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eGPU experiences [version 2.0]


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@Nando,

I am really interested in using my MBP for serious gaming, hence an eGPU seems to be a good solution and your DIY eGPU Setup one critical part of it. But actually, I have a SFF case in which i am very soon using to build a small desktop PC, decent CPU and GPU included. What I still need is a mobile monitor. Since my GPU in my SFF case will have a DisplayPort-Out and my Macbook has a Thunderbolt2/Displayport connector, I was wondering if I could send the image from my SFF desktop, on which I would play, to my Macbook's internal Iris Pro and ultimately my Retina display. The guys at Apple told me that it wouldn't work under OS X, but I would use Windows 7 anyway. Could your DIY eGPU Setup enable me to do what I want (just using the MBP as an external monitor for my desktop PC through sending the later's image to my retina display via DisplayPort)? Or does anyone have a clue how to do this?

Thanks a lot.

Btw, I have a late 2013 15" MBPr, Iris Pro, 2,6 GHz.

Your 2013 15" MBPr has no input displayport. To use it's LCD to show images generated on your desktop PC would require some sort of USB or Thumderbolt framegrabber along with software to do it. If you find one keep in mind that it introduces latency. The least expensive and complicated solution for you is to simply attach an external LCD to your desktop PC.

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Nothing wrong with using that power supply, but as you said, the 5V requirement for the adapter would need an additional circuit to dropdown the 12V to a 5V.

Would you mind showing me an example of such dropdown circuit? I'm not so expert. :-)

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Would you mind showing me an example of such dropdown circuit? I'm not so expert. :-)

Something like this:

Amazon.com : KEEDOX® DC/DC Converter 12V Step Down to 5V 3A Power Supply Module : Electronics

or

Amazon.com : HOSSEN® Car LED Display Power Supply 12V to 5V 3A DC/DC Buck Converter Module : Electronics

Not sure how much power the adapter needs, 5V @ 3A = 15W.

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So ive been reading some in the "DIY eGPU experiences [version 2.0]" thread. And i belive i have came to the point where i should order the equipment needed.

Im trying to keep it low budget.

Now i could use some input before i go ahead and order the parts needed.

Specs Lenovo B590

CPU: i5-3230m

GPU:Intel HD4000 and Nvidia GT 720m PCI-E 2.0

Ram:8gb (2x4gb)

External Monitor:22"Belinea

Win 8.1 64bit UEFI

I dont have slotcard so im forced to use the m-PCIe, where my current Wlan module is located.

Hence im forced to use:

PE4L V2.1b + PM3N +60cm PE4L-PM060A + SWEX, For GEN.2 PCI-E

Correct?

Regarding the GPU, im looking at something between GTX 4XX-GTX 5XX. Depending on what i can find in the 2nd hand market. Remember im trying to keep it low budget, and which ever i get of those card it will perform atleast twice as good as my GT 720m, correct ?

Regarding the PSU im pretty clueless.

I have an older PSU unit that used to be in a "HP Pavilion p6770sc", i belive its 300w, but im not sure about it having the 6-pin connector required to run some of the GPU:s. (HP machine had a HD6570 GPU). As ive understand it there are some of the GTX serie cards that doesnt need the 6-pin connector, correct? (The naming scheme of the cards are really confusing imo :P).

Regarding the box to keep all the junk in, i will take it as it comes and probaly improvise, this is a secondary issue.

And then there is the question to get all of it to work, ive looked thru the lists and i havent found anyone implenting the diy eGPU solution to a Lenovo B590. Configuring everything software wise seems a bit complicated, and there seems to numerous errors that could occur. I guess ill come to that part later once ive ordered all the parts and trying to set it up.

Hoping for input from someone more experienced regarding all this.

Edit; Done some more research and it seems i gotta invest in a new PSU with 6-pin connector(s) aswell.

Edit2; I have found a Geforce GTX 550 Ti for a decent price. Would this be a decent card? It requires one 6-pin connection.

Edit3; Also found a Geforce 480 gtx for the same price, seems to be slightly better in terms of performance but alot more power consuming. (heat shouldnt be an issue due it being external).

Edit4: I found a MSI Gtx 650, its pci-e 3.0 version, are these cards backwards compatible with 2.0 and my future eGPU setup?

I had some issues with this before, namely the HP machine mentioned above couldnt run a 3.0 card, due the mb only supported 2.0-2.1, and it wasnt backwards compatible.

Edit5; More research done.. Would it possible to use the psu mentioned above (that most probaly doesnt have any 6-pin connector, i dont have the psu in my reach atm so i cant tell for sure), with a converter named something like "4 Pin PSU to PCI-E Power Supply Converter cable" ?

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Your 2013 15" MBPr has no input displayport. To use it's LCD to show images generated on your desktop PC would require some sort of USB or Thumderbolt framegrabber along with software to do it. If you find one keep in mind that it introduces latency. The least expensive and complicated solution for you is to simply attach an external LCD to your desktop PC.

Thanks a lot. This is what I already thought, but I wanted a confirmation from you guys and since I don't know exactly how the DIY setup works, I wondered if it could be of any help.

Next step I might do, is connect a spare parts laptop display to my SFF case via a LVDS-DVI interface and attach it to it through a self built monitor arm. Or, even better, look for an DVI-eDP interface and connect the retina from my MBP to my SFF PC through opening the bottom case of the MBP. I wouldn't even have to put the Macbook on, I think, just reconnect the cables. Do you guys think that I might damage my MBP by doing this due to any current related issues or short circuits? The interface would probably be this one (since I haven't found any others till now): MacBook Pro Retina LCD interface board - by ROZSNYO | digital cinema devices

I know this isn't exactly an eGPU question, please pardon me. But I feel that the knowledge necessary for any advice is more concentrated in this forum than anywhere else.

Thanks.

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Would it be possible to use a 12V power supply such as theese? Or will the 5V requirement of the PE4L make this not possible?

You may not actually need a 5V adapter if your laptop provides clean 3.3V power over ExpressCard. See here:

http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/4532-%5Bguide%5D-low-profile-12-lenovo-x220-gtx650%40x1-2opt-pe4l-2-1b.html @Remko78 needed 5V to make his eGPU work because his 3.3V power was insufficient.

I was able to get my eGPU working with and without 5V on the floppy molex connection (from my Xbox360 PSU), but settled on supplying 5V to take the load off of the 3.3V line in the EC slot. Without the 5V line attached, the PE4L would reset itself on a restart as well as system shutdown so I didn't have to switch off the eGPU on a restart (could be a benefit if you restart often). YMMV with your particular laptop. See the above link for the symptoms of having an inadequate 3.3V power line if you're getting funky errors while using your eGPU. Good luck!

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Thanks guys, your knowledge is almost endless! :)

About the 5V thing, I think I'll supply extra 5V juice too, since I don't think it's a good idea to pull much current out of the express card. My notebook does stand an external hdd through a usb3 expresscard adapter, so it may work for eGPU too, but it's better not to stress it, if possible.

Another option is waiting for the new upcoming PE4L and see if they eliminate that 5V requirement. AFAIR it's one of nando's requests to the manufacturer.

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Hey has anyone had issues with Chrome? The Nvidia drivers are hard-coded to use the iGPU for Chrome, which produces horrible performance for me (Intel HD Graphics can't cope at 1920x1080). Firefox and IE are fine. I've tried renaming the exe to bypass Nvidia, but it lags all the same. Tried Chromium too.

Is there a solution for this? Don't really wanna switch to Firefox, I've got everything set up nicely on Chrome. This is all with external displays connected to the eGPU.

EDIT: Quick way to test, try this webGL demo: http://madebyevan.com/webgl-water/

It works at silky smooth FPS in Firefox and Internet Explorer, it gets sub 20FPS in Chrome.

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I'm selling my PE4H (PCIe passive adapter ver2.4) on ebay. I've moved on from gaming and no longer need it. It worked perfectly on my Toshiba L300 without "Setup" . I hope it's OK to put the link here, I learned about it all here so someone here may want it. It worked perfectly with a Nvidia GTS450 1GB and Dell 27" monitor exactly as per Nando's instructions. It was a lot of fun but I moved on now after getting bored with train simming.

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=221381009112

Update: Its now sold, so is no longer for sale.

Cheers

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I'm in the process of trying to get an HD 7950 to work with my Dell E6500.

What I have so far is that I have to I perform a hot-plug at the start of Win7 x64 and the 7950 gets picked up in the Device Manager but the Catalyst driver doesn't load.

Here's how I started...

The Dell E6500 has 8GB ram. TOLUD=3.5GB. So I opted for the DSDT Override.

1. At Command Prompt typed in iasl -g to get dsdt.dsl file.

2. Modded dsdt.dsl to include "rand0" Dell E4300 core2duo mod.

3. At Command Prompt typed in iasl dsdt.dst to get dsdt.aml file.

4. At Command Prompt typed in asl /loadtable dsdt.aml.

I view the Device Manager and I see a new "Large Memory" section that is > 0x100000000.

The only way for the 7950 to even get recognized is...

1. Laptop powered down.

2. ExpressCard inserted but HDMI cable from PE4H disconnected from card.

3. Power supply on... 7950 fans spinning.

4. Power up laptop.

5. Insert HDMI cable into ExpressCard just as the Windows loading animation starts.

I can load the lastest version of AMD Catalyst and it recognizes that there is a 7950 there and installs everything. The Device Manager shows the correct version of driver loaded but I just can't get around the iGPU HD GMA4500 from taking over.

I have repeatedly uninstalled the GMA4500 but on every reboot it gets loaded back in and I get a message that states the AMD Driver can't be found.

Something I do notice is that when I uninstall the iGPU the HD 7950 is loaded into the original Memory section not in the "Large Memory" section.

Am I on the right track here with what I am doing?

All help greatly appreciated!

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Hello!

I'm planning to join the eGPU club and the plan is pretty much set up based on the information found here on these forums. As I'm not quite sure if I got that information correctly I would like to share this plan with you, hoping for valuable feedback.

The system in question is a Sony Vaio VPC-Z1, equipped with an Intel Core i5 540M (Arrandale) CPU, 4 GB RAM and a HM57 Chipset (Clarkdale, Calpella Platform). It got an Intel HD iGPU and a GeForce GT 330M dGPU (PCIe x16) which can be switched using a hardware switch (not Optimus, but both graphics cards are visible to the operating system). The swtiching is usually done 'dynamically' by the (dedicated) Graphics Driver provided by Sony (based on Nvidia 188.x and Intel 20xx), but a modded BIOS allows 'static' switching, which means that just a single graphics card is visible to the operating system, either the iGPU or the eGPU (depending on the switch setting on boot) and allows for using the (latest) stock Nvidia and Intel drivers.

The VPC-Z1 got an PCIe ExpressCard port which I plan to use for the eGPU (it also got two internal mPCIe slots, but I'm not quite found of the idea yet having cables dangling out of the notebook), which means that I will have a PCIe x1 link available.

So I've been digging through the information found here and I've created the following shopping list: A combination of P4EL, EC2C, SWEX and PCIEMM-060A (~90$) to provide the external PCIe slot, a GeForce 750 eGPU (~140$), like the Palit GeForce GTX 750 StormX OC or a Gainward GeForce GTX 750 (which costs nearly the same as a 640, but should be way more energy efficient) and a bequiet! PurePower L8 300 watts power supply (~55$), which tightly fits into the budget of 300$.

What do you think?

br Enob

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Hi. New to the forum, and I need some help choosing components to build an eGPU for my Lenovo T430s. I've searched this and NBR for specifics regarding my laptop and needs, and can't find enough specifics (or haven't waded through enough of it to spot it yet).

My laptop is a T430s with an i7-3520M processor, 8GB RAM, but only Intel HD4000 graphics. It does not have an Expresscard card (I got the multi-media card reader instead). However, it does have a Thunderbolt slot. I'm running Windows 7 Professional 64-bit (and occasionally Linux Mint 16 Cinnamon 64-bit).

I did not buy it for gaming, and it suits me fine for most work (music composition, photo editing, travel). However, I've joined a kickstarter program for a new game, and need a way to play it when it comes out. I will only be playing at home on an external 1920x1080 24-inch monitor in HD, so there's no need to power the laptop's LCD. I installed a similar game and tried to play it with the Intel graphics, and it won't even load. So I have to have a better GPU.

I'd rather not buy another laptop or PC just for gaming. I believe an eGPU solution would be perfect. I don't want to open the T430s's case, so am trying to do everything external to the box, and putting it inside an enclosure would be nice. Money is not an issue, but I do want to get max value for dollar spent. So I have a few questions:

1. Is what I'm trying to do feasible?

2. Would I do better with a DIY setup or are there existing enclosures that support a PCIe that would meet my needs (at a decent price)?

3. Which graphic card should I go for? I have read that the limits of thunderbolt are 10GB (I don't think this machine has Thunderbolt 2), but I don't understand the technical descriptions of PE4L, PE4H, TOLUD, iGPU, dGPU.

4. Other components: power supply - how much, and is there such a thing as overkill; fans, enclosure, etc.?

I built a Network Attached Storage server from scratch, running Vortexbox (based on Fedora Linux), so I'm comfortable with hardware, software, and the command line).

Thanks!

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It may happen that your multi-card reader is a expresscard component that can be removed revealing the underlying expresscard slot. If so, then the PE4L-ECxxxA 2.1b is an inexpensive eGPU adapter at $92-shipped.

Otherwise consider the Firmtek Thunderbolt product + mods as discussed at http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/5793-cheapest-pcie-thunderbolt.html#post80957 . There you'd get slightly more than double the bandwidth, with a performance comparison between the two shown at http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/3062-%5Bguide%5D-2012-13-mbp-gtx660ti-hd7870%40x2-2-th05.html#post42483 (x1.2Opt versus x2.2).

As yet we do not have a T430s Thunderbolt eGPU implementation. Yours may be the first if you decide to go ahead with it.

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@Tech Inferno Fan, Thanks for the quick reply. I'll take a look at the multi-card connection, but I do not want to replace it with an express card slot. I actually use the card reader for downloading photos. The Firmtek product looks interesting, but I have a couple of concerns. First, their tech specs state "Chassis supports compatible single half-length x1, x2 or x4 PCIe 2.0 card," but then "PCIe based video cards are not supported." Second power supply looks like it's internal and maybe too weak. What are your thoughts?

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I would like to know if i can use a external graphic card on my laptop, its possible, but does it work with my laptop? What product do i need to buy, how much it costs, and what craphic cards i can use? Where to buy?

I have a Sony vaio model VPCCW15FH with 8 gig ram and 500gig harddisk. Win 7 ultimate 64bit

Intel core duo 2CPU T6600, 2.2ghz

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I would like to know if i can use a external graphic card on my laptop, its possible, but does it work with my laptop? What product do i need to buy, how much it costs, and what craphic cards i can use? Where to buy?

I have a Sony vaio model VPCCW15FH with 8 gig ram and 500gig harddisk. Win 7 ultimate 64bit

Intel core duo 2CPU T6600, 2.2ghz

It should be possible, it looks like you have an expresscard 34mm slot?

If your plan is to run recent game titles the answer is no. It looks like @Tech Inferno Fan have done one similar implementation for a 14" Dell_Insp.1440 (T6600), look at the first page for results.

You will at best achieve a 1.opt link @Tech Inferno Fan correct me if I'm wrong) due to ICH9M(?) PM45 chipset, again read more at first page.

The hardware I recommended would then be:

* $103 PE4L-ECxxxA v2.1 + incl. shipping (I'd choose at least 100cm cable, the default 60cm is very short)

* $25 'SETUP 1.x' software is probably needed in order for the eGPU to be functional on your system

* $150 GTX750ti (only 55W power draw, could use this for a better system later on)

* $20 12v 84W (2.5/5.5mm) ac-adapter

----------------------

Total: ~$300 eGPU setup that could be moved to a better system later on!

Others are welcome for suggestions!

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Just saw this guys (this forum is linked in the post as well)

Review External Graphics Cards for Laptops - NotebookCheck.net Reviews

Very interesting:

The results prove that the external GTX 570 can significantly improve the performance. It is surprising that the ExpressCard connection scores more points than the connection via Thunderbolt. The reason is the data compression of the Optimus driver, while data via Thunderbolt is not compressed. We are excited to see, what Thunderbolt 2 and other graphics cards will bring in the future. In our tests, the MacBook could indeed keep up with gaming laptops, but it failed to reach desktop performance.

I was surprised to see this in their benchmarks. We really need to see what Thunderbolt 2.0 can do to these numbers.

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* $103 PE4L-ECxxxA v2.1 + incl. shipping (I'd choose at least 100cm cable, the default 60cm is very short)

May I ask you how you bought this version? Using the "online shop" only the 60cm can be bought - for "Other OEM demands as listed below, please contact our China Office.".

Did I get this right that the 2.1b has the cable soldered on, whereas the 1.5 got a replacable cable? Is there any significant difference between both besides the cable and the Gen1/2 PCIe Spec? How does this affect the daily operation?

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May I ask you how you bought this version? Using the "online shop" only the 60cm can be bought - for "Other OEM demands as listed below, please contact our China Office.".

Did I get this right that the 2.1b has the cable soldered on, whereas the 1.5 got a replacable cable? Is there any significant difference between both besides the cable and the Gen1/2 PCIe Spec? How does this affect the daily operation?

By visiting PE4L-EC060A V2.1, and then scroll down to 90% of the page you can see a table of different cable length that can be added to your paypal cart, eg. PE4L-EC100A V2.1 Lenght 100cm Unit price: US$ 75.

The main difference is, as you state, that detachable cable gives you GEN1-speed while the soldered cable gives GEN2-speed. Regarding daily operation (meaning not gaming?) you'd probably wouldn't notice the difference between GEN1 & GEN2 speeds.

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Having problems with latest AMD beta drivers.

As I mentioned with beta 14.1 weird low performance (memory clock seems to be unstable)

that only resolved temporary after I deleted the driver from device manager (for it to reinstall on reboot).

Now with 14.2 beta the reboot problem is fixed but I was getting constant lower performance when I compared it to my desktop 14.1 at the same link speed width (1x).

For example 60fps compared to 100 fps on ultra with mantle api at BF4 test range. And OCing didn't seem to even matter.

I just want a 14.x whql driver :miserable:

In the meanwhile here's OCed reference 290x AMD 13.12 driver, result:

AMD Radeon R9 290X video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3740QM Processor,Hewlett-Packard 17DF , 14529 GPU score.

I wish it translated to bf4 more as I can't seem to get this game running right. I want a I7 desktop to check PCI scaling without cpu being a factor.

some 14.2 beta graphs with BF4 ultra, parcel storm spawn area, Mantle (Green) vs DX 11 (Red)

post-19480-14494997322639_thumb.png

about 60fps DX11 vs 70fps mantle. But it drops a lot outside the spawn area.

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By visiting PE4L-EC060A V2.1, and then scroll down to 90% of the page you can see a table of different cable length that can be added to your paypal cart, eg. PE4L-EC100A V2.1 Lenght 100cm Unit price: US$ 75.

The main difference is, as you state, that detachable cable gives you GEN1-speed while the soldered cable gives GEN2-speed. Regarding daily operation (meaning not gaming?) you'd probably wouldn't notice the difference between GEN1 & GEN2 speeds.

Ahh... alright. Thank you! ;-)

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Hello

I'm having some issues with chainloading and a Radeon 270X. Everything was fine when I was using a Geforce 460GTX.

So on setup 1.x, I had to set the link to Gen 1 and change the egpu ID from 460GTX to 270X. No problems here, it detects and the pci compilation goes through.

But on first times it seems the chainload freezes up on a black screen with a white dot and after some tries now I got "Error Reading From Drive C: DOS area sector not found". I can load windows without any problem except of course the egpu not working. Tried to mount the setup again, no success.

PE4H here.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

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Hello

I'm having some issues with chainloading and a Radeon 270X. Everything was fine when I was using a Geforce 460GTX.

So on setup 1.x, I had to set the link to Gen 1 and change the egpu ID from 460GTX to 270X. No problems here, it detects and the pci compilation goes through.

But on first times it seems the chainload freezes up on a black screen with a white dot and after some tries now I got "Error Reading From Drive C: DOS area sector not found". I can load windows without any problem except of course the egpu not working. Tried to mount the setup again, no success.

PE4H here.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

In Setup 1.30 highlight PCI compaction->Run compact, then hit F1. Over 20 different compaction configurations will be presented. Worth through them one by one until you have a completely successful compaction without a hang afterwards where you can chainload and see the eGPU without error 12.

If you have an older version of Setup 1.x then obtain Setup 1.30 as it has corrected serious bugs with PCI compaction.

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