Is there any thunderbolt eGPU solution available

sure in the future thunderbolt bandwtith will increase exponentially. it's not hard to do it. actually thunderbolt seams a stupid interface because external pci-e and cables have been around at least since 2007 and all it's needed is to be implement. also it doesn't require any chips or new technology. the pci-e signal runs straight from the chipset.
thunderbolt on the other hand requires new chips to be developed and has only a small faction of the bandwith of pci-e 2.0 x16 that external pci-e already has for years.
so it's really easy for intel to increase bandwith of thunderbolt. but maybe it will be needed another connector and cables. but I think this is the best/worse part of thunderbolt, since it allows active optic cables, the lenght of the cables can be much longer and size can be small, and expensive (but not that expensive as they are now).


not to mention the difficulty of such a mod but yeah getting a thunderbolt chip sounds really easy. forget it.
but how do you excepect a thunderbolt chip to work with pci-e 3.0 if it wasn't made for it? imo it will only work with future chips.
it's not like you could unsolder and solder components and expect it to work flawless. it won't happen.
unfortunatelly we all have to wait

 

Moral of the story as of 7/15 - Thunderbolt eGPU solutions are not an option in the foreseeable future, stick to ExpressCard or mPCIe solutions.

 

I wish I could rebute that, but all those posponing by Intel... driving me crazy

 

Yesterday, Bplus posted some nice TH05 pics over facebook.

 

thunderbolt is the future. way much faster then mini pci-e. only about 5-15% gpu bottleneck.

 

Has anyone ordered sonnet's thunderbolt to pcie adapter, and recieved It? It looks as if they are spending aeons sending back order.

 

The Sonnet Echo Thunderbolt-toExpresscard adapter? If so then yes. I know that myself and Borealiss on the forums use this adapter to plug our egpus into our macbook pro/air. Granted it is half the bandwidth of a true Thunderbolt connection, it's always fun to tell people I can play Battlefield 3 on high on my macbook

 

no. I meant thunderbolt to pci-express connector, on this page :
Sonnet Online Store

not the thunderbolt to expresscard connector. why would I ask on this thread? there is already one for that connector..

 

no way I would buy that piece of overpriced crap with only mac drivers. who's going to play games on a mac anyway?

 

My overpriced piece of crap shipped yesterday.

 

What kind of graphics card will you be purchasing (I'm guessing that is what you will be using it as). I'm guessing your 560 draws too much power. Did you buy the Pro or regular model?

 

drop us some feedback, that looks interesting! I want to see some guts!

 

So... It wasn't a vaporware... anyway, can you give us a simple review when it arrives?

 

The Sonnet Echo Express has been shipping since mid-june.

 

let's hope they slice the price in 80% and that it works with pc's without any drivers issue.

 

no, it exists. there are some issues with it that prevent the card from being detected, and i'm finding this out the hard way.

it has to deal with the way windows 7 and bootcamp work. the thunderbolt adapter has to be plugged into the system at boot so the EFI BIOS can enumerate the device and report it as present to windows 7. the problem is having a graphics card plugged into a thunderbolt expansion slot causes the EFI bios to hang when dual booting. so what you have to do for macs (epicblob confirmed this w/ his mac i think) is you have to hot plug the graphics card after it has made it past the OSX/win7 selection screen.

with the expresscard adapter, this was possible. since this is a completely native thunderbolt/pcie solution, this becomes a little more difficult, obviously because standard pcie isn't meant to be hot plugged. expresscard keepouts/retention mechanisms are.

so the only way to get the card to detect is to hotplug it into the echo express. you will also have to deconstruct some of the chassis to make something like the evga 560gtx fit, but it will fit.

right now what i'm trying to do is find a pcie riser to allow me to supply the gpu its own independent power, mainly the +12V and +3.3V lines to the pcie x1 based pins. that way i can just flip an external switch to the card for power after my mba makes it beyond the OSX/win7 selection screen. shouldn't be too bad and pretty easy to implement. just gotta find the right pcie x16 riser board to make this work and get to soldering. this will also allow me to not modify either the gpu or the sonnet echo express.

anyways, that's the state of this experiment. i'll probably have something to update in the next week.

 

So i have been reading,as much as i can about eGPUs and correct me if am wrong but am i correct in the assumption that MBpros are the "BEEFiest" laptops you can buy to implement the eGPU solution ? if so i got my eye on the 2012 "non-retina" 15 MBpro with the i7-3610qm and the 650m gpu. If so i would only have to purchase the sonnet echo pro and the PE4H-EC2C v2.4a ? I'm not "Mac Friendly" by no means but seems its the easiest way to get a eGPU setup going.Also i see that there is a complication for the eGPU solution to work on bootcamped Windows7 ,is this with use of internal lcd or also with a exterior display ?

 

Nope. At the moment there isnt any Thunderbolt eGPU available the sonnet echo pro ist just a thunderbolt -> expresscard 34 pci 2.0 adapter which can be found in many other SB or IB laptops aswell.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/e-g...sion/677118-version-egpu-best-choice-atm.html

And the PE4H-EC2C v2.4a can only do PCI 1.0 so get the PE4L 2.1b for PCI 2.0 speed.

 

If you actually read the thread, you would see that they are talking about the thunderbolt to pci-e adapter from Sonnet, not the expresscard one. Check the link on the previous page.

 

Oh ok, sry for this . But the price tag is really heavy....

but why...

I think he IS talking about the expresscard adapter...

 

Really depends on how badly you need it. If you don't want to wait and are fine with 1.2Opt, then it will work fine. Your two current options would be to buy the pe4l 2.1 and sonnet echo or vidock and sonnet echo. Both have been tested to work with a macbook under windows 7.

And the internal and external monitor both work fine with a macbook. But which macbook do you own (or are planning on buying). For some absurd reason, the macbook pros with discrete graphics do not show the integrated gpu. That means you would not be able to activate optimus. If you have a macbook air or 13inch macbook pro, you will be fine. Personally if you were looking at a macbook to buy, I would choose a new 2012 13inch macbook pro with the 2.9ghz dual core ivy bridge. It will allow optimus with an egpu and the intel4000 isn't too bad by itself while you're on the road (much better than my HD3000). And make sure to buy the sonnet echo pro instead of the regular model (pro is pcie 2.0 capable).

 

That made me lol.

It's still very sad no one has catered to this untapped market

Razer should make there own thunderbolt eGPU housing.

And they claim themselves to be a for gamers company.

Hmmph!

Also, what's the difference between the Sonnet normal housing and the 'Pro' version for $200 more @ $799 vs $599

 

Pro allows full length cards, 2 pcie slots, 150w power compared to 100w power supply. You pretty much need the Sonnet Pro as any good graphics card is full length.

 

the evga 560 gtx fits, with like 1/4" to spare. but you must remove the front fan, and run with the top off because of thermal issues.

 

remove the case. any gpu will fit. fixed.

 

Sonnet - Echo Express SE Thunderbolt PCIe Expansion Chassis

Sonnet released cheaper (compared to current sonnet adapters), 400$ thunderbolt to pcie adapter for preorder. Never thought that sonnet would release cheaper adapter... Maybe, they are trying to grab the market so that there won't be any space for MSI GUS to join in.
Perhaps in near future, Sonnet might be the one to relaese reasonably priced TB to PCIe adapter by sonnet, instead of Bplus or MSI.


EDIT: link broken! I'll fix it when I get back from lab!
EDIT2: Never mind that. fixed it.
EDIT3:

OWC Mercury Helios PCIe Thunderbolt Expansion Chassis

Even cheaper one (by 20$) by OWC. Good. Very good.

 

10 gb/s max transfer...

2.5g/b pcie1.0 --> 5g/b pcie 2.0 --> 10g/b tb/ pcie3.0

Anyone else seeing the link? They are just milking the customers slowly...

I guess the next version will be 20g/b

 

Both the OWC Mercury Helios and Sonnet Echo Express SE are completely useless from an eGPU perspective. Both solutions only support half-length PCIe cards with a max 65W - 75W. This eliminates almost every modern GPU.

The Sonnet Echo Express Pro is the closest thing out at the moment, but is cost prohibitive at $799.

Hopefully, B-Plus's TH05 comes out soon, as it seems like the most promising solution.

 

Curious to hear if you ever were able to get the Sonnet Echo Express Pro working?

 

Provided that I have recalled my memory correctly, till next year or so, TH05 cannot use full bandwidth of thunderbolt. Only x2.2 instead of x4.2. So we have to do with pre-existing devices, and anyway, removing case and making a new one, or placing a pcie extention cable won't be that difficult.

 

like it was said ad nauseum any gpu will work if you provide power and space. TH05 will have the same issue.
That is NOT a problem.

 

I think the biggest problem atm will be using the internal screen over thunderbolt, since optimus only works on 1x link.

 

Would a solution using thunderbolt epgu (eg. the sonnet) combined with a HDMI video capture card get over this? Seems like it could be a nice way to benefit from higher bandwidth and still get the image on the internal LCD.

This requires a laptop with thunderbolt port and expresscard slot (for capture card). Has anyone tried this? Any reasons why this wouldn't work/not be worth doing?

 

Is there a non-Apple laptop with both TB and ExpressCard slots?

 

So far there is not. The only laptop that would work would be the 2011 17inch macbook pro. And given that the sonnet echo express, laptop, graphics card and capture card is going to easily cost over $3000, I'd say getting someone to test this setup would be highly improbable.

 

Yes. The Thinkpad T430s has a TB port and an expresscard slot.

 

no Apple units have EC and Thunderbolt.

 

This is the laptop I had in mind.

Putting cost aside for a moment, is there any reason why this setup woudn't work? Any potential issues? I recall seeing somewhere that capture cards can sometimes have lag.

 

Windows Laptops With Thunderbolt Ports | PCWorld

ASUS G75VW-DS71 Review | Laptop Reviews

Glad to know that my W520 + Vidock 4 Plus + GTX 670 still manages to beat ASUS's new gaming machine equipped with a GTX 660M.
If it weren't for the sheer size and weight, I would be very enticed by the G75.

 

I have a GTX 560 working on an Opt 1.2x link on a T430s. It is working great, and I am pretty happy with it considering it was literally my only option for an eGPU capable thunderbolt ported machine.

As for the ASUS laptops, they were meant to get thunderbolts but the addition kept getting delayed again and again - with lots of marketing malarkey by subsidiaries confusing things further. As far as I know they still don't have the ports, and as you said - the mobile GPUS they come with are garbage compared to a proper desktop card.


If anyone wants help getting a T430s to work properly with an eGPu let me know, it needs some tweaking so go ahead and PM.

EDITED for censored language

 

I need help regarding the T430s egpu. However I'm using a GTX660ti, does the optimus 1.2x link still work that way even though it is not a fermi card?

 

Kepler works for Optimus too...

 

Prior to using Optimus, I have to make sure there's no error code 12 first right? Besides that, I thought you could only use Optimus if you had igpu+dgpu. My T430s is the i7 model which only has the igpu which is the HD4000

To Kasseev: How did you manage to bypass error code 12?

 

Nope, you don't need dGPU to engage Optimus.
Actually to engage Optimus for my GTX 670, I actually have to disable the Quadro 1000M on W520.

 

My initial th05/GTS 450 @ Thinkpad S430 works.
More here http://forum.notebookreview.com/e-gpu-external-graphics-discussion/688501-th05-diyegpu-2.html

 

Wasn't there some talk about that the GPU (or any PCIe card) driver's would have to be 'thunderbolt aware'?

For example here in the comments only a compatibility list is given, and there are no GPUs..

OWC Introduces Mercury Helios PCIe Thunderbolt Expansion Chassis | Other World Computing Blog