eGPU experiences [version 2.0]

[braised_beef]

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.

Thanks for the reply! Awesome looks like ill be getting the DA-2 Just want to be 100% sure, is this the correct adapter for the exp gdc v7.0? Don't want to have to return it if its the wrong type, as I live in Australia and shipping will be insane XD

[davide445]

@davide445

Are using the external screen output (attached to the eGPU) when benchmarking?

Yes was the external screen, I discovered the pbm: need to use Catalyst Control Center and set external screen as Primary one.

Using this setup here my scores :

3DMark Vantage: 1672 (iGPU) 16007 (eGPU)

3DMark11: 5338 (only eGPU since iGPU dind't support DX11)

I did have a lot of flickering during the test, probably due to high fps not accepted from LCD.

Need to look at setup but I'm really pleased from actual performances.

[jacobsson]

@davide445

Good job buddy, happy to that you solved it!

[davide445]

Thanks for the reply! Awesome looks like ill be getting the DA-2 Just want to be 100% sure, is this the correct adapter for the exp gdc v7.0? Don't want to have to return it if its the wrong type, as I live in Australia and shipping will be insane XD

I didn't use EXP GDC so prefer to leave others with first hand experience to give you confirmation....

- - - Updated - - -

@davide445

Good job buddy, happy to that you solved it!

Thanks!

Anyway looking at leaderboard did find others with same GPU 7950 with much higher score.

There are any guide for performance optimization?

[jacobsson]

@davide445

Can you post the links to your results so that I can have a look?

Yes your scores seems a little weak, but I can only find one 7950 on the leaderboard though ( @chiknnwatrmln ).

thanks!

[jcagara08]

I didn't use EXP GDC so prefer to leave others with first hand experience to give you confirmation....

- - - Updated - - -

Thanks!

Anyway looking at leaderboard did find others with same GPU 7950 with much higher score.

There are any guide for performance optimization?

Open CCC, go to overdrive, put memory clock to 15XX Mhz, GPU clock set it to 1110 Mhz an slowly increasing it by 25 Mhz in each trial, and lastly additional power settings set it to 10% and if its stable crank it up until +20% more power. That should do the trick. Use the AMD Catalyst 14.9 WQHL too. Hey buddy post some images of your setup too!

Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk

[davide445]

Discovered the arcane: leaderboard look at 3DMark.gpu component, so my marks are

3DMark Vantage.gpu = 24255

3DMark11.gpu = 7656

quite good and comparable to similar setup.

[jacobsson]

Discovered the arcane: leaderboard look at 3DMark.gpu component, so my marks are

3DMark Vantage.gpu = 24255

3DMark11.gpu = 7656

quite good and comparable to similar setup.

Not bad, then there you go

[chrisprabhu]

Macbook Air 13" Mid 2011

ViDock 3

Sonnet Echo Express Card 34 Thunderboldt Adapter

GTX 650 Ti

External Power Supply for the 6pin on the card:

ePOWER EP-450CD 450W ATX12V / EPS12V Modular Juice Box- Dedicated Graphic Card and CPU power Supply - Newegg.com

(plugged into nearyby tower so it turns on)

Installed:

CUDA Driver 6.5.18

NVIDIA WebDriver-334.01.03f01.pkg

Modified Kext Files following post #18 by Shelltoe here:

http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/6088-native-thunderbolt-egpu-osx-win8-1-a-2.html

System Report sees it under Graphics/Displays but it's like the drivers aren't attached or something. See screenshot:

PCI Cards section reads: "There was an Error while gathering PCI card information."

Thunderboldt section shows Thunderboldt Bus > Echo Expresscard /34 TB

EDIT: I should also mention I have it working fine in Windows 8.1 via Boot Camp.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Chris

[davide445]

Not bad, then there you go

Will finish my tests in a while, need I to post here all details to be in leaderboard so that anyone can use as reference?

[hugh]

Thanks @davide445, that is indeed helpful.

I don't do any 3D work with my laptop, the eGPU is going to be exclusively for gaming. Seems like Nvidia may be the default choice because of the handiness of the optimus driver switching and because they are good options for gaming, but I should be considering performance issues as well. I'll have a look at that benchmarking link.

Is there a quantifiable threshold of video card performance beyond which I'm wasting my money because my laptop<->eGPU bandwidth will be bottlenecked?

[thomas_price1]

Hi guys, here is my setup :

- Macbook pro 15" late 2013

- Sonnet SEL (bought from ebay)

- Msi gtx 970

- Corsair rm550

- 8x to 16x riser

3dmark06 : 26132 (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-4850HQ,Apple Inc. Mac-2BD1B31983FE1663)

3dmarkv : 40797 (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-4850HQ,Apple Inc. Mac-2BD1B31983FE1663)

3dmark11: 14877 (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-4850HQ,Apple Inc. Mac-2BD1B31983FE1663)

Firestrike : 11472 (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-4850HQ,Apple Inc. Mac-2BD1B31983FE1663)

I'm a little surprised by 3dmark11 and firestrike results.

[davide445]

Thanks @davide445, that is indeed helpful.

I don't do any 3D work with my laptop, the eGPU is going to be exclusively for gaming. Seems like Nvidia may be the default choice because of the handiness of the optimus driver switching and because they are good options for gaming, but I should be considering performance issues as well. I'll have a look at that benchmarking link.

Is there a quantifiable threshold of video card performance beyond which I'm wasting my money because my laptop<->eGPU bandwidth will be bottlenecked?

Your choice it's easier in that way.

About GPU bottlenecked from connection depends from the interface you can use on your laptop, what laptop model did you have?

Does your laptop have ExpressCard, miniPCIe or Thunderbolt connection?

About choosing the GPU it's a bit off topic here, I suggest looking here Best Graphics Cards For The Money: September 2014 - Best Graphics Cards For The Money, September Updates . My understanding after much reading is if you didn't game at very height resolutions spending more than $200 it's less and less convenient in term of buck for the money. I bought my used 7950 Boost for that price.

[hugh]

@davide445

Huh that's interesting. And that benchmark chart you previously linked to was interesting too, I wish there was a version with the speed on the Y axis and the price on the X axis so I could look for standout values.

Your choice it's easier in that way.

About GPU bottlenecked from connection depends from the interface you can use on your laptop, what laptop model did you have?

Here's what I'm working with. It's PCIe, hopefully allowing for x1.2Optlink (whatever the hell that means)

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: 3.0Maximum 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

[davide445]

@davide445

Huh that's interesting. And that benchmark chart you previously linked to was interesting too, I wish there was a version with the speed on the Y axis and the price on the X axis so I could look for standout values.

Here's what I'm working with. It's PCIe, hopefully allowing for x1.2Optlink (whatever the hell that means)

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: 3.0Maximum 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

Here your performance per $ chart September 2014: Graphics Card Performance Per Dollar didn't know why the UK version cut this chart out.

With such EC spec I think you can achieve more than 90% of GPU theoretical performance, more expert people here can confirm please.

[jacobsson]

Hi guys, here is my setup :

3dmark06 : 26132 (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-4850HQ,Apple Inc. Mac-2BD1B31983FE1663)

3dmarkv : 40797 (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-4850HQ,Apple Inc. Mac-2BD1B31983FE1663)

3dmark11: 14877 (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-4850HQ,Apple Inc. Mac-2BD1B31983FE1663)

Firestrike : 11472 (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-4850HQ,Apple Inc. Mac-2BD1B31983FE1663)

I'm a little surprised by 3dmark11 and firestrike results.

If we compare GPU scores to my TB1 @10Mbps, 'regular' clocked Zotac GTX 970:

Core clock 1,076 MHz vs 1,314 MHz

Memory bus clock 1,753 MHz vs 1,853 MHz

(You totally kick my ass)

3Dmark06:

Result

Total of 24% higher

3Dmark Vant:

Result

21% higher GPU score

3Dmark11:

Result

35% higher GPU score

Fire Strike (11472 vs. 8872)

29% higher GPU score

EDIT: Is it possible that you can make a power measurement during Fire Strike to see how much power your card peaks?

[Tech Inferno Fan]

If we compare GPU scores to my TB1 @10Mbps with the regular clocked Zotac GTX 970:

Core clock 1,076 MHz vs 1,314 MHz

Memory bus clock 1,753 MHz vs 1,853 MHz

(You totally kick my ass)

3Dmark06:

Result

Total of 24% higher

3Dmark Vant:

Result

21% higher GPU score

3Dmark11:

Result

35% higher GPU score

Fire Strike (11472 vs. 8872)

29% higher GPU score

I compared them wondering why there's that huge performance difference.

I concluded the dfference is in your GPU's clock more than the TB1 versus TB2 bandwidth:

Core clock 1,076 MHz vs 1,314 MHz (+22.1%)

Memory bus clock 1,753 MHz vs 1,853 MHz (+5.7%)

There may also be not-so-obvious power limits applied too that are further restricting performance.

[jacobsson]

I compared them wondering why there's that huge performance difference.

I concluded the dfference is in your GPU's clock more than the TB1 versus TB2 bandwidth:

Core clock 1,076 MHz vs 1,314 MHz

Memory bus clock 1,753 MHz vs 1,853 MHz

There may also be not-so-obvious power limits applied too that are further restricting performance.

Good thing is that I only see a max draw of 175W, so I can definitely up my clocks a bit and still stay in the DA-2 220W -limit =)

[Dschijn]

4 core i7 seems to give an advantage too. My MSI GTX 970 is getting lower graphic scores as thomas_price1 gets.

[jcagara08]

HIghest so far in 3dmark 06 hall of fame for our card Radeon HD 7950 Boost is at 40000, his setup consists of an i7 and crossfire. My theory is that out laptop's CPU TDP limit is what makes the bottleneck as well as the mini PCIE slot bandwidth.

My highest stable (OC attempts) score for 3dmark 06 is @ 19,408 (halfway of 40K) with catalyst 14.8 and, ocing a little bit at 1110MHz + 20% power while running that Ideafan application to make the CPU as cool as possible.

Here it is;

AMD Radeon HD 7950 video card benchmark result - Intel Core i5-3230M Processor,LENOVO INVALID

Here is the setup I was talking about;

AMD Radeon HD 7950 video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-4770K,ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. SABERTOOTH Z87 40,453 (CF + i7 4770K)

Hey did anyone of you even bothered to read this post I made? sheesh

[gothic860]

i7 and crossfire

a DESKTOP i7 AND 2 GPUs ...

My theory is that out laptop's CPU TDP limit is what makes the bottleneck as well as the mini PCIE slot bandwidth.

Like i said its a Notebook-CPU vs. Desktop-CPU + 2 GPUs vs. 1 GPU + the bottleneck of the bandwith i think 19408 is a good score for this.

[Tech Inferno Fan]

a DESKTOP i7 AND 2 GPUs ...

Like i said its a Notebook-CPU vs. Desktop-CPU + 2 GPUs vs. 1 GPU + the bottleneck of the bandwith i think 19408 is a good score for this.

@gothic980, did you end up getting a TB link going on your W540? If so, would you mind adding the detail of how and what benchmarks you got with it at http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/7388-%5Bguide%5D-thinkpad-w540-pe4l-2-1b-amd-r9-290x-nvidia-780ti.html#post101232

I've (and am still) re-orging the Leaderboard with DX11 results first including Firestrike though haven't yet added the NVidia 9xx ones we have. Your expresscard results are near the top and of course the TB1 ones would be better http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/6578-implementations-hub-tb-ec-mpcie.html#dx11

[gothic860]

@gothic980, did you end up getting a TB link going on your W540? If so, would you mind adding the detail of how and what benchmarks you got with it at [GUIDE] ThinkPad W540 + PE4L 2.1b + AMD R9 290X / NVidia 780Ti

Yes, its working. I already added the steps in my Guide (maybe you can add it to the headline).

I've (and am still) re-orging the Leaderboard with DX11 results first including Firestrike though haven't yet added the NVidia 9xx ones we have. Your expresscard results are near the top and of course the TB1 ones would be better Implementations Hub: TB, EC, mPCIe

I sold my R9 290X (wasnt able to play WoW with low settings, but its a WoW problem) and also sold my 780Ti OC version from Gainward (some strange noise when gaming). At the moment im using a 780Ti from EVGA (no OC or anything). The problem with the Benchmarks is Windows 8.1. With my PE4L i was always getting lower scores (W8.1), but i will try Firestrike later and report.

[jcagara08]

a DESKTOP i7 AND 2 GPUs ...

Like i said its a Notebook-CPU vs. Desktop-CPU + 2 GPUs vs. 1 GPU + the bottleneck of the bandwith i think 19408 is a good score for this.

Thanks man, I just found that my laptop is throttling on me, the CPU, I guess it could not handle the heat produced during 64 man BF4 large conquest matches, I think I have to do a repasting of GPU and CPU in desktop style then a more effective cooling solution...my 3dmark 06 result yes indeed its quite on the mid high scores but I envy you guys reaching up to 26K dang

Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk

[gothic860]

my 3dmark 06 result yes indeed its quite on the mid high scores but I envy you guys reaching up to 26K dang

Just compare this:

http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/4674-%5Bguide%5D-15-lenovo-w530-hd7950%40x1-2-pe4l-2-1b.html#post65364

(same GPU and Expresscard like your eGPU)

with your own result:

AMD Radeon HD 7950 video card benchmark result - Intel Core i5-3230M Processor,LENOVO INVALID

Nearly same results but your CPU is slower (i7-3740QM vs i5-3230M)