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DIY eGPU - x2 on Lenovo T61 - possible? help?


falcontx

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Hi, I would like to report a successful eGPU implementation for t61 with nvs 140m and 9800GT with verde drivers force installed for both gpus. Best performance with x1 setup on 275.33 mod drivers and overclocking dGPu in p0 state.(win experience index jumped from 4.2 to 5.5 (general index) win7 x64, and graphics jumped from 4.3 to 5.9(performance).

I was also looking for x2 solution and started looking for some free ports that will make it possible and I stumbled into this thread. And this what i got from the info on free ports from sw SiSandra:[ATTACH=CONFIG]6215[/ATTACH]

And this is the setup 1.x conf displ; [ATTACH=CONFIG]6216[/ATTACH]

And by reading your experince in this thread it looks that my port 1 is free or WWAN, and it gives me an option of doing x4 on port 1. So is it possible by unplugging the wwan card and plugging in the mPcie to hdmi adapter on that position and connecting it with pe4h 2.4 with x4 enabled, I mean is it possible to even consider this option?

And a big thanks to nando and others for this info on eGPU.

- - - Updated - - -

sorry for double posting, forum logged me in but did not apply my replies. sorry

You'd want to first swap the wifi card and ensure you can get it to show in Setup 1.x when plugged into the WWAN slot. If that works, then you could do a [port1+2] x2 mPCIe implementation.

As to x4 mode, you'd need to go searching for the elusive bay device connector and if you find it, figure how you could tap the pci-e pins (RX/TX + GND shields). falcontx's last response suggests only the 15.4" T61 has that connector.

All is not lost if you can't find that connector. You still have a performance mode between x2 and x4 you could consider. That is x2E mode [port1+2 - running in x4 mode] implementation. I believe your 9800GT would see a difference in performance b/w x2 and x2E. ATiAMD cards definitely see an improvement in the range of 15-30%.

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You'd want to first swap the wifi card and ensure you can get it to show in Setup 1.x when plugged into the WWAN slot. If that works, then you could do a [port1+2] x2 mPCIe implementation.

As to x4 mode, you'd need to go searching for the elusive bay device connector and if you find it, figure how you could tap the pci-e pins (RX/TX + GND shields). falcontx's last response suggests only the 15.4" T61 has that connector.

All is not lost if you can't find that connector. You still have a performance mode between x2 and x4 you could consider. That is x2E mode [port1+2 - running in x4 mode] implementation. I believe your 9800GT would see a difference in performance b/w x2 and x2E. ATiAMD cards definitely see an improvement in the range of 15-30%.

You'd want to first swap the wifi card and ensure you can get it to show in Setup 1.x when plugged into the WWAN slot. If that works, then you could do a [port1+2] x2 mPCIe implementation.

As to x4 mode, you'd need to go searching for the elusive bay device connector and if you find it, figure how you could tap the pci-e pins (RX/TX + GND shields). falcontx's last response suggests only the 15.4" T61 has that connector.

All is not lost if you can't find that connector. You still have a performance mode between x2 and x4 you could consider. That is x2E mode [port1+2 - running in x4 mode] implementation. I believe your 9800GT would see a difference in performance b/w x2 and x2E. ATiAMD cards definitely see an improvement in the range of 15-30%.

Thanks for the quick reply, I will look into it, as soon as t9300 and mPcie to Hdmi comes to my adress, so I can open it again. And one more thing, I was playing with device id in riva tuner for nvs 140m and it can go for various addresses, it can be recognized as 8500 gt and so on, found a thread on web(will report the link)... It is just an idea, but if you could lets say force it to be recognized as 8500 gt or a card that has 32 cuda cores from device id list, and install the drivers with physx, I know that you can not force a hardware limited card to perform above its limitations but just to trick Windows to install physx for dGPU, and select it for physx processing and have a 9800gt only for graphics, would it make some impact? by that theory I mean having a nvs 140m -" overclocked to core 600 memory 900 and shader 1200 so it can be prepared for such operations(at least that is my modification for now --- stable 75*c).

I was playing with this:

post-10711-14494994389042_thumb.gif

It is not really a 8400m gt but a masked nvs 140m just to be clear. And in GPU-z it gives it better memory bandwith. texture fillrate and so on... So it is recognized as 8400m GT and it gives you a 0.1 more in windows experience index for me it jumped from 5.9 to 6.0 for gaming just by changing the device id in riva tuner but in playing games there is not much difference, although it has been reported for higher fps, but I think it could be a good implementation for eGPU combination if it works. This is just my experience, but as said before, I have not tried to force install physx on dGPU yet.

post-10711-14494994388659_thumb.gif

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  • 11 months later...

Hello again, I got the second pm3n adapter which is connected to my pe4l, now i have connection on 2 mpcie ports, one from wwan card and one from wifi card. I am trying to accomplish x2 link as you suggested, on t61. It recongnizes 9800gt when i have it on port1 or port2, but the problem is that I cant have them both load up at the same time. When I have them plugged in both, it only recognizes link on port1, I tried hotreset link, disable, enable port and devices on port, I even played with delay switches on Pm3n, setting a bigger delay in port2, but no results. Am i missing something?

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Hello again, I got the second pm3n adapter which is connected to my pe4l, now i have connection on 2 mpcie ports, one from wwan card and one from wifi card. I am trying to accomplish x2 link as you suggested, on t61. It recongnizes 9800gt when i have it on port1 or port2, but the problem is that I cant have them both load up at the same time. When I have them plugged in both, it only recognizes link on port1, I tried hotreset link, disable, enable port and devices on port, I even played with delay switches on Pm3n, setting a bigger delay in port2, but no results. Am i missing something?

Try this:

- remove PM3N units attached to port1 and port2

- boot Setup 1.x

- change port1 to x2 and hot reset the port

- *carefully* plug in the port2 PM3N card

- power on the eGPU

- *carefully* hotplug in the port1 PM3N

- hit F5. Is the eGPU now running a x2 link on port1?

The key here is to ensure that the 2nd lane is attached and port1 is set to x2 mode before the 1st lane establishes any valid pci-e link. You may be able to do the same as the above by just unplugging/replugging the 1st lane mHDMI cable from the PE4H 2.4.

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Try this:

- remove PM3N units attached to port1 and port2

- boot Setup 1.x

- change port1 to x2 and hot reset the port

- *carefully* plug in the port2 PM3N card

- power on the eGPU

- *carefully* hotplug in the port1 PM3N

- hit F5. Is the eGPU now running a x2 link on port1?

The key here is to ensure that the 2nd lane is attached and port1 is set to x2 mode before the 1st lane establishes any valid pci-e link. You may be able to do the same as the above by just unplugging/replugging the 1st lane mHDMI cable from the PE4H 2.4.

Ok, forgot to mention that I have a dead dGpu that comes with the laptop, nvidia quadro nvs140m, so the option to plug eGpu upon starting the 1.x setup is not possible, because eGpu is like dGpu for now, until I get it reballed with lead solder, not lead free which is the reason why these dGpu keep failing.

Nevertheless, I tried the suggestions you posted, and none of them work, I can not do a hot reset on either of the ports because this is my main link for graphic output(it just hangs), I think, even tried saving ports and loading them additionally via the Whitelist menu but nothing.

At the end, I left the both ports connected to eGpu and booted Without using Setup 1.x, and the first thing I noticed is that the screen doesnt hang anymore when going from the loading screen of Windows, to Log in screen. when i have it on 1port connected I have to wait for a couple of seconds to see the log in screen, but with 2 ports it is almost instant, and loading is in general faster.

Than, tried to do some tests with dolphin emulator and I got better fps, noticable improvement, but when I go to GPU-Z to see what link, it says 1.1x(WEI graphics score did not change also), so I ask you shouldnt it be 1.1x2?

Do both Pm3n adapters light up when they have successfull x2 link?

And is it neccessary to have both ports recognized in Setup 1.x to be sure that you have x2 link(at least in this case, with a dead dGpu)?

Again, thank you for your time.

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