DIY eGPU experiences

Hey, I got my power supply......Should I cut the excess wires that I don't need? I know I'm only going to be using it for the vidock. It won't fit inside my enclosure unless I cut the excess wires..... should I go for it?
Yah, I coulda got a modular...but this one was for a good price.

I have everything hooked up and it powers on.... what am i supposed to do to get this working?

 

Okay so I finally got optimus working with nandos drivers and some trial and error.

Is there a way to remove that nvidia optimus demonstration message?
The only game I am testing so far is starcraft 2. I get around 30 fps...it's also choppy, like is skips in the beginning....I was hoping for steady 60fps...

Would giving my laptop more voltage be a good idea? Because I undervolt my laptop so it runs with the least amount of voltage necessary....I know that if I have something usb powered plugged in and I try to turn it on...it wont sometimes unless I remove the usb device.

 

Just wanted to add my results:
Dell M1330 T8100/8400M GS
Win7 64bit 4GB RAM (+setup 1.x)
Portable DIY Vidock via express card + PE4L x1 + HD5670
3dmark06 scores increase from 1663(8400mgs) to 7657(HD5670)

 

Could really do with help on the DIY ViDock Setup 1.x - I have produced a devcon.txt file before I connected the external gfx and disabled integrated and dedicated. I will experiment more, but do I tell PCI compaction to ignore the dedicated GFX if I'll be disabling it to free resources.

Tips welcome!

 

Not sure what you are trying to achieve. If you want to get rid of the error 12 against the HDMI controller of the HD6870 then ensure the PCI device ID is given correctly for it during compaction. The HDMI audio controller only needs a very small amount of space so should be able to fit somewhere.

If not and you want to liberate a larger chunk of PCI space then:

1. I see "dedicated [off]" didn't work for you previously. This indeed may be the case if the bios is Intel TXT locked.

2. To disable the 9300M's resources would then require setting it's PCI BARs to 0 for the 0:1.0 port and 1:0.0 with a manual setpci script *prior* to running Setup 1.x to ignore the 9300M and then perform 32-bit PCI compaction on only the HD6870.

If you archive and link the output of the diag command (\diag directory), then can assist in creating the 9300Moff.bat script.

Nobody has figured out how to get rid of the uncertified Optimus demo watermark as yet in this or other Optimus retrofit threads.

Worth testing your setup on an external LCD. If you still get choppy/skipping at the start then you may be bottlenecked by your T3200-2.0 CPU so consider an upgrade as previously suggested.

Can you post benchmark results and system details so can add it to the first post?

 

I mis-read.....I thought it was going to be 20% boost with optimus with internal lcd...but it's external actually....*sigh*..

I'll post benchmarks etc when I get around to it, still have to make the enclosure. and waiting on the 1.5 cable. ...Is it safe to cut wires off the power supply that I don't need? I need the space.

Does anyone find their vidock actually useful? Or is it better to just buy a gaming laptop? Wish u didn't have to use an external lcd but still get really good performance.

 

Diag output here

I have successfully disabled both IGP and dedicated, but the external gfx doesn't spring into action unfortunately.

 

The IGP should not be disabled when booting to Win7. The primary adapter must be active. Here's how you can free up some resources by disabling those used by the 9300M:

9300moff.bat

Code:

setpci -s 1:0.0 10.l=0,0,0,0 24.w=0
setpci -s 0:1.0 20.l=0,0 1c.w=0

Save this to \config\9300moff.bat, go to DOS prompt, run 'call 9300moff', then run 'setup', set Ignore for the 9300M, perform 32-bit PCI compaction only on the HD6870. Add '9300moff' into your startup.bat prior to 'call pci.bat' to allow 'Automated startup via startup.bat' option to do everything for you.

 

anybody know of a way to get modified drivers or whatever for a nvidia 7150m or 630m integrated graphics. i dont know which one it is because it says 7150m/630m? hp dv2610us thx

 

Thanks for your help Nando4, but the script you've given causes my machine to drop usb support (in DOS anyway) so I can't get any further easily. Please confirm where I should save 9300moff.bat to and exactly how to call it in startup.bat to see if this yields a functioning system in Win7. I have put it in scripts dir, but can't call it from startup.bat as the location is on C and not R when I boot.

When disabling the dedicated gfx, I get a code 31 on the IGP display adapter.

Pls advise.

 

Hi, I want to buy a P4EH from HWtools, but I found the same item on Harmonic Inversion for the same price, with free shipping.

I just want to know if you already use this one and if it is truly the same as the one from HWtools.

Thanks!

 

They're the same thing, I ordered mine from harmonicinversion and it works fine. How'd you find free shipping, I had to pay $10 for shipping.

 

hello, i saw this thing and it says that it can switch between internal and external lcd of a notebook and it will automatically switch to the one in use.
Simple Display Switcher Script - ThinkWiki


unfortunately i can't test this now cause i don't know whats going on with my order on my PE4L EC2C + ATX Switch. I recieved an Invoice regarding my order but when i looked on my bank account, it doesn't recieve any

i place my order on all of the stuff i want on 1/14/2011 about 3:00PM


My Galaxy GTX 460 768MB GC, ATX PSU and resistors are expected to arrive today

 

I am from Canada..I don't know why it is free, but it is!

 

I work at HIT and for clarification our lowest cost domestic shipping is $10 (UPS). We are looking into getting this lower but right now it's $10.

 

w00t!

enclosure is pretty much done...Just waiting for the longer mini hdmi cable in the mail, a few minor touch ups, then benchmarking/overclocking.

 

Consider that for a notebook with Intel-only graphics, you are going from a system that plays Windows 7 Chess to one that can run previous to current generation games without a problem. StarCraft II, BioShock II, the Left4Dead series, Crysis (omg!), and a whole host of other games can be run on systems like the Lenovo x201 and tiny Vaio notebooks, which you can then pick up and take with you. 10 hours of battery life on the road and fragging at home. It really is the best of both worlds (for consumers anyway). And when lust worthy Sandy Bridge systems start arriving, you can cross off the additional cost, bulk, and heat that dedicated graphics would add to them.

 

Yes, but some people already have gaming ready laptops with passable discrete cards and are looking for performance that is better than that of most laptops, because even the best mobile video cards aren't really all that good. I have a 5650m which works OK for playing some games at 1366 x 768, but there is no way to game at 1080P with newer games, so I would want a setup like this to be an improvement over my 5650m, not over the built in gpu on my i5 (which I am still trying to determine...).

 

!! The better equipped your system is to begin with the more marginal your returns will be, of course. As an example, the Core 2 Duo T9400 Lenovo T400 with onboard HD3470 graphics can play Valve's Orange Box and most Source games at maximum settings with 1440x900 resolution, 50 FPS. Bioshock's shaders however cut the card down to 20 FPS most of the time. With offboard graphics I can manage > 60 FPS without a sweat. Granted, these aren't the newest games; I'm sure others have data on the latest and greatest. Research NBR's forums for similarly spec'd systems to yours and find out what additional performance you can get out of a DiY ViDock vs your current setup.

 

How do I make it so I can change the voltage with msi afterburner. Also, max gpu clock it willl let me is 845mhz...default is 648...can I go higher? I'm at 815mhz stock voltage atm. It doesn't seem to make much of an improvement at all when overclockin. Maybe 50-100 extra points in the GPU tests in 3d mark 06 and thats it.

 

Played around again. Still not got it working. Would I have better luck with an nVidia card? Managed to get card fully detected, but not enough to get windows to think it should output something through it - fine in device mgr, but nothing in display manager. All this at the expense of having no usb and no network either.

My laptop has vaio stamina/speed switch which doesn't seem to work properly unless both dedicated and igp are enabled in Vidock Setup 1.x

Hope I haven't wasted my money. My U2711 is sat in a box pining to be used.

 

How many people here are running a GTX470 or GTX 460 witha x2 or x1 optimus setup? Do any of you play at 1080P (or 1920 x1200)? I would be interested in some real life observations about game performance with such a setup.

 

I really what to say thank you to everyone that is working on this project, provided I get this working you guys saved me from buying a expensive desktop that I don't really have the money for.

Quick question, just want to double check I can do this.

I'm running a Toshiba Satellite A212

Windows Vista 32
Motherboard: ATI SB600
Video Card: ATI Radeon X1200
Dual Core: AMD Turion 64
4g Ram

I hoping just to copy nando4's wonderful setup from page 31.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/gam...51-diy-vidock-experiences-31.html#post5964738

Will this be ok? Thanks in advince.

 

Also, if I run x2 with ports 3 and 4, what will happen to the devices in 1 and 2 if it runs x2 mode? I believe it is the wireless card and the SD card reader. Will these be in any way damaged, or will they simply not work? I never use my SD card reader and I won't need wifi when the computer is hooked up to the Vidock anyway, but I would prefer to not have to keep removing the wifi card.

Also, once the DIY Vidock is set up, is it plug and play, or do I need to run setup stuff every time I unplug it from my laptop?

 

It will be OK just be aware of the 3.3V power limitation imposed by using a 12V adapter as discussed here with USB cable workaround explained if flakey. I didn't experience any problems with the HD5750 12V setup.

When you set x2 mode on port3+4, it sets x2 mode on port1. If you have a device using port2 then it will cause problems since it's being seen as the second lane of that device. The solution is to remove the device in port2. If not possible then will need to remove the device in port1.

Once Setup 1.x is configured correctly, it's just a matter of booting to it via your bootloader selecting "Automated startup via startup.bat" then once back in your bootloader select Win7. Refer to the DV4-2000+GTX470@x2 startup.bat example to help you along. If doing a x1.Opt setup then it's quite likely you don't even need Setup 1.x. Can install Setup 1.x now to get a feel for how it would work.

@ALL I'm getting prelim details on pci-e 2.0 compliance with the problem identified: the mini HDMI cables provided cannot carry the faster signals reliably even if using a 15cm cable.

Gerry from hwtools last comment on the matter being I will contact my cable vendor for develop PCIe-2.0 support.

 

Hi, I run a ATI Radeon HD 4350 Silent 1GB on a ridiculously old T60 Thinkpad with an Intel Core SOLO 1.6 ghz processor on XP, I've been really enjoying it for a few months now and its worked surprisingly well for a laptop that struggles to surf the web. It's been running games no problem, nothing too demanding, KOTOR on highest, World in Conflict on highest etc, I don't need powerful graphics really, just non-integrated or something recognized by the game where 3D analyze is useless.

As I have a silent card with no fan I hooked up some USB fans to the port on the PE4L (wasn't sure if it had any intended purpose but it came in very handy) and I have enclosed it in a homemade box and bought a longer mini-usb cable. I power it with a DC jack which conveniently is the same as my other laptops so I just us that.

Heres a pic with an old LCD screen, I now just plug it into my TV through the HDMI (though some game windows will only show up if I switch to the VGA channel) and I plug in a keyboard and mouse and just sit back and play somewhere more comfortable.

Spoiler

As I said it has worked perfectly fine, until yesterday when my TV lost the HDMI signal, upon rebooting the laptop it would not detect the TV or the card and the fans were not working. I checked them on another USB port and they were fine so it must be the PE4L's port. However the 2 LED's are lit and it sounds like theres some sort of activity happening (a a swarm of bees attacking lawn mower in the distance thats eating an electric razor tied to an electric toothbrush mostly). I'm starting to think this is going to be a really bad major problem so any ideas I really need to play!?!?!

 

Per 7. Troubleshooting: I am having some problems... on first post

2. My DIY ViDock worked, then stopped working all of a sudden
First thing is check your mini HDMI cable. 2 users requiring a replacement US$6-shipped cable to restore functionality.

 

I tried it with my original mini-usb and with out the DC adapter the LED next to the DC power if off and the one furthest way is on, If I plug in the USB jack for the fans this goes off, if I plug in the DC adapter there is no change in the closest LED but the one that was on now flickers dimly when the USB is in. Previously when the DC adapter was in the fans would start, the DC adapter still works with my laptop.

 

I assume you are referring to the mini HDMI cables when you say "USB". I once saw the flickering LED when the link to the expresscard is established. It turned out to be a faulty expresscard slot(!!).

I would advise testing your rig on another system with an expresscard slot to see if the problem stays with the system or not.

 

No I mean USB, there are 4 mini-hdmi slots and a usb port on the board, I use that USB port to power a fan to cool my card and now its not giving out power as it used to when the DC was plugged in, so maybe its a power issue. I will test the slot idea.

 

I have a question about PE4H :

Does the v2.4 will work with Expressport 2.0 and will a v2.5 be release soon?

Also, Do the geforce gtx 560 ti worth the wait or I buy the gtx 460 now?

Thanks

 

Okay I've been messing around with my vidock.

460 gtx SE stock 650mhz optimum internal display

3dmark 06 stock
SM2 2938 HDR 3731

748mhz core + 25mhz memory overclock
SM2 3026 HDR 3843

800 mhz core + 50mhz memory
SM2 3044 HDR 3833

825 mhz core + 75mz memory overclock
SM2 3051 HDR 3826

UNDERCLOCKED as low as possible (425-448mhz cant remember)
SM2 3025 HDR 3746

So...with my vidock set up....overclocking the card I may be able to gain a mere 50-70pts per test. I don't think it justifies the extra heat/wattage...I see no difference in FPS in benchmarks, cssource....in sc2 the thing that mainly affects framerate is anything that takes up CPU resources not the GPU.

So my bottleneck is the CPU........but is there any benefit to overclocking a vidock card since we are limited to x1 speed? If one had to choose, is it better get a 450 gts vs a 460 gtx as long as you can do optimus?

When I use the external display, I can see that there is a slight performance boost when overclocking, but not when I use the optimus internal.

 

hi everyone:smile:
i just recieved my video card, psu and resistors. my PE4L EC2C + ATX Power Switch will arrive tomorrow afternoon according to my tracking #




i also bought a 4GB USB Flash Drive just incase i need to do the DiY Setup

i also pre-installed a handful of programs and stuff


i also upgraded my RAM from 2.5GB to 4GB


then i read something that makes me worried

i know that desktop motherboard can give juice of up to 75w of power on PCI-Express slot on the mobo.

then i saw this article saying that floppy power connector can only provide up to 36w of power


All about the various PC power supply cables and connectors

according to the article, even if i use a 4pin molex connector, i am still short of 15w of power because it has only a maximum power of 60w

i don't have any extra laptop power brick to use

what do i do now? should i use the floppy power cable on the psu or use the included floppy to molex

 

What kind of power supply is that? It should have at least one pci-e cable.
Then just use the 2x 4-pin molex to 1x pci-e adapter that should come with the video card....u should be fine. And you do not need a atx power switch. Just get a paper clip and connect the green wire to any blackwire.

 

See the details I have posted here about pci-e 2.0 compliance of the hwtools gear. Summary: the mini HDMI cable they use is not pci-e 2.0 compliant. They are doing further tests.

If you can do x1 2.0 Optimus, which we haven't had a confirmed result for as yet, then I'd get the fastest card possible. Optimus looks to approximate double bandwidth so x1 2.0 Optimus is equivalent to x4 1.0 or x2 2.0.

If looking to use just x1.Opt then there's US$93AR deals on a Galaxy GTX460-768MB as masterjumong2012 invested in above. That's three times less than the ~$280 GTX560 release price with likely less than 15% performance separating the two in the DIY ViDock setup.

The floppy molex uses a 12V, GND and GND lead to transmit power. Each lead is rated for 25W, so there's your 75W slot total. The floppy molex lead gave zero problems with any of the cards I tested: HD4670, HD5750, GTX470.

A GTS450 would make more sense for internal LCD usage only for (1) it's cheaper price and (2) it can be made to work with a 12V/120W adapter.

You can see the bandwidth limitations means a powerful GPU is spending more time waiting for data than it is processing it.

 

So is there any chance we will be able to do x2 optimus at some point?

 

So does that mean all our PE4L boards will soon become obsolete? Would we have to upgrade the cable, the pci adapter, and the board?

 

I had a x2 1.0 setup with the DV4-2000 + GTX470. Unfortunately the NVidia driver didn't engage the x1.Opt tweak, which I believe is end-to-end compression. I've asked NVidia to unlock the driver here but they haven't been warm to the idea as yet. Which means would need a skilled hacker to try to unlock it for us instead.

The other option is to wait and see if the same tweak applies on x1 2.0 links. x1.Opt gives quite impressive benchmark results. x1 2.0 Opt would have doulbe the bandwidth to play with so could really deliver a new level of performance altogether.

Which then leads to the question of pci-e 2.0 compliance of the hwtools gear...

I've asked that question to which hwtools have done testing and identified the mini HDMI cable as not being pci-e 2.0 compliant. I've update this thread as more news/progress is made.

 

Has anybody tried this on a Dell Studio 1535?

 

Hi All

I have Asus a8js:
* core2duo T7200 (chipset intel 945PM, ICH7-m)
* 2 GB ram
* geforce go 7700 (dedicated mxm)

I just bought Galaxy geforce GTX 460 for Diy Vidock and my configuration is:
* PE4L
* EC2C
* PSU Corsair CX430

Now I have a error (code 43) on GTX 460 but go 7700 works fine. What should I do?? How to disable dedicated go7700 ? Which drivers should I install and how to do it? Now i have installed 266.58 notebook version (mod INF) for go7700 and desktop version 266.58 for GTX 460.

PLEASE HELP !!!

 

That's too bad because my laptop doesn't have 2.0 capability, at least in terms of bandwidth. The internal ports show up as 2.0, but apparently it only has the power improvements of 2.0, not double the bandwidth.
However, do you have any idea what percentage of x16 performance I could get with x1 optimus and x2 (non optimus) with a gtx 470?

 

With optimus internal lcd. Max FPS is 51fps. It won't allow it to go higher. I can see this in cs source, or furmark stress test(goes higher in RE5 I believe for some reason).

How does optimus internal work. Does it clone the image to the internal display? If it clones then is there a latency or delay? I mean would setting nvidia maximum # of pre-rendered frames = 8 have any ill effect since we already never see more than 51fps with optimus internal? Sorry I can't explain this well but I hope u get an idea of what I'm asking.

 

i am so excited that my PE4L EC2C + ATX Power switch finally arrived, even though i have to wait ages for it(it arrive at 1/20/2011 6:40pm)

when i saw the ups truck, i rushed outside and get the package and get my knife to unbox these babies

i removed the jumper 03 as describe on the website to ready for ATX PSU

http://www.harmonicinversion.com/products/manufacturer/hit.html?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage-ask.tpl&product_id=193&category_id=25

set my computer on sleep, then i connect the two 6pin pci-e power and the molex to pci-e on my psu. i also put the ATX Power Switch and i plug the cable and the expresscard on my slot


i am very excited and i am thinking to myself YESSSSSSSSS!!! ATLAST, I CAN FINALLY PLAY THE GAMES I WANT! WOHOOOOOO!!!

then i flip the switch of my psu and the atx psu switch to on, everything seems to be running good

the fans are spinning, there is light on the PE4L

then i proceed to wake my computer from sleep then i run the drivers and i am greeted by this message


OMGGGGGGG, W TFFFFFFFFFF!!!

i go to device manage and it says "unknown device", i tried to install manually the drivers by using "update driver"
then i am greeted by this message


to double check, i download the official drivers from nvidia and i got the same message

i also reboot my computer while the video card is connected and running to see if i will recieve any error message. i don't receive any

then i run everest and there is nothing showing on port 3


WHAT IS GOING ON???

 

lol you are very enthusiastic...
Are we supposed to remove a jumper from the PE4L board? I didn't remove any....

since u have a galaxy 460 gtx. Go here.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/gam...1-diy-vidock-experiences-172.html#post6731696

download the nautis custom optimus driver. Use that.
I have to power on my vidock and put my laptop to sleep and wake up b4 I can use it each time.

 

i think the problem might be beyond software?

 

masterjumong2012 is that windows 95?

 

i think i got a defective unit.

i also realize that the "unknown device" is not related on my issue cause it is there since before i got these DiY Vidock

my PE4L EC2C wont get detected no matter what i do, i also tried combinations of jumpers but it has no effect other

i also did a DIY Setup USBDrive and booted with it and playaround with setting and it seems that it is not recognize even there cause port 3 is showing nothing. also when i choose the bios stuff for nvidia on the diysetup, it says no nvidia gpu is detected

i also burrowed my sister's computer which is a core i3 hm55 with expresscard slot and it won't recognize then after a couple of rapidly plugging and unplugging it got recognized



i quickly put my PE4L EC2C on my computer and it got recognize to but after doing a reboot no matter what i do i won't recognize again

i also tried again on the computer of my sister to see if it will work and so far i have no luck on repeating my luck

it seems my unit just decided he won't work anymore so what i did was email the harmonicinversion guys and explain my situation and hope for a replacement

i ordered my unit on 1/14/2011 and so far it took it took almost a week for me to receive it
so if i will send it back to them it will take 6days for them to receive and if they send the replacement immediately it will took another 6days or so

so i have to wait about HALF A MONTH!!!

i am extremely disappointed and frustrated having to wait and realize i will just be greeted by a non functioning unit(DOA) and have to wait possibly half a month with no guarantee of it working

 

Recommend you standby the system, powerup the connected DIY ViDock, then resume. The GTX460 must appear on the PCI BUS which you can check with Everest before any driver can be loaded.

If you have no luck then it's quite likely you have a faulty mini HDMI cable. I'd suggest swap the mini HDMI cable with another if you can or at the very least swap it's ends. Also ensure the GTX460 is plugged firmly in the PE4L.

Mod the go7700 into the INF of the Nautis' Optimus drivers to have one unified driver for both cards.

Review the DV4-2000 x1.Opt and x2 results plus Khenglish's T9400-2.53+GTX460@x2 results &. I don't have a desktop to compare but the 3dmarkvantage results I got are pretty close to low end desktop ones.

 

i did that like gazillion times and it still wont recognize, sometimes the fan will just decide he wants to spin very fast or the computer will display no screen and will reboot endlessly

i put my computer to sleep then wait till the hdd activity is gone then i power on my vidock and plug the expresscard on the slot then resume my computer

i also swap the ends of the cable like a mad man
the weird thing is that i can use the usb port on it
in fact i am using usb port of my PE4L for my mouse right now

 

What happens if you boot Setup 1.x, then hotplug the EC2C with the powered on GTX460? Is it listed in the Status window, indicating it's on the PCI BUS? Can double-check with nvflash as well.

If no go then the problem could be the hwtools gear OR the GTX460. Ensure JP3 is closed and JP4 is open on the PE4L so it does 5V->3.3V regulation from the ATX PSU rather than draw 3.3V from the expresscard slot.

Do you have a desktop handy to test the GTX460?