eGPU experiences [version 2.0]

[Ivxy]

Yes, you can use PCI-e 2.0 if you would have a PE4L, the PE4H support only PCI-e 1.1/1.0...

And forget Optimus, this is a technology for Nvidia graphic cards that compress the graphic data by a x1 connection and allow you use the Laptop display.... Oh you have a second edit ^^°....

[chakvr2]

ah i see, i thought the pe4h was the more updated version. i threw in the amd 7550 because it was one i had lying around, might change to a nvidia if that greatly improves things later on.

oh well it still runs fine so i can't complain. although i do get slow down in some games, is this normal?

[useafo]

I think you won't get much more out of the Arrandale line of processors. You might want to look at a i7 640M, which clocks in at 2.8GHz, but honestly that extra 200 MHz will be negligible in most cases. On top of that, I don't know if your motherboard would support the i7 640M anyways (it's possible, but I just don't know if it is or not).

Again, the only major benefit of having a "faster" processor in games is mostly for stuff like RTS or games that use a lot of CPU time to work out things like physics (e.g. telling Nvidia to use CPU for PhysX processing, instead of GPU) and objects.

For all intents and purposes, the i3 390M you have now is the i5 580M you considered earlier. The i7 640M will give you a clock speed boost, but nothing more, IMO.

If you want a faster machine, consider picking up a used Sandy Bridge quad core, for cheap. Even a i7-2630QM would be more than enough power for workaday tasks and all the games you could throw at it. Again, if gaming performance is what you're after, it's the GPU you should be looking to upgrade, not the CPU.

In any case, you should probably present this question to the guys in the Lenovo subsection - they'll be able to help you determine whether or not you can drop an i7 640M into your motherboard or not. If not, and you still really want to get a better processor, I suggest looking at a new laptop altogether. I think your current processor is actually about as good as it gets.

Thank you for the answer.

[daver160]

oh well it still runs fine so i can't complain. although i do get slow down in some games, is this normal?

I'm running a GTX 650 Ti on my PE4H v2.4, and I seem to be OK in all my games. I compare my performance to the reviews out there for the GTX 650 Ti, and seem to get anywhere from 5-10% lower performance than what the reviewers got in the games. However, without a SSD and desktop performance processor (i7 3700K vs i7 2760QM is a pretty big difference!) I consider that I'm getting about what I should expect from my GTX 650 Ti in a desktop system.

I can at least say that with my Optimus compression I'm getting what I should probably expect from my GPU. Your slow downs might just be "normal" given the GPU and the game you're playing.

[chakvr2]

ah i see, the only game i tested which gave me problems is batman arkham city where i get hangs and black screens every now and then.

i read though that my power supply may not be sufficient (using ac adapter at the moment) so i might try a proper psu to see if that changes things. maybe i can try the gen 2 speeds then because i think i am only getting gen 1 (if i enable gen 2 in setup 1.x, there is no sound and my laptop locks up after a few min logged into windows).

i can see what you mean performance wise though especially with laptops, maybe my expectations were just too high xP.

thanks for the advice.

[daver160]

Which PE4H do you have? 3.2? If so, then yes you can use Gen2, but if you're running a PE4H 2.4 like I am, you are only capable of Gen1 speeds; it's the limitation of the v2.4.

[Quadrider10]

Which PE4H do you have? 3.2? If so, then yes you can use Gen2, but if you're running a PE4H 2.4 like I am, you are only capable of Gen1 speeds; it's the limitation of the v2.4.

what about 2.4a?

[daver160]

Like I mentioned in my post, PE4H v2.4 is limited to Gen 1 speeds only... so you won't get the same level of performance as compared to a PE4L

[Quadrider10]

Like I mentioned in my post, PE4H v2.4 is limited to Gen 1 speeds only... so you won't get the same level of performance as compared to a PE4L

well thats f-ing retarded! why the hell did i buy a pe4h thats more expansive then the pe4l thats cheaper and supports more?!?!?!

[chakvr2]

Yeah I'm using PE4H, just looked up the table of comparisons on hwtools and it seems you were right about the gen speeds.

Will still try using a PSU like I said earlier to see if it helps though since the 7750 needs about 200W + and I'm only giving it about 80w at the moment through an AC adapter. If it goes well I will consider getting a nicer Nvidia card for that opt thing.

I wouldn't knock the PE4H though Quadrider, it still plays all the latest games for me at 720p+ on at least medium settings at 30fps+.

edit: btw the slowdowns I mentioned before were only when I used a PS2 emulator PCSX2 which ran fine before on my HD 3000, so if worse comes to shove I could just switch back to play it xP

[daver160]

well thats f-ing retarded! why the hell did i buy a pe4h thats more expansive then the pe4l thats cheaper and supports more?!?!?!

I made that mistake too, but I'm still hanging on to it. So far, I haven't come across a situation where I would receive a drastic performance improvement by switching to a PE4L, except with recording games while playing. I think I'm getting just about all I can get out of a GTX 650 Ti anyways.

The PE4H was supposed to be Gen 2 compatible, but after further testing other users found out that it's not true. I'm not sure waht the full details behind it are, but I can tell you that a general rule so far has been that unless all the parts are soldered together, it's likely not Gen 2 compatible.

[Quadrider10]

I made that mistake too, but I'm still hanging on to it. So far, I haven't come across a situation where I would receive a drastic performance improvement by switching to a PE4L, except with recording games while playing. I think I'm getting just about all I can get out of a GTX 650 Ti anyways.

The PE4H was supposed to be Gen 2 compatible, but after further testing other users found out that it's not true. I'm not sure waht the full details behind it are, but I can tell you that a general rule so far has been that unless all the parts are soldered together, it's likely not Gen 2 compatible.

well that sucks. so there would be no performance difference between pe4h or pe4l when on pci 1.0/1.1?

[Ivxy]

I think a performance difference between pe4h and pe4l when on pci 1.0/1.1 you don't found. The different between PCI-e 1.0/1.1 and PCI-e 2.0 are 88% to 99% (eGPU = x1.2 Opt. and x1.1 = x1.1 Opt. )... I Think It's more the 88% as the 99%, because there are the GPU limited.

[daver160]

I think a performance difference between pe4h and pe4l when on pci 1.0/1.1 you don't found. The different between PCI-e 1.0/1.1 and PCI-e 2.0 are 88% to 99% (eGPU = x1.2 Opt. and x1.1 = x1.1 Opt. )... I Think It's more the 88% as the 99%, because there are the GPU limited.

Correct, if you have a GPU that can handily pump out little pixels at a very high rate (say something like a GTX 660 Ti or AMD 7970) then you will see a benefit to the PE4L. But if your GPU, like mine, is only mid-range, you might not see that much more of an improvement.

Personally, I would still like to upgrade to a PE4L, but I want to offload my PE4H first. No point in spending an extra $90 (70+shipping) if I will just have this PE4H sitting around unused.

[markkbbou]

Hi, I was wondering if anyone could tell me what voltage ATX PSU I would need to power a modded OWC Helios and how to solder the wires to let the ATX PSU power it. Thank you

System Specs:

13" Macbook Air 2012

256gb Flash storage

Third gen Intel Core i7 processor, 2.0ghz turbo boost to 3.2ghz

8gb DDR3 ram

Intel HD Graphics 4000 512mb vram

[Quadrider10]

Correct, if you have a GPU that can handily pump out little pixels at a very high rate (say something like a GTX 660 Ti or AMD 7970) then you will see a benefit to the PE4L. But if your GPU, like mine, is only mid-range, you might not see that much more of an improvement.

Personally, I would still like to upgrade to a PE4L, but I want to offload my PE4H first. No point in spending an extra $90 (70+shipping) if I will just have this PE4H sitting around unused.

well damn if i knew that...... i have a gtx 560ti OC edition. do you think there would be a difference?

[daver160]

well damn if i knew that...... i have a gtx 560ti OC edition. do you think there would be a difference?

Short answer: yes. However, I don't know by how much.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I suspect that I am getting about 90-95% of my GTX 650 Ti's full performance as if I had it in a PCI-E 3.0 compatible desktop system. I got to this conclusion, subjectively, by running games that I own which were used for benchmarks when the 650 Ti came out around Oct 2012. Some games I got roughly the same framerates (i.e. 100%), other games I got slightly less (around 90%). Most games were in between.

I'm able to run most games on medium to high settings at 1920x1080. I always disable anti-aliasing and DX11 features, though. I prefer a smooth experience over fancy bells and whistles.

[Quadrider10]

Short answer: yes. However, I don't know by how much.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I suspect that I am getting about 90-95% of my GTX 650 Ti's full performance as if I had it in a PCI-E 3.0 compatible desktop system. I got to this conclusion, subjectively, by running games that I own which were used for benchmarks when the 650 Ti came out around Oct 2012. Some games I got roughly the same framerates (i.e. 100%), other games I got slightly less (around 90%). Most games were in between.

I'm able to run most games on medium to high settings at 1920x1080. I always disable anti-aliasing and DX11 features, though. I prefer a smooth experience over fancy bells and whistles.

i cant even play call of duty with mine. and you are on pci 1.0 x1 speeds with optimus?

also how can i go about overclocking my FSB, i found my pll, but i can not find a program that will support it

[kumisseksi]

hey nando, finally my pe4l arrived, and the bus interface on gpu -z says

it is currently running at :

PCI -Express x1 v2.0

am i doing this right?

and for the setup menu, i cannot find the allocate memory option.

[Quadrider10]

so my notebook is only applicable of PCI 1.0 x1 speeds. optimus is not available to me. im in contact with redtrontech on ebay to see if i can get an exchange for my pe4h to his pe4l. but with the pe4l and a gtx 560Ti OC edition, how much of an increase of bandwidth will i receive about?

because as of now, i can not even play call of duty it lags so much regardless of graphic settings.

this is what i mean:

also how do i go about Overclocking my FSB to get more pci bandwidth? i have found my PLL, but setfsb and clockgen do not support it. what can i do?

[chakvr2]

so my notebook is only applicable of PCI 1.0 x1 speeds. optimus is not available to me. im in contact with redtrontech on ebay to see if i can get an exchange for my pe4h to his pe4l. but with the pe4l and a gtx 560Ti OC edition, how much of an increase of bandwidth will i receive about?

because as of now, i can not even play call of duty it lags so much regardless of graphic settings.

this is what i mean:

also how do i go about Overclocking my FSB to get more pci bandwidth? i have found my PLL, but setfsb and clockgen do not support it. what can i do?

I am not 100% sure on this , maybe someone could correct me if I'm wrong but isn't the PE4L only good if your mPCIe slot on your laptop is PCIe 2.0? Otherwise you might as well stick with the PE4H since you can't use the Gen 2 speeds of PE4L?

If you can use Gen 2 I think it's 5 GT/s compared with 2.5 GT/s per lane but as daver said, it might depend on good of a graphics card you have. Maybe something better than a 560 would be better if you are using a PE4L.

In the video, it said he encountered a error 12. Did you also get this error like him?

[Ivxy]

No, I use a PE4L with a Expresscard and I have PCI-e 2.0 ...

But I must warn you, I have hear that Call of Duty is the only game that has "Problems" with the eGPU. The limited bandwidth, I think, is the problem of the low performance.

[daver160]

I am not 100% sure on this , maybe someone could correct me if I'm wrong but isn't the PE4L only good if your mPCIe slot on your laptop is PCIe 2.0? Otherwise you might as well stick with the PE4H since you can't use the Gen 2 speeds of PE4L?

If you can use Gen 2 I think it's 5 GT/s compared with 2.5 GT/s per lane but as daver said, it might depend on good of a graphics card you have. Maybe something better than a 560 would be better if you are using a PE4L.

In the video, it said he encountered a error 12. Did you also get this error like him?

Not true, the PE4L is "backwards compatible" with anything lower than PCI-E 2.0. Just like newer hardware is often backwards compatible with more recently outdated hardware.

[chakvr2]

Sorry what I meant was that assuming his laptop can only has a PCIe 1.0 (not sure if this is what he meant) then he wouldn't be able to take advantage of the Gen 2 speeds that the PE4L is capable of since his slot only uses PCIe 1.0?

Or is it actually possible for newer cards to use Gen 2 speeds on a PCIe 1.0 slot? Is it dependent on the card itself instead of the the PCIe slot?

[Khenglish]

so my notebook is only applicable of PCI 1.0 x1 speeds. optimus is not available to me. im in contact with redtrontech on ebay to see if i can get an exchange for my pe4h to his pe4l. but with the pe4l and a gtx 560Ti OC edition, how much of an increase of bandwidth will i receive about?

because as of now, i can not even play call of duty it lags so much regardless of graphic settings.

this is what i mean:

also how do i go about Overclocking my FSB to get more pci bandwidth? i have found my PLL, but setfsb and clockgen do not support it. what can i do?

Setfsb supports direct SMBUS register writes so that in case the program does not have data on your PLL, you can use the PLL's datasheet and set the registers manually. If you can find the datasheet on your PLL link it to me and maybe I can figure it out.