DIY eGPU experiences

sorry for the late response, I've been out of town for a couple of weeks. First things first, you need a green light for it to be working. so two questions:
1) are u using the official xbox brick or a third party one? I tried both and for whatever reason the configuration is different.
2) does the pe4h have a jumper 3 and jumper 4 thing like the pe4l? I had to remove jumper 4 too get it working

 

Okay I found a solution for that one:

What (probably) happens is that with the code you gave me the second_run.txt is stored at drive "T:\". This drive seems to reinitialize on every use/mount?
So the solution is to store this text file at drive "A:\".
So the code is looking like this now and is working

Code:

:: Create a 2-pass startup.bat that checks if do_second.txt exists.
:: if do_second.txt exists then do_second. If not then do_first.

if exist A:\do_second.txt goto do_second

:do_first
  echo [first-run] Pls re-run Setup 1.x to do second-run after the reboot ...
  echo ===========
  echo.
  :: Create file so next run will "do_second" part
  echo do_second > A:\do_second.txt

  :: Enable x2 on port3 and then reboot
  :: Setup 1.0e8 or earlier uses 'restart' to do a reboot
  :: Setup 1.0e9+ uses 'reboot' command to do a reboot
  call iport x2 3
  restart
  :: restart means this line of code never gets executed

:do_second
  echo [second-run] Pls select Win7 bootitem upon completion . . .
  echo ============
  echo.
  :: Delete do_second.txt so next run will do_first
  del A:\do_second.txt

  :: Disable port4 which bios has enabled after reboot
  call iport off 4

  :: Confirm GTX460 is connected
  call waitvid 60 10de:0e22

  :: Load PCI dump if hotplugging the GTX460 and need it 'configured'
  :: call pcicap -d 10de:0e22

  :: Perform last PCI compaction as done via Setup menus
  call pci.bat

  :: Chainload to Win7 bootloader menu
  call grub4dos w7

 

14.1" Toshiba Satellite M305-S4848
CPU T5800 2.0
4.0 GB of Ram
GTS 450 @ x1.Opt

re5.var is 11.1 fps

No Setup 1.x
Port is ICH9M: EC

PCI-E 1.0 x1 port #1 In Use @ x1 (EVGA e-GeForce GTS 450 Video Adapter, nVIDIA GF106 - High Definition Audio Controller)
PCI-E 1.0 x1 port #5 In Use @ x1 (Marvell Yukon 88E8040T PCI-E Fast Ethernet Controller)
PCI-E 1.0 x1 port #6 In Use @ x1 (Intel WiFi Link 5100 AGN)


Windows 7 64bit

http://img203.imageshack.us/i/fpsg.png/

 

I've successfully implemented a GTX460 x1.Opt setup with my Lenovo X200. See bechmark details and current progress on further modifications here.

 

I have no intentions of trying this out, but in case anyone wants to try it with a T420 or is thinking of buying a T420 and wants to do this, this is what AIDA64 reports my PCIe channels as:

 

First Sandy Bridge Laptop L502x 3dmark06 17,010 posted at:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/del...w-sandy-bridge-l1502x-l1702x.html#post7356243

Thanks so much again to Nando4 and this great community.

 

Got 13785 with Ati 6950 2GB 1x a Dell XPS Studio 1645 Intel I7 q720 1.6, 8GB ram.
Result

 

Posted before.

 

what can i do to boost fps? seems like my computer's bottleneck is the cpu. it gets hot and really decreases the fps. i get best results from cold starts.

 

Sounds like your laptop is not ventilating properly. As a stop gap solution, try raising the back of the laptop 1/4" by resting it on a pencil so as to allow better airflow to the intake grills. Next level up is cleaning the dissipator assembly. Try opening the case to gain access to the fan assembly and clean the the dissipator grill, which tends to accumulate quite a lot of dust and eventually gets obstructed. I usually remove the fan from the assembly so that I can reach inside more easily. You can use compressed air to blow any remaining dust outwards. This should do the trick and I recommend every laptop owner to do this once every year or so.

Let us know if this helps. If not, there are other things you can try (e.g. replacing thermal paste, copper thermal conductor, etc).

 

Okay sandy bridge laptops should be out now?

How do we know what a sandy bridge laptop is? By the trype of processor such as
i5-2410m?

I'm really just looking for an i3 or i5 laptop with intel gpu so I can use vidock with optimus at x2.

 

I'm thinking of getting i5 too but I'm worried that it will choke graphics like gtx 560 or hd 58xx/69xx series ;/

 

I have a (quite) successful story of running a Radeon HD3850 on a Dell Studio 1737 thru a PE4H with Express Card.
I'm using one of those multi-connectors power adapter for laptop with switchable DC out set at 15V and giving 6A, 120W.

I said "quite" because I'm experiencing a subtle flickering when on the desktop, that grows more visible when moving the mouse. It's like when there are refresh issues.
The effect is much more visible when playing. I tried the latest Lara Croft at maximum quality and I must say that it would be absolutely playable if it wasn't for the flickering.

The card is running without the 6-pin molex connected... I tried plugging it in but I couldn't see any difference.
I updated the video drivers and tried different refresh rates but nothing changed.
Could it be the power supply?

 

Hey I got a new CPU finally give the i5/i7 optimus guys some competition

First up really doesn't compete, but shows my clocks. Yeah that 3.5ghz is stable. I can actually make screenshots of 3.7 if I want.

3dmark06
10727
http://img683.imageshack.us/i/35143d06.png/

3dmark vantage
11989
http://img28.imageshack.us/i/3514vant.png/

ff14
3046
http://img809.imageshack.us/i/3514ff14.png/

RE5 dx9
110.8 fps
http://img26.imageshack.us/i/3514re5.png/

DMC4s4 dx10
127.38 fps (I had a run at 130.1, but at the time went "oh I can beat that" and never took an SS)
http://img203.imageshack.us/i/3527dmc4s4.png/

 

You wrote that Optimus driver will work only on:
Intel IGP: Intel GMA 4500MHD, HD or x3150 (Pine Trail)

My question is, can it run on sandy bridge graphics aswell?
I know wicked is trying to get his gtx460 working but - is this inability to do it connected with optimus driver ?

My other question:
After disconnecting hdmi cable from mPCI-E, can you use your dedicated gpu (like gt540m) ?

And I renew my previous question:
Will SB i5 be bottleneck for high end graphics (hd5870/gtx560ti) ?

 

I doubt that the current optimus driver would work with the integrated SB gpu, since currently the driver scans for specifically for the GMA 4500 or x3150, and I highly doubt that it also scans for a device that was not out when the driver was written. I do however see it likely that Nvidia will add support for it in the near future.

You can use your dedicated GPU normally with an external card attached or detached. The only issue would be if you unallocated the internal dedicated card to get the external allocated, in which case you would only have the choice between one and the other.

Depends on the CPU frequency. Increasing my CPU from 2.53 to 3.53 helped frame rates tremendously with a gtx 460, but I also have a dated CPU that has to run around 30% faster to match an SB i5/i7's performance. For a card that's even a bit faster like a 560 I'd make sure I had at least a 2.4ghz i5.

 

So if I unplug external GPU I need to reset and then can use internal dedicated GPU is that correct ?

Slowest SB i5 is 2.3ghz and with turbo to 2.9. I hesitate, because I'm 100% sure that I can benefit from quadcore like once - twice a year. Only software that is quad-capable is sony vegas and I just rarely use it.
There won't be any performance increse in games on internal graphic with quad that's why I want to save 100E and spend it for SSD maybe.

But if SB i7 would be huge difference with external gpu, which I plan to use in near future, than I gonna get it instead of SSD.

I hope that some1 figure it out how to connect ViDock via usb3.0 since it's controller is connected to mPCI-E port...

--
tj

 

I hope someone might help me get GTX460 to work w/ SandyB L502x.

What's the best way to reinstall drivers so R-W Everything can output a good 10de0e22.bin so 'NVidia-nvflash' says GTX460 now 'configured' ?

I've tried so many things: all drivers below except Avlan's 266.35 url is broken? (other links??)


•A Optimus modded driver
- 270.51 + nando's nvam.inf. Overwrite nvam.inf in Display.Driver dir. [for ALL current desktop Fermis]
- 266.58+ nando's nvam.inf(64bit). Overwrite nvam.inf in Display.Driver dir. [for ALL current desktop Fermis]
- Avlan's 266.35 64-bit
- Docusyn's 260.99
- Nautis' 258.96
====

When I Use 'NVidia-nvflash, it says:
Unconfigured Display Adapter Found, ... not accessible
===
1. Boot Win7.
2. Download and install R-W Everything from RW - Read & Write (1.49 and 1.47)
3. Standby system, attach NVidia card, resume system. Ensure the NVidia
card appears in Device Manager, even if it has errors against it. All
that matters is for the card to be on the PCI bus.
4. Run R-W Everything, choose Access-Command.
5. Type 'save c:\10de0e22.bin memory 0xf8200000 0x2000', creating a 8kb file
4kb will be the gpu and 4kb for the hdmi audio controller.
6. Copy c:\10de0e22.bin to your DIY ViDock Setup 1.x USB drive or disk image
\config directory.
7. Select the 'Load PCI dump' option to load that 'configured' dump.
8. Use 'NVidia-nvflash' to check your NVidia card is now 'configured'.
9. Proceed to perform PCI Compaction and test chainloading.

===
Then I Use 'NVidia-nvflash, it says:
Unconfigured Display Adapter Found, ... not accessible

===
What's the best way to reinstall drivers so R-W Everything can output a good 10de0e22.bin so 'NVidia-nvflash' says GTX460 now 'configured' ?

Uninstall the GT525M + all Nvidia then use Drivers Sweeper? and reinstall GT525M before or after gtx460?

Setup 1.x 36 bit compact vid0 vid2, ignore vid1 works w/ HD5870. Should I stick with that compact for gtx460 also?

I'm also using Nando4 new beta Setup 1.x (which I can't find the x2 mpcie bonding of port1 + port2) Should I try the released Setup 1.x?

What's the different between nando's modded nvam.inf and 266.58 vram.inf?
Should I try GTX460 desktop drivers or notebook drivers or If there's non-Optimus versions to try?

Any other ideas?

Many thanks again to Nando4 for this great work and the community for this best tech so far.

 

The modded INFs are to enable optimus support for those particular drivers. Since you can't do optimus it doesn't matter. A driver from nvidia running your internal nvidia card should be able to run the 460 perfectly fine.

The only time I would get errors similar to yours is if I did a hot reset of the ports my 460 was running on, which can be caused by trying to set x2. If you do not have to reallocate, a functional 460 should work perfectly fine in x1 mode if you simply don't even run the setup program and let the computer boot normally. Something you can try if your card is not configured is to reboot. On the reboot the bios should configure the card if you did something to unconfigure it, but the bios will likely undo things like PCI reallocation and mess up an x2 port configuration.

 

Thanks Khenglish.

Filecompare shows that R-W Everything outputs different versions of 10de0e22.bin? (memory 0xf8200000 0x2000) What can cause this change? Different version of drivers or state of the GPU? How can we see the data in 10de0e22.bin / memory 0xf8200000 0x2000 as it being generated? What kind of data is it?

Can I use someone else's 10de0e22.bin? If so, please share.

Some users said that they need to do the PCI -> save right after loading 10de0e22.bin w/ PCI dump of 10de0e22.bin to get theirs to work? Why?

Much thanks.

 

Using a Galaxy GTS 450 with a Lenovo T410i running the 270.51 beta drivers. Only have the hardware to test a x1 link via ExpressCard, but it seems to run decently despite the limited bandwidth.

Neither 3dMark06 and 3dMark Vantage will run, both throwing a "System Info scan" error on startup. DMC4 benchmark will not run in DX10 mode, however the RE5 DX9 fixed benchmark will run. I've just tried running Battlefield BC2 and is very playable with all settings on High (1280x800).

I've only been able to run the benchmark through the laptop's screen via Optimus. Later on I'll get an external monitor for more performance.

Some numbers:

System: Lenovo Thinkpad T410i
CPU: Intel i3 340M @ 2.4Ghz
OS: Windows 7 64-bit
RAM: 4GB
GPU: Galaxy GTS 450 1GB


x1 Optimus Benchmarks:

RE5 fixed benchmark - 33.9 B
3DMark06 - 9509



Edit:
got 3DMark06 to work by reinstalling. I can confirm the frame limit for Optimus setups; every benchmark seems to be stuck in the 30-40 FPS range.

unable to get video card to display to an external monitor. monitor is detected by the video card, but video is not displayed. tried both the dvi and vga out with 3 different monitors.

 

Recommend latest NVidia Verde 270.61 (Optimus) driver

This driver fixes two significant DIY ViDock related issues as confirmed on 4500MHD-equipped Dell Inspiron 1440 and HP 2530P, both x1.Opt capable and running Win7/64.

1. there is no longer any NVidia Optimus Confidential overlay when running the internal LCD mode.
   
   
2. it is no longer necessary to do a PCI dump->Load in Setup 1.x to 'configure' a hotplugged NVidia video card prior to chainloading to Win7.

The ability to hotplug without an error 43 means can now use the 0/7/15second PCI Reset delay slider on a PE4H/PE4L to bypass problematic bios that hangs if it detects a desktop video card on boot. This driver also makes setting up a x2/x4 link significantly easier as well.

The DIY VIDock specific 64-bit nvam.inf for Verde 270.61 is available for download here.

266.58 - error 43 if hotplugging in Setup 1.x OR use PE4H's 7/15s PCI Reset delay



270.61 - FIXED!!

 

Wow this is great news, i will download them and tweak my setup later in the week.

As always thank you nando for overseeing this project nonstop haha.

 

So it's coincidence or is it connected to your request for nvidia?

 

Would you explain how? Like manually setting it up with Setup 1.x? In another words if I do a 2x or 4x in setup 1.x, i do not have to worry about error 43 from hotplug?

i was trying to do a 1xE before the new driver. putting the comp on standby always resets the port. I am assuming thats the case with the new driver being able to having to use the standby mode.

 

Hi there,

May I know what is your CPU temperature on idle and load?

Thank you

 

ImageShack® - Online Photo and Video Hosting

this is idle. near the min.

its max when on load.

 

@PanzerHauptman or anyone else having HP HDX 16
Do you know which port the tv card uses?
Which port is used by the express card slot (dont have any express cards to try).

everest says port 4 and 6 are free, but port 3 doesnt even appear in everest. maybe this one is used by the tv card. if port 4 is used by the express card it could be possible to build a x2 setup.

hope there is anyone who can help me.

thx

 

I think your CPU can easily reach 100C thats why you got low performance with RE5. RE5 is CPU hungry test btw. You should run 3dmark to test your graphic card. And try to clean your CPU fan from dust & replace old TIM with branded one too.

My CPU is 60C on idle and can easily reach 100C when I play games

My sister laptop is with the same spec as yours: 2 ghz, 3 gb RAM, ICH9M. I will use your laptop as benchmark so I hope you can run any directx10 game for benchmark. Thank you

 

i cant run 3dmark because i dont have a monitor that supports the asking resolution.

 

W00000000000000000000000000T Yay, will update someday. Never really use optimus internal but it's a great if u ever have to.

 

guys i need help, i am very confused at what to do

Notebook specs: Acer Aspire 7720, T7500 @ 2.2 GHz, 2GB RAM, Nvidia 8600M GT 512MB, W7 Pro 32bit, Everest
DIY Vidock specs: PE4H-PM3N, Nvidia 460 GTX 1GB, 400W ATX PSU

i am attempting just a simple x1 setup. However, no matter in what configuration i boot into W7 the card is not detected in everest/device manager. No drivers are installed nor is there any indication that they are blocked.

If i put the notebook in sleep mode, turn on DIY Vidock, connect and turn notebook on, after a couple of seconds the GPU fans start spinning really fast and loud indicating that there was some sort of connection. However, the GPU is still not detected despite the change in fanspeed.

A quick search learns that zzilong had this problem as well but did not provide a solution. A difference was that for him the setup used to work and then stopped working with the above described symptoms, my setup has not worked yet but started straight away with high fanspeeds.

hopefully someone has the answer. And if this has been answered before or is really trivial, i am sorry but this thread is huge and i have not been able to find it.

Nlooije

 

I would check if windows has plug and play to the PCI express PC slot.

Why wouldn't it right?

On the PE4H 2.4a (I didn't see one on 2.0a version) card or PE3L there's actually a chart with SW1(1,2,3). Each number represents a delay. I figure it's the seconds when the card can be detected. With the delays, it gives me code 43.

Check your PE4H or PE4L if it has the switch set at one.

As for device manager not being able to detect your card, can you check if your PC slot is working?

 

It works fine when my wifi mPCIe card is inserted. Upon boot, W7 sees the card, locates drivers, etc. But when replaced with PM3N, a blue LED lights up and several seconds later fans go at 100%. besides that nothing happens...

I will see if i can change this, but why would it matter how many seconds later it is detected?

 

Acer Aspire 7720 + PM3N (mPCIE) : Try the following in order.

1. power off DIY ViDock, boot Setup 1.x, ensure the mini HDMI is not plugged in. Poweron DIY ViDock and then plug in the mini HDMI cable. Hit F5 in setup.. is the GTX460 listed in the Status window (10de:0e22)?

2. Boot Setup 1.x without the PM3N installed, then power on the DIY ViDock and carefully hotplug the PM3N, hit F5. Does the GTX460 show up now in the Status Window (10de:0e22)? If so, then you've encountered an annoyance that hopefully PM3N 1.2 scheduled for later-this-month release will resolve relating to the CLKRUN signal.

3. If the above 2 failed then it's possible you have a bios that's whitelisting the mPCIe port. Check by removing your wifi, boot Setup 1.x, now hotplug the wifi, hit F5. Is the wifi now showing up in the Status window? If so, then you don't have whitelisting active. If not, then apply DIY ViDock Setup 1.x's anti-whitelisting feature to get your port activated only after which could the GTX460 be detected.

PM sent.

 

My GT430 arrived yesterday, but I'm still awaiting my PE4L.
I've just tried it in a crappy old desktop (1GB RAM, 2.89GHz single core CPU) and it's running extremely well.
This desktop has Windows 7 on it and only the 1GB RAM, so I'm surprised at the results I'm getting!
Running it at the highest settings and windowed, I can maintain an average of 25FPS at 1920 x 1080 in Minecraft!

I'm eagerly awaiting my adapter so I can use this in my laptop and reap the benefits.
Out of curiosity, what will the performance be like on my Dell Inspiron 1545 (Intel MHD4500)?

 

Still waiting for the release of the Lenovo Y470. I will try a DIY vidock on the new chipset once I get it.

 

Sorry to bother but anybody has any idea? Could it be that the card is underpowered? Is 6A enough?
I don't want to spend money for another power supply if the one I own is adequate.
Thanks for your support.

 

@nando4 thanks for the reply

No it is not listed

No it is not listed

I think you are right in that the port was whitelisted. I followed the steps to get it activated and now if i boot into Vidock Setup without wifi and hotplug it, press F5, it shows up 4 out of 5 times. However, hotplugging the 460 GTX still does not work.

 

It's better to use an external monitor.
You can use your laptop monitor but the bandwidth isn't good enough with the expresscard. " The desktop video card outputs HDMI/S-Video. To try to clone the output from the desktop video card via a USB frame grabber can be done, but consider say 1280x800x32-bit = 4MB per image. If gaming at 30FPS that's 120MB/s bandwidth required." said nando4.

For instance my 3DMark 06 score went from 15623 to 8663 when using my internal LCD, at 1280*1024, it wouldn't geet more that 33/34 fps but rarelly less than 30 in the other hand ^^.

It's surely possible to play crysis at max settting but with resolution of 1280*720 and getting an average of 35 fps which is easily playable with crysis.

But running a game at 1920x1080 would just give something like 18 fps maximum because of the limited bandwidth.

The only way to get more fps using only internal LCD display is to overclock the PCI-e frequency but I doubt we can do it with vaio Z..

 

270.51 didn't work for me still error code 43. After many hours, my PE4H doesn't power up the GTX460 fans anymore (nor HD5870 & GT240). The green LEDs are still on the PE4H. HD5870 fans is stll on in my desktop.

Any ideas?

setpci -d 10de:0e22 BASE_ADDRESS_0=FFFFFFFF,FFFFFFFF,FFFFFFFF,FFFFFFFF,FFFFFFFF.FFFFFFFF resulted in "invalid values".

Much thanks.

 

I would like to know if anyone else has had this issue. My guess is the switchable graphics hardware ID is not in the right file. Where does the installer validate the Intel portion of hardware setup?

PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2A42&SUBSYS_211317AA ;switchable graphics

Device manager indicates that the Mobile Intel(R) Series Chipset Family driver is actually provided by AMD, not Intel.

 

Hi guys, I've been lurking this thread for a while. I just got a new laptop - a Thinkpad T420, and I was wondering if i would be able to do a diy vidock for this.

My thinkpad has only intel integrated graphics. Being a sandy bridge laptop, is it possible to do an optimus setup with this? Would using an ATI graphics card work? I haven't purchased a card yet and want to know what would be the best to go for.

Thanks for all the help guys!

 

that's the first i ever hear amd providing drivers for intel integrated video chip. then again, i do not keep up with technology as much as other users here. as for the switchable graphics, some laptops have an extra vga output but thats not the one we should be concern about. windows after 3.1 as always have been trying to be user friendly. with plug and play, any additional device added for windows to recognize should be somewhat near user friendly(except for vista).

once windows 7 recognize the video card from vidock and shows the proper message "this device is working properly," the display setup should have the option to extend the display onto another monitor, put desktop onto another monitor, or project the desktop onto the monitor(same as put desktop onto monitor 1 or 2). With optimus, you dont even need to switch display, just as long the nvidia control panel can be turned on.

from my experience windows 7 solved everything. didnt need to do setup other than hot plug as computer is asleep.

 

i believe i can answer one part to the question. you first need everest(AID64) if you have not purchase PE4H or PE3L.

EVEREST Discontinued | Lavalys.com

you want to know if there are pci-e ports open under pci express controller.
this is important because you dont want to fall under the list which systems not capable of higher performance x2 1.0. my system happens to be on that list which makes the project less cost efficient or uncapable of doing vidock without going through setup 1.x.

 

As for the new driver 270.51 link posted on forum, the driver is for notebook setup.... which is odd when it didnt work. Trying to setup, the setup didn't recognize the video card when it was recognized as working properly. Then I found out there's also a version for desktop. I think that's the one some people need to use if they get the message from the setup saying no hardware was found something like that.

the video card is for desktop after all.

 

Hi guys,

just purchased the (PE4H ver2.4 with EC2C kit) to hopefully allow me to run a gtx460 via my laptop's express card slot. Both the card and the kit arrived today so i set it up as suggested. Disabled the onboard Intel GMA HD graphics prior to this. I'm using an OCZ 400w modular power supply to power the gpu, then i connected it to my hdtv via mhdmi to hdmi. Got the thing up and running, installed the latest nvidia drivers and the card is showing up in the device manager without any error codes. So i thought thats great no problems so far. As soon as i tried to run a MW2 or the Windows experience index, my gtx460 and psu just shut down .

My laptop is an MSI CR720 , Core I5 -460M 2.53ghz , 4gb ddr3 1066 , wd 320gb hard drive.

I've had a good read through the DIY Vdock thread but i must admit I'm struggling where to go next. The card has been detected, no errors and its showing fine on my hdtv, just no gaming.

Any help would be appreciated, no doubt I've overlooked something.

Thanks.

 

dont turn off intel gma hd card. at the display setup just switch to different output.

windows 7 should allocate all the memory to video card.