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I just want to confirm before purchasing questions


fernangus

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How do you suspect a quad core i7 would fair off in this situation? Speaking about the Quad 2.6 Ghz Haswell chips on the MacBook Pro.

It would do all right - dependent on the clock speed, as that often has a big impact on games. And In general a quadcore is way more suitable for windows gaming, as windows do tend to eat some resources.

That's interesting..I was always under the impression that i5 processors are perfectly fine for gaming? I'm running an i5 2500k (which is a very old processor) with a GTX980 in my current PC setup without any issues. Is it different with laptop processors?

Thanks for the heads up though, I am definitely planning on doing some heavy gaming (Witcher 3).

Yes i5's are good for regular gaming on desktops, as they are quadcores. However on mobile, i5's for the most is dualcores with hyperthreading. In this case Apple has used ULV (ultra low voltage) cpu's, which honestly just don't do the trick in most game (imho) But IT IS game dependent - try Metro Last light and you will have an AWESOME experience, as it is GPU heavy, and the cpu load might max lie around 80%.. If i try GTA V, story mode is fine, but when i try multiplayer and I have to load high content and extremely many moving objects, it will stay at 99-100% constantly - and even with a gtx 970 I experienced microstuttering, which was unplayable.

Honestly - Had I known that, would I not have spent 1000+$ on my setup.

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It would do all right - dependent on the clock speed, as that often has a big impact on games. And In general a quadcore is way more suitable for windows gaming, as windows do tend to eat some resources.

Yes i5's are good for regular gaming on desktops, as they are quadcores. However on mobile, i5's for the most is dualcores with hyperthreading. In this case Apple has used ULV (ultra low voltage) cpu's, which honestly just don't do the trick in most game (imho) But IT IS game dependent - try Metro Last light and you will have an AWESOME experience, as it is GPU heavy, and the cpu load might max lie around 80%.. If i try GTA V, story mode is fine, but when i try multiplayer and I have to load high content and extremely many moving objects, it will stay at 99-100% constantly - and even with a gtx 970 I experienced microstuttering, which was unplayable.

Honestly - Had I known that, would I not have spent 1000+$ on my setup.

I really appreciate you letting me know. I'm looking to see if I can get a good deal on a used Macbook Pro i7 now. Do you think that'll be sufficient?

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I really appreciate you letting me know. I'm looking to see if I can get a good deal on a used Macbook Pro i7 now. Do you think that'll be sufficient?

depends if 13" no, as they are dual cores, if 15 then yes as they are quadcores.

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Hi,

First, sorry for my english (i'm french ^^). I'd like to get an EXP GDC Beast for my vostro 3460 (with an Intel 3210M @ 2.5 GHz) and i'd like to use it with a GTX 750 Ti. My first question is...is it possible ? I know approximately how to set it up in the laptop but i can't manage to imagine if the performance will be there....

Thank you !

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depends if 13" no, as they are dual cores, if 15 then yes as they are quadcores.

Thanks for your help. I ended up finding a used mid-2014 MBP 15" i7 with 16GB RAM and 512GB Storage for $1300. Got a better deal in the long run thanks to you!

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Thanks for your help. I ended up finding a used mid-2014 MBP 15" i7 with 16GB RAM and 512GB Storage for $1300. Got a better deal in the long run thanks to you!

That is an awesome deal :o

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hi ,

firstly im not a super tech computer person . i am in the AV industry and i do some visualization for lighting and video . currently im having very bad frame rates 6 frames . im thinking of running it on a mac pro with a Egpu . could anyone advice what set up i could run please ?

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Which OS?

Which MacPro?

Which card you have in mind?

Which software are you going to use?

Do you need display output in that OS on the eGPU?

more detaaaaaaaiiiiilllllssss please! :D

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Hey everyone - I'll try to keep it brief. I currently have a Yoga 2 Pro (i7 1.8gHz Haswell, 8gb RAM) with its stock Intel HD 4400 integrated graphics. I'd like to boost that up a bit! Now since my laptop only has a spare NGFF/M.2 port, I figured I'd but a converter like this: P15S-P15F (M.2 to mPCIe Extender Board) and use the PE4L to hookup a eGPU. I have a few concerns about my setup, and if you could offer any insight at all it would be greatly appreciated!

1) I'm assuming using a NGFF converter wouldn't mess with the graphics card at all - right? I have a Key E socket (and for the record it is PCIe "format" and not SATA) in my laptop, and the only other sort of PCIe port is used for my hardrive - so I'm limited to using the NGFF.

2) The port on my laptop is mPCIe 2.0, but only x1. Yes, I know that sucks - but will it still offer improvements over my integrated card? I'm not expecting Crysis at 4k, but I'd love to able to just run stuff like Space Engineers and Garry's mod without stuttering. I'm hoping the Optimus drivers would help.

3) Assuming that a x1 port will still offer some sort of improvement, can anyone recommend a great NVidia card? I know bandwidth is limited, so I'd like to get the best card I can within reason - I'm sure theres a point where getting the next model up would be pointless for my setup, I just don't know what that is!

TL;DR:

Help me find the best graphics cards for my PCIe 2.0 x1 Yoga 2 Pro I can use!

Thank you!!!<!-- google_ad_section_end -->

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi everyone! I'm looking to setup an eGPU for my laptop, but I had a few questions and concerns about my plans.

My X230T:

i5-3320M, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD

My planned setup:

- EVGA GeForce GTX 750Ti SC 2GB (TDP 60w, Maxwell) OR MSI GTX 750 Ti OC (TDP 60w, Maxwell) OR MSI GTX 650 OC 2 GB (TDP 65w, Kepler)

- Bplus PE4C V3.0 (recommended here by Tech Inferno Fan)

- AC-D220P adapter (220 W)

- I don't see a need for any other hardware. I do recognize that I will need to get Setup 1.30 to perform compaction, based on previous X230/T user experience.

My planned usage:

Multiple monitors and gaming (SC2, Mass Effect, GTAV, Assassin's Creed, etc). I'm not sure if examples of my usage will help, but someone else requested this information for a previous similar inquiry.

My concerns:

  1. Maxwell vs Kepler GPU. Looking at price vs performance it seems getting the EVGA GTX 750Ti SC is the best value, however, I am concerned about not having Nvidia Optimus working. The guide suggested a Fermi/Kepler card and the 750TI is a Maxwell card. Will Optimus work on this card or not? It seems like it might based on these results from netzealot. The implementation was marked as "4Gbps+c-EC2" which used to be called x1.2Opt.
  2. GPU TDP I'm hoping to use the AC adapter to power the GPU and it seems that all GPUs will easily be powered by the adapter (TDP<220w). Am I correct in making this assumption or am I misinterpreting the data?
  3. GPU RAM Will having more GDDR5 cause bigger problems with the TOLUD and addressing?

As I said above, I'd like to go with the EVGA GTX 750Ti SC, but I don't want to end up with a nice card that won't work well in an e-GPU laptop implementation. Any help is appreciated, I'm open to ideas/suggestions, and let me know if I should provide more info!

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I have a Qosmio x505 Q8100x and I was wondering if I would be a good idea for and eGPU set up. I have a few cards that I already own that I can choose from and a PSU so that's not a problem. Just wondering what I should go with as far as an adapter and if they are even compatible.

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T1BillionX,

It seems your Qosmio has a free ExpressCard so that is good. As long as you are not using it you can get adapters that have PCIE to Expresscard. it seems that the best adapter would be the Bplus PE4C 3.0, as recommended here by Tech Inferno Fan. It seems this has cabling like the PE4L 2.1 that provides a stable signal and has Gen-3 compliance, which is more than enough since most modern notebooks have Gen 2 compliance.

You can find the PE4C 3.0 at this link. Or if you prefer to buy through Amazon, it is available there too.You'll notice on that page the adapter has a slot for an ATX Power supply to plug in. I hope this helps with the adapter.

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Hi all...

Before write my questions, sorry for my bad English!

I have an Fujitsu Lifebook S761 (i7-2640M processor (2.8 GHz, 4 MB), Intel HD 3000(650-1300 MHz), 6GB of RAM, HM67, and ExpressCard slot)

I also have an Asus GTX 670 DCU II 2GB.

Someone has ideas if this can work? I vant to buy the pe4h(ExpressCard version), but i want to confirm if this can work.

Thanks for reading my bad English and for replies.

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Hi.. I have a quick question... I tried gtx 760ti with my lenovo y500...in my friends egpu setup..and it was working fine.. So I was thinking of buying a gtx 960 4gb for my egpu setup.. The monitor I will be using will be XL2420Z for the 144hz...so will everything be OK??

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Hey everyone,

I am looking into building a eGPU but feel vastly overwhelmed by the selection process and then the install. I have attempted to read the guides and other follow throughs but still feel very uncertain I understand what I am doing to invest the amount of money it would take to pull this off. I was hoping I could post what I know so far and see if I could get any feedback on if I need additional parts, set up tips, hardware mods, etc.

Current MacSpecs:

i7 3GHZ processor

16GB RAM

Intel Iris 5100

DualBooted OSX and Windows 8.1

I am thinking that I need to buy:

Akito Thunder2: http://www.amazon.com/Akitio-AK-T2PC-TIA-AKTU-Thunder2-PCIe-Box/dp/B00LTAUTHE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1435766761&sr=8-1&keywords=akito+thunder2

EVGA GeForce GTX 960: Amazon.com: EVGA GeForce GTX 960 4GB Super SC ACX 2.0+ with Back Plate GDDR5 128bit, PCI-E 3.0, DVI-I, 3 x DP, HDMI, SLI, HDCP, G-SYNC Ready Graphics Cards 04G-P4-3966-KR: Computers & Accessories

EVGA 430 Watt Power Supply: Amazon.com: EVGA 430 W1 80+, 430W 3 Year Warranty Power Supply 100-W1-0430-KR: Electronics

Will I need to buy anything else? If I hook all this up together and then download the drivers is that is all that is needed?

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@JoshS0515: is it the 15" mid 2014 MBPr? The PSU is fine, but a bit big… you can simply use an external Dell DA-2 for that card. Please read my guide: http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/10061-basic-egpu-hardware-guide-macs.html

I am using the 13" model from mid 2014

That became complicated(probably not as complicated as I think though). With the Dell DA-2 I will need to buy that power supply, an extension to the supply and smolder the two together? If I purchase This(Akitio Egpu 8 Pin to 2 x PCI E 6 Pin Super Low Profile No Latch 1 x Barrel | eBay) will I need to buy the DellDA-2 and this or just this Ebay item? Once the Dell DA-2 is in place it can power itself automatically without the paper clip trick correct?

So now I am looking at:

Akitio Thunder2

GTX 960 (the one listed in guide)

Dell DA-2

Pin Config Extension for Dell-DA2

At this point it would become as simple as installing the GPU into the Akitio and connecting the power cable correctly. Booting the machine into windows and installing the necessary drivers? If so that's not complicated at all!

Also will I be able to use my Macbook and an extended monitor for two screens or will I only be limited to one screen?

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Yeah it will work that way. The cable from eBay is powering the AKiTiO+GPU and has the paperclip trick already included.

So your list is good:

- AKiTiO

- GTX 960

- Dell DA-2

- eBay cable

2 displays will work, both in Windows and OSX, you should use OSX 10.10 and Windows 8.1!

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I travel a lot for work and am looking into this option for gaming in my hotel rooms. I normally research the crap outta things like this but I just found out about egpu's yesterday, I'm finally going to be somewhere for a whole week and need to order parts tomorrow or saturday so I can get them before I have to move on to my next job.

What I have:

Dell Latitude E5530 w/ an i5 3230M, 4gb ram, express card slot.

Gigabyte Radeon HD7790 from an old pc build

600w corsair psu also from an old build

What to buy:

for express card, do i need PE4H-EC2C?

Edit: This is what I was planning on getting

http://www.amazon.com/PE4H-EC2C-Passive-adapter-ver2-4-ExpressCard/dp/B008I71HXQ/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top?ie=UTF8

Anything else I need? I'll build an enclosure at some point.

Should I stay with 4gb of ram or should I upgrade to 8gb?

Here's the big question, My old build I have at home collecting dust is an AMD FX6300 with the HD7790, It can run Witcher 3 at 1080p on a mix high/med/low settings very well (40fps'ish).........With what I've got listed above, do you think I could get (My Goal) playable performance at 720p with medium settings on Witcher 3? (I know you cant say for sure, but "in theory" will do fine for now)

If you don't think it'll work, would getting a better gpu help?

If not, that's fine, I have a mini itx build in mind, but the egpu with an enclosure would fit the bill perfectly if I can get enough performance out of it. I'm not looking for mind blowing graphics, just reasonable graphics at around 30fps.

I appreciate any info you can give me!

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4 gigs of RAM is fine for playing TW3. I've been playing it on my Macbook Air that has 4 gigs using a GTX 960 as my gpu.

However I am not very experienced with eGPU setups for PCs, just Macs. What you're definitely going to need though is a small PSU to power the card. I'd suggest an ATX one (unless you want to order and modify a Dell DA-2).

Not sure if what I provided helped that much. You'll need someone else than me around here to get the full list of components to buy. :)

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

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I travel a lot for work and am looking into this option for gaming in my hotel rooms. I normally research the crap outta things like this but I just found out about egpu's yesterday, I'm finally going to be somewhere for a whole week and need to order parts tomorrow or saturday so I can get them before I have to move on to my next job.

What I have:

Dell Latitude E5530 w/ an i5 3230M, 4gb ram, express card slot.

Gigabyte Radeon HD7790 from an old pc build

600w corsair psu also from an old build

What to buy:

for express card, do i need PE4H-EC2C?

Edit: This is what I was planning on getting

Amazon.com: PE4H-EC2C (PCIe Passive adapter ver2.4 with EC2C ExpressCard): Computers & Accessories

Anything else I need? I'll build an enclosure at some point.

Recommend getting a PE4C V3.0. http://forum.techinferno.com/enclosures-adapters/7941-bplus-pe4c-3-x-2-x-discussion-10.html#post135033

You have a PCIe 2.0 capable system so recommend getting the eGPU adapter with best PCIe 2.0 (Gen2) signal integrity which is the PE4C V3.0.

Your HD7790 has a TDP of 85W. So could even get a 120W AC adapter to power it.

Then again, I'd suggest getting a NVidia card such as a GTX750Ti/GTX960/GTX970 over AMD due to it's superior driver features (x1 pcie compression, OPtimus accelerated internal LCD mode).

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Hey everyone :)

Just recently started exploring the eGPU universe, and I must say, I'm fascinated :D

My current setup:

2014 MBP 15'' Retina w/Nvidia 750M

using always in clamshell mode w/ 2 external desktop attached, 1x Asus 27'' and 1x Dell 24''

So, for the "basic" stuff (enclosure, GPU, power cables and so on) I'm pretty confident I understood.

My main concern is the display order.

I will be playing exclusively on the bootcamp partition

I read that if I use Win8.1 (ugh... hate that thing, I'm still on Win7) I could use the eGPU on the laptop screen as well, but seeing as I'm in clamshell mode, that's not really necessary

My setup would then be:


[MBP] -- thunderbolt -- [ akitio ] [GPU 1st port ]-- displayport -- [my 27'' monitor]
[ akitio ] [GPU 2nd port] -- hdmi -- [my 24'' monitor]

Question is: will I be able to use both screens?

Do I need to find a way to disable windows nVidia drivers for the external monitor to work?

Anyone has any experience with the clamshell mode?

Thanks! :)

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