DIY eGPU experiences

The thing is that I just tried to use the internal LCD using optimus but it always defaults to my IGP in 3dmark06. I changed the global settings in the Nvidia Panel to always use the GTX460 and I tried to right-click on the shortcut and select "Run with graphics processor -> High Performance NVIDIA processor" but it defaults to the Mobile Intel 4 Series Express Chipset Family...

I installed those drivers: http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/469747-sony-z11-nvidia-optimus-30.html#post6547315

 

With Optimus, if you disconnect the external LCD then run 3dmark06 it will use the GTX460 for processing, outputting to the internal LCD. You'll see this watermark to confirm Optimus is at work.

Can you do a DX9 1280x800 RE5 variable benchmark?

Your CPU is definitely holding you back. 'inteks' has his SU3500 overclocked to 1.7Ghz. See PLL pinmod thread if interested.

 

"Macbook Pro 17" (2,1 with a broken DVI socket), versus the DIY ViDock?"

Sourced an old Apple G4 tower to store & ventilate the DIY ViDock components, GPU etc. under my desk. Can anyone recommend the most price/performance/efficient card to use with a Mac laptop?

I read that the latest and greatest GPU's run much faster than the ExpressCard can handle... so I figured the smartest approach would be to get a modest card now, then upgrade the whole lot to USB3/other later. My DVI socket is broken, so my choices are limited to a '$1,000 repair bill'. Two external screens would be great, three better, as I run Maya & other 3D applications, but not games. I'd love to have three Mini DisplayPort sockets in there, but could it handle them all?

Even if a desktop storage unit seems like a dumb idea, the G4 already included a power supply & old GPU, as well as a nice little row of slots for cards/drives/etc. to mount to... beyond that, I would like to install an internal Blu-Ray read/writer & some extra drives in there too. They'll probably have to have a custom cabling arrangement, but it's bound to be neater than 'spaghetti' everywhere.

Suggestions welcome!

 

Optimus is definately not working properly. I do not get a watermark and it runs on IGP performance levels.

Although the drivers are working when plugging an external monitor. Did I install the right drivers?

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/469747-sony-z11-nvidia-optimus-30.html#post6547315

For the PLL mod, I read that setFSB is not working properly with my PLL model, which is the SLG8SP513V

 

Your results are unusual. The Optimus menus are active, confirming your chipset passed the checks, but the benchmark results don't appear to be much different to what I'd expect you'd get with a non-Optimus setup. Could try these Optimus drivers to see if get any better results.

As to overclocking, can do a 200->266Mhz FSLx+BSEL SLGSP513V PLL pinmod to get you to 1.86GHz. Usually BSEL mods see the cpu lock to the x6 multiplier, but seems the ULV CPUs don't have that restriction.

 

Here are the Variable RE5 benchmarks for the GTX460. I'll have to do the 4870 another time since I have to clean all the drivers, reinstall everything. I'll do it later.

 

Hello all, Nando

This thread is so great I managed to learn a lot before I go ahead and purchase the parts. lol at first i got a headache trying to figure out names and such but it's mostly all clear to me now. Although I'd appreciate some feed back and help on this please.

I have a HP Pavilion dv5-1124ca
I'm planning to buy a PE4H-EC2C and use a 9800GT

Since my chipset is AMD and I will be using a Nvidia card this is equivalent to
= x1E for ati card with intel chipsets correct?

I attached an Everest scnshot of my ports.
#247 is probably my expresscard, I don't know why it's numberd#247 tho, will this be an issue? Will a x2 link be possible or even necessary?

Do you think my laptop will run into any issues I should be prepared for, like cannot allocate resources? From reading some of the thread probably not since I have 3GB and using a nividia card.

 

I tried with a friend's graphics card and it worked! I guess there are some issues with my card.

Thank you for your help, I greatly appreciate it

 

Am i correct with saying that the DIY Setup v1.x is designed for Intel Chipsets and NOT for AMD Chipsets?

 

Hey nando4 (aka 'resident genius'?), at the risk of a double-post, is there an area in this forum for a 'Mac DIY ViDock'?

I've read plenty of your posts so far - all of which have been extremely useful - however I'm still a bit stuck... seems newer laptops have a faster ExpressCard connection & therefore, fitting an older machine with a gpu beyond a certain threshold just costs more! What is the threshold though?

Is there any point installing an 'ExpressCard External Graphics x16' on a 'Late 2006' Macbook Pro 17"? (2,1)

As far as the costs go, it's almost the same for a 'x1' & a 'x16' once it's shipped. The difference appears to be in the choice of graphics card. What is considered to be the best performing card though? Presumably there's been enough exploration already for the 'optimum package' to be common knowledge?

Current options appear to be these two:

x1: $55+
http://www.harmonicinversion.com/pr...flypage-ask.tpl&product_id=193&category_id=25

x16: $85+
http://www.harmonicinversion.com/pr...flypage-ask.tpl&product_id=191&category_id=25

What do you recommend?

========
PREVIOUS POST:

"Macbook Pro 17" (2,1 with a broken DVI socket), versus the DIY ViDock?"

Sourced an old Apple G4 tower to store & ventilate the DIY ViDock components, GPU etc. under my desk. Can anyone recommend the most price/performance/efficient card to use with a Mac laptop?

I read that the latest and greatest GPU's run much faster than the ExpressCard can handle... so I figured the smartest approach would be to get a modest card now, then upgrade the whole lot to USB3/other later. My DVI socket is broken, so my choices are limited to a '$1,000 repair bill'. Two external screens would be great, three better, as I run Maya & other 3D applications, but not games. I'd love to have three Mini DisplayPort sockets in there, but could it handle them all?

Even if a desktop storage unit seems like a dumb idea, the G4 already included a power supply & old GPU, as well as a nice little row of slots for cards/drives/etc. to mount to... beyond that, I would like to install an internal Blu-Ray read/writer & some extra drives in there too. They'll probably have to have a custom cabling arrangement, but it's bound to be neater than 'spaghetti' everywhere.

Suggestions welcome!

========

 

The most comprehensive DIY ViDock with a MBP was only recently posted here. As to recommendations, you are looking at a $55 PE4L and a $85 PE4H, either of which will run at x1 speed on a MBP. PE4L is better suited for 12V AC adapter operation. PE4H provided a better base for upright video card operation.

compact, the main utility included with Setup 1.x, works with AMD chipsets. Just do a 'help compact' for details instructions. The Setup GUI should also work fine with an AMD chipset, though I haven't tested it to see if there are any glitches.

 

Thank you for the quick reply, nando4! (do you ever sleep?) I will run with the PE4H as you suggest.

Meanwhile, are there any other 'tasty hacks' which could be plumbed-in to the external GPU?

Having sourced a whole G4 tower to house/cool a fairly small arrangement, it would be fun to see what else I can build into it. Could an external Blu-Ray burner be connected to the GPU, or would that have to go directly onto the Mac's motherboard? I already plan to rack-up external Firewire800 drives in there, but it's still got tons of room...

 

Soyaku reporting back...

After RMAing my card and taking 2 weeks to get it done, the card itself is not defective. Reinstalled new drivers for it. It's not the PSU or the GPU.

I experience texture stretching in FF14, paged pool memory errors in Starcraft 2, misc errors in other games.

I'd really like to solve this problem once and for all. I can plug n' play my equipments, so I never ran any scripts at all.

Thanks!

Edit: I'm giving up on this, it was worth a try but it looks as if it's just not going to work with my laptop.

 

I am posting to report my results with 3dmark06
3DMark Score 7740 3DMarks
SM2.0 Score 3394
HDR/SM3.0 Score 3145
CPU Score 2380

My specs are
t8300 ES QZOL with 6MB cache @ 2.4GHz
4GB @ 667MHz
Ati Radeon HD4870 1GB
running w7 64bit.

I tried to use x1E but I couldn't.

 

Hey nando4, what do you think about the gts440?

Nvidia Quietly Unveils GeForce GT 440 Graphics Card - X-bit labs

Do you think it would be easy to build a "portable" setup with a DC brick power supply?

 

hi folks,

im totally new to this DIY VIDOCK and i own an DELL XPS M1530 with T9300, 8600gt and 4 gygs ram, im very keen on getting this happen on my laptop.

i did a custom search on this threads with "m1530" as search quote and have read all the pages included and i think i have a rough idea about this.

just tat i need to confirm 1 thing, the pci express on m1530 is PCIe 1.0 ? So the most i can get from an individual PCIe is to do PCIe 1E unless im going for 2 ports by attaching the wwan and wlan pcie slot for PCI 1.0 x 2. Right ?

and i heard Nando4 said in some pages in this thread tat gtx460 is the best card optimised for single PCIe 1.0 adaptation, izzit true, not tat i doubt the great guru, its just tat reading thru some of the threads, its seems conflicting, so can someone enlighten me on this?

 

sry, nando4 said ati 5770 has better pci-e 1.0 implementation, reversed of wat i just said ^

but as i read thru, there ppl having issue with ati 5770 during in game experience, so which 1 is better for single pci-e 1.0? GTX460 or ATI 5770 ?

 

@ the 5770 is good if you can do a x1e but if you can't then the gtx 460 is better

 

Or GTS 450

 

GT440 will be a bit faster than a GT430. A GTS450 is two times faster than a GT430 and could be made into a portable setup using a PE4L + 12V/120W adapter.

HD6850 is to be released Oct 22nd, priced at less than a GTX460. M1530 has expresscard slot as port5, so can do x1E to get higher performance.

So then HD6850 is a good one to consider as it will have better DX9 performance than a GTX460. The GTX460 is a better future prospect if you intend to upgrade to a 4500MHD or Intel HD system and get Optimus performance boost and internal LCD setup.

 

nando and folks,

as stated before, my rig is
M1530
T9300
4gygs ram
WinXP/32
8600gt

somewhere i read in this threads of discussion that one has to do pci reallocation to 36bit to cater for the 4 gygs physical ram installed, my question is, if im using the 64bit OS, would i be needing to do PCI reallocation or some sort ?

im really interested in diy-ing my rig with GTX460@PCI 1.0 (as i read before GTX460 has the best PCI x1 link),

just to understand better, M1530 can do a PCI 1.0x2 at its mPCIe of wireless card and wwan card, with 2xPM3N, 1xPE4H, 2xHDMI cables, 1xPSU and 1xGTX460, rite ?

can someone teach me(direct me to the url pages) to do PCIx1e and PCI 1.0 x2 ? would it make a permanent change to my mobo bios ? or whatever changes involved is with the OS boot up (boot.ini) ?

dudes, pls shed some light on this,

thanks.

 

M1530 can't do x2 since it's pci-e port layout has port2=wifi, port5=expresscard slot. You can do x1E tweak on port5, which is only relevant to ATI cards.

With your x1E capability and 22nd October release of the HD6850 you may consider doing the first HD6850 implementation? Would be great to get some benchmarks. I would guestimate:

DX9: HD6850@x1E > GTX460@x1
DX10: GTX460@x1 > HD6850@x1E
DX11: GTX460@x1 > HD6850@x1E

Setup 1.x software can do the pre-boot PCI Configuration changes for the x1E tweak, and if necessary, PCI compaction to overcome error 12 with > 3GB setup.

 

so will the alteration cause any permanent irreversible change to my hardware ?

sigh, although the PCI compaction tutorial listed in the page 63 is quite self explanatory, i still find it quite hard to follow, i think imma put everything on whole till i figured out and grasped on how to do the pci compaction 1st.

nando, thx for ur time and the heads up on HD6850.

 

I managed to get my ViDock working correctly, but whenever I load a game or anything that uses the graphic card intensively the card starts making noises.

I don't think its the fan, it doesn't sound like it would be from the fan. Has anyone else had this issue?

 

I assume you mean the squealing sound, which is because Nvidia uses cheap inductors. Everyone's card does it and it's perfectly normal. The only way I've heard to eliminate it is to cover all the components on the card in glue.

 

hahaha, I did not know this. I am actually using HD 5770.

Thank you for your help

 

Built 3 PCs using 4890s and all 3 squealed, though they have got better with age either that or iv'e got deafer lol. Enabling Vsync tends to helps as the cards not trying to render a million frames when it doesn't need them.

 

Can you post system specs: RAM, CPU, Everest port layout and at least the 3dmark06 and RE5 benchmark results? We don't have a Lenovo R500 on file as yet.

RE: Inductor noise. Perhaps RMA and get a HD6850 instead?

DIY ViDock Setup 1.x modified PCI configuration registers. They get reset back to defaults when you do a reboot. So no irreversible changes are ever made. I've simplified some of the steps in the DIY ViDock Setup 1.x installation instructions.

 

Hmm. I heard a while back that the HD 5xx0 cards used fancy inductors that aren't supposed to whine. I just read around some more and it turns out they do anyway. It might be a manufacturer specific thing, or maybe all cards can whine. To test inductors, you can touch them with a pencil eraser or something else soft while the system is running and see if the noise stops. If you get lucky and find a noisy one, all you have to do is put a little glue on it. All glues are non-conductive (when dry) unless they say otherwise on the bottle.

If it's not inductors, it can be capacitors. If a capacitor is making noise, it's a sign that it may be bulging and leaking, and may explode. I suggest taking your cooler off and looking over the card if you can't find a guilty inductor. If all else fails, you might be able to get an RMA, but you'd have to put some effort into getting one for just noise.

 

Welcome to the club hahaha. I just noticed that Square is offering an extension of the free trial period.Free Extension and many buggy glitch complaints...hmmm i wonder whats the correlation?

I tried running FF 14 recently on my internal laptop graphics card and it actually works better than using the external.Its faster than it was the first time around,might be all the graphic driver updates,but still not fast enough for decent game play.As far as the DIY external card goes,I can't seem to much else use for it other than Second Life.Contacted MSI & FF14 support,they can only suggest the drivers or the hardware.I've done all the driver updates,still no resolution for the texture stretches on FF14.Perhaps the texture stretches lies mostly with the game,i haven't experienced with other games yet.



-=-=-=-=-=-=- System Information -=-=-=-=-=-=-

Operating System Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Edition 64bit (build 7600)
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i5 CPU M 540 @ 2.53GHz
Number of Processors Logical Core Count 4 Physical Core Count 2
BIOS BIOS Date: 09/23/09 11:58:43 Ver: 08.00.10
Language English (Regional Setting: English)
Physical Memory 4014.090MB
Virtual Memory 2047.875MB
Page File 8026.324MB
Storage C:\ Hard Disk Drive Total Disk Space 457.215GB Free Disk Space 295.010GB
DirectX Version DirectX 11
Graphic Device(s) NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460
+Device \\.\DISPLAY3
+Chip GeForce GTX 460
+Maker NVIDIA
+Video Memory 993.563 MB
+Shared Video Memory 1751.045 MB
+DAC Type Integrated RAMDAC
+Display Mode 1600 x 900 (32 bit) (60Hz)
+Driver nvd3dumx.dll,nvwgf2umx.dll,nvwgf2umx.dll,nvd3dum,nvwgf2um,nvwgf2um
+Driver Version 8.17.0012.5922
+Driver Date 7/31/2010 10:46:00 PM
+Driver Language English
+Vertex Shader 3.0
+Pixel Shader 3.0
+Vertex Texture Supported
Sound Device(s) Speaker/HP (Realtek High Definition Audio)
+Device ID {F26F6791-1611-44C0-B98D-126F106EAB87}
+Device Name RTKVHD64.sys
+Driver Version 6.00.0001.6171
+Driver Language English
+Driver Date 10/4/2010 7:50:59 PM
Input Device(s) {6F1D2B60-D5A0-11CF-BFC7444553540000}
+Name Mouse
+Notes Axis 3 Button 5 Field of View 0
Input Device(s) {6F1D2B61-D5A0-11CF-BFC7444553540000}
+Name Keyboard
+Notes Axis 0 Button 128 Field of View 0

 

Hope someone posts results of a HD6850 and see how well that does! Should be a nice card for vidock

 

hey how is everyone doing with their DIY Vidock setups?? Just wanted to let anyone know that wants a slightly-used PE4H Im selling mine.. fully operative in mind conidition.. if you're interested please PM me, Im selling it for considerably less than the full $80 retail... Again, it's already tested & working, comes with mini-hdmi cable along with Expresscard/34 adapter, and the actual PE4H 2.0 unit. Purhased from Harmonic Inversion.

 

PM sent.

Thanks

 

Hi everyone!

I'm a mac user, and my system is:
MacBookPro4,1 2,4 GHz
GeForce 8600M GT
4 GB of ram

I saw some posts of mac users, but i think that neither was able to be completely successful! (I think )

So what i'm just asking, if it's possible, is to tell me what do i need to make it work under the OSX as well as under Win7! My system can only run x1!

I think that the graphic card should be mac compatible to run under mac OS X, or flashed as shown here

Also it's great if someone could post the benchmarks for this system (or identical)

Thanks

 

You have a decent internal card and can only do x1 mode without optimus. Your internal card will at times outperform any external card on an x1 link. In your case, I would only get an external card if the particular games you are interested in run well on low pci-e bandwidth, ex. crysis, sc2, ff14, l4d, and don't get a card if you play games that are hurt bad by it ex.WoW, FSX, etc. (Side note on WoW, it runs better in the experimental dx11 mode, but on an overclocked x2 link still is notably hurt by pci-e bandwidth.)

 

I pretend to play the X-plane 9 in the OS X side!

If i decide to go Bootcamp, i think i will ned to ride of 2 GB of ram, i guess?!

Do you think that in bootcamp i will have a better performance?

Because when i play the X-Plane 9 in the OS X, the fts are about 25, with almost every settings low. So i think that i don't have any other options!?

I'm thinking to by an RADEON HD 4870 - 1 MB GDDR5, do you think that I will not have any gain with that?

[edit] Can you explain me what is the difference of x2 1.0 / x1 2.0 / x1 1.0! Can i do it at x1 2.0 with my system (OS X or Win)

Thanks

 

Hello everyone,

First of all, I would like to thank all of you for all the work you invested into the DIY ViDock. I stumbled upon this topic by chance, did some reading then decided to go for it

Here are my system specs :
- computer : Asus VX2S "Lamborghini" (specs here - it's in French but the right column should be understandable),
- OS : Windows 7 64bits,
- RAM : 2 / 3 GB (see below),
- PE4H v2.0a + EC2C + SWEX from hwtools.net,
- graphics card : nVidia 460 GTX (Gainward Golden Sample, if it matters),
- PSU : Corsair 400cx.

I chose this card & PSU after reading Ithildin's post, thank you very much !

Here is my experience :

At first, since I didn't really know what to do, I tried just about every possibility both with and without DIY ViDock Setup v1.x, but it never worked. Compaction was impossible, and I ended up with the error 12 in Windows. I had no freeze or system hang-up during the loading of the OS, though.

Then, I did some reading and found out that, for some reason that I don't fully understand, having more than 2 GB of RAM could cause problems. So, I tried to remove the 1 GB stick (which brought me back to 2 GB).

With that setup, I can directly load Windows (without DIY ViDock Setup v1.x), and it works =D Yay !

So far (ie, with the x1 setup), I managed to make L4D2 work with all settings at their max at 1680*1050. With the 8600M GT, I had most settings on low at 1280*768 to get as many fps as possible... In other words, the change is huge

I can also run Batman Arkham Asylum without prob with max settings at 1680*1050, except for the DirectX with I have to turn off. I wanted to use the 8600M GT as a dedicated physics card, but it's still slowing the game down, and even made it crash once due to overheating

However, since the DIY ViDock is x2 capable, and since I have an extra 1GB of RAM that I would like to keep, there is still work to be done

Here are two pictures of the PCI ports of my computer :





If I understood the x2 procedure well, I have to deactivate the device using port 2 to make x2 work, since my video card is using port 3, and x2 on port 3 is only possible with x2 on port 1.

So, I "locked" (deactivated) the WiFi module directly in the BIOS, activated x2 on port 3, got a successful compaction, but when I "apply config using startup.bat", I get the following error message :



I figured that I might have to deactivate the internal 8600M GT in the Video Card menu, but the system hangs when I try it.

I also tried to use the "save diagnostics" option, but I can't find the directory that I'm supposed to zip/rar (btw the system hangs at the point where it asks the second question, but according to the message beforehand, it can happen).

I am sorry if my message isn't very clear, and I hope that you will be able to help me get the x2 setup to work and/or explain me what I can try to get my computer working with 3 GB of RAM.

If you require any more information, just say so and I will be glad to provide it, obviously

Thanks in advance !!

 

PS : on a slightly related matter, do you think that it would be useful to overclock the 460 GTX, or is it useless because of the limits of x1 ? The performance gains seem huge on this card (as explained here for instance)...

 

@Kaighal, congratulations on the performance result. Now some not so good news. You can't do x2 because you don't have a combination of ports to do it. x2 requires a port1+2, port3+4 or port5+6 link to your PE4H. Clearly we see that is not possible on your VX2s:

port1=LAN
port2=wifi
port3=expresscard slot
port5=turbo memory

As to compaction, just load the Optimus driver, then test a selective 36-bit, then 32-bit compaction on the GTX460. The Optimus driver supporting both the 8600M GT and the GTX460.

Overclocking the GTX460 will give some minor performance improvement. Better would be overclocking the pci-e bus. Your system is not capable but you'd get better performance with Optimus drivers and/or a x2 implementation.

NVidia higher performance

I have established contact with NVidia where one of their support persons will request the Optimus performance tweak be added to the standard desktop driver as shown here. A 20-333% improvement would be a great Xmas present.

 

@Nando4 : thanks for your quick answer

I'm not sure that I understand why I can't do a x2 setup on my computer.

As I told you, I can deactivate the WiFi device on port 2, and I have nothing on port 4, so that gives me :

port 1 : LAN
port 2 : empty
port 3 : expresscard (ie : nVidia graphics card)
port 4 : empty
port 5 : turbo memory

So, if I activate x2 on port 3 (and on port 1 as well since it can't be prevented), I should get :
port 1 @x2 : LAN
port 3 @x2 : expresscard (ie : nVidia graphics card)
port 5 @x1 : turbo memory

... Right ?

If the LAN port is the problem, I can deactivate it in the BIOS as well. The fact is that I do not understand why I "don't have a combination of ports to do it", to quote you.

In the meantime, I'm going to try the Optimus driver to see if I get better performance with it, and tomorrow I will try to get my 3rd GB of RAM to work with it

 

You require a physically accessible mPCIe slot that is port4 to be combined with your expresscard slot port3 in a port3+4 x2 setup. More details in 2. Can my system use PE4H's x2/x4 link for superior performance shown in PCI-E Scaling Analysis? on the first post.

 

OK, I hadn't realised that it had to be "physically" accessible. In other words, I thought it was only a software setting :/

Just in case : my port 4 appeared empty because I had disabled eSata in the BIOS (in order to "free" the port and allow x2 on port 3 as I thought it was necessary).

So, I enabled it again to show you how it looks :





(fyi, I can even enable port 6 with DIY ViDock Setup v1.x, so it should be physically there too)

Do you think that there is *anything* I can physically do to end up with a x2 setup ?

By the way, I installed the driver that you advised. I happened to already have 258.96, but the 8600M GT one was from LaptopVideo2Go (with their inf) and the 460 GTX one was from nVidia's website.

It took me some time to figure out how to properly install your driver on both cards. At first, I tried to remove my old ones (+ driver sweeper, safe mode boot etc etc) and install the new one on both at the same time. Big mistake, the nVidia control pannel wouldn't install and forced a revert to the previous driver (ie : standard VGA card...).

After some testing, I found the correct way : unplug the pe4h and only install the driver on the 8600M GT with the setup.exe file, reboot with pe4h plugged in (and PSU turned on, obviously), reboot again because windows first installs it as a VGA card, and finally install the driver with the "have disk..." method + final reboot. Tada, it's working

I don't know if I'm going to get better performance than with my previous set up (same driver version but 2 different inf files...), but at least the install feels cleaner Thanks for the tip

 

@nando4

I just wan't some advice from you please!

I'm a mac user, and my system is:
MacBookPro4,1 (T7700) 2,4 GHz
GeForce 8600M GT
4 GB of ram

My goal is to play the x-plane or Flight simulator X! Under OS X, the gaming experience with x-plane 9 it's not good, i mean, with low settings the fts are about 25 fts! which is not good! I'd like to improve my gaming experience, with higher settings!

So i bought the PE4L kit! And i wan't to know if i can expect any improvement , whatever if it's under OS X or in Win7 (via bootcamp)!

I don't wan't the top specs, just fine gaming experience with some high settings!

As much as i know my system only allow me to do x1! I'd like to know if my system can do x1 2.0???

So i really wan't some advise from you in how do i get the maximum of my system! If you could mention some good graphic card i really appreciate!

Thanks!

 

To get x2 1.0 would require disconnecting the LAN (port1) or e-sata (port4), hijaak it's pci-e tracks and connect it to a PM3N so can do a port1+2 OR port3+4 x2 setup. Technically possible but requires a stack of skill and specialised equipment -> not feasible imho, in which case the options are:

- hope that NVidia roll the Optimus performance tweak into the standard desktop driver to get you 20-333% better x1. 1.0 performance, particularly DX9

- you can do the x1E tweak, which may mean DX9 titles are faster with an ATI card like a HD6850.

- upgrade to a Sandy Bridge notebook in Q1 2011 to get x1 2.0 capability OR get a Intel HD or 4500MHD notebook so can do x1 1.0 Optimus.

x2 1.0 capability of MBP 15? Macbook 4/5 appears to have port5+6 enabled. From here I can deduce port5 is the mPCIe wifi. If the expresscard slot is port6 then could do a x2 1.0 link.

If wanting to do a x1 1.0 link only then consider suggestions as posted at the top of this reply.

 

On a 9800 GX2, FS-X has an 84% performance loss in x1 2.0 mode compared to x16. x2 or optimus would be significantly better, but you'd still probably lose around 2/3 of the performance of x16. It's just the nature of flight simulators to perform so badly on low PCI-E bandwidth because they are contantly requiring new textures and other data to be loaded into the video memory. In your case I would recommend not getting an external graphics card setup, and just overclock your internal 8600m gt.

GeForce 9800 GX2 : PCI Express 2.0 Graphics Cards Tested

 

Hey guys,

I'm having problems with my previously-working DIY ViDock setup. I have the PE4H 2.0 with a Gigabyte GTX 460 1GB attached to my ThinkPad X201t via ExpressCard. I'm running Windows 7 x64 and everything used to be working fine, but it just stopped working over a month ago and I haven't been able to fix it. Here's what's up:

I have the hacked Optimus 259.12_win7x64 driver installed (with the custom nvuopti.inf). When I put my computer to sleep and plug in the DIY ViDock and turn my computer back on, the screen does not switch to my external monitor and my keyboard stops working. I have removed and reinstalled the drivers so many times and have tried disabling different startup items and processes, but nothing has worked so far.

Can anyone think of what might be the problem? I would like to finally get my setup working again.

 

I've been hoping nvidia will release some kind of a software tweak for 20-333% for a long time too

 

Do you think that i'm able to do optimus setup with my system over bootcamp, and with 4 GB of ram? I haven't buy the external graphic yet, so to be able to do optimus i think i need an nvidia, right?

Furthermore, do do you think that overclocking my internal graphics, i will be able to play with higher settings and higher fts?

Thanks Khenglish!

 

I have a MSI A6200, on the first page its listed as incompatible: Imageshack - msia6205.png Could anyone tell me why? I got it with hopes that I could use a vidock with it since it has a empty mini PCIe slot and an Expresscard 34 slot aswell.

 

A6200 is listed as not x2 capable since port2=expresscard slot and port4=wifi. The A6200 has Intel HD graphics so can do x1 1.0 Optimus via the expresscard slot using a NVidia GTS4xx or GTX4xx, providing very good performance.