I'm not able to properly allocate memory in the Vidock Setup 1.x; I'm able to find a memory window when I do 36-bit compression on the GT 240 and not force anything to 32-bit. However, when I chainload into windows 7, nothing happens; the GT240 doesn't show up in device manager at all.

(2) It seems like the graphics card gets really hot when plugged into the DC adapter; it seems like the processor is running, but the fan isn't? I've resorted to unplugging the card from the DC adapter every time I'm not using it. Is there a way to fix this?

Thanks!

 

ORB - World of Performance
I got like 7500 on the benchmark with
lg p300
t8300
4gig ram
win7 64bit
it's good overall... I think cuz I'm not an expert on these stuffs
for DMC4 I got max around 170fps and the lowest 44fps

The problem is that I'm afraid that I might have disconnections again with this laptop and graphic card when I turn off the computer

 

Can you post all the benchmark screenshots (3dmarkvantage, RE5, dmcv4) and re-do 3dmark06 in your post above? Your 3dmark06 of 7500 is unusually high for a T8300-2.4+GTX460@x1 without Optimus. Was that at 1280x1024? Other benchmarks will clue us in if it's accurate.

If you right click on the desktop, go to NVidia Control Panel -> Manage 3D Settings, do you have a "Preferred Graphics Processor" as shown below? If so, then Optimus enhancements are active which would explain the faster performance. This would be unusual given your primary video card is a 8400M GS.

 

Tried using pt PCI probe to list all the devices. got "PCI BIOS not found" error.

 

My control panel looks different, so I made it to just gtx460 and only one display, but still got the same result.... I'm downloading the resdient evil 5 bench and 3dmark06

 

I have a few quick notes about this setup. I am not an electrical engineer (I have a CS degree) but I do have a EE minor.

DO NOT do the "fuse bypass":

http://forum.notebookreview.com/gam...1-diy-vidock-experiences-150.html#post6641790

There is ZERO reason why your PCIe card should be pulling more than 10A (the fuse limit) at 12V through the PCIe connector. The PCIe spec is 75W through the connector - any additional power needs to come through one or more PCIe power connectors.

If you have a graphics card that uses a PCIe power connector, you should connect your 12V adapter or PC PSU directly to the graphics card. DO NOT connect the power connectors on your card to the floppy connector on the PE4L/PE4H - those connectors are not designed to supply that much current and could overheat.

I also have some concerns about the schematics for the PE4L that I looked at. It seems that when you have JP4 closed (which is the case if you are using a 12V power supply connected to the barrel connector and not a PC power supply), the PE4L could draw as much as 3A from the laptop, which is 3x as much as the ExpressCard specification allows. There is a fuse in the EC2C but it appears to be bypassed.

It's possible that this is a mistake in the schematic or that I am misinterpreting this. I've sent an email to bplus (who designed the PE4L for clarification). Until I get a response, though, it would seem that the safest course of action is to use a PC power supply connected to the floppy power connector on the PE4L, and to leave JP4 open and JP3 closed. In this configuration the PE4L doesn't use any power from the laptop which should greatly reduce the risk of overcurrent.

Also note that the USB port on the PE4L supplies +5V (from the power supply) if you use a PC power supply rather than +3.3V (from the laptop) if you use the barrel connector. The USB specification requires 5V. Some devices may work with +3.3V, but others may not.

Note that if your PCIe graphics card does not use much +3.3V power (and you don't use the USB connector), it's likely that you won't exceed the 1A ExpressCard specification anyway and things will work fine. But if something goes wrong you could damage your laptop.

Hopefully the schematic is just misleading or wrong and the fuses will actually do their job.

 

ORB - World of Performance
3dmark06
dmc4 benchmark IMAG0042.jpg
resident evil bechmark IMAG0044.jpg

 

FYI, it looks like F2 isn't even there on my PE4L (contrary to the specs), so it can only draw 1.5A. I would still recommend using a PC PSU and leaving JP4 open.

 

Visiting this thread for the first time in a while and I'm surprised at the performance of the new nVidia cards. Am I understanding this correctly? In a desktop an ATI 5850 is better than a GTX 460 but in a x1 DIY Vidock setup the 460 is much better than the 5850?

 

yup. That is the case so far. If you see the devil may cry scene 4 benchmarks for direct x 10 you will see that most of the 460 are on par with the 5850 and even higher if they have optimus. Even in x2 the 460 beats the 5850 in the resident evil benchmarks.

 

Thanks. Guess this 5850 w/ Accelero Twin Turbo's going on craigslist!

 

Anyone using the new NVIDIA beta drivers? 260.63? Any improvements or problems? - Also, does the new installer mess up the install with Vidock?

BTW - I overclocked my GTX 460 to 875 core/1750 shader/4100 memory - and got some nice gains in performance. Now im just hoping for some optimus action to be unlocked or non intel IGP, and/or running 2x!

 

I'm sticking with my 5870, because once laptops with expresscard 2.0 come out, the bandwidth will be used more efficiently. And it takes less power.

EDIT: I got most of the stuff to work, went on standby then turned the stuff on. It says Found New Hardware for Video Controller (VGA Compatible). What software do I need to download?

Also, how do I switch the display from my laptop to my monitor?

BTW I'm using Windows XP Pro

 

just the drivers. once that is installed then all you have to do is switch to the external lcd using the display settings menu.

 

Sigh, long story. So I installed Catalyst, and it worked; it showed the radeon 5800's as 2 options on the display option in the control panel. I enabled one of these, which made my laptop screen unused, my big monitor the extended windows desktop, and an imaginary monitor as the primary one. Naturally, I had to restart the computer with the 5870 off. I installed Catalyst again, but now it says Code 12 Not enough resources or something under device manager, and the two options for the 5800's in the display menu of control panel are gone. Currently, whenever I try to start up the ATI Control Centre, it says that the currently active GPU is not supported.

 

that means you have to do the resource allocation with the DIYVidock Boot files. The error you get with the catalyst control centre is because it is detecting you internal gpu instead of the 5870 due to the resource allocation problem

 

Hey guys I'm new to the thread but have been looking into the DIY for about 6 months now and decided to give it a try.

I have a PE4H v1.0 running a HD 5670 on a 19v 4.2amp PSU through the express card bay.
My problem is two fold, first running the DIY Vidock boot loader 1.0e2 my external card is not detected, whenever I try to run the pcie compaction, it always says no solutions found, and the .bat file doesn't write.
The card is however detected in Vista x64 service pack 2, the driver installs but no resources allocate to it, thus my boot loader delema.

My second problem is my PE4H is overheating (the big 4 contact chip next to the psu input) after >5min of operation at which point the graphics card turns off and the second green led turns off as well.
Has this happened to anyone else?
Is it likely my PE4H is bad? Thanks for any help,

System Specs:
Dell Inspiron 1521 Turion TL-60 2ghz dual core
4gb DDR2-666
Windows Vista x64 Service pack 2
Latest Bios A06 (if that matters)
AMD chipset RS690M (600 series south bridge, 700 series north bridge)
Radion HD 5670 via PE4H v1.0 to EC2C at PCIE 1x
Powered by 4.2amp 19v psu

 

Quick update the DC/DC 19v to 12v converter on my PE4H is fried, but it will power up through a 12v floppy molex. However it still isn't recognized under the DIY vidock boot loader.

 

not sure how well the boot loader work on amd motherboard. There could be problems due that. will have to confirm with nando4.

 

Check for your video card at the commandline using 'lspci -tv' and 'lspci -tv -n'. You'll need to run compact manually to generate your pci.bat. eg for a HD5670 + ATI HDMI audio controller:

Code:

 (36-bit selective compaction)
compact pciend 310000000 useonly 1002:68d8 1002:aa60 import \config\devcon.txt makebatch %DRV%:\config\pci.bat

(32-bit selective compaction)
compact pciend 310000000 useonly 1002:68d8 1002:aa60 import \config\devcon.txt makebatch %DRV%:\config\pci.bat

(32-bit ALL compaction)
compact pciend 100000000 import \config\devcon.txt makebatch %DRV%:\config\pci.bat

Then test:

Code:

call %DRV%:\config\pci.bat
call grub4dos w7

Then just update your %DRV%:\config\startup.bat with the correct sequence of commands once you've confirmed it works so can just select "automated startup" menuitem on boot.

 

I've spent the last week or two reading through all of these to the best of my ability. I have an HP DV7t-3300 series laptop; gtx460 external 320m internal. I have had success using the compact tools in the loader to get my external card to work (by compacting ignoring the internal), however I'm attempting to get both the integrated and external to work simultaneously.

I have pciscope, I think I understand what pci devices need to be moved, but don't understand how I determine the target memory space for each. Can someone assist? I'll attach my device manager and snapshot file.

I'm excited to get this working!