icttrack Posted November 15, 2016 Share Posted November 15, 2016 (edited) Hello guys, I am just a newbie who likes the concept of eGPU. The guide here https://www.techinferno.com/index.php?/forums/topic/7947-the-basic-egpu-hardware-guide-for-macs/ really helped me a lot about eGPU fundamentals and how to do it properly. After reading it and other guides, I was able to set up my own with the new Akitio Thunder3 PCIe box. Here are the details: System: Transformer 3 Pro CPU Intel Core i5 6200U 8GB RAM 256GB SSD The card I use is ZOTAC GTX 1060 6GB Mini. I chose this because it fits nicely into the box and I am not really a serious gamer My method to provide enough power is to use a PSU with paper clip trick and I cut the wires from CPU connector 2x4pin to connect to a barrel plug To avoid soldering, i bought a barrel plug with screws. However, this one doesn't fit into Akitio's socket, so I had to buy a barrel adapter to make it work. See the pictures below [gallery800x600] [photo=https://q1ofrg-sn3302.files.1drv.com/y3mlcEuBpMLNo68Pi6byS3YdaVc17QH2xfCzhG9TrMKIP7XZrbCj6mDhU2QfG9fhEju32JQweG795lbYeaPMu7ezll3_UAW8xUYD7rUh3POHMKRsacGkmHcEDVCDMvUIdPwCSJ4bFQCeUc-yzsgVhr8MxL0EwW8fpN1p_7LoGyxJYM/WIN_20161115_08_57_09_Pro.jpg?psid=1][/photo] [photo=https://bfvomq-sn3302.files.1drv.com/y3prHzGjlBvu7uPqi_9bh_YoXG4HYjJSOANM5sFE0KUWty2ioaGjRUsdpYlPNc8EO_nbK-lMuMw3HfCx1kKZmr5tonRHL2iPH3txMWh81hJaSHIEDQgX0l1Om5e2QSxLpE_9maECsn6DGz7XODk77mp2m-A5PwAZzUQ0MJDeNa29TA/IMG_20161110_082830.jpg?psid=1][/photo] [/gallery] Afterwards, driver installation is flawless. The box will power the card only when thunderbolt cable is connected to my tablet. I can reconnect at any time (hot plug) and system is able to recognize the card almost instantly. For benchmarking purpose, I used the existing game Batman Arkham Origins that my tablet struggles to play. Details are as follows: All other graphics settings are at highest values 1920x1080, internal display: 50FPS 1920x1080, external display: 55FPS 1920x1440, internal display: 45FPS 2560x1440, external display: 40-45FPS (cannot remember the exact value) To compare thunderbolt performance with the desktop one, I plugged the card into my friend's desktop computer (Intel Core i7 6700K, 16GB RAM). Under 1920x1080, the difference is huge with the card being able to perform at 80FPS To my suprise, there is not much difference between internal and external display (5FPS) at 1920x1080. I don't know if the game itselt factor into this, as I don't have other AAA games to test That's what I have tried so far. Thanks for reading Edited November 15, 2016 by icttrack 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tech Inferno Fan Posted November 15, 2016 Share Posted November 15, 2016 @icttrack, thank you for posting your implementation. Would you mind also doing 3dmark13-FS, 3dmark11 runs (preferrably using an external LCD) and post links to the results? It would also be useful to have the CUDA-Z bandwidth results along with details of your TB cable length. Can compare against what you'd expect there at https://www.techinferno.com/index.php?/forums/topic/10581-6th-gen-i-core-has-gen3-8gbps-southbridge-pcie-ports/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
icttrack Posted November 16, 2016 Author Share Posted November 16, 2016 @Tech Inferno Fan: I am still new to mobile gaming with eGPU. Even the external screen is from my friend as I normally use laptop. I will consider buying it since now I am not quite happy with the result so far. Even the 3dmark I also don't own so benchmarking is limited. I will let you know the result of my CUDA-Z and TB cable length soon once I have time 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
icttrack Posted November 16, 2016 Author Share Posted November 16, 2016 @Tech Inferno Fan: My cable comes with Akitio box and it's 50 cm. Here is my CUDA-Z result [gallery800x600] [photo=https://ypacow-sn3302.files.1drv.com/y3pTmqW7wQD2i0hmcHHIqWKLtxNTGvli34Z-AXa6ele8eBZTXJDlIPTASxgFwE0O7hka7Kp0sd-2f53XzeTRs4UPTfnAPV9ucIE7-PVrTIFzgB07Fp5eLhhyB3LQ7NZWIOW_PTp-cmAf__DKBvs-klg5gKjo4lkqEeHE25RlvVB48k/CUDA-Z.PNG?psid=1][/photo] [/gallery] The information changes over time. But as I observed, Host to Device Bandwidth stays at 1500+ MiB/s, so it is totally below the NGFF.M2-32Gbps and not much higher than TB2 -16Gbps (x4 2.0) from your link https://www.techinferno.com/index.php?/forums/topic/10581-6th-gen-i-core-has-gen3-8gbps-southbridge-pcie-ports/ . What can you conclude from this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tech Inferno Fan Posted November 16, 2016 Share Posted November 16, 2016 17 minutes ago, icttrack said: @Tech Inferno Fan: My cable comes with Akitio box and it's 50 cm. Here is my CUDA-Z result The information changes over time. But as I observed, Host to Device Bandwidth stays at 1500+ MiB/s, so it is totally below the NGFF.M2-32Gbps and not much higher than TB2 -16Gbps (x4 2.0) from your link https://www.techinferno.com/index.php?/forums/topic/10581-6th-gen-i-core-has-gen3-8gbps-southbridge-pcie-ports/ . What can you conclude from this? Your performance is a little less than expected. This may be due to using a long non-active cable. See related discussion starting about here: https://www.techinferno.com/index.php?/forums/topic/10718-2016-macbook-pros-and-egpus/&do=findComment&comment=151819 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
icttrack Posted November 16, 2016 Author Share Posted November 16, 2016 @Tech Inferno Fan: I also feel that my system underpeforms given recent benchmarks and gameplay experience. However, my cable is from Akitio and it's exactly 0.5m(1.65ft) long. That's not a long passive cable and thunderbolt 3 cables on Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=thunderbolt+3+cable) that claim to transfer up to 40Gbps are exactly the same length. Doesn't seem that Akitio would provide a low performance cable. I think something else must factor into this Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tech Inferno Fan Posted November 16, 2016 Share Posted November 16, 2016 5 minutes ago, icttrack said: @Tech Inferno Fan: I also feel that my system underpeforms given recent benchmarks and gameplay experience. However, my cable is from Akitio and it's exactly 0.5m(1.65ft) long. That's not a long passive cable and thunderbolt 3 cables on Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=thunderbolt+3+cable) that claim to transfer up to 40Gbps are exactly the same length. Doesn't seem that Akitio would provide a low performance cable. I think something else must factor into this Ensure you are using the high performance power profile. Can also disable C1E using Throttlestop (try EIST too). The latter being a fix from ~2011 to improve SATA performance. Maybe it helps here too? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
icttrack Posted November 21, 2016 Author Share Posted November 21, 2016 @Tech Inferno Fan: I tried to use high performance profile. However, it didn't make any difference. I tried Throttlestop as well, but it doesn't support my processor. By the way, I just bought 3DMark to check my graphics card (I overclocked it a bit) and here is the result: Fire Strike External Display: 6859 Fire Strike Internal Display: 5712 For my tablet specs, it's really a disappointing result. I also notice the card never gets over 70C :( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Splitframe Posted November 29, 2016 Share Posted November 29, 2016 On 11/21/2016 at 4:55 PM, icttrack said: @*********: I tried to use high performance profile. However, it didn't make any difference. I tried Throttlestop as well, but it doesn't support my processor. By the way, I just bought 3DMark to check my graphics card (I overclocked it a bit) and here is the result: Fire Strike External Display: 6859 Fire Strike Internal Display: 5712 For my tablet specs, it's really a disappointing result. I also notice the card never gets over 70C :( Are these values the overall score or just the Graphics score? If it's the first, the Graphic score values would really interest me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
icttrack Posted November 30, 2016 Author Share Posted November 30, 2016 (edited) @Splitframe: actually inside the link you can find the graphics score if you click on "Show result details", then Detailed Scores section . I also did some other tweaks (updated the driver, overclocked further, used a separate fan to cool down CPU, ...) and the latest result is http://www.3dmark.com/fs/10878039 with graphics score at 11574 Time Spy graphics score: 4000 Edited November 30, 2016 by icttrack updated with Time Spy graphics score Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fannas Posted December 1, 2016 Share Posted December 1, 2016 Wooooo， this is quite amazing!!! sthanks for sharing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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