DIY eGPU experiences

Yeah removing your back-cover is a bit of a hassle nothing too hard, but time consuming having to unscrew and then screw those mPCI-e adapters.

According to nando, x2 + optimus should yield the highest benchmarks yet, but i would be more than happy to just have it up and running without major troubles hehe, I guess you can wait out the benchmark to make up your mind.

 

Can anyone help me here?

 

Hey all,

sorry for popping in all of a sudden, but I wanted to share my experience

First, kudos & credits to all the pioneers who tried the DIY ViDock and came up with Optimus solutions Thanks a lot! (Nautis, nando4, ZoinksS2k, thomaskc.dk, igorstef and all others that helped in some way!)

So, after reading a lot I wanted to try this out myself and ordered the DIY ViDock things from hwtools. I wrote everything inside a Google Doc because it's easier to handle than a forum post.

In summary it contains a DIY ViDock experience with:

- Sony VPC-Z12
- Palit GF GTX 470
- PE4H 2.0a + ExpressCard adapter
- Windows 7 x64 / Nautis Optimus 258.96 / Intel 2226

Google Docs Link

Benchmark results

3DMark 2006 (default settings)

• GTX 470 x1: 5602
• GTX 470 x1.Opt: 15600
• GT 330M (internal): 5585

3DMark Vantage

• GTX 470 x1.Opt: P10866 (Performance preset)
• GTX 470 x1.Opt: H8681 (High preset)
• GT 330M (internal): P2123 (Performance preset)

Actually, the results are similar as already posted elsewhere in this thread.

Pics

 

Wow yuuma it looks great!

It's starting to make me anxious about it and I might buy the parts before I go back to the US after all... Does anyone know if they ship the parts to Europe?

 

sorry guys i have nothing to contribute (yet) but i have many questions.
to be fair though, i've spent the entire last week reading almost every single post on this thread. thanks nando + contributers.

i am only interested in doing a 2x setup.
is it possible with the dell e5410? (or dell e6410, dell e4300, etc.)
i've read nando confirmed them to work with 2x speeds, but i haven't seen anyone do it.
i highlighted the two spots where i believe the mpcie slots are on the dell e5410 (seem to be for wwan and wlan judging from the extra wire connectors)
would they work for 2x speeds?
would the PM3N work with a half slot mpcie?

from reading many posts and doing many searches for this particular laptop model, i have a feeling that the e5410 is similar to the e6410; the express card is pcie #4.
if i wanted to do a 2x setup with the express card, i just need to find pcie #3 and make sure it's mpcie?

i'm still in the market for a notebook, and i think the e5410 might be a good choice if the 2x works. not really interested in waiting for sandy bridge pci performance increase if i can attain the same performance with 2 mpcie slots or 1 mpcie + 1 express card (if sandy bridge has the performance of 2x on one slot, can it attain 4x with two slots? even then, we already saw the performance of 1x, 2x, 4x and 16x. the extra improvement from increasing pci lane speeds from 2x to 4x isnt nearly as big of a jump from 1x to 2x)

 

You need to run everest and look at how the ports are numbered to determine which ports are fully wired and if they are in the proper configuration for x2.

 

1. Disabled UAC
2. If that doesn't work, just try the "devcon resources ACPI\PNP*" anywhere on your c drive with with a devcon.exe in the same folder. Maybe your PC no longer likes your flash drive.

 

Hey everyone, I'm new to these forums and hoping you can provide some insight and help! I posted this in the other DIY ViDock thread, but this one seems a bit more active.

I have a Dell Latitude e6410 and I'm looking to get a DIY ViDock setup running with NO hardware mods. I will not use it with the internal monitor, as I connect it to an external monitor when I am at my desk. It's a Core i-5 520m with 3GB RAM and 32MB Intel HD Graphics. According to Everest, I have 4 PCI-E 2.0 ports. #1 is Empty, #2 is In Use (Intel Centrino (R) Advanced-N 6200 AGN), #3 is In Use (FireWire Controller), #4 is Empty.

From my understanding, I should get a 1GB GTX-460 to take advantage of NVidia's Optimus (best bang for buck)? Also, without a hardware mod, I have to run it in 1x because ports 2 and 3 are in use?

Also, can you please confirm that these are the parts that I need: GTX-460, PE4H 2.0a EC2C, a 400W PSU (preferably modular). Anything else? Should I wait for the PE4H 2.4? If so, does anyone know how long until it's available to be purchased?

I'm also looking to build/buy an enclosure for it, so if anyone has any tips that would be appreciated as well. Of course, I am more than happy to document the entire process and share it with everyone - I just need to confirm these details first!


Thank you for your help!

 

Yes they do ship to Europe (I'm from Germany). Package came with FedEx.

 

So i now got DIY ViDock setup 1.2 working on Bootup. In the menu i get: PCI_ALLOC_VALID:YES*
from there is says all i need to do is a bridges relocate, but when i run it it gives 0 solutions.
Ive tried all the different combos of settings and nothing is working for me

The setup fails to see my HD5770 card when i connect it and refresh...

 

Hello everyone,
I have an Nvidia Nvs160m internal graphics card and a Gtx 460 connected through express card.Is there any way that I could achieve the Optimus performance? If so which could you provide the link for the correct version of Optimus drivers?
The default Nvidia drivers give me the option of choosing between 160Nvs or Gtx460 as the default processor is this enough to get the Optimus boost?
Thank you!

 

You can't do optimus unless nvidia updates the driver to remove the intel integrated internal graphics requirement. Yeah that's right, optimus works with intel but not nvidia.

 

I'm sorry that I don't know how to help you, but how did solve the problem with getting windows to boot after running the setup program? I've never gotten it to chainload but luckily I don't need it to reallocate resources.

 

i seem to be stuck there too now. after PM'ing nando4 for some advice i can get the setup to allowcate the resources and give me PCI_ALLOC_VALID:YES... but when i try to chainload it just goes right back to the boot menu select screen. if i go to DIY SETUP again and go to run startup.bat it just goes back to boot menu screen.

TL: DR - relocate works, chainload not working

 

I did a comprehensive performance scaling analysis! You can tell I had a busy Friday night!

_______|CPU/PCI-E stock_|CPU +20%/PCI-E stock__|CPU+20%/PCI-E+20%_|Vcore+26.6%/Vmem+18.3%/CPU+20%/PCI-E+20%
Vantage|P9684 graphics__|P9844 graphics_________|P10163 graphics_____|P12003 graphics
3DM06_|8639___________|9480_________________|10037______________|10342
DMC4S4|98.92__________|106.34________________|115.24_____________|123.61
RE5____|74.8___________|88.5__________________|89.6_______________|93.0
FF14___|2327_high______|2550_high_____________|2545_high___________|2848 high quality

Performance gain from 20% PCI-E increase:
Vantage| 3.24%
3DM06_| 5.88%
DMC4S4| 8.37%
RE5____| 1.24%
FF14___| nothing

CPU is a 6MB C2D on a 1066 bus with a stock speed of 2.53GHz. Graphics card is a GTX 1GB with 715/900 as stock clocks. Video driver is 260.99, which is quite a bit better than the 258 driver used for optimus.

FF14 results surprised me. When the benchmark was running, the pauses of when the PCI-E connection got bogged down with loading new textures were definitely noticeable, but apparently the 20% extra bandwidth wasn't enough of a performance increase to get beyond the random variation of each run. Vantage, 3DMark06, and DMC4S4 would have the same somewhat frequent slowdowns due to needing new textures, however, they had significant performance increases with more PCI-E bandwidth. RE5 looks smooth the whole time and hardly benefited from more bandwidth.

Other games:
Crysis runs amazingly. The benchmark runs poorly due to the fast movement from place to place, but the game itself is completely GPU limited. SC2 is the same case as crysis. LFD2 runs like butter even with the GPU at stock. WoW is the only game I play that has problems with the bandwidth. The 4.0 patch doubled performance in PCI-E limited scenarios so that in worst case scenarios its in the low 30s fps. It's hard to tell what is and isn't PCI-E limitations though because the game is so CPU limited even on a 3ghz C2D ans sometimes can't get out of the high 20s.

Experimentation with hijacking PCI-E lanes:

Basically you're not going to be able to make a good enough signal if you want to steal a PCI-E lane off of an internal component in your laptop. I played around with cutting mini HDMI cables and soldering them back together to see if I could make the cable faster. To make a good enough reconnection, I had to twist nearly an inch of wire together and crush the wires together with pliers. You are not going to be able to do this off of a tiny aluminum contacts on the motherboard.

I highly doubt this will be useful info for anyone, but I found out what the 4 data wires are in the mini HDMI cables.
Pink aluminum sleeve, white wire inside it.
Pink aluminum sleeve, pink wire inside it.
Gold aluminum sleeve, white wire inside it.
Gold aluminum sleeve, pink wire inside it.
Pins 2,3,5,and 6 are used on the connector for these wires.

SUICIDE VANTAGE RUNS!
3.08GHz CPU, 910MHz Vcore, 1070MHz Vmem
P12228 graphics

 

is anyone aware of a script/program for mac, which can disable the output to a specific display, or several, specific displays?

example: whilst watching a film on the middle screen, i'd like the others to be turned off to save power consumption (crt's) and reduce glare (lcd's).

here are the options i am aware of:
1, pressing 'shift+ctrl+eject' will turn all screens off. it's not ideal, but could that shortcut be hacked?
2, disconnecting each display. a real nuisance since the gpu lives under the desk
3, reduce brightness on each display to zero. internal screen: yes. crt's: not easily
4, remove power to applicable displays. doesn't work for internal screen
5, enable 'spaces' and set secondary desktop images to black. works, but wastes power/gpu

any recommendations? the third/fourth options probably looks like the best, but that doesn't stop the gpu from calculating the output, so full-screen video/games are much slower/choppier than they would otherwise be.

if there is a solution, then 'phase 2' will be to enable mirroring on the two crt displays (left/right), whilst the central lcd's are off. that will allow the left/right crt's to show the same video, diagonally across the room, so each sofa get's it's own screen!

 

Got news from Gerry regarding PE4H v2.4:

Dear Carlos Jurado,
PE4H v2.4 is available. I will add v.24 info to my web-site on Monday.
Also anyone can buy it on Monday.

Let me know if you have any suggestion
Thank you.

Best regards
Gerry Chen

Hope this helps to anyone trying to buy one, I for one will be getting it as fast as i can next week

 

ok now getting:
PCI_ALLOC_VALID:YES
PCI_WRITTEN:YES
free 256MB

but still get error 12 when i plug the card in

Can anyone make sense of the errors im getting in this pic? trying bridges reallocation...
http://yfrog.com/6zdsc04723ptj

 

@all, I followed up khenglish's comment that versions of Setup 1.x since 1.0e2 didn't work. I identified that the pci write wasn't actually being done in the Setup 1.x GUI. I've deleted the affected version 1.0e3 and 1.0e4 from the archives, rolled out 1.0e5 with the corrective fix. x2 users will also love the new hot pci reset feature.

@Chesniak, please try this new version OR ensure you manually run the \config\pci.bat output file before chainloading. You are likely affected.

Code:

1.0e5 (2010-11-22)

  setup:    Correctly refresh Status bar after "Apply Config.Using startup.bat"
            NEW! x2, x4/x2E link menuitems now send a hot reset to initiate
              link renegotiation. No longer have to delay video card powerup.
            Showstopper fix - now actually doing the PCI write in setup.
            Save dump (Win) now saves to a text file so can review in Windows.

  Created setup-disk-image.bat and bundled contig.exe for automated image install.
  Fixed some typos and minor menu bugs.

 

Thanks for the update nando4, but still having some trouble. no longer getting error 12, but now device manager says its just not using any resources... will try a few more times

 

still not working
how do i go about manually running pci.bat?

 

setup e5 still won't load for me. All I get is a command line where I can navigate through the files on the flash drive with my limited dos knowledge. Since I don't know how to run files from directories other than the one I am currently in, I can't get any of the batch files to work. Ex. If I want to run C:/setup/setup.bat, the only way I know how to run that is to first change to the setup folder, which then messes up the batch file since it expects the working directory to be c:/, not c:/setup/ (i think)

 

OK - I see what the problem is that many have mentioned. Windows Explorer is *hiding* some of the critical files that start the menus, eg: autoexec.bat, even though they do not have the hidden attribute turned on. Means they don't get dragged over to the USB drive.

Workaround: Use the DOS prompt 'cmd', then 'xcopy' the files to your flash drive. Eg: copying from the disk image v: to USB drive k:

Code:

Start->Run->cmd
cmd> v:
cmd> xcopy *.* /e/s k:

 

@nando4,
how do i go about running the \config\pci.bat output file manually?

 

From a command line, you type:
c:
cd config
pci

 

Where do i get the command line? after running compact do i select exit to DOS and then runn it there?

 

I think they mean do it from windows CMD.

Does this project have a linuxy page, like Launchpad or something that has all the versions and bugfix logs?
I think that would be really cool.

 

e5 loads, and I can successfully load windows afterward, but the x2 script breaks the card.

At first I thought that the setup program was taking resources away from the card, but after looking into it more I really have no idea. e2 would properly report that I had a largest window of 32MB free with the 460 active, while e5 will report 256MB free with the 460 running, which is the same number that is free if I do not run the card. If I run the setup program and run no scripts, the system will chainload successfully. If I run the x2 script, the 460 will disappear from the device manager. If I sleep/resume, the card will run in x1 mode without even scanning for new devices. If I have the 460 disabled when I start windows after running the x2 script, it will not disappear, but will say, "The device is reporting problems" if I try to enable it. I have confirmed that the new x2 script will properly disable port 2 and set port 1 to x2 with Bar-edit. If I restart the system even if I didn't run scripts with the flash drive in, the system will hang on post.

Yes, you can run the command in dos mode. When you want to chainload, you can run autoexec.bat, which I think will get you back to the menu system to select chainload.

UPDATE:
I looked at the memory tables before and after running the x2 script. Running the script will take all of the 460's resources away from it, and running the compaction script will not reallocate it.

 

i still cant get the setup to see my xfx HD5770... atiflash says no adapter connected when i plug my card in at the begining

 

deleteeee...

 

im having a hard time understanding this....
something is not working for me still. If i run the compact, i get all the right messages, ALLOC:YES, PCI_WRITTEN:YES
if i exit to DOS from there, i can run PCI.BAT... but how do i load win7 from there? if i go back into the menu screen it all gets reset (ALLOC:YES* PCI_WRITTEN:NO)

 

It might not actually be resetting. It may only say yes if the PCI is written by a call from the autoexec.bat, and might not know if you instead ran the PCI.bat on your own.

 

1. The way I believe you were accomplishing a x2 link earlier by setting x2 mode, then reboot. The reboot would do the link renegotiation and 'configure' the NVidia video card.

With the pci hot reset feature you can eliminate the reboot BUT must load a 'configured' PCI dump to your video card prior to chainloading otherwise it will hang Win7 startup. See !Edit startup.bat in e5 for examples of how I did it on the DV4-2000. Use the Video Card.PCI Config.Save/Load dump menus to accomplish saving/loading the video card PCI dump.

2. E2 and E5 have different compact binaries. It may very well be there is different reporting of the free memory window. Can compare by booting up to DOS prompt and generating a out.txt for e2 and e5 versions:

Code:

compact preserverall import %DRV%:\config\devcon.txt dryrun > out.txt

So could use the E2 compact with the E5 package by copying it to \core\compact.exe . In any case, the reporting is there primarily for users who want to see if they can create a 256MB free window. PCI compaction should otherwise work fine for your setup.

See history.txt in Setup 1.x page. Feel free to launchpad the code. I figured launchpad would make sense if the package was coded in C rather than the current batch files layered over dougmenu. A C recompile would make it much faster. However the source code of compact is not available.

 

ehm nando, I am sorry, I am absolutely offtopic, but I would require you in the intel x3100 thread

 

so how do i load win7 from the DOS prompt after running PCI.BAT?

 

I tried the following startup.bat code:

call iport x2 1
call waitvid 60 10de:0e22
call pcicap load -d 10de:0e22
call pci
call grub4dos w7

The setup program cannot load the pci dump because after setting x2, it can no longer detect the 460. The pcicap load does work if I never set x2.

 

I tried PM'ing the user who got their tx2 (yuutsumi) to run with 8GB of ram. doubtful of a reply, his last post was april 17th

 

Looks like your chipset behaves differently. I believe then this will do the trick:

REM Ensure bootup with DIY ViDock switched off
call iport x2 1 noreset
echo Disconnected mini HDMI port1. Poweron your DIY ViDock.
pause
echo Now plug in mini HDMI port1 so will be a x2 link
pause
call waitvid 60 10de:0e22
call pcicap load -d 10de:0e22
call pci
call grub4dos w7

 

@nanado4: were you the one who made the script for the other TX2 user? is there something i can send to you to make this expensive paper weight work for me?

 

change to your ramdisk drive (it's the same drive letter as when you 1st exit to dos), then run startup.bat

so example commands assuming your ramdrive is R:

r:
startup

 

ok so i picked run setup in DOS mode. Ran the PCI file that was created previously that gave me PCI_ALLOC_VALID:YES, ran statup, Win7 boots. sleep system, connect card, wake system. device manager still says card not using any resources.

 

Hi, I have attached the screenshot from everest for my Laptop (Toshiba L305-S5933)

I have an expresscard/54port on the side of my laptop. Am I correct in assuming that that is port #5?

Is my system capable of a x2 link, still retaining my ethernet port?

Once I find out if I can do x2 or not I will know which PE4 to purchase.

What card is recommended? I have a Intel 4500M. Its not a Intel 4500MHD. So I don't believe I can do Nvidia optimus can I? And is it possible for me to do x1E?

 

It works! There's a few odd things though. I had to delete the "call pci" line, because the compaction script will actually break the 256MB window. Also, I cannot run the startup.bat from the 1st menu. I have to go open up the 2nd menu and select it from there, or else "call pcicap load -d 10de:0e22" fails to locate the graphics card.

Update:
It works at random! Not kidding! If I start the system with the 460 off or on, call startup.bat from anywhere, it does not matter. The startup.bat will work around 1/3 of the time due to "call pcicap load -d 10de:0e22" failing to locate the graphics card.

Update2:
Only booting with it off seems to usually fail. The past 4 times it has booted successfully to x2 mode with everything on and plugged in. It looks like resetting the link is what was causing the script to fail before.

Yay no more wasting 10 minutes of restarting and setting register values to get x2 mode! TY nando.

Ideally I would like to make a bootloader option to automatically run the startup.bat and chainload windows. I'm looking at the making a bootloader option for the setup program. When looking at the BCD commands in your tutorial, I do not understand how the bootloader knows where to look for the setup files. Basically I'm thinking of directing the bootloader to a folder with STARTUP.BAT renamed to AUTOEXEC.BAT, and all the .bat files that the startup.bat calls.

 

Have you tried things in the following order?

Booting with card not connected.
Connect card.
F5 to rescan for the card while in the setup menu.
Compaction
If 1st rescan did not pick up the card, try rescanning again, and another compaction if the card is detected but resources are still an issue.
chainload

also make sure you are using version e5

 

Hey Nando

I think there is a possibility to get an x2 link on the intel core 5 series chipset without having to have port 1+2, 3+4 or 5+6 combined together. If you look closely on the series 5 datasheet , it said that the port could be independently configured as x2s while in ICH8 or ICH9 it only said that the port could be statically configured only with port 1 and 2 for x2

Could you check it?

 

no matter what i try, the setup does not see my card

 

Unfortunately there is no change. ICH7/8/9M and series-5 Intel I/O chipsets' x2 link require combining port1+2 or 3+4, 5+6 or 7+8.

Can setup your PCI space without the video card present. Easiest way to do that:

1. Bootup Win7 with 2GB installed so your HD5770 works. Evaluate the video card and underlying bridge (0:4.0) memory and I/O resources used in Device Manager. Find the bytes they correspond to using Baredit. They'll be ones between 10-40.

2. Use Setup 1.x to perform 32-bit PCI compaction to create a 256MB free window. Exit to DOS.

3. Assign the freed 256MB window to the underlying bridge hosting the video card. Eg for the bridge might be:

setpci -s 0:4.0 1c.w=2020
setpci -s 0:4.0 24.l=DFFFD000

4. Chainload into Win7 using 'grub4dos w7'. Standby, poweron DIY ViDock, resume. If you got the resource allocation right there will now be no error 12.

Please PM me if have questions.

There's another L305 implementation on the first post. Your expresscard slot is port5, are using a ICH9M chipset and have 4500MHD graphics. So you have the option of x1E (ATI) or a x1.Opt (NVidia). x2 is not possible on your system, nor would is be beneficial over x1.Opt (see here) given x1.Opt and x2 giving virtually the same performance anyway.

So if you want fastest DX9 performance, consider a HD6850@x1E. If want balanced DX9 and DX10 performance, consider a [email protected].

 

Hey all,

I want a cheap way to play FFXIV until the PS3 version is out, so I'm considering a GTX460x1.Opt setup with my X201i. How much lower than AgentYura's X201 Core i7-620M x1 setup should I expect (with a lowly core i3-330M processor)?

Do you think it will compare at all to nando4's T6600-2.2 Dell Inspiron_1440 FFXIV performance? Will XIV even be playable on low lol?

 

hey everyone,

I've searched through the 2 threads, I was wondering if anyone had experience with the mcp77-mv chipset? As far as I can tell everything should work for a 1.0x1 connection. Everest shows only one port, #4, but I wanted to know if anyone had actually gotten one to work?

thanks

 

hey assuming i buy a pe4l with the expresscard, is there any way of buying the minicard adapter without having to buy the whole package again. i dont see the option to just buy that component? any help would be appreciated thanks.