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14" Lenovo T430s + GTX660Ti@10Gbps-TB1 (AKiTiO Thunder2) + Win8.1 [krazyazy]


krazyazy

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eGPU Setup

  • 14" Lenovo T430s, i7-3520M 2.9Ghz, 16GB RAM, 10Gbps-TB1 port, Windows 8.1
  • AKiTiO Thunder2 enclosure
  • powered PCIe riser
  • Zotac GTX660Ti video card

@linh1987 @Jakob

Not sure if you guys have been testing some more, but I managed to the 660ti running somewhat stably in the Akitio. I purchased a new riser (PCI E Express x16 to 16x Molex Powered Riser Adapter Card Safer Version | eBay) and the 660 now stays up under load now.

I say somewhat stably, because all I tested so far was the suite of 3dmarks. I am now running into an issue of performance. Everything seems to see the extra PCIe lanes from the Akitio, but the performance is less than the PE4L.

CUDA-Z does show the increase in bandwidth (747.64 MiB/s vs 368.978 MiB/s) but all 3dmarks are a few hundred points lower than the PE4L. I'm not ruling out a video card, so I got a friend to send me his spare 580 to test.

3dmark11 (PE4L) - 6514 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Ti video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3520M,LENOVO 2352CTO

3dmark11 (Akitio) - 5682 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Ti video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3520M,LENOVO 2352CTO

post-24288-14494998681567_thumb.png

post-24288-14494998681221_thumb.png

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@linh1987 @Jakob

Not sure if you guys have been testing some more, but I managed to the 660ti running somewhat stably in the Akitio. I purchased a new riser (PCI E Express x16 to 16x Molex Powered Riser Adapter Card Safer Version | eBay) and the 660 now stays up under load now.

I say somewhat stably, because all I tested so far was the suite of 3dmarks. I am now running into an issue of performance. Everything seems to see the extra PCIe lanes from the Akitio, but the performance is less than the PE4L.

CUDA-Z does show the increase in bandwidth (747.64 MiB/s vs 368.978 MiB/s) but all 3dmarks are a few hundred points lower than the PE4L. I'm not ruling out a video card, so I got a friend to send me his spare 580 to test.

3dmark11 (PE4L) - 6514 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Ti video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3520M,LENOVO 2352CTO

3dmark11 (Akitio) - 5682 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Ti video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3520M,LENOVO 2352CTO

[ATTACH=CONFIG]13050[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]13051[/ATTACH]

Wow! First Lenovo T430s TB1 eGPU implementation. Congratulations.

Strange bench results. I would have expected the reverse of the scores you are seeing - the AKiTiO to be faster than the PE4L. You could cellophane tape lane2-4 on the GTX660Ti as shown then insert in the AKiTiO. Doing so would force a 4Gbps+c (formerly x1.2Opt) link, same as your PE4L 2.1. x1 PCIe compression might be skewing the results to be better than on a 10Gbps link.

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Thanks @Tech Inferno Fan

I attempted the x1 link on the Akitio and did manage that successfully. In CUDA-Z and GPU-Z, I see the x1 link, but the performance is not there in 3dmark11. Unfortunately, I did not collect the numbers, but I think the performance is about the same on the Akitio before and after.

I've swapped TB cables just in case, but also no dice. I guess the next thing to test is the Akitio itself, hopefully I did not get a defective one. Any thoughts?

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Just a quick update.

To make sure everything else was working fine, I was able to borrow a mid-2013 MBA from work, setup Win8.1, and test my setup above. Everything looks to be working well when I use the MBA; 3dmark score below shows it in line with my PE4L on the T430s. I ran this test to mainly figure out if the Akitio was good or not. From this test, it seems like the problem resides within the T430s when using Thunderbolt.

3dmark11 (Akitio/MBA) - 6429 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Ti video card benchmark result - Intel Core i5-4250U,Apple Inc. Mac-7DF21CB3ED6977E5

I was also able to determine a difference in Thunderbolt chips, but not sure how much it affects the setup. The T430s has an Intel DSL3310 while the MBA has the DSL3510L.

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Crazy, I bought a T430s with Thunderbolt almost two years ago waiting for a cheaper TB eGPU solution (which never materialized after the TH05 was recalled), and was just checking in to see how things were going, and looks like you just built what I was looking for. Downside is, looks like it's worse than the ExpressCard option! Please keep us all posted if you are able to troubleshoot your issue. Are you using with Optimus or without? Very interested to hear any future findings.

Just a quick update.

To make sure everything else was working fine, I was able to borrow a mid-2013 MBA from work, setup Win8.1, and test my setup above. Everything looks to be working well when I use the MBA; 3dmark score below shows it in line with my PE4L on the T430s. I ran this test to mainly figure out if the Akitio was good or not. From this test, it seems like the problem resides within the T430s when using Thunderbolt.

3dmark11 (Akitio/MBA) - 6429 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Ti video card benchmark result - Intel Core i5-4250U,Apple Inc. Mac-7DF21CB3ED6977E5

I was also able to determine a difference in Thunderbolt chips, but not sure how much it affects the setup. The T430s has an Intel DSL3310 while the MBA has the DSL3510L.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Crazy, I bought a T430s with Thunderbolt almost two years ago waiting for a cheaper TB eGPU solution (which never materialized after the TH05 was recalled), and was just checking in to see how things were going, and looks like you just built what I was looking for. Downside is, looks like it's worse than the ExpressCard option! Please keep us all posted if you are able to troubleshoot your issue. Are you using with Optimus or without? Very interested to hear any future findings.

When I found out about the T430s with Thunderbolt, I thought of it being the perfect system to transition between EC and TB. Unfortunately, I'm nowhere closer to figuring out the problem. I've tested Win8.1 vs Ubuntu to see if it were OS related, but all the numbers end up being the same (used Unigine Heaven benchmark). I have not been using Optimus and been running on an external screen for all my tests.

Maybe it's time to upgrade to a MacBook Pro :)

@Arise @arclord @jacobsson @ha1o2surfer @gothic860

Sorry to bother you guys, but from the Implementation list, you all are the only other non-Mac machines. Would you be able to take a second and run hwinfo to see what TB chip you have in your system? It should show up in the "Bus" category when you have a TB device plugged in. Thanks.

HWiNFO, HWiNFO32 & HWiNFO64 - Hardware Information, Analysis and Monitoring Tools

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When I found out about the T430s with Thunderbolt, I thought of it being the perfect system to transition between EC and TB. Unfortunately, I'm nowhere closer to figuring out the problem. I've tested Win8.1 vs Ubuntu to see if it were OS related, but all the numbers end up being the same (used Unigine Heaven benchmark). I have not been using Optimus and been running on an external screen for all my tests.

Maybe it's time to upgrade to a MacBook Pro :)

@Arise @arclord @jacobsson @ha1o2surfer @gothic860

Sorry to bother you guys, but from the Implementation list, you all are the only other non-Mac machines. Would you be able to take a second and run hwinfo to see what TB chip you have in your system? It should show up in the "Bus" category when you have a TB device plugged in. Thanks.

HWiNFO, HWiNFO32 & HWiNFO64 - Hardware Information, Analysis and Monitoring Tools

If you are sure the problem is with the hardware rather then your OS/driver build, then may I suggest logging a case with Lenovo to investigage the performance issue?

One solution here would be for them to supply you a Thunderbolt-equipped Lenovo W540 to replace your T430s.

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If you are sure the problem is with the hardware rather then your OS/driver build, then may I suggest logging a case with Lenovo to investigage the performance issue?

One solution here would be for them to supply you a Thunderbolt-equipped Lenovo W540 to replace your T430s.

I'm somewhat leaning that way, but still not entirely sure. I'm just trying to gather as much info as I can and test as much as I can, just very limited on time.

Unfortunately, I'd doubt Lenovo would replace the T430s with something newer as I did get this second hand, but who knows?

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When I found out about the T430s with Thunderbolt, I thought of it being the perfect system to transition between EC and TB. Unfortunately, I'm nowhere closer to figuring out the problem. I've tested Win8.1 vs Ubuntu to see if it were OS related, but all the numbers end up being the same (used Unigine Heaven benchmark). I have not been using Optimus and been running on an external screen for all my tests.

Maybe it's time to upgrade to a MacBook Pro :)

@Arise @arclord @jacobsson @ha1o2surfer @gothic860

Sorry to bother you guys, but from the Implementation list, you all are the only other non-Mac machines. Would you be able to take a second and run hwinfo to see what TB chip you have in your system? It should show up in the "Bus" category when you have a TB device plugged in. Thanks.

HWiNFO, HWiNFO32 & HWiNFO64 - Hardware Information, Analysis and Monitoring Tools

Sorry switched to a Macbook and OS X :P.

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