eGPU experiences [version 2.0]

[Tech Inferno Fan]

Has anyone tried the egpu setup with haswell laptop using expresscard?

You mean, has anybody tried a Dell E6540 with an eGPU? It's the only Haswell notebook released so far with an expresscard slot. Answer is no, not yet.

REF: http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/4109-egpu-candidate-system-list-%5Bthin-light%5D.html#post57159

[jacobsson]

Hey guys, well Im thinking about buying an egpu setup for my hp pavilion dv7-6b77dx. I dont have an express card, so I think im stuck on taking out my wifi adapter. One problem Im having though, is im not sure if the PM3N will fit. Even if it does, I dont know if the cable (what is it just a mini HDMI?) will fit either. I will put a picture of what Im saying, if you do not fully understand. I dont want to spend all of this money just to have an adapter not fit haha. Please go easy on me, I dont normally post on forums and Im kind of a noob when it comes to this stuff. Thanks

**Here is the picture compared to my thumb.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]8424[/ATTACH]

Hi dude.

No problem, we are a friendly bunch of people over here!

I can see that you wont be able to close your bottom cover for sure (I have the same situation going on with my E530).

I kind of force it to a "almost closed" state by securing the screws as much as I can, don't worry the cable is robust.

You will probably have to give up your wifi-slot for eGPU since it's usually the only fully functional mPCIe-port.

I bought this $6 usb-based mPCIe card and it works great for my wwan/msata slot, you should try it!

[jacobsson]

Thanks @bjorm. I'll change to Gen 2 as soon as I get the bios unlock from HP.

Most of the benchmarks indicate my setup is now CPU limited (i5-2520M). Did your 8460p come with the i7-2630QM or did you do a CPU upgrade? Would you recommend a CPU upgrade as worth the boost in performance?

I you're planing do a lot of gaming (which is my guess) and don't mind spending ~$120 it is certainly worth upgrading.

According to this you'll have a 50% boost in 3Dmark11 physics and that 3MB vs 6MB L3 cache wont hurt at all =)

[amehrings]

Hi dude.

No problem, we are a friendly bunch of people over here!

I can see that you wont be able to close your bottom cover for sure (I have the same situation going on with my E530).

I kind of force it to a "almost closed" state by securing the screws as much as I can, don't worry the cable is robust.

You will probably have to give up your wifi-slot for eGPU since it's usually the only fully functional mPCIe-port.

I bought this $6 usb-based mPCIe card and it works great for my wwan/msata slot, you should try it!

Okay thanks so much for the info, Ill look into that. Ill link a post in a forum I saw of a guy with a dv7 series, would you think that would be basically the same thing for my laptop as well? I would check, but I dont know how to find the TOLUD and stuff. I do know that HP whitelists their mPCIe slots, so that doesnt help me out at all. I also would like to know whether or not I should get a PE4L or PE4H? whats the difference? Any additional help and information would be great I really want to learn more about eGPU's and what not. Thank so much

[amehrings]

Okay thanks so much for that information that helped me out alot, Ill be sure to look into that. Here's a link to a guy that also has a dv7 edition, so I was curious if my laptop would basically be the same. I would check, but Im not sure if how to find the TOLUD and stuff. I know that HP whitelists their mPCIe slots, so that doesnt help me out at all either. Also, I was wondering whether I should get a PE4L or PE4H. Which would be better, and whats the difference? Thanks so much for everything, and any additional help or info that you think I should know would be great.

[jacobsson]

Okay thanks so much for the info, Ill look into that. Ill link a post in a forum I saw of a guy with a dv7 series, would you think that would be basically the same thing for my laptop as well? I would check, but I dont know how to find the TOLUD and stuff. I do know that HP whitelists their mPCIe slots, so that doesnt help me out at all. I also would like to know whether or not I should get a PE4L or PE4H? whats the difference? Any additional help and information would be great I really want to learn more about eGPU's and what not. Thank so much

The 'TOLUD fix' aka DSDT override instructions can be found on the first page of this thread. Whitelist problems are not an issue for HP when using the setup 1.x ($25 donation) I've even did it for my E530, which now accepts the earlier mentioned wifi-card. Ask @Tech Inferno Fan how to donate for the setup 1.x software.

These steps are commonly needed for eGPU mPCIe implementations which make these systems a little more 'tricky' to run.

[Arise]

I think I've already asked this but still don't get a couple of things...

Admitting that I buy an Asus G750, and it won't have the iGPU active/enabled only the Nvidia dGPU, if I add an eGPU how do I know which video card will be the active one, I mean how can I select the output to go to the external one instead of the dGPU?

Thanks!

[jacobsson]

I think I've already asked this but still don't get a couple of things...

Admitting that I buy an Asus G750, and it won't have the iGPU active/enabled only the Nvidia dGPU, if I add an eGPU how do I know which video card will be the active one, I mean how can I select the output to go to the external one instead of the dGPU?

Thanks!

First I have to flag that this system is not very suitable for eGPU of the reason you just mentioned, no iGPU!

I think you have to get the eGPU recognized by bios during boot in order to have it set as primary gpu, or you might use setup 1.x by @Tech Inferno Fan to set this as primary gpu.

Again I must advice you to buy another system with active iGPU since you'll be limited to 1x 2.0 at best.

May I ask if there a particular reason you want to use the G750?

My advice is to at least check eGPU candidate system list [thin-and-light] for a suitable system.

EDIT: Asus claims that certain G750 models might have thunderbolt (TB) but I have not seen proof of this yet. Also TB is very expensive at this point since Bplus TH05 adapter is discontinued.

[Tech Inferno Fan]

I think I've already asked this but still don't get a couple of things...

Admitting that I buy an Asus G750, and it won't have the iGPU active/enabled only the Nvidia dGPU, if I add an eGPU how do I know which video card will be the active one, I mean how can I select the output to go to the external one instead of the dGPU?

Thanks!

Any displays attached to the eGPU can be configured to be either the main or extended displays. When selected as main, you'd start the game on that display and it would use the underlying eGPU to render it.

[Arise]

@jacobsson: I will try to quickly explain my "curious" consumer habits trying not to get boring. I'll do my best.

First, it all started when I bought my dual core laptop, later bought another one with a higher clock speed, then jumped to a i5 with hyperthreading which I enjoyed extremely and now I just want to try a quad core with hyperthreading.

Also, over time I just realized I want to get more and more RAM memory, feel like 8GB like I currently work with are not enough so jumping to 16 and maybe later upgrading at 32 would be just perfect.

So far few notebooks met my criteria: Quad core i7, 16GB RAM, iluminated keyboard, good keyboard with wide keys not crammed in a tiny space. Also on 15 inches my eyes decided I need exactly 1600x900 while on 17 inch a full HD would be just fine.

On the above mentioned specs, adding eGPU compatibility is a complicated issue.

So far, Asus, strangely, have 2 notebooks that meets my requirements.

G750 - No optimus, no upgradable CPU, 4 memory banks, non upgradable custom form factor MXM GTX 770m, 1 mPCIe half slot occupied by wifi, thunderbolt, good cooling

N750 - Optimus, no upgradable CPU, 2 memory banks, soldered GTX 750m, 2 mPCIe half slot, probably having problems with cooling

While here, in the local market N750 would be $300 cheaper than G750, I feel that the costs of adding external GPU would not make it worth right now. Because GTX770m from the Asus G series is a decent card.

I just feel is not the "skyrocket" time for an eGPU. Mobile graphics card became faster and faster, while the desktop cards are more and more bottlenecked by the slow 1x pci express interface. Thunderbolt is not cheap and next gen thunderbolt coming in 2014 could be actually coming in 2015, and the early adoption prices would be higher anyway. So I'm kinda stuck right now, don't know what to do, and I just know I need a powerful laptop.

Either choice, I could try to implement an eGPU just for fun (I'm a curious creature by nature) and see how it goes.

Thoughts, comments?

[jacobsson]

@jacobsson: I will try to quickly explain my "curious" consumer habits trying not to get boring. I'll do my best.

First, it all started when I bought my dual core laptop, later bought another one with a higher clock speed, then jumped to a i5 with hyperthreading which I enjoyed extremely and now I just want to try a quad core with hyperthreading.

Also, over time I just realized I want to get more and more RAM memory, feel like 8GB like I currently work with are not enough so jumping to 16 and maybe later upgrading at 32 would be just perfect.

So far few notebooks met my criteria: Quad core i7, 16GB RAM, iluminated keyboard, good keyboard with wide keys not crammed in a tiny space. Also on 15 inches my eyes decided I need exactly 1600x900 while on 17 inch a full HD would be just fine.

On the above mentioned specs, adding eGPU compatibility is a complicated issue.

So far, Asus, strangely, have 2 notebooks that meets my requirements.

G750 - No optimus, no upgradable CPU, 4 memory banks, non upgradable custom form factor MXM GTX 770m, 1 mPCIe half slot occupied by wifi, thunderbolt, good cooling

N750 - Optimus, no upgradable CPU, 2 memory banks, soldered GTX 750m, 2 mPCIe half slot, probably having problems with cooling

While here, in the local market N750 would be $300 cheaper than G750, I feel that the costs of adding external GPU would not make it worth right now. Because GTX770m from the Asus G series is a decent card.

I just feel is not the "skyrocket" time for an eGPU. Mobile graphics card became faster and faster, while the desktop cards are more and more bottlenecked by the slow 1x pci express interface. Thunderbolt is not cheap and next gen thunderbolt coming in 2014 could be actually coming in 2015, and the early adoption prices would be higher anyway. So I'm kinda stuck right now, don't know what to do, and I just know I need a powerful laptop.

Either choice, I could try to implement an eGPU just for fun (I'm a curious creature by nature) and see how it goes.

Thoughts, comments?

I feel you dude, I read every word you just wrote and I also see your point.

Tell me your budget and do my best to help you find something that fulfill your needs!

[amehrings]

The 'TOLUD fix' aka DSDT override instructions can be found on the first page of this thread. Whitelist problems are not an issue for HP when using the setup 1.x ($25 donation) I've even did it for my E530, which now accepts the earlier mentioned wifi-card. Ask @Tech Inferno Fan how to donate for the setup 1.x software.

These steps are commonly needed for eGPU mPCIe implementations which make these systems a little more 'tricky' to run.

Okay thanks thats good to know, so what do you recommend I end up buying since Ill need to take out my wifi card, PE4H or PE4L? whats the difference when it really comes down to it? Thanks

[Encrypted11]

Okay thanks thats good to know, so what do you recommend I end up buying since Ill need to take out my wifi card, PE4H or PE4L? whats the difference when it really comes down to it? Thanks

[amehrings]

This might help.

Confused - PE4L & PE4H Compatibility

Sent from my GT-I8190 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

[jacobsson]

Thanks thats just what I needed! So Ill probably end up buying the PE4L-PM060A V2.1b?

[Arise]

The issue with buying a brand new computer those days is that a mobile card like GTX 770m is too good comparing with the eGPU implementations.

<strike>If I compare the top egpu leaderboard from there http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/2109-diy-egpu-experiences-%5Bversion-2-0%5D.html#implementations

with the benchmark results from here: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770M - NotebookCheck.net Tech

one can easily spot that GTX770m is kinda equivalent in performance in all around benchmarks. </strike><strike></strike>

So the eGPU counts for real if you already have the notebook or you are looking for a cheap one with a lousy video card.

Is my thinking flawed in any way?

Later edit: Yes, is flawed, I was looking only at the 3dmark 2006 leaderboard.

[Khenglish]

The issue with buying a brand new computer those days is that a mobile card like GTX 770m is too good comparing with the eGPU implementations.

<strike>If I compare the top egpu leaderboard from there http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/2109-diy-egpu-experiences-%5Bversion-2-0%5D.html#implementations

with the benchmark results from here: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770M - NotebookCheck.net Tech

one can easily spot that GTX770m is kinda equivalent in performance in all around benchmarks. </strike><strike></strike>

So the eGPU counts for real if you already have the notebook or you are looking for a cheap one with a lousy video card.

Is my thinking flawed in any way?

Later edit: Yes, is flawed, I was looking only at the 3dmark 2006 leaderboard.

Yeah 3dm06 is a poor choice for comparing against gaming laptops since top end gaming laptops offer CPU overclocking, while the mobile eGPU laptops do not (well you can get ~5% with a lot of work), and 3dm06 is horribly cpu limited.

ex. you can't beat this even with a titan, even though in real games an eGPU titan will almost always beat my 680m:

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M video card benchmark result - Genuine Intel® CPU 0 @ 2.40GHz,CLEVO P170EM

[amehrings]

Good choice indeed!

It's cheaper than PE4H3,2 and does also support GEN2.

Okay sweet thanks, is their like some extension adapter I can use that will support gen2 for when I want to unplug the egpu and take my computer on the go or not? I just feel like if I unplug it from the mPCIe all the time that wouldnt be good for it.

[coyote]

I've ordered the PE4L-EC100A. Next GPU and PSU. I think I'll get the (GTX 660 Twin Frozr III OC + 3D Mark). What about the PSU, is it possible to have a mATX PSU (small size)?

[jacobsson]

I've ordered the PE4L-EC100A. Next GPU and PSU. I think I'll get the (GTX 660 Twin Frozr III OC + 3D Mark). What about the PSU, is it possible to have a mATX PSU (small size)?

I'd use a 170w+ PSU for the 660Ti. I use an xbox 360 brick for my 670, works great!

- - - Updated - - -

Okay sweet thanks, is their like some extension adapter I can use that will support gen2 for when I want to unplug the egpu and take my computer on the go or not? I just feel like if I unplug it from the mPCIe all the time that wouldnt be good for it.

If you secure it with a screw (just like you do with the wifi) and you don't have to worry. I found some 10mm screws for the PM3N-end and putted a nut on the back securing it.

[coyote]

I'd use a 170w+ PSU for the 660Ti. I use an xbox 360 brick for my 670, works great!

- - - Updated - - -

If you secure it with a screw (just like you do with the wifi) and you don't have to worry. I found some 10mm screws for the PM3N-end and putted a nut on the back securing it.

You mean something like Xbox 360 Power Supply | eBay?

[amehrings]

I'd use a 170w+ PSU for the 660Ti. I use an xbox 360 brick for my 670, works great!

- - - Updated - - -

If you secure it with a screw (just like you do with the wifi) and you don't have to worry. I found some 10mm screws for the PM3N-end and putted a nut on the back securing it.

[jacobsson]

The issue with buying a brand new computer those days is that a mobile card like GTX 770m is too good comparing with the eGPU implementations.

<strike>If I compare the top egpu leaderboard from there http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/2109-diy-egpu-experiences-%5Bversion-2-0%5D.html#implementations

with the benchmark results from here: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770M - NotebookCheck.net Tech

one can easily spot that GTX770m is kinda equivalent in performance in all around benchmarks. </strike><strike></strike>

So the eGPU counts for real if you already have the notebook or you are looking for a cheap one with a lousy video card.

Is my thinking flawed in any way?

Later edit: Yes, is flawed, I was looking only at the 3dmark 2006 leaderboard.

[jacobsson]

@coyote : Yeah, the 203w old one for xenon =)

It requires some pretty easy cable soldering of course, but it's a very nice and "modular" (not sure if it is the right word) solution.

- - - Updated - - -

@amehrings : (hate this auto multi quote feature, it almost always fu**s up hehe )

Yeah most probably you'll need setup 1.x, is this your current system or are you planning to buy one?

Expresscard is the way to go if you want less hustle, but I don't mind =)

[saga25152]

Model: HP Pavilion dv2700

CPU: Core 2 DUO T7700 @ 2.4GHz

Chipset: PM965/GM965

RAM: 2G DDR2 800MHz, could upgrade to 4G

Build-in Video card: GeForce 8400M GS 128MB

I want to know if it worth it to spend 200 bucks and can i get a decent improve base on this?

I only play Diablo 3 occasionally, and bunch of pre-2005 games, and the laptop is most of time for family use like browsing, editing Word and Excel