eGPU experiences [version 2.0]

[Tech Inferno Fan]

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

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.

Thank you for the update. Changing the headline is easy. What's more important is your is the first and only Thunderbolt Lenovo implementation we have: http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/6578-implementations-hub-tb-ec-mpcie.html#Thunderbolt

It would then help tremendously for anybody else wanting to acquire a W540 and leverage off your pioneering work if you could change your thread to focus on The Thunderbolt side. That is, what hardware you used and the steps to get it working. The PE4L could be perhaps added as an appendix? While Win8.1 benchmarks might be lower I'll happily add whatever you are willing to share to the Leaderboard.

[Videoapan]

Yes, Setup 1.30 willl help deal any mPCIe slot whitelisting as well as disable your NVidia dGPU. The latter necessary to activate x1 pci-e compression and internal LCD mode using the eGPU rather than dGPU.

Hi!

I recently set up my old ASUS F3Sr laptop with a Nvidia GTX 460 through a PCIe-adapter and it works relatively well with an external monitor. What I would like though is for it to work with the internal screen if possible. The laptop has an integrated ATI HD2400 which makes me wonder whether or not it will work with Setup 1.x. Do you have any experience with a setup like that? There is no internal intel gpu, only ATI.

Oh, I also had to remove 2 GB of RAM, I'm guessing that I will have to live with the lower amount even with a working Setup 1.x?

Thanks in advance!

[thomas_price1]

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?

No sorry, I was planning to buy a wattmeter but since my egpu is stable it's not a priority anymore.

If that can help you I tried 3dmark11 with your GPU's clock : http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/8781851

[davide445]

.......

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 experienced also a stability issue: after few minutes of work (testing on video editing app and game editors) the screen go black and next return and the system state "AMD display driver stopped working and has recovered". I need to disable external display and reboot the system, otherwise I'm not able to do anything more.

This is also your problem?

[Tech Inferno Fan]

I experienced also a stability issue: after few minutes of work (testing on video editing app and game editors) the screen go black and next return and the system state "AMD display driver stopped working and has recovered". I need to disable external display and reboot the system, otherwise I'm not able to do anything more.

This is also your problem?

The instability is because of either:

- a GPU that's clocked beyond what it can handle -> use MSI Afterburner to downclock the GPU.

- the eGPU hardware is incapable of running at Gen2 speed -> set your EC/mPCIe to Gen1 using your bios or Setup 1.30 and/or consider getting another eGPU adapter. NOTE: there have been a few video cards that just do not want to run at Gen2 reliability but swapping to another vendor's card of same type does. Impedance issue?

- the PSU is incapable of supplying peak load power -> test another PSU.

[jcagara08]

I experienced also a stability issue: after few minutes of work (testing on video editing app and game editors) the screen go black and next return and the system state "AMD display driver stopped working and has recovered". I need to disable external display and reboot the system, otherwise I'm not able to do anything more.

This is also your problem?

I did not see any prompts that driver stopped working, it really turns off by itself (video signal lost but GPU is powered on) like last night I was playing Campaign style BF4 all of a sudden the cutscene stopped and video signal went out like the whole setup went to sleep. I Guess it can be a CPU throttle issue (for me) and or GPU hardware issue. Other guys told to plug and unplug DVI cable /HDMI to like remind the GPU it has a job to do and wake up from sleep and I did not try this yet. Some say win + P or ctrl alt del but sadly I have to long press power button just to restart which can be bad for the HDD

Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk

[davide445]

The instability is because of either:

- a GPU that's clocked beyond what it can handle -> use MSI Afterburner to downclock the GPU.

- the eGPU hardware is incapable of running at Gen2 speed -> set your EC/mPCIe to Gen1 using your bios or Setup 1.30 and/or consider getting another eGPU adapter. NOTE: there have been a few video cards that just do not want to run at Gen2 reliability but swapping to another vendor's card of same type does. Impedance issue?

- the PSU is incapable of supplying peak load power -> test another PSU.

Thanks Tech Inferno Fan it's an honor receive your first direct response.

I tested in fact yesterday OC but create crashes so now all is running at fabric default.

My Lenovo X220 does have EC2 interface theoretically capable of Gen2 speed. Also PE4C V2.0 need to support Gen2 (right?). Will check if setting to Gen1 will solve the issue but I will be really disappointed since will mean much worse performance.

[jcagara08]

Thanks Tech Inferno Fan it's an honor receive your first direct response.

I tested in fact yesterday OC but create crashes so now all is running at fabric default.

My Lenovo X220 does have EC2 interface theoretically capable of Gen2 speed. Also PE4C V2.0 need to support Gen2 (right?). Will check if setting to Gen1 will solve the issue but I will be really disappointed since will mean much worse performance.

it can be that our laptops could not handle the bandwidth of the GPU activity..

I experienced too last night when I overclocked via overdrive I set Memory at 1575 MHz, +20% power, and Clock Speed @ 1150, it really went off!

(EGPU turned off! Power was cut and adapter did not have any light even the blue lights in the EXP GDC power port was off!!)

AMD Radeon HD 7950 Boost is really such a hungry card I guess,

Returned to stock settings and played BF4 Campaign and it was again that stable.

It is really such an annoying occurence which is intermittent and so random.

TLDR; my Lenovo G500 Throttles and Radeon HD 7950 is power hungry

Need to repaste CPU and GPU as well as effective cooling.

@Tech Inferno Fan

when I open GPU-z it shows that gpu is running at

"PCIE 3.0 @x16 X1 2.0/2" Am I running at an ideal speed?

[dan]

I am testing the Windows 10 technical prewiev and I guess that I find something useful to a egpu setup.if you just disable the pci-e port where dgpu is locate ,you can activate optimus because the dgpu simply desseapear from display devices list,unlike windows 7 where it was need to use x1.setup in order to do that.if you do that in windows 7 since I remember the dgpu stays in display devices list like a generic display adapter and optimus can"t engage.i have an intel cougar point HM65 second generacion based system.someone can confirm?or I am just missing something......it could be useful in systems where x1.setup can"t disable dgpu.i enable optimus this time without x1.setup.

by the way ,this new system is not bad at all

OK.No innovation here.after installing w7 i see that i was wrong.in w7 i can do the same thing with the same results.So nevermind.the only positive aspect for me is that i discover that my tolud is dynamic and no need for compactation and since i could disable the dgpu from de device manager i can pass from using x1.setup at all.anyway is a valious piece of software.

[braised_beef]

I am testing the Windows 10 technical prewiev and I guess that I find something useful to a egpu setup.if you just disable the pci-e port where dgpu is locate ,you can activate optimus because the dgpu simply desseapear from display devices list,unlike windows 7 where it was need to use x1.setup in order to do that.if you do that in windows 7 since I remember the dgpu stays in display devices list like a generic display adapter and optimus can"t engage.i have an intel cougar point HM65 second generacion based system.someone can confirm?or I am just missing something......

by the way ,this new system is not bad at all

Im pretty sure in theory you can just disable the dgpu itself and still be able to get optimus? Lol, my exp gdc is coming tomorrow ill let you know if it works. Either way if it does or doesnt its best to install setup 1.30

[davide445]

Maybe I'm wrong about my EC adapter and can't be able to reach Gen2 speed, here data from HwInfo:

Slot Designation: ExpressCard Slot

Slot Type: PCI Express

Slot Usage: Empty

Slot Data Bus Width: 1x / x1

Slot Length: Unknown

I also did have 5 PCIe Bus, how can I know which is connected with EC?

[dan]

I am using x1.setup and its very helpful in most of the case it is the only salvation.i install it in this new system and it works great.from my experience in windows 7 the only way to achieve optimus performance is by using x1.setup in order to disable dgpu.it is not working with just disable it whitin devicemanager. good luck with your egpu setup tomororow!

[useafo]

unfortunately, I can't make Gen2 link work, after such a long 2 weeks. Thus, I confirm that EVGA GTX 660 won't run at x1.2Opt. I'll try to buy the same card, but from another vendor.

[braised_beef]

I am using x1.setup and its very helpful in most of the case it is the only salvation.i install it in this new system and it works great.from my experience in windows 7 the only way to achieve optimus performance is by using x1.setup in order to disable dgpu.it is not working with just disable it whitin devicemanager. good luck with your egpu setup tomororow!

Thanks man! Yea i also been trying to find out too to determine which port is what. Its so confusing this is just an assumption but look up how to find how big your tolud size is and usually the first one that is A00000 or something like that should be your first port and so on, by the way that was just an example, yours might be different. From the detail, i think you can look up what port is using what. Sorry i cant remember exactly on how find your tolud size

[dan]

unfortunately, I can't make Gen2 link work, after such a long 2 weeks. Thus, I confirm that EVGA GTX 660 won't run at x1.2Opt. I'll try to buy the same card, but from another vendor.

sorry for that,unexpected I am able to run x1.2 link with an pe4h v.24 in a hm65 chipset,gtx 750 ti ghraphics card.it is connected to mpci-e slot.try reducing pcie traffic by disabling pcie devices,and if you have pci latency timer option in bios work with it.or use a tool to assign latency on each device .aparrently pci-e links does not need for that but you can try it.my msi ge620dx has that option and by increasing the latency games run much smoother and the frames are more steady.

[dan]

Thanks man! Yea i also been trying to find out too to determine which port is what. Its so confusing this is just an assumption but look up how to find how big your tolud size is and usually the first one that is A00000 or something like that should be your first port and so on, by the way that was just an example, yours might be different. From the detail, i think you can look up what port is using what. Sorry i cant remember exactly on how find your tolud size

by using tools like aidax64 you can find the configuracion of your pcie ports and their numbers.in the devices manager their are also numbered identically.

[braised_beef]

by using tools like aidax64 you can find the configuracion of your pcie ports and their numbers.in the devices manager their are also numbered identically.

Thanks bro, this will be big help

[davide445]

The instability is because of either:

- a GPU that's clocked beyond what it can handle -> use MSI Afterburner to downclock the GPU.

- the eGPU hardware is incapable of running at Gen2 speed -> set your EC/mPCIe to Gen1 using your bios or Setup 1.30 and/or consider getting another eGPU adapter. NOTE: there have been a few video cards that just do not want to run at Gen2 reliability but swapping to another vendor's card of same type does. Impedance issue?

- the PSU is incapable of supplying peak load power -> test another PSU.

ok tested also forcing EC to Gen1 by BIOS setup, I got the same error (amd display driver stopped responding and was successfully recovered) almost immediately, even without any opened app. So I put it again on Auto.

Hwinfo report following info, did you see any pbm?

PCI Express x1 Bus #5 -----------------------------------------------------

Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 ---------------------------------------------------

[General Information]

Device Name: Sapphire Radeon HD 7950

Original Device Name: ATI/AMD Radeon HD 7950/R9 280 (TAHITI PRO)

Device Class: VGA Compatible Adapter

Revision ID: 0

Bus Number: 5

Device Number: 0

Function Number: 0

PCI Latency Timer: 0

Hardware ID: PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_679A&SUBSYS_E249174B&REV_00

[PCI Express]

Version: 3.0

Maximum Link Width: 16x

Current Link Width: 1x

Maximum Link Speed: 8.0 Gb/s

Current Link Speed: 2.5 Gb/s

Device/Port Type: Legacy PCI Express Endpoint

Slot Implemented: No

Active State Power Management (ASPM) Support: L0s and L1

Active State Power Management (ASPM) Status: L0s and L1 Entry

[system Resources]

Interrupt Line: N/A

Interrupt Pin: INTA#

Memory Base Address 0 D0000000

Memory Base Address 2 F1BC0000

I/O Base Address 4 4F00

[Features]

Bus Mastering: Enabled

Running At 66 MHz: Not Capable

Fast Back-to-Back Transactions: Not Capable

[Driver Information]

Driver Manufacturer: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.

Driver Description: AMD Radeon HD 7900 Series

Driver Provider: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.

Driver Version: 14.301.1001.0

Driver Date: 15-Sep-2014

DeviceInstanceId PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_679A&SUBSYS_E249174B&REV_00\4&2211D9D4&0&00E3

ATI/AMD Tahiti - High Definition Audio Controller -------------------------

[General Information]

Device Name: ATI/AMD Tahiti - High Definition Audio Controller

Original Device Name: ATI/AMD Tahiti - High Definition Audio Controller

Device Class: Mixed mode device

Revision ID: 0

Bus Number: 5

Device Number: 0

Function Number: 1

PCI Latency Timer: 0

Hardware ID: PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_AAA0&SUBSYS_AAA0174B&REV_00

[PCI Express]

Version: 3.0

Maximum Link Width: 16x

Current Link Width: 1x

Maximum Link Speed: 8.0 Gb/s

Current Link Speed: 2.5 Gb/s

Device/Port Type: Legacy PCI Express Endpoint

Slot Implemented: No

Active State Power Management (ASPM) Support: L0s and L1

Active State Power Management (ASPM) Status: L0s and L1 Entry

[system Resources]

Interrupt Line: IRQ16

Interrupt Pin: INTB#

Memory Base Address 0 F1440000

[Features]

Bus Mastering: Enabled

Running At 66 MHz: Not Capable

Fast Back-to-Back Transactions: Not Capable

[Driver Information]

Driver Manufacturer: Microsoft

Driver Description: High Definition Audio Controller

Driver Provider: Microsoft

Driver Version: 6.1.7601.17514

Driver Date: 19-Nov-2010

DeviceInstanceId PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_AAA0&SUBSYS_AAA0174B&REV_00\4&2211D9D4&0&01E3

[davide445]

Crossing my fingers maybe I did find the problem.

First I did apply this fix "Display driver stopped responding and has recovered" error in Windows 7 or Windows Vista and second looking at Catalyst Control Center Performance settings appear that OC was still enabled for some reason.

Returned settings to default one and I'm working without any problem since one hour.

Last remaining problem to be addressed the screen flickering, but since now I'm able to work on DaVinci Resolve 11 and Unreal Engine 4 Editor without any problem, something impossible using iGPU.

Magic eGPU!

[coyote]

unfortunately, I can't make Gen2 link work, after such a long 2 weeks. Thus, I confirm that EVGA GTX 660 won't run at x1.2Opt. I'll try to buy the same card, but from another vendor.

Do you have Setup 1.x by any chance?

[dubdub]

nvm

[braised_beef]

hi guys, just got my exp gdc v7.0 but somehow i cant get it to detect my gpu :< any tips?

[braised_beef]

my experience was exactly the same (using PE4C) and the solution was in the sequence: need to wait the laptop was up and running and only after connect the (already powered) eGPU.

The laptop then recognized a new device, search and install drivers. After that you can install vendor specific drivers for your GPU, and in my case was asked for reboot.

If you have already installed vendor drivers uninstall it and wait the system has installed his drivers.

If all is ok next time you need to boot always with eGPU already connected and powered.

Also pay attention to make your external display as primary if you want benchmark and app can experience the new hw acceleration.

Hope this help and your case is similar to mine.

thanks buddy, everything works except i cant output to my monitor o.O in the device manager it list my card as gtx 650, thats good but theres an exclamation next to it... what does it mean?

[davide445]

thanks buddy, everything works except i cant output to my monitor o.O in the device manager it list my card as gtx 650, thats good but theres an exclamation next to it... what does it mean?

Unfortunately no idea about, sorry.

Maybe this can be useful http://support.microsoft.com/kb/133240

[braised_beef]

Unfortunately no idea about, sorry.

apparently it says i got error 43