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eGPU experiences [version 2.0]


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I did measure up to 175W (!!!) in 3DMARK13, which makes me think all this "146W TDP talk" is waaay off.

Maybe:

[EDIT] We originally posted Power Consumption Torture (GPGPU) results that showed a simulated GeForce GTX 970 reference card pulling over 240 Watts. This does not represent Nvidia's reference GeForce GTX 970 board because our data point was simulated with a Gigabyte GTX 970 card that has a non-reference ~250 Watt power target, unlike the reference board's ~150 W power target.We have since pulled that data since it does not represent Nvidia's reference GeForce GTX 970 card. On the other hand, as far as we know there are no actual GeForce GTX 970 reference card designs for sale as each manufacturer has put their own spin on this model. None of the manufacturers we have talked to have released a GeForce GTX 970 card with a ~150 Watt power target as of this time, opting instead to give this product more performance headroom.

This is an issue we are keeping a close eye on, and we will follow up with a detailed investigation in the near future. We are curious to see if a reference-based GeForce GTX 970 will perform in the same league as the cards we have tested with higher power targets, but it would certainly make more sense in an HTPC or for use in smaller form factors. In the meantime, we have removed the 'simulated' GeForce GTX 970 data point from the following charts. [/EDIT]

Nvidia GeForce GTX Watchdogs Results

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@gothic860

Thanks buddy!

I guess one could describe 3DMARK13 more as torture than gaming?

I only say ~120-130W during the Borderlands 2 test if I recall correctly.

Anyway, this feels a bit uncomfortable to me since I'm all about performance / watt and I really thought that the GTX 970 was a ~150W TDP card.

I might have to return my card and buy something less beefy like the GTX960 or so, dammit...

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I'm researching an external GPU setup and finding it somewhat overwhelming. I think I'm on the right track but I would appreciate if someone could check my conclusions before I spend my money.

Here's what I've got:

Lenovo W530

Intel Core i7-3820QM 2.7GHz

Integrated graphics: Intel HD Graphics 4000

Dedicated graphics: NVIDIA Quadro K1000M

20GB RAM

I have an ExpressCard slot. According to HWiNFO64 it has these specifications:

Version: 3.0

Maximum Link Width: 16x

Current Link Width: 16x

Maximum Link Speed: 8.0 Gb/s

Current Link Speed: 2.5 Gb/s

Device/Port Type: Root Port of PCI Express Root Complex

I've tried to read through the DIY eGPU experiences [version 2.0] thread, and based on that info, I think that

  • I should be able to use an external GPU
  • I should be able to use the "fastest x1.2Opt link"
  • I can use optimus switching drivers if I get an Nvidia card
  • Either the PE4L V2.1 or the EXP GDC V7.0 PCIe adapter should work

Are those conclusions correct?

thanks!

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I cannot get Optimus to activate on my eGPU* would an EFI install of Windows fix this or am i mistaken?

*eGPU Specs: late 2013 Mbp 13inch + Akitio Thunder2 box + Cx500m psu + powered riser + gigabyte gtx 770 4gb + bootcamp Win 8.1 install

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I'm researching an external GPU setup and finding it somewhat overwhelming. I think I'm on the right track but I would appreciate if someone could check my conclusions before I spend my money.

Here's what I've got:

Lenovo W530

Intel Core i7-3820QM 2.7GHz

Integrated graphics: Intel HD Graphics 4000

Dedicated graphics: NVIDIA Quadro K1000M

20GB RAM

I have an ExpressCard slot. According to HWiNFO64 it has these specifications:

Version: 3.0

Maximum Link Width: 16x

Current Link Width: 16x

Maximum Link Speed: 8.0 Gb/s

Current Link Speed: 2.5 Gb/s

Device/Port Type: Root Port of PCI Express Root Complex

I've tried to read through the DIY eGPU experiences [version 2.0] thread, and based on that info, I think that

  • I should be able to use an external GPU
  • I should be able to use the "fastest x1.2Opt link"
  • I can use optimus switching drivers if I get an Nvidia card
  • Either the PE4L V2.1 or the EXP GDC V7.0 PCIe adapter should work

Are those conclusions correct?

thanks!

Yes, shortlist looks good. Only additional comments here:

1. EXP GDC V6/V7 is recommended over BPlus units for the time being due to a better price/feature set. http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/6643-exp-gdc-v6-discussion.html#post88642

2. You'll get a max 5Gbps out of your W530's expresscard slot. If wanting to engage Optimus internal LCD mode x1 pci-e compression, then you'll need to disable your internal NVidia dGPU using Setup 1.30: http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/2123-diy-egpu-setup-1-30-a.html#post27337

3. If wanting more pcie bandwidth then consider obtaining a NGFF.M2 (PCIe) 8Gbps, Thunderbolt1 10Gbps or Thunderbolt2 16Gbps notebook instead: http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/4109-egpu-candidate-system-list.html#post57511 .

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Ok thanks!

I'll go ahead an order an EXP GDC v7 then.

I've been looking through lists of recommended video cards, and it seems like some of those lists are getting out of date.

Given my setup (the above specs, plus the EXP GDC I will now order), any suggestions as to the highest-end Nvidia card I can buy without bottlenecking on bandwidth? Or is that a "it depends" question that can't be simply answered?

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@hugh

The tapatalk app doesn't show me signatures (iPhone), are you planning to use ATX or DA-2 for power? If DA-2, I'd say GTX680 seems to be highest rated card within 220W limit. I'm testing the GTX 970 atm to see if it also stays within the power limitations.

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Hi guys.

Just wanted to share some performance info from my newly arrived Zotac GTX 970.

3DMARK06: GPU: 21049 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3740QM Processor,ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. G46VW

3DMARK11: GPU: 10980 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3740QM Processor,ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. G46VW

3DMARK Vant: crashed right in the beginning of CPU test 2 (which seems to be a bug), anyone familiar with this please help me!

3DMARK13: 'hard crashes' right after the wing suit demo (she enters the cave), right now I'm investigating if my DA-2 (custom cabling) is to weak on some 12V rail since it indicates on overload.

I did measure up to 175W (!!!) in 3DMARK13, which makes me think all this "146W TDP talk" is waaay off.

Ran Borderlands 2 for ~20min for a test: 1080P, Physx = High, no significant slow downs / fps drops! :)

This game has been unplayable with my GTX 670 with Physx above low.

Such remarkable results mate! But you can probably hit more scores when your i7 and GTX 970 will be OCed a little bit

Can you post images of your new sweet and powerful setup?

By the way, I was reminded of your setup with this;

mono-aio-left.jpg

sys-mono-aio-built.jpg

Some new random company selling monitors where you can assemble PC components from the backside of it, CRAAZY!

mono All-In-One Desktop PC

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@jcagara08

Damn crazy stuff, must say I like it!

I currently don't have nice setup, it looks more like a disaster of electronics atm :)

I can of course upload some photos of the current state if you'd like.

EDIT: Yeah the scores are pretty nice, but I have sort out my power issues before considering any OC, I think my problem lies in the power to slot itself, maybe the 900-series is more 'PCIe slot hungry' than current generation? I have some time later tonight to look at it.

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@jcagara08

Damn crazy stuff, must say I like it!

I currently don't have nice setup, it looks more like a disaster of electronics atm :)

I can of course upload some photos of the current state if you'd like.

EDIT: Yeah the scores are pretty nice, but I have sort out my power issues before considering any OC, I think my problem lies in the power to slot itself, maybe the 900-series is more 'PCIe slot hungry' than current generation? I have some time later tonight to look at it.

Maybe they saw your post sue them jacobsson! LOL

Yeah did you get the reference GTX 970 and for how much? How about the temps?

Lovely reference design, I would want to use that and put it inside that EXP GDC V6 ACRYLIC enclosure....NEXT YEAR!!!

Dying for a TB2 setup, heck bring on Thunderbolt 3 Intel!!!

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Just arrived PE4C V2.0, I attach the whole things.

Setup is Lenovo X220 i5 2520M iGPU HD3000 8GB RAM BIOS 1.39 eGPU Sapphire 7950 Boost Win7 Pro 64bit

PE4C is connected HDMI-->EC

eGPU is connected DVI-I -->VGA to monitor

Installed latest 14.4 Catalyst driver

eGPU is up and running but nothing happen.

External monitor didn't recognize any signal nor Laptop recognize any external device connected.

Tried to reboot and change EC to Gen1 in BIOS, nothing changed.

GPU-Z state only HD3000 it's present.

BIOS didn't mention a new GPU (if need to).

All led on PE4C are green.

Attach DxDiag and a couple of picture, any idea what I need to do?

post-11235-14494998423166_thumb.jpg

post-11235-14494998422807_thumb.jpg

DxDiag.txt

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Hi @jacobsson,

DA-2 refers to the Dell DA-2 power adapter correct? If so it looks like I get a re-furb shipped up to Canada for about $30. If that's a good option, or at least a reasonably good and relatively simple option, then I guess I'll do that. Are there reasons I might want to choose ATX over DA-2 instead?

I'm guessing these are pretty elementary questions. Sorry, I really have tried to read through the introductory threads but my head was starting to spin. This is my first time doing anything at all with dedicated graphics cards, let alone eGPUs.

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Appear to be resolved: booting laptop and only after login connect the eGPU make the machine recognize the new hw and load new drivers.

Next installed latest Catalyst 14.9 following amd driverdownloader suggestions.

All ok but for some reason display driver was not istalled, so the external display it's not recognized.

Catalyst Control Center didn't open since there is no profile to manage.

Uninstalled all Catalyst version and performed a clean install: now the external display it's recognized!

Just a note: after all is installed the next boot you need to have the card already connected at boot time to have it recognized, it's not plug and play.

Time to do some tests :)

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Hi @jacobsson,

DA-2 refers to the Dell DA-2 power adapter correct? If so it looks like I get a re-furb shipped up to Canada for about $30. If that's a good option, or at least a reasonably good and relatively simple option, then I guess I'll do that. Are there reasons I might want to choose ATX over DA-2 instead?

I'm guessing these are pretty elementary questions. Sorry, I really have tried to read through the introductory threads but my head was starting to spin. This is my first time doing anything at all with dedicated graphics cards, let alone eGPUs.

Yeah, that's the DA-2 I'm using!

What GPU are you planning on?

- - - Updated - - -

This is what my table looks like ATM, turns out my setup works as it should =)

noCfKrJ.png

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Yeah now that I've ordered the bits I need from China to attach a graphics card to my laptop, I actually have to learn about graphics cards.

For instance It was news to me that nvidia does not actually manufacture video cards, and you have to choose which manufacturer's implementation of the chosen nvidia chips you want to buy. Took me a while to figure that one out.

So I really don't know. I'm looking for a balance between speed and power for now, not all-out performance. Does a GTX 660 make sense? Or are those out of date now?

Yeah, that's the DA-2 I'm using!

What GPU are you planning on?

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Hi,

My old x200 recently died, so I'm in the market for a new eGPU capable laptop, preferably with the newest thunderbolt technology.

Right now the MSI WS60 is looking pretty good, but from what I can see Optimus isn't enabled on the laptop, and there is a dGPU installed. Would that mean I would be unable to run it in internal LCD mode?

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3dMark Vantage tests are going really bad, GPU-Z show I'm using PCIe x1 1.1 connection.

My x220 it's supposed to have EC2 with support to PCIe x2 5Gbps connection, BIOS it's in Auto mode, need I to do something to push for full 5Gbps speed?

I have a 7850 on a T430.

In GPU-Z try clicking the ? on the right of the PCIe speed, mine throttles to 1.2x as soon as it gets under load.

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Yeah now that I've ordered the bits I need from China to attach a graphics card to my laptop, I actually have to learn about graphics cards.

For instance It was news to me that nvidia does not actually manufacture video cards, and you have to choose which manufacturer's implementation of the chosen nvidia chips you want to buy. Took me a while to figure that one out.

So I really don't know. I'm looking for a balance between speed and power for now, not all-out performance. Does a GTX 660 make sense? Or are those out of date now?

Just sharing my research since I didn't have first hand experience.

GTX660 it's often used as eGPU so you will go on explored territory.

For other choices you need first know what application you will use with your GPU: different one are optimized for different GPU technologies, as example games go well on both Nvidia and AMD, on the contrary business app such as CAD or video editing are optimized for CUDA (only Nvidia) or OpenCL (AMD and Nvidia but AMD much better performance) or both.

Also different app need different feature to optimize performance, games mostly num of shaders and clock, business app request big VRAM and bus size also.

For real word performance you need to find specific app benchmark, I did anyway find useful as reference tool this ranking PassMark Software - Video Card Benchmarks - High End Video Cards to have a first idea about relative speed.

About different manufacturer normally they customize models on clock, VRAM, cooling, so you need first to choose the model (i.e. GTX660, 760 or mine HD7950) and next the manufacturer specific model tests about speed, temperature, noise.

Hope it's useful.

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Hi guys!

Just preparing for my eGPU set up on my Acer 5755g, but not sure what power I should use...

My card is a Gainward GTX 660, but it says I need a 450 watt PSU...

Here is the issue, when I look up on the PSU calculator it says I need only 229 watts...

So which PSU should I use? A 500 watt ATX or the Dell DA-2?

Thanks in advanced! <3

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@Tech Inferno Fan

There seem to be another good news to folks with TB2 Laptops

A newcomer who is selling TB2 enclosures for $349!

HighPoint offers Slim Thunderbolt 2 PCIe Expansion Chassis

index.php?ct=news&action=thumb&id=8419

- - - Updated - - -

Just sharing my research since I didn't have first hand experience.

GTX660 it's often used as eGPU so you will go on explored territory.

For other choices you need first know what application you will use with your GPU: different one are optimized for different GPU technologies, as example games go well on both Nvidia and AMD, on the contrary business app such as CAD or video editing are optimized for CUDA (only Nvidia) or OpenCL (AMD and Nvidia but AMD much better performance) or both.

Also different app need different feature to optimize performance, games mostly num of shaders and clock, business app request big VRAM and bus size also.

For real word performance you need to find specific app benchmark, I did anyway find useful as reference tool this ranking PassMark Software - Video Card Benchmarks - High End Video Cards to have a first idea about relative speed.

About different manufacturer normally they customize models on clock, VRAM, cooling, so you need first to choose the model (i.e. GTX660, 760 or mine HD7950) and next the manufacturer specific model tests about speed, temperature, noise.

Hope it's useful.

Your statement is indeed useful! Did you made a setup already?

I am too much busy testing my rig, recently my system is now having the sleep bug issue, I did a little research and I found that this issue is sporadic with old AMD cards such as the Radeon HD 7XXX series. What happens is that once your CPU and GPU is under load (apps games) suddenly monitor goes black but both Laptop and eGPU is on and working but nothing is being displayed on the monitor as if in "Sleep Mode" and there is no choice but to hold power button and reboot system, tonight I will by trying it the newly released AMD Catalyst 14.9 WHQL drivers and see if the issue is still present.

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Hi guys!

Just preparing for my eGPU set up on my Acer 5755g, but not sure what power I should use...

My card is a Gainward GTX 660, but it says I need a 450 watt PSU...

Here is the issue, when I look up on the PSU calculator it says I need only 229 watts...

So which PSU should I use? A 500 watt ATX or the Dell DA-2?

Thanks in advanced! <3

The reported needed PSU it's to power the GPU and a whole PC.

To power only the card you need to look at TDP, that's just 140w in your case Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 2GB Review | bit-tech.net

Dell DA-2 need to be more than enough.

- - - Updated - - -

.......

Your statement is indeed useful! Did you made a setup already?

I am too much busy testing my rig, recently my system is now having the sleep bug issue, I did a little research and I found that this issue is sporadic with old AMD cards such as the Radeon HD 7XXX series. What happens is that once your CPU and GPU is under load (apps games) suddenly monitor goes black but both Laptop and eGPU is on and working but nothing is being displayed on the monitor as if in "Sleep Mode" and there is no choice but to hold power button and reboot system, tonight I will by trying it the newly released AMD Catalyst 14.9 WHQL drivers and see if the issue is still present.

I'm trying to benchmark my card but for some unknown reason 3DMark Vantage is returning the same results I got for my iGPU (I think in fact it's still testing it, not going to eGPU) and 3dMark11 returned an error, copy next

How do you setup your tests?

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

Workload Single init returned error message: File: device_resources.cpp

Line: 213

Function: class eva::com_ptr<struct id3d11vertexshader=""> __cdecl eva::d3d11::device_resources::create_vertex_shader(const void *,unsigned __int64,struct ID3D11ClassLinkage *) const

Expression: m_device.native()->CreateVertexShader( shader_bytecode, bytes, linkage, result.receive()): DX11 call failed.

An invalid parameter was passed to the returning function

E_INVALIDARG: ID3D11Device::CreateVertexShader:

----------------------</struct>

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