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eGPU experiences [version 2.0]


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I didn't try plugging in any other AC adapters (they didn't fit). It seems like the card was already defective in the first place, after trying it with my parents' desktop. Either way, it shot sparks when I plugged it in the first couple times and when I tried using a PCIe riser with it, it fried the riser. I'm shipping the card back this weekend to see if a new one will work.

Well that sounds f-ing crazy :P

Yep something is seriously wrong here.. Anyway about the jumper pin, is it attached (in place or just two empty pins)?

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Well that sounds f-ing crazy :P

Yep something is seriously wrong here.. Anyway about the jumper pin, is it attached (in place or just two empty pins)?

It's in. I played around with the two switches, but otherwise everything is as shipped. Thanks for the help! I'm hoping the PE4L isn't broken as well.

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It's in. I played around with the two switches, but otherwise everything is as shipped. Thanks for the help! I'm hoping the PE4L isn't broken as well.

No problem buddy, not much of a help so far!

What GPU does your parents have, do you dare to test it in the pe4l?

EDIT1: the pe4l does light up w/o gpu attached when inserting the EC?

EDIT2: It still lights up attaching the AC-power and EC?

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No problem buddy, not much of a help so far!

What GPU does your parents have, do you dare to test it in the pe4l?

EDIT1: the pe4l does light up w/o gpu attached when inserting the EC?

EDIT2: It still lights up attaching the AC-power and EC?

They have integrated graphics.

Before, it never lit up with the card attached, but now it does ... ?

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They have integrated graphics.

Before, it never lit up with the card attached, but now it does ... ?

Ok, no it's no integrated GPU (which would be cool if it had), just wanted to check that the AC-adapter doesn't shuts down the PE4L.

So it lit up with EC only, is it still lit with AC-adapter + EC as well?

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Ok, no it's no integrated GPU (which would be cool if it had), just wanted to check that the AC-adapter doesn't shuts down the PE4L.

So it lit up with EC only, is it still lit with AC-adapter + EC as well?

Yup. The LEDs only turned off when the card was inserted. Except now they stay on.

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I would like to use a thunderbolt 2 enclosure for my egpu so I can get more bandwidth. Is that possible?

Here are the specs of my laptop:

1.late 2013 mbpr

2.i7 4558u

3.16gb ram

4.iris 5100

Here are the components I want to use:

Sonnet Echo Express 3-d

Amazon.com: Sonnet Technologies Echo Express III-D: Computers & Accessories

780ti

ie=UTF8&qid=1399058417&sr=8-1&keywords=sonnet+Amazon.com: ASUS Graphics Cards GTX780TI-DC2OC-3GD5: Computers & Accessories

I thought since the enclosure has a built in 300w psu, I don't have to do any soldering. Would I be able to just hook up the gpu to the psu? and it has a pcie 2.0 x16 slot, so I wont need an adapter.

I have not seen any guides on doing this with my mac and with a thunderbolt 2 enclosure so I would like your help. Thanks in advance. :)

- - - Updated - - -

sorry about the random links, something must of happened when I posted the thread.

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Yeah, something is definitely wrong... Do you power up the eGPU during boot or when you're inside windows?

Hi Jacobsson

I already tried both method.

fisrt method : turn on egpu but expresscard slot didn't connected to laptop. Boot then connect the express card when appear 4 windows logo. But no good result

second method : connect express card while in windows. But no good too

third method : Turn on egpu, and connected while appear vaio logo. Not good too

Or shold I use the SW1 or SW3 switch in this case..? I use default mode ( no delay ) every time since I read somewhere in this forum, that it should be at defaul ( no delay )

thanks

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So I could really use some help here...

First, my setup:

OS: Window 8.1 in MBR

System: 2012 MacBook Pro Retina 15"

RAM: 16GB

GPU: EVGA GTX770

PSU: Corsair AX860i (that should be plenty huge)

Setup: Sonnet Echo SE II

I had the setup working with the original thunderbolt card which came with the Sonnet, and then I upgraded to a thunderbolt 2 card during Sonnet's switchover program.Then, no luck...

I've tried an old R4550 AMD card and it works, but the nVidia GTX770 doesn't. I don't change the pci.bat or startup.bat between the 2 TB cards.

Here's my pci.bat for reference:

REM r:/core/compact.exe pciend f8000000 import devcon.txt makebatch R:\config\pci.bat
REM created Sun Jan 26 21:59:26 2014


echo off
echo Performing PCI allocation for 2012 13" MBPr based off Tech Inferno Fan's findings . . .


:: The X16 root port
@echo -s 0:1.1 1c.w=6030 20.l=AE90A090 24.l=CDF1AEA1 > setpci.arg


:: Underlying Bridges in order from high to low
@echo -s 4:0.0 1c.w=5131 20.l=AB00A090 24.l=C9F1B801 >> setpci.arg
@echo -s 5:3.0 1c.w=4131 20.l=A700A200 24.l=C5F1B801 >> setpci.arg
@echo -s 7:0.0 04.w=7 1c.w=3131 20.l=A300A200 24.l=C1F1B801 28.l=0 30.w=0 3c.b=10 >> setpci.arg
@echo -s 8:3.0 04.w=7 1c.w=3131 20.l=A300A200 24.l=C1F1B801 28.l=0 30.w=0 3c.b=10 >> setpci.arg


:: The NVidia eGPU
@echo -s 9:0.0 04.w=400 0C.b=20 24.w=3F81 10.l=A2000000 14.l=B8000000 1C.l=C0000000 3C.b=10 50.b=1 88.w=140 >> setpci.arg


setpci @setpci.arg


set pci_written=yes

Since the AMD card works, I've effectively troubleshot everything from the card to the computer, and I tested the GTX770 in a desktop and it works, so it's just down to the pci.bat/startup.bat.

On nando's advice, I tried changing the root port (see below), but that didn't work either...

:: The X16 root port
@echo -s 0:1.0 1c.w=6030 20.l=AE90A090 24.l=CDF1AEA1 > setpci.arg

Anyone else having issues with nVidia/Sonnet SE II combos?

Is there something about nVidia cards I'm missing? What else can I try?

Thanks to anyone who can help...

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You swap the wifi at that screen, then select Win7 to continue loading. If the video card is now detected then yes, you must do this everytime. Or otherwise use the undo-whitelisting feature of Setup 1.x to provide a mechanism to avoid having to swap the wifi/PM3N.

It doesnt work :(

must I do anything before this system setup? I think I made avail costs :(

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Would really appreciate it if someone could help me out. My GTX 560 ti is working with a 1.1Opt link on my Lenovo X230 however any game I play on regaurdless of settings will have this stutter in frame rates. I have downloaded the newest drivers for everything and was wondering if anyone had any ideas where to start on how to fix this. Thank you!

Also interesting troubleshoot: Both my integrated laptop monitor and external work when my VGA is connected from my laptop to my external. I also have my DVI-D cord from my eGPU plugged into the external. The monitor is running off the DVI-D, however my external monitor will only work if the VGA from my laptop is plugged into it....might be part of the problem

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Hi all,

I'm using a PE4H connected through ExpressCard on a Thinkpad X201. Everything works well except a very annoying trouble : when I plug a jack (for audio) all of the monitor goes black while the PC continue to work normally, it's just the display that turn off! Forced to reboot to get back monitors on...

What's going on please? confused2.gif

I tried with an Ati FireMV 2260 and also 2460, always the same problem...

Oh please help me!

Edit: This problem appears under Windows and Linux, and also with two different Thinkpad X201... The first with Core i5 and the second one with an i7.

Do you think my PE4H is buggy?

(btw sorry for my poor English :-/)

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I would like to use a thunderbolt 2 enclosure for my egpu so I can get more bandwidth. Is that possible?

Here are the specs of my laptop:

1.late 2013 mbpr

2.i7 4558u

3.16gb ram

4.iris 5100

Here are the components I want to use:

Sonnet Echo Express 3-d

Amazon.com: Sonnet Technologies Echo Express III-D: Computers & Accessories

780ti

ie=UTF8&qid=1399058417&sr=8-1&keywords=sonnet+Amazon.com: ASUS Graphics Cards GTX780TI-DC2OC-3GD5: Computers & Accessories

I thought since the enclosure has a built in 300w psu, I don't have to do any soldering. Would I be able to just hook up the gpu to the psu? and it has a pcie 2.0 x16 slot, so I wont need an adapter.

I have not seen any guides on doing this with my mac and with a thunderbolt 2 enclosure so I would like your help. Thanks in advance. :)

- - - Updated - - -

sorry about the random links, something must of happened when I posted the thread.

I've had a user report privately that a Win8.1 + 15" MBP + Echo Express III-D + NVidia card works completely plug and play in UEFI (not bootcamp) mode. No guide has been forthcoming as yet, though wish we had one.

Anyone else having issues with nVidia/Sonnet SE II combos?

Is there something about nVidia cards I'm missing? What else can I try?

Thanks to anyone who can help...

Within Setup 1.x, run Save Diags->compact fails, upload the results to mediafire.com and post the link here.

It doesnt work :(

must I do anything before this system setup? I think I made avail costs :(

Obtain Setup 1.x to troubleshoot the mPCIe connected further if you have had no luck doing the OS-halting method to overcome whitelisting.

Would really appreciate it if someone could help me out. My GTX 560 ti is working with a 1.1Opt link on my Lenovo X230 however any game I play on regaurdless of settings will have this stutter in frame rates. I have downloaded the newest drivers for everything and was wondering if anyone had any ideas where to start on how to fix this. Thank you!

Also interesting troubleshoot: Both my integrated laptop monitor and external work when my VGA is connected from my laptop to my external. I also have my DVI-D cord from my eGPU plugged into the external. The monitor is running off the DVI-D, however my external monitor will only work if the VGA from my laptop is plugged into it....might be part of the problem

If your monitor configuration is such you in fact just running the accelerated internal LCD to an external display via the VGA port then yes, performance would be affected. You want the eGPU to display straight out to a monitor.

Other ways to improve performance would be

1. Get a x1.2Opt capable PE4L 2.1b-> double your bandwidth

2. Disablie NVidia sound would ensure the bandwidth is dedicated to video traffic only.

3. Putting a FPS limit via the NVidia drivers (or ASUS GPU Tweak / MSI Afterburner)

4. Try to lower resolution and lower color depth from 32-bit to 16 bit.

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I've had a user report privately that a Win8.1 + 15" MBP + Echo Express III-D + NVidia card works completely plug and play in UEFI (not bootcamp) mode. No guide has been forthcoming as yet, though wish we had one.

Within Setup 1.x, run Save Diags->compact fails, upload the results to mediafire.com and post the link here.

Obtain Setup 1.x to troubleshoot the mPCIe connected further if you have had no luck doing the OS-halting method to overcome whitelisting.

If your monitor configuration is such you in fact just running the accelerated internal LCD to an external display via the VGA port then yes, performance would be affected. You want the eGPU to display straight out to a monitor.

Other ways to improve performance would be

1. Get a x1.2Opt capable PE4L 2.1b-> double your bandwidth

2. Disablie NVidia sound would ensure the bandwidth is dedicated to video traffic only.

3. Putting a FPS limit via the NVidia drivers (or ASUS GPU Tweak / MSI Afterburner)

4. Try to lower resolution and lower color depth from 32-bit to 16 bit.

Hey nando really appreciate your continued support on this topic. So I have a PE4H 2.4b, so I think I should be able to support a 1.2 link? But every time I use your program and try to do a Gen 2 setup it simply doesn't display anything out of the DVI-D. And also, I do have the card directly displaying to the monitor, however what I'm saying is for some reason it wont display unless my laptop is also connected to it via its VGA port...very strange

UPDATE: I'm able to get it to work without the VGA now. Now my only problem is getting it to work when I select Gen 2....ALSO, I just did a test with GPUZ and while im playing there is no load on the integrated GPU...meaning Opt is not activated....Im using regular drivers do I need to use the modded ones?

UPDATE: I turned on vsync and it helped a little...

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Thank you but I got it all figured out and it works like a charm! Thanks for your offer!

Last step is setup the auto start script! Can't wait to give everyone a run for their money with my 3840qm and my 780ti via thunderbolt hehe

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Hey nando really appreciate your continued support on this topic. So I have a PE4H 2.4b, so I think I should be able to support a 1.2 link? But every time I use your program and try to do a Gen 2 setup it simply doesn't display anything out of the DVI-D. And also, I do have the card directly displaying to the monitor, however what I'm saying is for some reason it wont display unless my laptop is also connected to it via its VGA port...very strange

UPDATE: I'm able to get it to work without the VGA now. Now my only problem is getting it to work when I select Gen 2....ALSO, I just did a test with GPUZ and while im playing there is no load on the integrated GPU...meaning Opt is not activated....Im using regular drivers do I need to use the modded ones?

UPDATE: I turned on vsync and it helped a little...

PE4H 2.4b can only run a Gen1 link. You need a PE4L 2.1b to run Gen2. To confirm that Optimus' x1 pci-e compression is engaged, run 3dmark06 on your eGPU. If the result is > 10k then yes, it's engaged. If it's < 10k then it's not engaging, something that shouldn't be the case if the iGPU is active.

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PE4H 2.4b can only run a Gen1 link. You need a PE4L 2.1b to run Gen2. To confirm that Optimus' x1 pci-e compression is engaged, run 3dmark06 on your eGPU. If the result is > 10k then yes, it's engaged. If it's < 10k then it's not engaging, something that shouldn't be the case if the iGPU is active.

Getting 20322 score in 3DMark06 yet still Battlefield 4 and DayZ play pretty lagged out, even in campaign...

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Thank you but I got it all figured out and it works like a charm! Thanks for your offer!

Last step is setup the auto start script! Can't wait to give everyone a run for their money with my 3840qm and my 780ti via thunderbolt hehe

Yes, your [email protected] + GTX780Ti@10Gbps should put you on the top of the eGPU leaderboard. However, to get best DX9 performance however, disable the GTX660Ti dGPU and run 1-lane only by cellophane taping lane2-4 as shown. That will engage x1 pci-e compression, x1.2Opt, which will give better 3dmark06 results.

Getting 20322 score in 3DMark06 yet still Battlefield 4 and DayZ play pretty lagged out, even in campaign...

x1 pci-e compression is engaging. Still, you are running x1 1.0 (x1.1Opt). Pe4L 2.1b can run x1 2.0 (x1.2Opt), doubling your your bandwidth over PE4H 2.4. That will see improved performance.

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Hi Jacobsson

I already tried both method.

fisrt method : turn on egpu but expresscard slot didn't connected to laptop. Boot then connect the express card when appear 4 windows logo. But no good result

second method : connect express card while in windows. But no good too

third method : Turn on egpu, and connected while appear vaio logo. Not good too

Or shold I use the SW1 or SW3 switch in this case..? I use default mode ( no delay ) every time since I read somewhere in this forum, that it should be at defaul ( no delay )

thanks

You should definitely play around with the switches to be sure. Test all combinations, I've had some random luck before =)

(Don't remove the jumper)

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Hi all,

Sometimes, while my PC is working normally, the display shut off. My monitors goes black and I'm forced to do a reboot :-/ What could be the causes?

A defective EC2C adapter? Or maybe a defective mini-Hdmi cable? Or a problem with the PE4H? Or even a faulty power supply?

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14" Dell E5440 - good inexpensive Haswell ULV notebook with expresscard slot

Just noticed a few of these on EBAY-US, some with a 1600x900 LCD and some even with a GT720M dGPU. Pretty much all the US ones I see have an expresscard slot (EC) on the left side. With prices < US$600, they make a good value eGPU candidate system. Interested users can check them out:

Dell E5440 express card in Laptops & Netbooks | eBay

If someone does pick one up, please submit a eGPU installation guide so others can replicate an installation on one of these. Do note that ULV systems give excellent battery life but have the CPU soldered on the systemboard. Meaning no i7-quad upgrades for these. Check out 14" Dell E6440 if wanting CPU upgradability in a 14" Haswell system.

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Hello guys. I've got a problem with my egpu set. My spec is 8460p + gtx 660 (asus) + pe4l 2.1b (psu corsair cx430). Before, I had gtx560ti and it worked very well. I had not problems with getting 1.2opt. Now when I use "EC Gen. 1.0" option in bios it works like a charm. I can hot plug it in W7. But after that when I change option in bios (my bios is f.42 btw) sure the card can start up. I do even get view on external screen, but after some time (sometimes few sec) I hear the sound of unplugging device and internal screen lights up. Somtimes it happens few times. I mean screen goes back to internal and external again repeatedly. Sometimes it workes for a moment. Generally it doesn't work because it will evenually crash (black screen or bsod or just stops at internal). The funny thing is I usually have no error in device manager. Sometimes I see code 43 (I saw it more often before I clean installed my W7). After plugging in I can see the card in manager but I can tell it's not working because there is no nvidia panel in tray, and when I open gpu-z there is no info about clocks, sensor parameters etc.

Like I said earlier I tried reainstalling windows (2 times :) ), flashing notebook bios (f.41 and then f.42 again), flashing gpu bios, changing switches (I can't turn SW2 to 1-2 because at this position nothing happens/ I checked SW1 delay didn't help), different ways of plugging adapter, I even tried setup 1.3 but I don't actually now how to use it for diagnosis (as I heard my notebook should work very well without setup).

I will appreciate any help.

In addition I saw here a post of a guy who had identical config (except cpu) as me and had the same problem. But I didn't see an answer to his problems. Here is that post:

http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/2109-diy-egpu-experiences-%5Bversion-2-0%5D-215.html#post74657

edit:

Here are some diag files I made from setup. Maybe you will find something because I'm not an expert in those things :P.

http://speedy.sh/vuFHy/diag.zip

edit2:

Is there a possibility that adapter has faulty wire? I found some similar cases to mine.

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I just snuck into work to try this again ...

First, I tried plugging in my GTX 750 Ti into my work computer (running a Sandy Bridge i7 and GT 620). No dice. Confirms that the card is defective. Then I replaced back the GT 620 and booted it up to make sure everything still works.

Second, I took out the GT 620 from my work computer and plugged it into the PE4L. At boot up, between the POST screen and the Windows splash screen, I plugged in the PE4L via Express Card slot. The card started to spin--a good sign. But then my laptop didn't recognize the card--nothing in the device manager or BIOS, a blank external display connected to the card, and a message in the NVidia driver installer saying no devices were recognized. Could the PE4L be broken as well?

Just as a reminder, what I have:

ThinkPad X220 with a Sandy Bridge mobile i7 CPU and 4 GB RAM (2x2) running Windows 8.1

PE4L EC adapter

EVGA GTX 750 Ti

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