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eGPU experiences [version 2.0]


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Crap, looks like you're right. Maybe there's some kind of cable to get the mPCIe out of the laptop or something. Watching closely, maybe getting one RAM module out.

I'll try out anyway, the laptop is not that expensive for what it has, and if I make it I'll be the first to use it for eGPU. It'll take some time anyway, because while I do need the laptop to work (ACER Aspire 5920 with more than five years...), games can wait, but will come later rather than sooner :)

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Hello, I've been considering an E-GPU solution for a while since I move a lot between different locations and bring the laptop with me to school. What are the options today? I'm looking for the size of a 13 inch or the thinner 14 inchers with a max weight of about 2kg (4.4 lbs). The laptop also needs to be able to run the E-GPU on the internal screen.

The Gigabyte U2442N seemed like the perfect laptop for me last summer due to the dGPU and announced thunderbolt support which would make me able to run on the dGPU until the need for a more powerful GPU arose, but then it didn't ship with Thunderbolt so that was a moot point.

When using an E-GPU through the express card slots, can you do it plug and play or do you need to restart the laptop? Wasn't one of the benifits of Thunderbolt that it would bring plug and play?

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Basically you have several options in your case. You can buy a gaming PC and take a small lightweight laptop. You could then control your PC via the laptop(teamviewer), and even play games about it. But it makes no fun.

A (strong performance) laptop can do both. (If you find one)

Or you use just one eGPU if you really want to have the power everywhere.

Unless you want to play on your laptop screen, make you make a high-quality display, look for this to be reviews. And if you want the eGPU you need to know, that if you use the laptop screen you lose performance (probably, I lose ~7% to 9%).

At Laptops with a 13 or 14 displays, and under 2kg is is difficult to find. Since Thunderbolt adapters are not available now, which you'd have to use ExpressCard.

The plug and play work(for me) not, i need to active and connected the graphics card before I start my laptop.

The only laptops I know are the Lenovo T430 (s) or T420 (s), but which do not have a good display (in my opinion). Maybe Dell or HP have a better Laptop for you and the eGPU, but I do not know about there.

But if you can life with a smaller display you can lock at the Lenovo x220 or x230, they can have a IPS display. It's very good but a "small" resolution.

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Hello, I've been considering an E-GPU solution for a while since I move a lot between different locations and bring the laptop with me to school. What are the options today? I'm looking for the size of a 13 inch or the thinner 14 inchers with a max weight of about 2kg (4.4 lbs). The laptop also needs to be able to run the E-GPU on the internal screen.

The Gigabyte U2442N seemed like the perfect laptop for me last summer due to the dGPU and announced thunderbolt support which would make me able to run on the dGPU until the need for a more powerful GPU arose, but then it didn't ship with Thunderbolt so that was a moot point.

When using an E-GPU through the express card slots, can you do it plug and play or do you need to restart the laptop? Wasn't one of the benifits of Thunderbolt that it would bring plug and play?

2011-2013 Thunderbolt is imho, a dud. It's 10Gbps, double expresscards slot performance but the Thunderbolt eGPU enclosures are hideously expensive. Thunderbolt on a Macbook is well and truly not plug and play. I found the firmware would even disconnect the Thunderbolt controller off the root bridge if no device was detected on bootup.

Until 20Gbps Thunderbolt comes out either with Haswell (June 2013) or later in 2014, I'm suggesting users avoid Thunderbolt for the time being. It's just too pricey for both the notebook and the eGPU enclosure. Macbook users will consider it since they have Thunderbolt and no expresscard slot and seemingly deeper pockets.

So I'd suggest stick with a system with an expresscard 2.0 slot. The best Ivy Bridge options to meet your needs being:

12.5" Lenovo X230, HP 2570P or Dell E6230. I chose a 12.5" HP 2570P as it's the performance king from this list. It can be upgraded to a i7-quad and can host 2x9.5mm drives, even configurable in RAID-0 formation. That means can get > 10Mbps sequential reads with the latest SSDs. The other two systems have soldered CPUs, limited storage upgrade options and look a lot worse imho. Unfortunately review sites fail to mention these 2570P performance features. A 2570P is greatly under represented by review websites.

13" Toshiba R930 or Dell E6330. A Dell E6330 betters a E6230 by offering a touchstyk and can host 2 drives.

14" Lenovo T430s/T430, HP 8470P, Dell E6430, Toshiba R940. These all have 1600x900 LCD options. i7 version of T430s has both a Thunderbolt and expresscard slot. A 14" Toshiba R940 being the thinnest/lightest unit while still having a 66Whr battery. A T430s is light but uses a low capacity li-po so needs a optical bay battery to get decent battery life out it. Note: T430s and R940 have soldered CPUs.

The other wildcard here is a 13" Sony SVZ. Awesome machine with i7-quad CPU, FHD LCD, RAID-0 SSD storage all in a chassis as light as a 13" Macbook Air. Problem is they have no expresscard slot and they're being discontinued. Thankfully, our Mikjoa has shown us how it a convenient mPCIe eGPU can be attached to one of these beauties. Save your money and DON'T get the PMD option with a SVZ. They come with a HD6650M/7670M that's also limited to the same 10Gbps downstream link just like 2011-2013 Thunderbolt (x2 2.0 + 12.5%). A GTX560Ti+ eGPU via mPCIe giving far better performance. See http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/2158-diy-egpu-guide-sony-vaio-vpc-z2-svz13.html#post27918

Lastly, if you have deep pockets then consider a 13" or 15" retina Macbook Pro (rMBP). 15" rMBP is 4.6lbs, has a quad-core CPU and GT650M, plus 2xThunderbolt ports along with their sensational retina displays. Then add a Thunderbolt eGPU enclosure.

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@ Tech Inferno Fan

I wanted to ask you whether you want to put my system in your list? Or have you already enough Lenovo's x220? And I wanted to ask if I would use an ATI / AMD video card, need I a specific graphics card driver?

@ Gwypaas

As already mentioned, I would read the reviews of the above laptops from Tech Inferno Fan, whether they respond you.

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I'm also after egpu setup on my laptop, is a Toshiba tecra A11 first gen i5 with 4gb of ram. If I purchase PE4L v2.1b adapter will it compatible to my laptop mobo since mine is 5 series intel chipset qm57?

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2011-2013 Thunderbolt is imho, a dud. It's 10Gbps, double expresscards slot performance but the Thunderbolt eGPU enclosures are hideously expensive. Thunderbolt on a Macbook is well and truly not plug and play. I found the firmware would even disconnect the Thunderbolt controller off the root bridge if no device was detected on bootup.

Until 20Gbps Thunderbolt comes out either with Haswell (June 2013) or later in 2014, I'm suggesting users avoid Thunderbolt for the time being. It's just too pricey for both the notebook and the eGPU enclosure. Macbook users will consider it since they have Thunderbolt and no expresscard slot and seemingly deeper pockets.

So I'd suggest stick with a system with an expresscard 2.0 slot. The best Ivy Bridge options to meet your needs being:

12.5" Lenovo X230, HP 2570P or Dell E6230. I chose a 12.5" HP 2570P as it's the performance king from this list. It can be upgraded to a i7-quad and can host 2x9.5mm drives, even configurable in RAID-0 formation. That means can get > 10Mbps sequential reads with the latest SSDs. The other two systems have soldered CPUs, limited storage upgrade options and look a lot worse imho. Unfortunately review sites fail to mention these 2570P performance features. A 2570P is greatly under represented by review websites.

13" Toshiba R930 or Dell E6330. A Dell E6330 betters a E6230 by offering a touchstyk and can host 2 drives.

14" Lenovo T430s/T430, HP 8470P, Dell E6430, Toshiba R940. These all have 1600x900 LCD options. i7 version of T430s has both a Thunderbolt and expresscard slot. A 14" Toshiba R940 being the thinnest/lightest unit while still having a 66Whr battery. A T430s is light but uses a low capacity li-po so needs a optical bay battery to get decent battery life out it. Note: T430s and R940 have soldered CPUs.

The other wildcard here is a 13" Sony SVZ. Awesome machine with i7-quad CPU, FHD LCD, RAID-0 SSD storage all in a chassis as light as a 13" Macbook Air. Problem is they have no expresscard slot and they're being discontinued. Thankfully, our Mikjoa has shown us how it a convenient mPCIe eGPU can be attached to one of these beauties. Save your money and DON'T get the PMD option with a SVZ. They come with a HD6650M/7670M that's also limited to the same 10Gbps downstream link just like 2011-2013 Thunderbolt (x2 2.0 + 12.5%). A GTX560Ti+ eGPU via mPCIe giving far better performance. See http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/2158-diy-egpu-guide-sony-vaio-vpc-z2-svz13.html#post27918

Lastly, if you have deep pockets then consider a 13" or 15" retina Macbook Pro (rMBP). 15" rMBP is 4.6lbs, has a quad-core CPU and GT650M, plus 2xThunderbolt ports along with their sensational retina displays. Then add a Thunderbolt eGPU enclosure.

I just registered to thank you for the most helpful and clear post I have seen since starting to search for this subject. Clearly written and recommendations based on facts and experience. A pleasure to sore forum eyes!

A couple of other considerations to think of in the light of buying a 12-14 inch laptop that can be plugged in to become a desktop aswell (I basically have the same idea as Gwypaas)

As far as i can see a i7 3520qm Lenovo x230 comes for 1070dollars and a Hp 2570 needs a whopping 1499dollars for the same(just going off manufacturer us website prices here), even though the hp has more upgrade paths that seems allot of money.

I have a I7 2630qm proccesor in my 3+kilo 2hour battery life laptop atm, would it be a good idea to use that as a way to upgrade a i3 Hp2570? or is the power consumption/tdp from that sandy bridge to high to use with it?

What type of Gpu should i buy for this system? I am personally thinking of spending about 150-200 euro for a card as it seems thats where the price/performance is at atm. The new 650 ti boost any good for the use?

Thnx in advance for any anwser

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I have a T420 as my main machine and throw the egpu in via the expresscard slot when I'm at a desk (for gaming driving a 21" monitor). Everything else (keyboard/mouse/sound) is plugged in by a single USB cable. So I think that matches your laptop-as-desktop criteria.

I replaced an ageing Q6600 + 8800GTX setup with an i5 2520m + GTX560ti448 and am very happy with the result. Light enough laptop for using in the lounge but powerful enough for gaming when I want to (I'm currently looking at getting a PE4L-EC200A for gaming in the lounge :) ).

Really cheap from the lenovo outlet (~600USD for the laptop plus other bits).

It's possible to put a quad core in the T420, but everything I've read says the power and heat is too high (it throttles massively). A high spec dual core i5 seems to be the way to go in a 12-14" system.

The 650 ti boost definitely looks to be the card to get right now. Close to 660 performance for a chunk less cash.

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@ Malloot

First The i7 3520 is not a quad core but only a dual-core! Look at Intel itself, if you do not believe me. If it makes no great conditions, I would keep the laptop and build a eGPU help if that is possible.

And Second the graphics card I would buy a GTX 660, this is already starting at ~ 160 €.

@ naturbo2000

Just buy one PE4L-EC200A I want to know how expensive so one is :12_003:

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I just registered to thank you for the most helpful and clear post I have seen since starting to search for this subject. Clearly written and recommendations based on facts and experience. A pleasure to sore forum eyes!

A couple of other considerations to think of in the light of buying a 12-14 inch laptop that can be plugged in to become a desktop aswell (I basically have the same idea as Gwypaas)

As far as i can see a i7 3520qm Lenovo x230 comes for 1070dollars and a Hp 2570 needs a whopping 1499dollars for the same(just going off manufacturer us website prices here), even though the hp has more upgrade paths that seems allot of money.

I have a I7 2630qm proccesor in my 3+kilo 2hour battery life laptop atm, would it be a good idea to use that as a way to upgrade a i3 Hp2570? or is the power consumption/tdp from that sandy bridge to high to use with it?

What type of Gpu should i buy for this system? I am personally thinking of spending about 150-200 euro for a card as it seems thats where the price/performance is at atm. The new 650 ti boost any good for the use?

Thnx in advance for any anwser

a one-gen older 12.5" HP 2560P can be host your i7-2630QM CPU, as installed by SimoxTav and vnwhite at http://forum.techinferno.com/hp-business-class-notebooks/2090-hp-elitebook-2560p-owners-lounge-%5Bversion-2-0%5D.html#post26525 . 2560P units are usually available for a very good price as an ebay s/h unit. Certainly recommended if it comes with the 3yr NBD onsite global warranty. Other budget options to consider would be a Lenovo E420/T420*, HP 4430s/8460p*, Dell Vostro 3450*/E6420 (*=ensure doesn't come with a discrete graphics option as it complicates the installation).

New 650Ti boost offers 93% of the performance of a GTX660 at a more palatable pricepoint. See ASUS GTX 650 Ti Boost Direct CU II OC 2 GB Review | techPowerUp . A great one for eGPU purposes.

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hello i habe a problem.

i have i dell vostro 3560 (base specs):

i7-3632QM, Ivy bridge H77

Radeon 7670M dGPU

1920x1080 15.6"

6Gb ram (4+2), 32Gb mSata/256Gb ssd Samsung 830

1x Expresscard 2.0

HD4000 / 7670M

eGPU:

Gigabyte Windforce 660ti 2gb

400w psu Be quiet! System Power 7

PE4h 2.4

Setup:

Default Win 7/8 pci bus TOLUD: 9FA00000 (2.5Gb), no problem with "error 12".

Starting from fresh win 7 install-> hotplugging egpu -> install nvidia 314.22 driver -> cannot get monitor (plugged into eGPU) detected.

After reboot there is also no monitor detected at egpu.

How can i fix this?

Problem description

1. What's the problem?

No monitor detected at egpu

2. Have you consulted the Troubleshooting FAQ to resolve the issue?

Yes, but i could not fix it.

Platform Description

1. OS

Win 7 Ultimate x64

2. System

Dell Vostro 3560

i7-3632QM, Ivy bridge H77

Radeon 7670M dGPU

1920x1080 15.6"

32Gb mSata/256Gb ssd Samsung 830

1x Expresscard 2.0

HD4000 / 7670M

3. RAM

6Gb ram (4+2)

4. eGPU used

Gigabyte Windforce 660ti @ PE4H v.2.4

5. PSU specification (especially the +12V max current)

be quite! System Power 7 400W

+12v1: 24A - 12v2: 20A

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Your system is listed in the implementations. There you can see tondy's Dell Vostro 3560 with HD7670M + GTX560 notes at http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/2672-budget-egpu-project-dell-vostro-3560-amd-6870-a.html#post36113.

NOTE: as you are using a PE4H 2.4 ensure you've set the expresscard slot to Gen1 link speed in bios or using Setup 1.x. Better yet, obtain a PE4L 2.1b which is Gen2 capable.

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I have a T420 as my main machine and throw the egpu in via the expresscard slot when I'm at a desk (for gaming driving a 21" monitor). Everything else (keyboard/mouse/sound) is plugged in by a single USB cable. So I think that matches your laptop-as-desktop criteria.

I replaced an ageing Q6600 + 8800GTX setup with an i5 2520m + GTX560ti448 and am very happy with the result. Light enough laptop for using in the lounge but powerful enough for gaming when I want to (I'm currently looking at getting a PE4L-EC200A for gaming in the lounge :) ).

Really cheap from the lenovo outlet (~600USD for the laptop plus other bits).

It's possible to put a quad core in the T420, but everything I've read says the power and heat is too high (it throttles massively). A high spec dual core i5 seems to be the way to go in a 12-14" system.

The 650 ti boost definitely looks to be the card to get right now. Close to 660 performance for a chunk less cash.

I was actually considering a T430 + eGPU, since it could fit a quad core CPU in there. But maybe it will also have thermal problems, then. Anyone tried? Also, did you ever had problem with TOLUD? I've heard conflicting reports about this, that Lenovo fixed this in recent BIOS updates, but then I've heard they didn't. Anyone know if there is a TOLUD problem with a T430?

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I was actually considering a T430 + eGPU, since it could fit a quad core CPU in there. But maybe it will also have thermal problems, then. Anyone tried? Also, did you ever had problem with TOLUD? I've heard conflicting reports about this, that Lenovo fixed this in recent BIOS updates, but then I've heard they didn't. Anyone know if there is a TOLUD problem with a T430?

I would expect that a T430 copes better with a quad core on the assumption that an ivy-bridge quad core is lower power (on sandy-bridge: the dual core is 35W and quad cores all 45W. On ivy-bridge, you can get a 35W quad core i7-3632QM).

I had no issues with TOLUD. My T420 was a late model and already had a new enough BIOS for there to be no problem. It seems Lenovo have a habit of releasing TOLUD problematic BIOSes at launch and then fixing them up after enough complaints on their forums. All indications are that the problems are fixed in current Tx30 bioses, as long as you limit to 8GB RAM: https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/X-Series-ThinkPad-Laptops/X230-expresscard-adressing-eGPU/td-p/792909/page/3

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I would expect that a T430 copes better with a quad core on the assumption that an ivy-bridge quad core is lower power (on sandy-bridge: the dual core is 35W and quad cores all 45W. On ivy-bridge, you can get a 35W quad core i7-3632QM).

I had no issues with TOLUD. My T420 was a late model and already had a new enough BIOS for there to be no problem. It seems Lenovo have a habit of releasing TOLUD problematic BIOSes at launch and then fixing them up after enough complaints on their forums. All indications are that the problems are fixed in current Tx30 bioses, as long as you limit to 8GB RAM: https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/X-Series-ThinkPad-Laptops/X230-expresscard-adressing-eGPU/td-p/792909/page/3

Thanks for the information. I will do more research. Still a bugger about only 8 GB of RAM. Sadly, I just saw reports about noisy fan with the T430, which doesn't seem resolved, possibly due to design/fan used. I am very sensitive to fan noise, (though when gaming I don't care).

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Thanks for the information. I will do more research. Still a bugger about only 8 GB of RAM. Sadly, I just saw reports about noisy fan with the T430, which doesn't seem resolved, possibly due to design/fan used. I am very sensitive to fan noise, (though when gaming I don't care).

My work T410 and my home T420 have "noisy" fans under load (as has every laptop I've ever used) - but at least they're both a fairly constant pitch (and nothing like the GTX560ti448 :-) ). It sounds like the T430 issue relates to oscillating pitch (because they ramp poorly between e.g. full-on and half-on). I'm guessing better software control would be enough to appease most users. I'm surprised Lenovo still haven't offered this.

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Hi there, I have an issue. I've been trying to turn on eGPU on my 2570p, system already installed (win7 pro 64), all drivers installed, updates, SP1, when I try tu hold up booting by pressing F8, then I plug eGPU and after normal boot there is no device in menu, no standard VGA. just like there is nothing. but when I try to plug it in by wake up method, system doesn't wake up from sleep, so probably system detects something ic expresscard slot. eGPU works fine, cause when I plug it into 8460p there is rapid connection.

I have F40 bios version and 3 unknown device in 2570p, BCM20702A0 - bluetooth, Ethernet controller, and unknown device. I installed all drivers for chipset and BIOS. Do You have ani idea/solution?

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My work T410 and my home T420 have "noisy" fans under load (as has every laptop I've ever used) - but at least they're both a fairly constant pitch (and nothing like the GTX560ti448 :-) ). It sounds like the T430 issue relates to oscillating pitch (because they ramp poorly between e.g. full-on and half-on). I'm guessing better software control would be enough to appease most users. I'm surprised Lenovo still haven't offered this.

Yeah, there is a big thread about it: T430 Fan speed - Lenovo Community

I get flashbacks about this, since I think some recent previous ThinkPad models suffered from the similar problem. One problem is the physical characteristics/pitch of the fan. Another one is the fan profile. If it is not smooth enough, it's going to be annoying. I currently use a MacBook, which has always had an excellent fan profile. It idles at 2000 rpm (inaudible), and ramps up smoothly up to 6000 rpm. It doesn't have 'discrete' modes, where it just goes from 2000 to 5000 based on a temperature reading.

This T430 seems to have a minimum fan speed of around 3200-3400, which is simply too much.

The Lenovo engineers, together with others (I recall Alienware as well), do not seem to know how, or care, to implement a good PID control for the fan. I bet they need to use more expensive parts as well.

Wasn't entirely related to eGPU, but what the heck, why is there never a perfect laptop out there. ;) There's always something.

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Han anyone managed to get the latest DIY eGPU Setup 1.10b5 to work in uefi mode?

I followed the instructions, setup-disk-image added a boot entry for Setup 1.10b5, but that doesn't work in uefi mode.

I also followed the instructions with RMPrepUSB to create a bootable USB stick, but I keep getting an error message about inserting a valid boot disk.

So, has anyone made the setup 1.x work in uefi mode?

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Han anyone managed to get the latest DIY eGPU Setup 1.10b5 to work in uefi mode?

I followed the instructions, setup-disk-image added a boot entry for Setup 1.10b5, but that doesn't work in uefi mode.

I also followed the instructions with RMPrepUSB to create a bootable USB stick, but I keep getting an error message about inserting a valid boot disk.

So, has anyone made the setup 1.x work in uefi mode?

Your UEFI bios needs CSM mode to boot the DOS-formatted USB stick. REF: Compatibility Support Module - PhoenixWiki

If you can boot it then the second problem then is chainloading out to Setup 1.x to your OS without the pci-e registers being reset. 1.10b5 has the Tianocore UEFI image which I found was resetting the pci-e registers on my HP 2560P/2570P.

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Thanks for the suggestion, but I have an Asus laptop with AMI Aptio UEFI bios, not a Phoenix UEFI bios. The Compatibility Support Module page seem to apply to Phoenix UEFI bios.

In think the UEFI incompatibility is with the UEFI bootloader in Setup 1.10b5. I have windows 7 and Ubuntu 12.10 booting perfectly fine in UEFI mode.

What is the boot process in UEFI mode? Is it: UEFI BIOS-> Tianocore UEFI-> Setup 1.10b5-> chainloader-> Windows OS?

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