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eGPU experiences [version 2.0]


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So how does one go about faking a x4 link? I'm looking for any deals till my bridges get here (AMD are on short supply)

There is a read-only PCI config register on the video card that identifies the pci width being used. Presumably the NVidia driver reads that register and suitably provides the SLI option or gray it out. So no 'easy' way of doing it. Would pretty much need to hack the NVidia driver to bypass that check. If skilled enough to do that then why stop there? Why not enable the pci-e compression for all eGPU instances rather than what the current limitation of an Intel 4500MHD or neweriGPU + x1 link only.

If you're going to have a go suggest using HDX (Extras->Open RAM) to view the in-memory version of the driver and start figuring out where to patch it. I believe the disk version of the driver is heavily protected to prevent users doing things outside of what NVidia want.

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Here is my new high score in 3dMark firestrike extrem : NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3632QM,Sony Corporation VAIO

5859 points on gpu score , it's with a GTX 780ti , with nvidia cooler @ 1310 mhz/7900mhz and 1.2125v

In some new games , like COD ghost , the bandwith is bottlenecked the egpu , when i change settings in cod ghost fore example , fps don't inscrease.. i have to reduce the resolution to have a more acceptable game.

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Here is my new high score in 3dMark firestrike extrem : NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3632QM,Sony Corporation VAIO

5859 points on gpu score , it's with a GTX 780ti , with nvidia cooler @ 1310 mhz/7900mhz and 1.2125v

In some new games , like COD ghost , the bandwith is bottlenecked the egpu , when i change settings in cod ghost fore example , fps don't inscrease.. i have to reduce the resolution to have a more acceptable game.

Strange your 3dmark shows you have zero cards (0x).

Powerful card, how about some 3dm11 benchmark, heaven, and game benchmarks.

Someone here said he had bandwidth bottleneck at Crysis 3 at welcome to the jungle scene you may try that too.

Whats your cpu/gpu usages at cod on max settings? And on the lower one?

I asked my friend here, he just has to find his crossfire cables. Will do a test crossfire with both at 16x, then tape off the lanes for 1x on each and see if it still works. Not sure when he'll get around to it. I'll keep pestering him till he does so lol.

I'll meet up with him Sunday. We'll do it then.

--

Minor update:

Going to try Cfire with a 7970 and a 280X (both Tahiti). Shown to work natively in desktops. Will try Cfire at 1x link as well. If it does work, would be neat to try as eGPU as well. I don't have a mPCIe PE4L adapter to attempt that with. Perhaps someone can lend me one if 1x link does work (in the desktop)? If you live in eastern Texas PM, perhaps one of you is near me!

Does he have a pci-e gen 2 or 3 mobo?

If it will work on desktop 1x links I don't see why it won't work on a laptop? except some (minor?) extra latency (Desktop pci-e is on northbridge vs laptop's southbridge)

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Does he have a pci-e gen 2 or 3 mobo?

If it will work on desktop 1x links I don't see why it won't work on a laptop? except some (minor?) extra latency (Desktop pci-e is on northbridge vs laptop's southbridge)

Gen2 mobo. Kinda side question, is it just me or do nearly all AMD mobos only have Gen2.

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Dear Nando and Friends

Please need your help to create pci script because I really dont understand how to program .

In addition I have performed pcitool snapshot , but not found in any folder on the pc.(pci scope not started on win 7 64)

Really really need your help

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Please see attached screens def settings

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egpu connected

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(only after 36bit method its free up 512m and stuck pci express to error 12 )

Many thanks in advance .

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Dear Nando and Friends

Please need your help to create pci script because I really dont understand how to program .

In addition I have performed pcitool snapshot , but not found in any folder on the pc.(pci scope not started on win 7 64)

Really really need your help

(only after 36bit method its free up 512m and stuck pci express to error 12 )

Many thanks in advance .

Why are you using such a old version of setup 1.x there is version 1.3 now., I don't really know that old version but.

You would use !Run compact (after choosing themethod and ignore group) which automatically writes the PCI.bat file for you.

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Doing some tests (more soon in edits!)

My GTX 660 Ti:

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Ti video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-2620M Processor,FUJITSU FJNB231

P5762

Friend's R9 280X:

AMD Radeon R9 280X video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-2620M Processor,FUJITSU FJNB231

P6563

3DMark06 with R9 280X:

AMD Radeon R9 280X video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-2620M Processor,FUJITSU FJNB231

18910

3DMark Firestrike with R9 280X:

AMD Radeon R9 280X video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-2620M Processor,FUJITSU FJNB231

5249

Still note to all, this isn't the best performance you can get out of these. My CPU throttling lowers the scores a bit.

Cfire soon!

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I have a Lenovo Y570, and I'm trying to connect a GTX560 DirectCU II with a PE4L 2.1b, but the eGPU is not detected.

CPU: i3

ram: 8GB

os: Windows 8.1

psu: HKC usp-3430

The only working, soldered on mpcie slot is the wifi one, so I'm using a modded bios, whitelist removed, also the dGPU is turned off. I've tried to set the switch to both 0 and 7s delay, and all the plug methods: cold boot eGPU first, cold boot notebook first (egpu with little delay), sleep and plug, nothing.

I used the gpu in a desktop, so no problem with that. The wifi card was working ofc, and when the notebook is running, the egpu is connected and the psu is turned off, the leds on the gpu and the pe4l are active, so the connector should be fine too.

Any ideas? Am I missing something?

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I have a Lenovo Y570, and I'm trying to connect a GTX560 DirectCU II with a PE4L 2.1b, but the eGPU is not detected.

CPU: i3

ram: 8GB

os: Windows 8.1

psu: HKC usp-3430

The only working, soldered on mpcie slot is the wifi one, so I'm using a modded bios, whitelist removed, also the dGPU is turned off. I've tried to set the switch to both 0 and 7s delay, and all the plug methods: cold boot eGPU first, cold boot notebook first (egpu with little delay), sleep and plug, nothing.

I used the gpu in a desktop, so no problem with that. The wifi card was working ofc, and when the notebook is running, the egpu is connected and the psu is turned off, the leds on the gpu and the pe4l are active, so the connector should be fine too.

Any ideas? Am I missing something?

Install the wifi card into the system, boot system but halt win7/8 loading with F8/F12. Then with eGPU powered on, *carefully* hotplug the PM3N end of the eGPU adapter in place of the wifi card. Doing this will overcome two problems (1) bios that applies whitelisting and/or configuration of the port only when the wifi card is installed and (2) CLKRUN signal start issues.

If then need to overcome error 12/34, want some better whitelisting corrective features or need more diagnostics then consider obtaining Setup 1.x.

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CrossFireX @ 1x ?

Short answer: unsure

Long answer:

Using friend (K)'s mobo and 7970 and friend (T)'s R9 280X natively:

AMD Radeon HD 7970 video card benchmark result - AMD FX-8150,MSI 970A-G46 (MS-7693)

Works great!

The issue arises when we try to run the cards in a 1x link.

We taped off both cards so they run @ 1x -> only one card shows up..... odd

Run one card @ 1x -> shows att 1x ONLY in the 1st PCIe 16x slot.

When we put it in the other 16x slot, it doesn't work at all - not even the system POSTs. Well, it might've POSTed but we cannot see since the video card doesn't work.

---

We are now guessing that it is the mobo restricting us. Not sure what mobos would allow a 1x taped card in the 2nd PCIe 16x slot. At 16x everything is fine. Not sure if that port is wired to only use specific lanes. Couldn't really tell looking at it.

---

We don't know of anyone else in the area that has suitable hardware. So would have to reach out to others on T|I that run desktops with Cfire to see if they can test. If that proves to work at least in a desktop; then would just gotta try it eGPU. The only thing I'm missing for that is the mPCIe version of the PE4L. If someone could lend that to me I'd gladly test it (and of course send it back ;P ).

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CrossFireX @ 1x ?

Short answer: unsure

Long answer:

Using friend (K)'s mobo and 7970 and friend (T)'s R9 280X natively:

AMD Radeon HD 7970 video card benchmark result - AMD FX-8150,MSI 970A-G46 (MS-7693)

Works great!

The issue arises when we try to run the cards in a 1x link.

We taped off both cards so they run @ 1x -> only one card shows up..... odd

Run one card @ 1x -> shows att 1x ONLY in the 1st PCIe 16x slot.

When we put it in the other 16x slot, it doesn't work at all - not even the system POSTs. Well, it might've POSTed but we cannot see since the video card doesn't work.

---

We are now guessing that it is the mobo restricting us. Not sure what mobos would allow a 1x taped card in the 2nd PCIe 16x slot. At 16x everything is fine. Not sure if that port is wired to only use specific lanes. Couldn't really tell looking at it.

---

We don't know of anyone else in the area that has suitable hardware. So would have to reach out to others on T|I that run desktops with Cfire to see if they can test. If that proves to work at least in a desktop; then would just gotta try it eGPU. The only thing I'm missing for that is the mPCIe version of the PE4L. If someone could lend that to me I'd gladly test it (and of course send it back ;P ).

So you're saying that with only one card in the system, and its tapped to run on 1x, it runs only on a specific port (it works on one of them)?

If so can you still benchmark that one card so we will also have a desktop x1.2 result.

And take a look at this:

Taping Connectors, Updating The BIOS - SLI Is Coming: Time To Analyze PCI Express

And I quote:

post-19480-14494996820223_thumb.gif

Shown above is a x16 PCI Express slot as well as the contacts that have been taped to achieve a specific transfer mode. Click to enlarge.

And

DFI gave us a BIOS which makes it possible to run at PCIe modes below x16. Click to enlarge.

I guess will need to test with a riser on a 1x port, we know those work from mining...

Edit:

Found a gen 2 tapping:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/pci-express-2.0,1915-4.html

In this one they didn't mention a BIOS, and they even tested dual GPU on single card (9800 GX2), shame its a old one.

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a question out of tema.x2E link increase the bandwidth respect x2?or is just simply a better solution for amd cards.

using cuda test it give just 163mb from 250mb that in theory has x1 1.1pciexpress.that is HToD and DToH 200MB.I THINK I LOSE SOME MB SOMEWHERE ON THE LINE.USING X2 DOUBLE THE AMOUNT BUT STILL LOSING MB.SOMEONE KNOWS WHATS HAPPEND HERE?THANKS.

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So you're saying that with only one card in the system, and its tapped to run on 1x, it runs only on a specific port (it works on one of them)?

If so can you still benchmark that one card so we will also have a desktop x1.2 result.

Correct. Only one of the ports work when taped to run on 1x

And take a look at this:

Taping Connectors, Updating The BIOS - SLI Is Coming: Time To Analyze PCI Express

And I quote:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]10103[/ATTACH]

I was actually looking at that to know how to tape it correctly lol.

I guess will need to test with a riser on a 1x port, we know those work from mining...

Yeah.

Edit:

Found a gen 2 tapping:

Testing at x16, x8, x4, x1 - PCI Express 2.0 Graphics Cards Tested

In this one they didn't mention a BIOS, and they even tested dual GPU on single card (9800 GX2), shame its a old one.

This is how I taped my friends' cards up. It was just that one port didn't work. The slots that are PCIe 1x on his mobo were not edgeless so I couldn't just plop them in there. And he didn't like the idea of me cutting away to make them edgeless lol.

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Hi, had you fixed it? If not, I can try to help you, I have a elitebook 6930p with 2gb ram, win 7 pro and ATI HD6850. 3d Mark scor3 Dx 11 is about 11k. Firts, your system and given informations are very poor, You are running a 64 Bit system. right? Second, when you are looking for advice, be polite, and provide as many informations as you can, screenshots, your procedure step by step from scratch, memory allocation, your PC specification, type of native driver up to date and compatible DNA driver.....

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ok sorry.i have a old fujitsu amilo pi3540 wich i iupgrade to an t9900 4gb ram ddr2,dgpu geforce9300m gs with w7 ultimate 64 bits.my egpu is a gtx650 1gb ram running a x2 link port 1 and port 2.port 3 is free.my concern is that i only got 160mb on a single lane and a average of 350 on x2 lanes using cuda test.ok,the point here is trying to find out if x2E LINK provide more bandwidth or is just a better solution for amd cards,because i really want to use nvidia cards.i wll put more details very soon.THANK YOU AND I WISH A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL THE MEMBERS OF THIS FORUM!!!

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CrossFireX @ 1x ?

...The only thing I'm missing for that is the mPCIe version of the PE4L. If someone could lend that to me I'd gladly test it (and of course send it back ;P ).

I can lend you mine, PM me so we can discuss more.

Regards,

Niclas

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Thanks everyone for your help. I finally got my eGPU set up with a GTX650Ti Boost. I'm using a 175W XBOX 360 PSU. All these scores are using the internal LCD, but if anyone wants me to run the benchmarks on an external please let me know.

3DMark06 - 19350

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3632QM,Hewlett-Packard 17DF

3DMark - Cloud Gate - 11179 / Fire Strike - 3356 / Ice Storm - 23911

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3632QM,Hewlett-Packard 17DF

3DMark 11 - 4821

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3632QM,Hewlett-Packard 17DF

3DMark Vantage - 16613

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3632QM,Hewlett-Packard 17DF

Heaven - 1003

post-8761-14494996826481_thumb.jpg

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Thanks everyone for your help. I finally got my eGPU set up with a GTX650Ti Boost. I'm using a 175W XBOX 360 PSU. All these scores are using the internal LCD, but if anyone wants me to run the benchmarks on an external please let me know.

3DMark06 - 19350

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3632QM,Hewlett-Packard 17DF

3DMark - Cloud Gate - 11179 / Fire Strike - 3356 / Ice Storm - 23911

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3632QM,Hewlett-Packard 17DF

3DMark 11 - 4821

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3632QM,Hewlett-Packard 17DF

3DMark Vantage - 16613

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3632QM,Hewlett-Packard 17DF

Heaven - 1003

Yes, run them on an external display so it can easily be compared to the other scores on the leaderboards (due to performance difference). Grats on getting it all working!

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I've got myself two HD6950 that are unlocked to HD6970 shader count to test crossfire on my desktop. I don't have two pci-e slots so I'm waiting for my 1x-16x riser to arrive (which takes forever o0)

I'll try tapping one in the meanwhile.

UPDATE:

OK tapping worked!

16x Score: 5176

post-19480-14494996828091_thumb.gif

AMD Radeon HD 6950 video card benchmark result - AMD Phenom II X4 20,Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. GA-MA770T-UD3P

1x Score: 4505 (87% of the first score), pretty good percentage don't you think?

post-19480-144949968283_thumb.png

AMD Radeon HD 6950 video card benchmark result - AMD Phenom II X4 20,Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. GA-MA770T-UD3P

* This are actually two different but identical cards, but I don't think they would give a different scores at 16x so I didn't test the second one (tapped on) at16x.

Waiting for my riser to arrive to test crossfire :o

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I've got myself two HD6950 that are unlocked to HD6970 shader count to test crossfire on my desktop. I don't have two pci-e slots so I'm waiting for my 1x-16x riser to arrive (which takes forever o0)

I'll try tapping one in the meanwhile.

UPDATE:

OK tapping worked!

16x Score: 5176

[ATTACH]10131[/ATTACH]

AMD Radeon HD 6950 video card benchmark result - AMD Phenom II X4 20,Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. GA-MA770T-UD3P

1x Score: 4505 (87% of the first score), pretty good percentage don't you think?

[ATTACH=CONFIG]10133[/ATTACH]

AMD Radeon HD 6950 video card benchmark result - AMD Phenom II X4 20,Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. GA-MA770T-UD3P

* This are actually two different but identical cards, but I don't think they would give a different scores at 16x so I didn't test the second one (tapped on) at16x.

Waiting for my riser to arrive to test crossfire :o

Tape both cards to 1x and then see if you can enable crossfire. That is the main issue.

I was able to Crossfire native (16x), but when taped to 1x (just one card in system), it wasn't recognized in the 2nd PCIe slot. See if you can put a card taped to 1x in each of your PCIe slots. If it works in both slots, then tape both cards to 1x and see if you can enable crossfire.

Whoops, just re-read seeing you don't have two slots. Hopefully it will work with the riser/extender cable. You could also cutaway the back of the 1x link to make it edgeless :D

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I finally got my eGPU set up with a GTX650Ti Boost. I'm using a 175W XBOX 360 PSU. All these scores are using the internal LCD, but if anyone wants me to run the benchmarks on an external please let me know.

Thanks for the benchmarks! :) Could you please tell me if your GTX 650 Ti Boost needs a 256MB memory block (like ordinary GTX 650 Ti) or if it uses 128MB+64MB+32MB slots (like all other nVidias)? Thank you. You can see it in device manager.

Edit: also, could you tell me anything about your 175W XBOX psu implementation? Is it any different than the 203W psu?

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Tape both cards to 1x and then see if you can enable crossfire. That is the main issue.

I was able to Crossfire native (16x), but when taped to 1x (just one card in system), it wasn't recognized in the 2nd PCIe slot. See if you can put a card taped to 1x in each of your PCIe slots. If it works in both slots, then tape both cards to 1x and see if you can enable crossfire.

Whoops, just re-read seeing you don't have two slots. Hopefully it will work with the riser/extender cable. You could also cutaway the back of the 1x link to make it edgeless :D

Yea you said a tapped card didn't work on one of the 16x slots, so I just checked if mined did, and it does.

Cutting the end of the port won't help for me as each 1x is blocked by something on the board (like CMOS battery, caps, etc).

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Yea you said a tapped card didn't work on one of the 16x slots, so I just checked if mined did, and it does.

Cutting the end of the port won't help for me as each 1x is blocked by something on the board (like CMOS battery, caps, etc).

Nice! When does your extender come in? jacobsson is gonna send me the mPCIe version of the PE4L so if that works on your desktop at 1x link on both, hopefully I can get it to work eGPU wise.

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Nice! When does your extender come in? jacobsson is gonna send me the mPCIe version of the PE4L so if that works on your desktop at 1x link on both, hopefully I can get it to work eGPU wise.

Your result would be more interesting :| About a week I guess :\ (They shipped it late without notifying me)

My guess it will work on two PE4L, if you get the addressing fixed (I'm not sure how setup 1.x will handle it)

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Your result would be more interesting :| About a week I guess :\ (They shipped it late without notifying me)

My guess it will work on two PE4L, if you get the addressing fixed (I'm not sure how setup 1.x will handle it)

You will get your adapter before I get it from jacobsson. Glad you can test it on a desktop to see if it can work at all with 1x. Which is the main issue here. If it does infact work, then I shall fiddle around a LOT with it eGPU to get it workin.

Thanks for helping with this adventure. I'll make a new thread to keep this out of this one.

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