DIY eGPU experiences

Hi again
Finally I could install the GTX 460 SE with the drivers (see below), but in the Nvidia control panel the card is shown as GTS 455. Well, that's not the problem, but I really don't know if this is just the normal Nvidia driver or if Optimus is working, because the 3DMark06 performance is really bad:



System Model To Be Filled By O.E.M. MS-1736
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU M 640 @ 2.80GHz
Physical Memory 3 GB
Graphic NVIDIA GeForce GTS 455
Video Memory 998 MB
Operating System Windows 7 Professional (6.1.7600) 32-bit
Application 3DMark06 - Basic Edition


<<< Result >>>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------


< Main Test Results >

3DMark Score 5'452.0 3DMarks
SM2.0 Score 2'147.0
HDR/SM3.0 Score 1'952.0
CPU Score 3'418.0
Game Score 0.0 points

< SM2.0 Graphics Tests >

GT1 - Return To Proxycon 13.1 FPS
GT2 - Firefly Forest 22.7 FPS

< CPU Tests >

CPU1 - Red Valley 1.1 FPS
CPU2 - Red Valley 1.7 FPS

< HDR/SM3.0 Graphics Tests >

HDR1 - Canyon Flight 20.1 FPS
HDR2 - Deep Freeze 18.9 FPS
--------------------------------------------------------------------------



Is there any tool to check if Optimus is working or how could I recognize this?
The Nvidia control panel looks the same like when I installed the normal GTX 460SE drivers from Nvidia!

Thanks everybody for your help!

 

Febu, are you using optimus with the internal laptop lcd display or external?

If it's internal laptop lcd, then there should be a watermark saying something like. nvidia confidential optimus demonstration blah blah blah.........

My 460 gtx se is also called gts 455

If you are using a internal laptop lcd. The data from the video card, has to be sent back into the laptop through the mini-hdmi/expresscard. This is why it's so slow. You get a lot more playable performance with an external setup.

 

No, I'm using an external LCD 1280 x 1024 - I don't even know how to configure it to use the internal display, but this is an idea... How did you configure this?

Thanks!

 

Febu. Just deattach the internal display, and it shuold be run on the external.

 

Is it possible to wire the power supply to the pe4l board in such a way that the power supply turns on when the pe4l is connected to the laptop? That way I dont have to turn off the psu in the back manually when im not using it?

 

hmm well i guess you could try to find an easily accessible 3.3V or 12V pin and solder a transistor onto it switching the green and black cable of the psu. but it's only speculation. my pe4h 3.3V and 12V leds only turn on after I power the laptop and plug the card in so I guess that's where you could get the 'ON' or 'IN' signal from.

any other ideas anyone?

would really be a nice to have feature ...

 

Does anyone know if the new Sandy Bridge Sager/Clevo's will be able to do this via USB 3.0?

 

It's not really a pain to turn it off and on. But it would be cool to not have to.
Well the atx psu, I have the black and the green wire connected together, which is what powers it on. Wouldn't I Just have to connect the green psu cable to a black cable on the pe4l board...has anyone done this?


Also, since we use a normal PC PSU to power our vidocks.......if perhaps, I did not cut off the sata cables/power cable....could I use that to power a hard drive..and the data would be transferred through the mini hdmi cable as though it were an external hard drive? Is that possible?

 

Edit by justinkw1 - New Troubleshooting FAQ is available here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/6672117-post1579.html

 

#1: I think if you just connected the green cable from the PSU to GROUND on the PE4L board, the PSU will always be powered, because the board's ground is connected to the PSU's. Therefore it's the same as connecting the green and black PSU cables.
So I still recommend buying a standard npn transistor and a small breadboard. Then get a multimeter and measure, how much current flows from green to black. Then read in the specs of your transistor, what it's dc gain is (say 100, should almost always work). Then calculate the resistor for your base current like this:
Base voltage / (Collector current / (Gain + 1))

So if there are for example 200mA going from green to black, and we connect the transistor's base to the 3.3V of the PE4L board, it should look like this:

3.3V / (0,2 / 101) = ~1.6 kOhm

So just solder 1.6kOhm between the transistor's base and the PE4L's 3.3V. Connect the Collector to the green cable and the emitter to the black. Done.
Your PE4L should now switch on/off if you plug it in/out or when you power your laptop/shut it down.

Hope I didn't make any mistakes here
But that's how it should work.

#2: For your SATA power: you're right. that should work without problems at all.

 

Referring to ithildin's PSU recommendations, I've found these (need adapter to do 6/8 pin connectors):

380 watts +12V: 30A/360W | Molex x 3 | Floppy x 1 | PCI-E 8Pin(6+2) x 1
400 watts +12V: 30A/360W | Molex x 4 | Floppy x 1 | PCI-E 6 Pin x 1
400 watts +12V: 25A/300W | Molex x 3 | Floppy x 1 | PCI-E 6 Pin x 2
430 watts +12V: 28A/336W | Molex x 3 | Floppy x 1 | PCI-E 6 Pin x 1

What do you think about those? Who is the best for my project? Please, do you know other?
I will update this short list if I find other.

 

Well, right now, I don't use any resistors or anything in my setup. If I could get it done without using one, I might just do it.

Now that I think about the vidock being able to use as an external HD. I don't think it would work, because the data would have to be sent into the PE4L board somehow....b4 it could be sent through the mini-hdmi cable. Only way I could think of that working is via usb which I don't want really.

 

Hi Guys.

One question. I am trying different PSU-s to find the best for GTX460 1Gb.
Once in one of my tests the VGA-s own fan started to spin very fast, about 2-3 times faster then normally with very loud hissing noise.

Does anybody know any reason why is that happened?

Legu

 

I get that fast fan spin a lot too... and upon bootup it kills the power to my laptop.

Vaio i7 -gtx460 1gb, Corsair GS600 psu

 

What kind of GTX 460 do you have? Mine Is Palit GTX 460 1Gb factory OC

Btw, i think i found the solution. As far as i know the Fast spin is coming when the card gets insufficient power.

I did some test with corsair 400ATX, and when i attached the floppy molex and the 2x 6 pin PCIe cables all to the same Molex output via adaptors I got the fast spinning fan after 10 minits playing.

When I splitted it for 2 different molex outputs it never comes again.

I hope it helps:

Legu

 

Hi Guys
Sorry, I need more help; I'm still trying to bring the optimus to work properly...

I'm not shure if Optimus works at all, because so far I was not able to use my internal LCD nor do I see both graphic cards in my device manager (internal: Intel HD graphics / external by DIY-Vidock: GTX 460SE).

Questions:
-If Optimus would work, is it normal that I only see the external graphic card in the device manager ?
-Again: what do I have to do to use my internal LCD?
-Is there a newer Optimus driver (Win 7 32 bit) and inf-file that would work with the GTX 460 SE? Could it be that 258.96 doesn't work at all with my SE - Edition?

Thanks again for your precious help!

 

@Febu, you can check if Optimus is working correctly in the Nvidia control panel by selecting:

View > Display GPU Activity Icon in Notification Area



Any applications under GPU Activity are running on your external card

 

First thanks to all who tried to help me so far, but it seems to be hopeless!!

Since 1 week I try now to bring Optimus to work (win 7 32 bit, Intel HD graphics, Intel chipset 5, Nvidia Geforce GTX 460 SE, external LCD, with or without Vidock setup).

The main problem seems to be the Intel HD graphics: whatever I do (I feel like I have tried all the possible configurations in Vidock setup), as soon as I plug in the external GPU or resume the notebook from standby with the Vidock plugged in, Intel HD graphics switches off, the screen turns black or the Notebook freezes. It is obviously NOT possible to bring both graphic cards to work, and as soon as the internal HD graphics detects the GTX 460, it is turning off and that's why the Optimus drivers are NOT loading because they need an active internal Intel graphic; right?

Yes I can use the GTX 460 SE, but in normal mode like I could do it also in Win XP, but without the optimus drivers working!
So anybody really did it with Intel HD graphics inside??

After so many days I finally took today my old Asus X71Q with the Intel 45 express chipset and plugged in the Vidock - and it worked the very first time (with Nautis 258.96), without Vidock setup!!!
I run the 3Dmark06, and the performance with my old Asus was at about the double than with the new one (allmost 10'000) where I tried so hard to bring the Optimus to work!


Does anybody have some advice how it would be possible that the Intel HD graphics is NOT turning off as soon as it detects the GTX 460 SE ??
I would be very thankfull; I already was thinking about the sell my new notebook again!

Thanks very much for your answers!

 

Hi guys,

I've been reading through the forums and am interested in creating a DIY ViDock of my own in an effort to utilize a 2560x1600 monitor through my ExpressCard slot.

I have a Sony F-Series VPC-F11JFX/B and will likely be using a Radeon 4870 initially to test it out.

I have taken a capture of my memory layout:
http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/6792/ss20110215171705.png

And my South Bridge configuration from AIDA64:
http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/5255/ss20110215172613.png

The laptop currently has a NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M onboard, which is technically able to run at my desired resolution, but I have only HDMI and VGA outputs.

1. Do you guys see any issues with me using a PE4H and an ATX power supply to achieve this?
2. Any chance it would be able to run at x2?
3. Is there a chance my ExpressCard port might not be capable of this?

Thanks for your help - looking forward to rigging this up!

 

Do not give up.

Have you tryed to fully reinstall your system? You definetly dont have to switch off the Intel HD. Is that intel HD is GMA4500MHD??? Optimus should work only with that.

Anyway what is your laptops model?

 

hello guys i'm kinduv new to this i dunno whether my dell e6400 is compatible to do this ? ?

 

basically: if it's got an expresscard 34 slot, yes.

 

Thanks for replying!

The thing is: Intel HD graphic switches off automaticly when I want to use the external GPU; I don't do this manually or by purpose and I can't do anything against it...

It is Intel HD graphics (no further specification), chipset HM55.
Maybe the notebook is not known in your country (I'm Swiss), it is a MAXDATA M-Book 7000.

 

Been lurking through this thread for a while as there is a lot of info here, it has been VERY helpful and insightful! So i'm trying to find a portable 460 solution. I really do not want to lug a big power supply so im trying to explore all other options. Is it possible at all?

I noticed that all 460s require two 6 pin PCI-E power connectors. Say I were to get a 460 that has a load under 150W and I were to get this 12V 150W power adapter - AC-DC 12V 12.5A 150W Switching Power Adapter (110/220V) - eBay (item 170593631850 end time Feb-20-11 10:05:15 PST) and power the PE4L like this configuration ImageShack® - Online Photo and Video Hosting would it work? Is it possible to power the card from just one of the 6 pin pci-e power connectors?

If not can I get something like this Genuine SHUTTLE PC32B180HR 12V 15A 180W POWER ADAPTER - eBay (item 260714537920 end time Feb-28-11 20:40:41 PST) to supply power to the other 6 pin connector?

 

Try install Win7/64 + Optimus 266.58 driver.

Xbox360 203W PSU to drive the GTX460 It should be possible to cut the harness of a 203W Xbox360 PSU, pinout on the right, then attach three 12V molex plugs, the one used to drive the PE4L also with 5V, to provide a fanless and portable PSU to drive the PE4L+GTX460 setup. These PSUs are available on ebay for < US$20.

 

I'm still looking for someone who also owns a Notebook with Intel HD graphics and Optimus is working...
Does anybody have some more advices?

Thanks!

 

So a 360 power brick would work for a stock 460 gtx? But it would it give sufficient headroom for overclocking? 360 woulda been nice since once you tear apart the brick....how tall is the internals? under 2 inches?

 

I allready tried 266.58 with Win7/32 without success and I don't have the 64 bit Edition. Is 64 bit so different concerning Optimus?

I still hope the Indel HD graphics will work with Optimus / Win7 32 bit !!

Any other ideas to solve my Intel HD graphics problem??

 

Hi Guys.

I`m also thinking on this solution. I would like to separate the 3 grnd and 3 12v+ wires of the xbox psu, and add 3 molex male connectors on it. 2 for 6 pin adaptor, and 1 for floppy adaptor.

Questions.

Does the PE4L need 5v from the psu or only 12v?

Since it has only 1 12v and 1 grnd cable for each molex, is that possible to split the ground for the 2 middle pins? The molex to PCIe needs 3 wires 1 12v and 2 grnd. So should it works if i just bridge with a sort wire the 2 middle pins?

Thankl you

Legu

 

Hi.

I`m using intel HD graphics (HD GMA4500MHD ) link here

I had error 43 with 266.58 driver so i`ve downgraded it to 258 driver and it works.

I dont know about the GTX 460 SE, but you should try it with a W7/64

Legu

 

Thanks, Legu314!

I know the Intel GMA 4500 is working, but I only have Intel HD graphics (no further description!).
According to the post here, it should work, but so far NO CHANCE !!

Is anybody using Intel HD graphics as well (not GMA 4500; just Intel HD)??

Thanks for replying!

 

Greeting friends
I've been waiting for some time until the new SB laptops arrive,
I need a fairly compact 13.3"-14.1" , Quad-core work station (=>8GB Ram) suitable to pair with nVidia GTS 460/560 DIY ViDock solution when needed (mostly for CUDA enabled data processing applications - not games/real-time intensive ...).

I wonder if there are already good candidates you could recommend?
How about suitable ViDock components?

The laptop is needed now but I won't mind waiting a little bit for the ViDock solution.

Gal

 

Can you link your laptops rewiew or specs? Sometimes the GMAs just mentioned Intel HD only not on full name.

Nvidia Optimus works only GMA4500 not other Intel Graphics.

So should be better if you can describe your laptop.

If you are in the UK i know a good laptop for £400 (lenovo x200) for sale which would works perfectly with Optimus see results in first page.

Legu

 

Here you see an overview from Intel, and it is really only Intel HD graphics.

But again, here Nando4 wrote that it should work with it...

Here is a pdf (german only), no reviews found (it's not very well known). I'm sorry that I can't give you more informations - it's just an Intel HD graphics

Thanks guys for your help!

 

I have a VPCF113FX w/GTX 460 + PE4H + Expresscard + Corsair GS 600w psu. Works ok. Not HUGE, but pretty big upgrade from 310m 512mb.

I can play Starcraft 2 on 1080p on Extreme settings, but it will lag during battles and too many units. Just lower a little and its all good. 60-80fps start of game, then 20-30fps mid game during battles. Lag, but not the kind of lag that will make it unplayable. Just a little slow down.

I can't figure out how to do x2, I was told I can't, but my expresscard is on port 6, and port 5 is disabled by bios, but can turn it on. So I don't really know.

...personally, I take my laptop everywhere I go, and tho I love having better graphics card, this setup isn't for me. I've had it for 2 weeks.

If it is for you, it's just fine and dandy.

If anyone wants to buy my 2 week old PE4H+Expresscard kit, please contact me. I'll sell for $80 and you pay for shipping.

 

Could someone please show me what their expresscard slot shows up as in Everest or Sisoft Sandra? I can't determine which port mine is.

 

Quote from apollo_fox

//
@Febu, you can check if Optimus is working correctly in the Nvidia control panel by selecting:

View > Display GPU Activity Icon in Notification Area



Any applications under GPU Activity are running on your external card
__________________

//

@apollo fox
I am not sure how is it applied on mine. My 3dmark06 score is above 10k which is the average for those who can get optimus drive working. however, when i follow your suggestion, i am not able to see the GPU activity like yours even if I am running firefox, word etc.
does that mean my optimus drive is not running also???

system
Lenovo t400
cpu p8600
win7/64
intel 4500mhd
gtx 460 Se +
pe4h
cx430

 

ALL the i5 and i7 x1.Opt implementations on the first post have Intel HD graphics. Recommend use Driver Sweeper to clear NVidia driver remnants and/or reinstall Win7. If reinstalling then consider loading Win7/64 instead. It can be downloaded for free and your Win7/32 bit license will work with it.

Your expresscard slot is port4. Your msata mPCIe slot can't be used for DIY ViDock. It has the sata pins attached in place of the pci-e pins. Unless you have a third mPCIe slot that is port3, which according to the schematic you should, there is no way you could do x2.

In any case, x1.Opt and x2 are very similar in real-gaming performance with x1.Opt being faster in 3dmark06 and 3dmarkvantage benchmarks. x1.Opt only requires the simpler single mini HDMI cable setup.

 

Are you saying that this port has some internal difference that can't be seen externally? So even though it looks like a mini pci-e port, it is really wired to be a SATA port?
That diagram does say x2 for mini pci-e, could it be counting this slot even though it doesn't work? I tried putting my wireless card in that slot and it didn't appear to work.

Do you have any idea if a GTX 560 with x1 optimus would be able to play games fairly well at 1080P?

 

@becak, not sure what the deal is there. Try running a 3d program and checking it. There is an Optimus test tool which may be useful.

 

So to do this would i require a soldering iron? I would have to cut the xbox cable and connect a 12V and ground to each molex - 6 pin connector (2 in the gtx 460 case) and get a 2.5/3.5mm connector and connect it to the last 12V and ground and connect it to the PE4L DC input? I am guessing the same would apply if it were a PE4H as well?

Is it possible to power the 460 from the PE4L's (or PE4H) DC jack like you have in your 80W 5750 setup? Edit: NM from what i am reading 75W is the max from the DC jack?

 

Soldering iron, shrink wrap and/or electrical tape and 3x female molex leads is what would be required. Connect 12V+GND from the xbox lead to the 12V+GND+GND on the molex. One of the molex plugs would also need the 5V (red) lead connected. That is the one that you'd use with the supplied floppy-to-molex lead to connect to a PE4L/PE4H. The 5V is down regulated by the PE4L/PE4H to supply 3.3V to drive many of the ICS on your video card.

 

Nando4! As Far as I know the VGA can get the 3.3V from the express card. Is that possible to make the setup without the 5V cable?

I`ve seen in Oddius`s setup he didn`t attach 5v to molex on from the xbox PSU.

Should it work like on the Picture

And also is that right if you want to turn on te Xbox PSU you have to close the 5v end pwr_on cables?

Thanks Legu

 

Has anyone ever tried this with a AMD 880M chipset, right now I have a Acer 5551 with a P320 with really good temps since its designed to cool a vga and cpu but it has integrated so I can put in a better cpu with no heat problem, I'm planning to upgrade it to a X920 Black or X620 Black and 8GB DDR3 for about a 150 to have something to bring to lan parties on the cheap.

but I mainly see it being done with intel

 

Hey Everyone,

I need a break from reading, I think my eyes are going to start bleeding! I have an IBM (Lenovo) T43 - 2668 notebook which I purchased through my school in 2006. Obviously it is very dated now and can't handle anything more than simple 3D games. It is able to play S.T.A.L.K.E.R SoC and Oblivion on the lowest possible settings attainable but I have been having thermal issues with it when I do that. I don't currently have enough money to build the PC I want to, so the DIY Vidock sounded like a great temporary solution. This is especially true considering many of the required components can be used in a PC later anyway.

I have done some research and concluded that I should be able to run this system without too much trouble. The only thing I am unsure of is whether it will provide reasonable gains with my system. Most of the computers testing this system are newer and have stronger processors than mine it seems.

I have attached an Everest Summery report detailing my system specs. Can anyone suggest whether this build would be possible for me (it should be, I have all the hardware requirements) and whether it would be worth while? I don't want to buy all the components only to realize that I still can't run any modern games.

My computer can, and eventually will be, upgraded to Win7 so don't worry about that. Also, I am a free-roam FPS player. As I said before, I play STALKER and the Elder Scrolls games and would like to play more modern games like Borderlands and the Fallout Series. I don't expect to be able to play every game on the market on ultra high settings, but average frame rates at medium settings would be ideal.

Can anyone help me out and tell me what I might expect to gain, approximately, from a Vidock setup? I appreciate any help and give thanks in advance to anyone who posts.

~Japazo

 

Hey ImportBeats,

Sounds like we have a fairly similar setup! I'm sorry you didnt get the results you were hoping for. Worth a chance though, eh?

I would've taken you up on your offer to buy it but I have already placed my order a few days ago.

You mentioned in an earlier post that you had an issue with booting up? How did you resolve that? And do you have any other tips for me for putting this together with my Vaio?

My main motivation here is to power a 2560x1600 monitor. I do a bit of gaming, but not too much these days. If I can get it to power the 1920x1080 Vaio LCD along with my external 2560x1600 monitor with decent performance I'd probably be happy. I'll let ya know how I make out..

 

Hi Nando4, thanks for your help so far. I need some clarification though as I need to know if the current cables I plan on ordering are correct. I made a diagram below:



R = Red, B = Black, Y = Yellow

The cables shown in my diagram are based on these:
4 Pin IDE Molex Power Supply Y Splitter Extension Cable - eBay (item 130387040536 end time Feb-22-11 23:21:22 PST)
PCI-E 6-pin to 2-Molex Power Y-Adapter Cable - eBay (item 220445280649 end time Feb-19-11 18:35:59 PST)


Does that look right? I also plan on getting a switch so I can toggle the power on and off.

 

Yes. Only change to the plan is I'd include the 5V (Y) line into the PE4L. While it might work without it, and has for some users like Avlan, the official pci-e spec says 3.3A/3V. The most an expresscard can give is [email protected]. NOTE: PE4H 2.4 does 12V->3.3V regulation so it wouldn't need it.

The pci-e to molex leads should come with your GTX460 so no need to order them. Just order 3 of those 4 Pin IDE Molex Power Supply Y Splitter Extension cable.

I'm quite curious how this pans out. Would be an ideal, portable PSU to drive a GTX460.

 

So it is possible to take 5V from 5Vsb? I thought connecting the negative and positive terminals of Vsb was for turning the power supply on? So should the 5V from 5Vsb should be going to the the floppy connector of the PE4L (in lieu of 12V shown in my diagram)?

 

Hi. I am thinking on the same solution. In my opinion is better if you try to buy a single molex to PCIe power cable instead of the 2xMolex to PCIe. Better if you use less adaptors. you can see it here

Legu