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DIY eGPU on Dell XPS 1645 with EXP GDC v6.0 troubleshooting.


Deadly_Fatal

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Hi guys,

I have made an eGPU setup using a Dell Studio XPS 1645 and EXP GDC v6.0 (just using express card slot). The setup seems to run fine but many (not all) games and even 3D Mark freeze after ~10 secs or crash. I've installed drivers manually for both my internal and external graphic cards to try and resolve any conflicts between them since they are both ATI. I'm clueless as to what could be the problem. My specs are:

CPU: i7 q720 @ 1.60 GHz

GPU: ATI Mobility HD 4670 and external XFX FX 7750 Monster 1GB GDDR5

Ram: 4 GB

Windows 7 64 bit

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

It took me a little longer to get everything then I originally thought. It's all extremely simple to put together and it's very much plug n play. However, i'm unable to underclock/overclock the graphics card(It took me 6 hours to get the graphics drivers installed properly) and I've seen about 10~fps increase.

Not as much as I was expecting, not even quite the bare minimum. I might try to play around with the settings through some other program.(MSI Afterburner hard freezes my computer on launch)

A word of warning, my Dell Xps 1645 was extremely finicky about installing the XFX R7750 graphics drivers. I completely erased my laptop video drivers and reinstalled them using various methods (CCC, Driver ToolKIT) The graphics card starts running as soon as its plugged in through the Express Card Slot but device manager gave me a myriad of errors as to why the graphics card drivers weren't loading.

I also bought a 520 W power supply and a universal Ac adapter for the EXP GDC v 6,0(required) so it all came up to around $200 USD. For a card that totes 4k capability, I know the full power of of the XFX isn't being utilized.

If anyone else has experience with External Graphics Card setups and getting the most out of your card i'd appreciate the feedback.

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  • 1 month later...

Hi deadly_fatal,

I have Dellstudio 1555 + egpu sapphire ATI R9 270 + igpu ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570. I failed to install the driver. My external screen is blanks.

This is the version I installed. But it failed when installing the driver.

I had tried install the driver individually, but it get error 31 in the device manager for my egpu.

This device is not working properly because Windows cannot load the drivers required for this device. (Code 31)

do you face this problem??

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Hey guys yes AMD drivers can be very finicky, try this route; install DDU uninstaller, run it remove AMD graphics driver, reboot, run DDU again and remove Intel HD graphics drivers, reboot. Install latest drivers for intel hd graphics, reboot, here's the most important thing don't install AMD 14.4 that hell of a thing is broken got damn it I swear don't ever install it! instead install the latest beta driver which have solved the finicky installation of AMD drivers which is amd catalyst 14.7 RC1 and then tell us your results..

Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk

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  • 9 months later...

I have the same XPS 1645 laptop and did an eGPU with 7950 in 2013

It was a PCIE 1.1 x4 configuration, I used all mini PCIE+EC ports available + PE4H adapter.

The tricky part is from the Catalyst driver, for the eGPU to work, the internal Radeon 4670 has to work first, so you can't just install the latest Catalyst since 4670 is no longer supported by it.

So basically without driver mod you are stuck with Catalyst 12.4 or 12.6, the last version which supports both 4670 and 7950

If you have dx11 internal GPU (5730 for XPS 1645) ? You don't have to go through this trouble

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For driver mod (DX10 cards), the idea is to rename all driver files and modify the INI file, so system could use a different set of file and registry for older card. Then you can install normally the new Catalyst for your DX11 card.

The reason to modify Catalyst for legacy cards and not normal Catalyst for DX11 and newer cards, is that the former is less frequently updated. (13.9 was the last version if i am not wrong)

Some functionnalities aren't working with this driver mod, like openCL, but for gaming it works fine.

Another annoying thing is that in x64 Windows you have to force disable driver signature during boot, i didn't figure out how to make it permanent, so I was forced to press F8.

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