tintin

Hello If i'm right the msi gs60has a quad core so you will have better scaling than me from my desktop... when i have time will complete the benchs with xps13 on external display thats make it also better. For now i didn't try virtual desktop or bigscreen but will have a look if i found the time. I didnt see any notable difference in the demos and the games i tried (EVE, chronos, project cars). You mean you have problems when you are playing non vr games in stereoscopic mode?

I finally received the razer core and i'm pretty happy with it. It's working fine with my dell xps 13 (9350) and also with my streacom fanless htpc (gigabyte z170 ud5 th). Just had some drivers and firmware issues but now it's perfect plud and play. For the procedure is: - update xps bios 1.4.4 (other dell drivers are also up to date) - update thunderbolt firmware 1.02.06 - install older thunderbolt driver 15.3.39.250 (had some issue with the newer one) - desactivate thunderbolt secure option in bios and enable th boot option - install razer synapse 2.20 - install intel vga driver 4454 - lower the power output of the wifi card to 75% or 50% (may work without but seems to give more stability as it seems to interfer...) - shutdown, plug power in razer core then attach thunderbolt cable and power up the laptop - install nvidia drivers (21.21.13.7254) and reboot I also did some bench of my geforce 1080 in the htpc (6600k) using a 16x riser and then with the core attached: 6600k 16x 6600k core dell xps 13 core dell xps 13 igpu screen external external internal internal firestrike ultra 5 179 100% 5 086 98% 4 678 90% - firestrike extreme 10 578 100% 9 614 91% 8 078 76% - firestrike 22 324 100% 18 068 81% 13 124 59% 1 339 6% time spy 7 124 100% 6 828 96% 6 032 85% - heaven ultra 2 646 100% 2 350 89% 1 674 63% - As espected scaling got worse when fps are high because of thunderbolt x4 bandwith but it's acceptable at 60fps (10-15%) Seems a perfect on the go VR solution, my rift is working fine on it. Will make some VR tests later with the xps...

Something like real power supply for a GPU (350 W with dedicated 8/6 pins connectors) and consequent size so you can put a real graphic card in (+ docs option with usb3, lan, displayport, ... ) ... in fact something like the razer... but at 250$... I'm wondering why compagnies already making pcie external boxes don't get in this market? As there is a real demand because the Razer preorders got sold out in about 24h... Maybe they will soon but why so few communication? - One explanation is that there are selling professionnal products (with big marges) and as razer pro equivalent (x4 pcie gen 3 connection) is sold like +1500$ and dont want to loose it because a 300$ egpu can also to be used for compute or pro rendering... - Other explanation is that gpu implementation isn't that easy as the thunderbolt certif seems to be strict...

https://www.akitio.com/expansion/thunder3-pcie-ssd Don't know if it would work with a gpu but why not? the ssd cost +-800$ (official 1000$) ? that gives an idea of the price of the box...

I updated the first post as i'm now using PE4F adapter who's working fine at x4 gen 3 speeds for me. Bench are the same or even a little better as with the x4 riser...

Updated the benchs with x1 results. optimus doesnt seems to have some effect on 3dm11 and heaven bench maybe because they already use some compression? but effect is spectacular on 3dmark06... are there some games bench that are also more bandwidth dependent?

I edited my first post with some answers and some more benchs here. I made some pcie 1.0 2.0 3.0 scaling test in x4 mod. after some research in egpu post and on the web i found i could switch beetween gen1 gen2 and gen3 pcie speeds even under windows using setpci or even more easy using rweverything tool. I give here the full process that worked for me: - you need pciutils and/or rweverything tool - first find the device port address (bus:dev.func) where your grapic card is attached: use rweverything and look in pci devices or "lspci -v" (in admin command prompt) and search for your card gives 00:01.0 for me because main pcie port on northbridge i assume but will be further away if using expressport - then find the address of the pci express capability register : type "lspci -s 00:01.0 -v" (change 00:01.0 with you port address) and look for the line that says: Capabilities: [a0] Express ... the hex address (here [a0]) is the one correponding to the beginning of the pci express capability register (CAP_EXP). current link speed register can be found with a +12 offset so register [b2] for me gives 43 in x4 pcie 3.0 mode (should be 12 in pcie x1.2 link with expresscard) target link speed register is +30 offset so register [d0] for me for me gives 43 in pcie 3.0 mode changing the last digit of target speed simply changes the speed (keep first digit because actually only first 4 bits are for speed) so: 41 -> gen1 for me 42 -> gen2 43-> gen3 - Switch the value using rweverything tool or typing: "setpci -s 00:01.0 CAP_EXP+30.b=41" or "setpci -s 00:01.0 a0+30.b=41" here for pcie 1.0 mode (change 00:01.0 with your address and a0 with your pcie cap register adresss and 41 with the corresponding wanted value) after some while current link speed register should change to wanted value... As we can see it seems that x1.3 optimus is not far away from x4.3 (which gives ~same res than a normal x16.2 link in most case)... When i have some time i will complete the benchs with x1 values...

sorry no time to make bench but i had made a 3dmark vantage and gpu score is 22632 (+-20000 in 1.2opt) and heaven 2.5 score in fullhd 1920 was around 1300. i had also made a 3dmark11 but it is not revealing the bandwith change because fps are to low so it doesnt need a lot bandwith its more card limited... will make more bench next week. are there game based bench that you can just download as a demo?

i was thinking that too but for a 4x link as you said maybe the performance gain will remain (an option in the driver to activate would be perfect) i wonder if it is the normal cpu units that are making the compression or if nvidia found some way to use the no more used igpu units parts?

i updated 3dmarks06 scores with sm2/hdr for giving a better idea. will make some more benchs tomorrow. Maybe there are minipci ports that are related to the northbridge in some notebooks? I was surprised how optimus compression seems efficient, why wouldnt nvidia always use it particulary in 1.0 modes? it will give them some good results in benchs? or maybe even for a pcie 1.0 card there is no bandwith bottlenech at 16x? For me it would be perfect if it could be activated for a x4.3 link that i can obtain with a riser because i suppose that at this bandwith (4x 8G + opt comp.) there would no real difference with a classical 16x link. Is there a way to mod the drivers? It will be also effective for multiple cuda unit calculation allowing more units sharing a 16x link...

big surprise today! i was wondering if my motherboard supported pcie 3.0 because i had read in some gigabyte evy compatibility stuff that on small motherboard with one pcie slot is directly connected to the nothbridge (what is the case for my zotac h67) so i switched just for test my cpu to my evy one (3770t) and bingo its works even if my motherboard is not pci 3.0! And better its seems to works fine in pcie 3.0 mode with the pe4l v2.1!! i didnt know pe4l was pci 3.0 compliant....! Was also wondering if there was something like x1.3 optimus because x1.2opt seems to surpass x1.3 without opt. Got some trouble first to get the optimus 1.3 activated but finally got it and it rocks: 3Dmark2006 x1.3opt 24884 SM2 9764 HDR 12518 CPU(3770t) 6206 3Dmark2006 x1.3..... 16076 SM2 7539 HDR 5402 CPU(3770t) 6210 3Dmark2006 x1.2opt 15576 SM2 6861 HDR 8556 CPU(2100t) 2986 3Dmark2006 x1.2..... 10595 SM2 4711 HDR 4452 CPU(2100t) 2975

Got my pe4l working even without setup...i dont know why but after using the riser and switching to the pe4l it worked (keeped the allocation?) Its even going better than with the riser that was instable even in gen1 mode (maybe bad quality because was very cheap) the pe4l is working fine in 1x2.0 mode. Will make some bench to compare.

i finally got it working with a 4x riser but its too short to put the card in a external box and i had to force the gen1 mode in bios because gen2 is instable... so im still trying to make my pehl to work. i installed the setup 1x boot and than i tried differents options: setup.bat gives a black sceen (do i have to add something in setup.bat?) and if i try pci compaction i can not exit as if my keyboard doesnt respond any more... i have also a message that says my chipset isnt found (i have h67)...

I dont wanted to change my case because its a fanless system and my pc is always running so its fit well in my living room. I tried the 4x riser but space was to small so i ordered the pehl 2.4. First problem the cables are both soldered so i cant put the card in without opening my case :-( is there a 2.0 solution with detachable cable? I could get the card detected and drivers loaded but i had to first start the pc and then the egpu and making a hardware changes check in device manager. Is that the right way? If I start the egpu first it doesnt work and even the integrated graphic output gives a black screen... But now i have a code 12 error... I had understand that this is happening only when you have more than 3gb mem but i have only 2gb installed... My system is a zotac h67-itx with i2100t cpu with 2gb ram. I also have a wifi card in the minipcie port of the motherboard...

UPDATE: Best and cheapest solution is bplus PE4F http://www.bplus.com.tw/Adapter/PE4F.html It's working perfectly for me at x4 with pcie gen3 speeds (even more stable than a good quality riser) Hi everybody, It's a long time i'm following the egpu advances and i want to thanks you for your work. I want to make a egpu for my dektop home cinema but i didn't found if somebody already made it. I have a Zotac H67-ITX motherboard so i have a pcie port avalaible (in fact only 4x because cooling system system doesnt allow to put the card so i have to use a riser). But the alimentation isnt strong enough to power my graphic card ( MSI N660 TWIN FROZR ) and anyway the card is to big to fit in my box. So i want to put the card outside. I was wondering what the best and fastest solution is? - Using a big riser cable (4X2.0 link?) and another desktop power supply to power the card. Q: will any long riser (50cm) work (losses/transmission problems?) REP: Most cheap risers i tried only worked at gen1 speeds (2.5Gb/s) or even not... (fails with error 12 or 43 or errors during bench tests) For Gen2 and Gen3 speeds you need somethong like this PE-FLEX that you can buy here ( []=813&p[114][]=826&p[114][]=825&p[114][]=824&p[114][]=823&show=all"]US ) or here ( EU ) but it cost ~50$ and its length limited (12'' (30cm) for gen3 and 15'' for gen2) Q: how to start the external power supply and is there any risk to damage the card? A: Using ATX switch (hwtools SWEX) or this trick - Using the PE4H-HP4A 12V or 19V power supply : from what i undersand it can do a 4x1.0link ? Q: Where to buy it? i tried the bplus site but it says it's unavailable (v 2.4)... is it discontinued? Q: will there be a v.3.2 with a 4x2.0 link? (PE4H-HPxxxA V3.2 ?) Q: the 120W 19.5V AC Adapter seems to be a litte to small for my card... is there any other that power 180-200W? - using the PE4L 2.1 + hp060a: limited to 1x2.0? Q: the performance will be 1/2? A: Limit is 1x3.0 because PEHL 2.1 is pcie 3.0 compatible if your connecting slot is working at 3.0 speeds (it's my case because the pcie slot is connected directly to the northbridge on my Zotac H67-ITX motherboard so had just to upgrade for a ivybridge 3.0 cpu). The performance will not be 1/2 of a x2 system and because of the nvidia optimus compression if you are using a Nvidia fermi card (660 here) you will be somewhere beetween a x1 and a x4 link depending on the game as you can see in the following benchs: Pcie MB/s 3DM06 3Dvant.gpu 3dM11.gpu heaven 2.5 heaven 3.0 x1.1 250 6749 27% 19026 77% 5850 88% 1643 73% 2297 67% x1.1opt 24452 98% 18996 77% 5832 88% 1643 73% 2281 67% x1.2 500 11988 48% 21843 89% 6387 96% 2006 89% 2951 86% x1.2opt 24712 99% 21703 88% 6380 96% 2008 89% 2961 86% x1.3 1000 18043 73% 22947 93% 6432 97% 2067 92% 3130 91% x1.3opt 24884 100% 22905 93% 6449 97% 2096 93% 3110 91% x4.1 1000 18746 75% 23293 95% 6514 98% 2134 95% 3226 94% x4.2 2000 23798 96% 24248 99% 6685 101% 2274 101% 3452 101% x4.3 4000 24874 100% 24563 100% 6638 100% 2246 100% 3426 100% Q: is there a 12V alim that will be enough to power my card? - another solution on the market? (Vidock, ...) Q: is there a 4x2.0 solution avalaible? (a box and a small alim (12V/19V) will be ideal because it has to fit my living room) Thanks a lot.