DIY eGPU experiences

While both displays being connected and on, select your external display to be the primary one in window's display settings.

 

I'll try that....

also. I was using windws 7 32 bit with 2gb ram...I was able to get around 100fps in sc2 with my vidock.....I changed to windows 7 64 bit with 4gb ram...I noticed I would get around 60fps.....so now I'm going back to 32 bit...any reason why? I thought 64 bit would be better...

 

D2-D4 are green and Everest is recognizing Port 4 and the video card!!!

I'm not running off the card yet--just couldn't contain my excitement that there's progress lol. I'll edit this post as soon as I find out more

 

Congrats! With anything, always plugged in to first port/port #1 if there are more than one port.

 

Okay, so I installed the DNA modded drivers without removing my switchable graphics drivers. Is that going to be a problem? Here's what I've done so far:

1. Windows Update recognized the expresscard and installed 2 drivers. i forget the names.
2. I downloaded and installed the DNA modded drivers while the eGPU was still connected. I got a black screen so I put my laptop into sleep mode and disconnected the eGPU.
3. Log said everything was installed except the graphics driver. I reinstalled the graphics driver without the eGPU plugged in. Success.
4. Installed ReadyDriverPlus because I have 64-bit? During installation there was a part to select how many upstrokes. I didn't know what to do so I left it at default '1'. When I rebooted, the options were

1. Windows 7
2. Setup 1.x
3. ReadyDriverPlus​

It went into Setup 1.x and then I couldn't select the bootmenu (option 2)--went to that startup.bat and sorta just stopped. I had to press the power button and start over. Not really relevant.
5. Rebooted again but chose Windows 7.
6. After getting to desktop, I put the laptop to sleep, plugged in eGPU and woke the laptop. Windows Update installed a 30MB driver and after it was done it said it was for HD4800 series video card.

Problem is.. Catalyst doesn't detect any external monitors. The only detectable monitor is still the laptop LCD. What do I do now?

EDIT: My problem is described under Troubleshooting #3. Which solution do I need to apply? Didn't I already install DNA drivers? Again, I am running a Lenovo Thinkpad T400 with 4GB on Windows 7 x64.

EDIT 2: Checked Device Manager and it is indeed Code 12 error. Also, I checked Setup 1.x and it does not recognize anything for Port 4. After I reach desktop, i checked everest and port 4 is empty again. I put my laptop into standby mode and turned off then on the eGPU. When I get out of standby and refresh Everest, the eGPU is recognized again. Catalyst still does not detect any other monitors though.

 

Did you get error 12 after eGPU is recognized again? Please try do like this:-

1. Uninstall all ATI drivers.
2. Disabled dGPU (HD 3470) in BIOS or Setup 1.x.
3. Boot notebook with eGPU plugged in & powered ON OR connect eGPU using the sleep method.
4. Install DNA driver.

 

I'm not sure if I did this correctly. I uninstalled the dna drivers, but I think the switchable graphics were still intact. I rebooted and disabled dgpu in setup 1.x, did the pcie allocation stuff (bridge?), then rebooted. After logging in, I put laptop into standby and plugged and turned on egpu. I tried installing the drivers, but it flashed to black with a blinking underline at top left of screen. I tried to press some keys but the screen went to this:
http://www.imgur.com/NmVRX.jpg

 

Please uninstall ALL ATI drivers. Then follow the procedure at post #4409.

EDIT: I believe your notebook can boot with eGPU already connected & powered ON. Try skip Setup 1.x.

 

Ayeee after I uninstalled the ATI stuff (i'm still uncertain if there are lingering files around), I went into bios and disabled switchable graphics and set it on integrated graphics only. When I logged onto desktop, I think the resolution was 640x480, but immediately drivers were found and installed for the integrated graphics "Intel 4500 whatever". It prompted me to reboot so I did...

Well, no sign of switchable graphics or the discrete card, so I put the laptop to sleep and tried to connect the eGPU through the sleep method. When I tried to wake, it was black screen and my laptop beeped a little. Nothing seemed to be working.. I powered off the eGPU and disconnected the expresscard. I couldn't go back to sleep. I had to turn off the laptop by holding the power button... eek.

Should I try to install the drivers without the eGPU plugged in? or does that not work?

 

Booted to Win7, poweron the eGPU, plug in the EC2C into the expresscard followed by a Device Manager rescan if it doesn't do it's hotplug auto-detect beep. Then install the DNA-ATI drivers.

 

Troubleshoot #15: Uninstall the switchable graphic driver from your manufacturer. Your Intel GPU should automatically revert back to pure Intel driver (OR download latest driver from Intel website).

Did you tried:-

1. Power OFF your notebook & eGPU.
2. Connect eGPU to your notebook.
3. Power ON the eGPU.
4. Power ON your notebook & boot (skipping Setup 1.x)

Please let me know whether you can boot or not.

EDIT: Sorry, I didn't noticed nando4 already replying to your post. Please try nando4's suggestion first. If still doesn't work, try my suggestion.

 

I tried this method but for some reason this happened: YouTube - ‪Computer fail‬‏

Basically couldn't boot.. would try and then die.

And... this worked. I think there were driver conflicts before. So I'm safe to install DNA-ATI drivers? Windows update did its thing and my monitor started working lol.. woo made me so excited.

I really appreciate your guys' help--you guys have been really quick with your responses.

 

The cheapest Sandy Bridge system with an expresscard slot?

That I could find anyway. Summary of specs being:

$430 15.6" Fujitsu AH531 i3-2310M 2.1 4GB 500GB W7HP
$469-shipped 15.6" HP 4530s i3-2310M 2.1 4GB 320GB W7HP
$487-shipped 15" Lenovo E520 i3-2310M 2.1 4GB 320GB W7HP
$505-shipped 14" Lenovo E420 i3-2310M 2.1 4GB 320GB W7HP

Superbiiz doesn't list the 4530s having an expresscard slot but HP's quickspecs for this model confirm it has it. It was as low as $428+shipping last week. Here's a HP 4530s youtube review.

 

So I did the 3Dmark06 benchmark with default settings and 1280x1024 resolution. My results are posted online here. My overall score was 7035 marks.

I also ran the RES5 benchmark for dx9 at 1280x960 resolution. Grade B with average fps of ~36.2 across the four areas. I was unable to get a screen capture before the benchmark restarted itself...

I'm going to install the DNA-ATI Drivers now and run the benches again. Hopefully I see some performance increase!

EDIT: Just ran the benchmarks again with the DNA drivers.
3dmark06 score: 7202
RES5 average fps: 41.1, Grade B

EDIT 2: Just for kicks I ran 3dmark06 on my laptop's discrete card (ATI HD3470 mobility) and got a score of 2617. 3x performance gain from the DIY vidock!!

 

Yes Nando is right ...

I have this HP 4530s ... I bought this laptop HP 4530s especially for eGPU purpose ... this laptop is having Expresscard 2.0 and you can set it up from BIOS as well. Design and everything is amazing ... literally loving it ...

If you want any screenshot for confirmation ... I can post it ... plus this laptop is having USB 3.0 as well and HD 720p webcam builtin ... totally awesome laptop. Gives 6 hours and 15 minutes battery life on power save and wifi/bluetooth off.

The biggest reason I chose this latop ... it doesn't have fan vents below, dont have to worry about ventilation ... like other HP models where you need to put something between your lap and laptop so vents wont block off (that was my biggest gripe against HP dv5000 laptop). Another awesome thing about this laptop is ... fan cleanin area of this laptop is within reach ... just below the keyboard (meaning you dont have to take your laptop apart if you ever wanna clearn vents) ... My previous HP laptop, I had to completely disassemble it before reachin to the fan and vents. Mine came with 4GBx1 slot ram and one more slot is free to add another 4GB 1333Mhz Ram.

Literally amazing laptop ... cant say anythin about other recommended laptops by Nando though.

 

Is the laptop:
Lenovo IdeaPad B560 M4892IV
has No problem of error 12 or other problems?

And PE4H ver 2.0a fit to GTX 460?
Or should I buy the PE4H ver 2.4?

 

In case anyone is interested, selling my eGPU enclosure with all the hardware.

 

How can we expect the thunderbolt port & connector to be, on the next PE4H PE4L product ?

Apple's thunderbolt is a mini-Display port, while sony, a kind of USB that is not USB..

I'm a VAIO Z addict... and I wonder if there is a chance one day to connect an eGPU using the new VPC-Z2 thunderbolt port.

 

where did you find that the 4530 has a expresscard 2.0?

 

Ive found it using AIDA64 Extreme Edition ... apparently it got six PCI-E 2.0 x1 Ports.

Four of them ports are having devices.

-Wireless b/g/n, USB 3.0 and Gigabit Ethernet are connected using "Bus Type: PCI Express 2.0 x1.
-SD card host controller is connected as "Bus Type: PCI Express 1.0 x1".
- Remaining two of them are empty.

In BIOS there is an option to turn ExpressCard 2.0 on/off.

Is there a website where u dont have to register and simply upload image and give link here (like some text websites such as post.org etc).

 

I've always used imageshack, seems to work fine for posting images here. Been holding off on trying this kind of setup so that I could just use one cable and still have good performance.

 

Hope nando has something to add on this, I'm interested in this as well .

 

Dude ... I got exam tomorrow and Im preparing at the moment ... thats why I was askin for quick and speedy image postin solution ... 2morrow I'll create an account imageshack and post images online ...

 

Hello Guys,

i`m confused.
I tried following setup:
Lenovo X220i core i3
6 GB Ram
Win 7 Pro 64
PE4L + ATI 5770.

Everything works fine so far (3dMark06 about 11252)
So i tried playing some games.
Left 4 Dead 2 in Full HD with high settings runs with 50-60 FPS´, so far so good.
Then i tried COD MW2 and stucked with max 15 fps
I tried different kinds of DNA and Stock drivers......no change.
Changing the resolution or details settings doesn't seem to affect the FPS.

Okay so i tried COD Black OPS and get about 20-30 FPS at medium (not good but better then MW2 ?!?!)

I tried the 5770 in an old E6300 PC with WIN 7 x32 and the card works fine (good FPS).

SO have anybody an idea what's going wrong with COD MW2 ?

 

I got an x220t (8gb ram) and a GTX460. I posted a video with MW1 and it had microlags - not fun to play with them (aiming is real hard).
Tried BFBC2 and it was really smooth - CoD isn't eGPU friendly. Others reported bad performance with CoD, too.

 

Looks pretty good for the price. I did find a cheaper Fujitsu one and a 14" within striking range as well. Note: E420 below should be doable for the E520 price if apply the linked voucher.

Cheapest #1 $430 15.6" Fujitsu AH531 i3-2310M 2.1 4GB 500GB W7HP *expresscard slot* Cheapest #2 $469-shipped 15.6" HP 4530s i3-2310M 2.1 4GB 320GB W7HP *expresscard slot* per HP's specs Cheapest #3 $487-shipped 15.6" Lenovo E520 i3-2310M 2.1 4GB 320GB W7P *expresscard slot* Cheapest #4 $505-shipped 14" Lenovo E420 i3-2310M 2.1 4GB 320GB W7P *expresscard slot*

COD:MW2 is lagging due to it's high pci-e bandwidth requirements. Can see it's dependence on pci-e bandwidth by reviewing the faster x4/x8/x16 2.0 results at: PCIe Scaling: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 : PCI Express And SLI Scaling: How Many Lanes Do You Need?

It's a a console port so is using the less efficient DX9 which makes things worse. You might be able to get slightly better performance by running 16-bit color.

pci-e 2.0 compliant PE4L/PE4H scheduled for August will improve things by doubling bandwidth from x1 1.0 (2.5Gbps) to x1 2.0 (5Gbps).

Worst case scenario, it will work with 3GB. To confirm it will worth with 4GB or more follow steps here.

PE4H 2.0a will work fine with a GTX460. It can be used on heavier duty cards like a GTX470/GTX570 if apply Panzer's fuse bypass. PE4H 2.4 has a jumper to do that instead.

 

so current PE4L/H won't see performance improvement when used in pci-e 2.0 port compared to pci-e 1.0 port?

 

Hey everyone, great thread here!
I have read a lot of this thread (it was too long to read in it's entirety) and I have a couple of questions that I hope someone will be kind enough to answer (they likely have been answered before but I am lost so I apologize).

1) I have a lenovo x220. If I get a nvidia card can I do the optimus thing?
2) Right now I own an amd 5870. Is it still worthwhile to buy a new nvidia card? If so which one?
3) Is it worth it to wait for a new PE4H that supports expresscard 2.0 or should I buy the current model? Does anyone have reliable information about the existence and release date of such a product or is it just a rumour so far?
Thanks a lot!

 

lets see, a high end consumer model, that fills a niche market, against a very popular consumer product that is available for mass consumption, your only hope is that they release an adapter, since more than probably sony might be alone on this irregular implementation

 

See Getting Started: 2. Which video card do you recommend for best performance on my system? and pci-e 2.0 hwtools' status update.

HDMI input expresscard sighted

Looks like there will is a solution to pipe the HDMI image from a desktop adapter back to the notebook LCD screen at full FPS: http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...-new-hdmi-input-express-card.html#post7693279. This would require the expresscard for the HDMI input card and a mPCIe eGPU solution.

 

x220t + PE4H + GTX560TI playing BFBC2 @ 1920x1200

Plays real smooth (with GTX460 too). Didn't play BC2 for a long time so don't expect any skill (CG ) and I didn't even know where I binded my nade or crouch...

 

Okay i understand thank you for the answer.
So the reason for the bad performance is the high pci-e load.
But i`m wondering that COD Bad Company is so much better but it uses DX10 ?!

 

why my LAN adapter turned off when I am turn on my DIY Vidock?
Dell inspiron 1410
Core 2 duo 2.00 GHz

Vidock :
PE4L - PM3N
GTX 560 Ti

 

Awesome thread, great job Nando4...

But I need some help here. I've just got a PE4L and GTS250 for my Dell 1420. It runs pretty well except two problems.

1. ALL USB PORTS GO OFF after plugging the eGPU. I can't even use my mouse. I remember some folks running into the same problem right?
2. The computer won't sleep with the eGPU plugged in. The screen goes down and that's it, the HDD light keeps flicking..(This might be something I can live with.)

Can anybody give me a hint of solution?
Spec: Dell 1420; 2G; Win7 32bit; GTS250 eGPU; No Bluetooth; Wifi & Wwan slots occupied.

Thanks so much!

Edward

 

Worst case, I can installing Setup 1.x and that would solve me the error 12?
Laptop has 2GB RAM DDR3
Is the system will provide memory to video card? (I understand that 256 are needed to make this work)
If not then There are also solutions to this problem?

(I'm talking about laptop Lenovo IdeaPad B560 M4892IV)

You say that I will not have such problems on this laptop?
Sorry to ask again just I'm going to spend a lot of money ...
I can not accept suggestions on other laptops because everything in my country is more expensive.
This laptop is my only option..

Thank you again for your help!

 

I hate that everything is soooo cheap in the States... this laptop is 500 EUR here (around 700 USD)

 

We have tried so many configuration (thank you a lot Nando) without success. Unfortunately with the GTX 590 we get always the error 43 (the GTX 580 works fine). If anyone has any ideas and wants to suggest some tests, tell me that I do.

 

Laptop: HP 4530s Sandy Bridge i3-2310m

As promised this is the snapshot from AIDA64 Extreme for PCIe.


This is BIOS Option for ExpressCard.

 

Quote from first page:

I think you need to free up more memory space in the first place.

 

That gameplay framerate was smooth as silk. Literally awesome. Hopefully this card will be able to play Battlefield 3 as well.

 

Hi NewNet,
Have you tried GTX590 w/ 2 GB of RAM with and without Setup.1x? I notice w/ 2 GB RAM I was able to free 1GB compaction using Setup.1x.
3 GB or more my L502x has to use Setup.1x w/ only 256MB or 512MB free after compaction. Getting GTX590 and similar/newer multi-GPUs would be another major breakthru and pave the way for us all ;-)

Much thanks for trying.

 

Try to connect the eGPU before loading your desktop, at W7 loading for example or even before.

 

I just tried L4D2 @ 1920x1200 everything at max, 8xMSAA 8xAF - avg FPS 90 while being in a big level (not indoor)
Just looked sometimes onto my fraps fps counter, no serious testing.

PE4H = awesomeness

 

You now have two cards at your disposal. Did you want to volunteer to do back-to-back benchmarking of your i5-2520M X220T: [email protected] vs [email protected]? The only result posted so far is your 3dmark06 of 16k here.

Relative to a GTX460-1GB (non-SE) you have 14% more cuda cores, faster core+memory speed plus some other optimizations. Am curious how that translates on a x1.1Opt link, whether it's worth the extra +US$80 (+68%) premium over a bargain basement GTX460-1GB.

Code:

GTX460SE    288 cores (-14% cores)
[COLOR="Red"]GTX460-1MB  336 cores
[/COLOR]GTX560      336 cores (+faster core/mem, + optimizations)
[COLOR="Red"]GTX560Ti    384 cores (+14% cores, +faster core/mem, +optimizations)[/COLOR]

 

Do you wish any certain benchmark? I will run vantage and 3dmark06.
I sold my GTX460 1GB, but it's still here so I can test it. Only one day left for this

 

The standard set on the main page are: 3dmark06, RE5 dx9-var@1280x800, 3dmark vantage, dmcv4-dx10@1280x800. Then could do some additional ones if you like: mafiaII (dx9), 3dmark11 (dx11), dirt2 (dx11). Can see an example of my L9400-2.64+GTX460@x1 benchmark results here.

 

Yup, I'd love to see some game benchmarks, GTX460 vs. GTX560Ti.

 

Active cabling required for reliable pci-e 2.0 transmission?

Spot on. Apple have made their $50 Apple Thunderbolt cable an active device to be able to transmit at these high speeds. The technology inside Apple's $50 Thunderbolt cable tells us

I hope hwtools can still pull off pci-e 2.0 passive cabling. If not then they could just change the PE4L/PE4H to use the mini displayport connector used by Thunderbolt and just refer ppl to buy a $50 Apple Thunderbolt cable. Wonder how long it will take to see them selling for $6 on Dealextreme?

 

YES, but in my PC there are only 2 GB of ram and there is not that problem

 

Hi.
Yes, in my PC there are only 2 GB of ram and I tried with and without Setup.1x without success. .