eGPU experiences [version 2.0]

[Tenkes]

Can anyone please confirm what I am about to get myself into is okay for GEN 2 support?

(1) one of PE4L 2.1B or PE4H-EC060A V3.2 (if Bplus ever puts it back on their page....?)

(2) Geforce 660ti

(3) A Power supply to correctly power the thing.

I have a HP ProBook4730s. SPecifications are here: http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/ca/en/sm/WF06b/321957-321957-64295-3955552-3955552-5060893-5173291.html?dnr=1

Briefly, it's a sandy bridge machine with expresscard 2.0 with Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit and 8 GB of ram.

HP 4530s was a recommended candidate due to SB, upgradeable screen, nice workmanship and good price. I think same goes to 4730s aswell. You can hardly go wrong with that PE4L.

[DarkCond0]

Can anyone please confirm what I am about to get myself into is okay for GEN 2 support?

(1) one of PE4L 2.1B or PE4H-EC060A V3.2 (if Bplus ever puts it back on their page....?)

(2) Geforce 660ti

(3) A Power supply to correctly power the thing.

I have a HP ProBook4730s. SPecifications are here: http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/ca/en/sm/WF06b/321957-321957-64295-3955552-3955552-5060893-5173291.html?dnr=1

Briefly, it's a sandy bridge machine with expresscard 2.0 with Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit and 8 GB of ram.

Yep! Should be good

[NamesLucky]

I would like the honest opinion of some of the egpu owners out there with a 1.2opt setup and a gtx 670/680. Can you get smooth framerates at "mostly high" settings, 1080p 60hz, on current games? I'm looking to possibly replace my desktop, at least until 2014 when I can evaluate the thunderbolt market and decide if I want to go back to desktops. I specifically play Diablo 3, Borderlands 2, and Starcraft 2. While I know I cannot get the performance of a desktop, is the ~70% desktop framerates pretty uniform throughout current games with an egpu?

[Jaster]

I use my eGPU mainly for CUDA development and I don't really play many games, certainly none of the ones you mentioned, however I am partial to the occasional game of Red Orchestra 2, which I can run with a GTX 560ti on 1.2opt with all the video settings on ultra at 1920x1080 resolution and get completely smooth gameplay. It's so good that I don't even bother to plug the monitor into the card itself, I just keep the monitor plugged into my laptop and use it as a conventional external display.

[Khenglish]

I would like the honest opinion of some of the egpu owners out there with a 1.2opt setup and a gtx 670/680. Can you get smooth framerates at "mostly high" settings, 1080p 60hz, on current games? I'm looking to possibly replace my desktop, at least until 2014 when I can evaluate the thunderbolt market and decide if I want to go back to desktops. I specifically play Diablo 3, Borderlands 2, and Starcraft 2. While I know I cannot get the performance of a desktop, is the ~70% desktop framerates pretty uniform throughout current games with an egpu?

With a 580 overclocked sc2 and d3 run great maxed out. The story mode campaign parts of sc2 ran in the 40s at worst, with the actual gameplay 80+ except for intense late game combat. D3 will stutter in some places on rhakis crossing, but the rest of the game is smooth. rhakis crossing stuttering can be eliminated with an fps cap. Very intense fighting with multiple players and 50+ monsters on screen can drop fps to 30s, but that is rare. Not sure about borderlands 2.

[NamesLucky]

With a 580 overclocked sc2 and d3 run great maxed out. The story mode campaign parts of sc2 ran in the 40s at worst, with the actual gameplay 80+ except for intense late game combat. D3 will stutter in some places on rhakis crossing, but the rest of the game is smooth. rhakis crossing stuttering can be eliminated with an fps cap. Very intense fighting with multiple players and 50+ monsters on screen can drop fps to 30s, but that is rare. Not sure about borderlands 2.

Yeah Rhakis crossing even stutters with my desktop's sli OCed 670s, thx for fps cap tip, and thanks for input! I see you have an e6520 as well, any problems with this particular model with expresscard hookup?

[daver160]

I would like the honest opinion of some of the egpu owners out there with a 1.2opt setup and a gtx 670/680. Can you get smooth framerates at "mostly high" settings, 1080p 60hz, on current games? I'm looking to possibly replace my desktop, at least until 2014 when I can evaluate the thunderbolt market and decide if I want to go back to desktops. I specifically play Diablo 3, Borderlands 2, and Starcraft 2. While I know I cannot get the performance of a desktop, is the ~70% desktop framerates pretty uniform throughout current games with an egpu?

Even with my GTX 650 Ti @ 1.1Opt, I can get smooth framerates at "mostly high" settings on current games. By smooth, I mean nothing dips below 28-30 fps, all while staying mostly in the 40-60 range. (I use VSync on all my games so I've never seen anything above 60).

I would imagine a 660 @ 1.2 Opt will be just fine.

Don't forget though that some stuttering in modern games can be attributed to the CPU being the bottleneck.

[DarkCond0]

I would like the honest opinion of some of the egpu owners out there with a 1.2opt setup and a gtx 670/680. Can you get smooth framerates at "mostly high" settings, 1080p 60hz, on current games? I'm looking to possibly replace my desktop, at least until 2014 when I can evaluate the thunderbolt market and decide if I want to go back to desktops. I specifically play Diablo 3, Borderlands 2, and Starcraft 2. While I know I cannot get the performance of a desktop, is the ~70% desktop framerates pretty uniform throughout current games with an egpu?

I could do that with my GTX460.

[Khenglish]

Yeah Rhakis crossing even stutters with my desktop's sli OCed 670s, thx for fps cap tip, and thanks for input! I see you have an e6520 as well, any problems with this particular model with expresscard hookup?

The BIOS turns off the iGP if you boot with the eGPU on. Turning on/hotplugging the card after the BIOS splash screen appears avoids this. If I hotplug, the card starts up in pci-e 2.0. If I turn on the card while already plugged in, it starts in 1.1, but if I "eject" it then turn it off and on again, then it's in 2.0.

[ryanchootx]

Hi Guys

I i got the PE4L adapter so i do not need setup 1.1x anymore does anyone know how to safely and permanently remove the setup from my pc? i Have uninstalled the imdisk virtual disk driver already anything else i should remove

Many thanks

[prosetheus]

I use my eGPU mainly for CUDA development and I don't really play many games, certainly none of the ones you mentioned, however I am partial to the occasional game of Red Orchestra 2, which I can run with a GTX 560ti on 1.2opt with all the video settings on ultra at 1920x1080 resolution and get completely smooth gameplay. It's so good that I don't even bother to plug the monitor into the card itself, I just keep the monitor plugged into my laptop and use it as a conventional external display.

Hey Jaster,

I'm really curious whether you face issues with lack of bandwidth with CUDA over egpu. I always wondered if I could use it to power the mercury playback engine in adobe premiere pro. Let us know what your experiences are with CUDA.

[NamesLucky]

The BIOS turns off the iGP if you boot with the eGPU on. Turning on/hotplugging the card after the BIOS splash screen appears avoids this. If I hotplug, the card starts up in pci-e 2.0. If I turn on the card while already plugged in, it starts in 1.1, but if I "eject" it then turn it off and on again, then it's in 2.0.

Thanks, I just received my egpu stuff last night and found the same thing. So no harm in always hot-plugging/ejecting?

[kombinat]

No harm at all.

PCIe was designed as hot-plug able interface.

[daver160]

Hi Guys

I i got the PE4L adapter so i do not need setup 1.1x anymore does anyone know how to safely and permanently remove the setup from my pc? i Have uninstalled the imdisk virtual disk driver already anything else i should remove

Many thanks

Should just be a matter of running the "uninstall-x-x.bat" script in your X:\eGPU folder, then deleting the eGPU folder itself.

It's really quite simple, and harmless.

[Quest Ng]

hi guys, i need some help! i just bought my e6230 i7 3520 model, everything seems perfectly fine but i cant boot up once i plug in my PE4L 2.1b + gtx660. it will lag the entire laptop on start up, then brings me to start up repair page and then it says it couldnt fix my problem. then once i unplug the pe4l adapter, the laptop flies again. T___T if i hot plug it in, it wont detect it. how do i work around? it worked once, when i hot plug it, my external monitor went on, but i dont know for what reason.

im using windows 8 64 bit btw.

[Khenglish]

hi guys, i need some help! i just bought my e6230 i7 3520 model, everything seems perfectly fine but i cant boot up once i plug in my PE4L 2.1b + gtx660. it will lag the entire laptop on start up, then brings me to start up repair page and then it says it couldnt fix my problem. then once i unplug the pe4l adapter, the laptop flies again. T___T if i hot plug it in, it wont detect it. how do i work around? it worked once, when i hot plug it, my external monitor went on, but i dont know for what reason.

im using windows 8 64 bit btw.

How are you trying to hotplug? For a true hotplug, the card and laptop both need to be on, then the card plugged in (expresscard pushed in, not the card into the adapter).

I expect the e6230 to disable the internal HD4000 and monitor if you power on the laptop with the card on and plugged in. The card will then output to the lower DVI port. Does this happen?

[kumisseksi]

nando, im trying to replace my sony vaio s13 bios modded (13k 3dmark06) with another small laptop egpu capable and aiming at the thinkpad t430s to score at 20k +- 3dmark06, i got a thinkpad x230t now but its windows 8 so im gonna sell it and buy a t430s windows 7, what do you reckon? i may go for either 560ti or 660ti, and should i go for the PE4L? since i was browsing and seeing a lot of failed attempt on x230

[Quest Ng]

How are you trying to hotplug? For a true hotplug, the card and laptop both need to be on, then the card plugged in (expresscard pushed in, not the card into the adapter).

I expect the e6230 to disable the internal HD4000 and monitor if you power on the laptop with the card on and plugged in. The card will then output to the lower DVI port. Does this happen?

i had been trying a whole night. symptoms:

1) laptop cannot start up if egpu is plugged in. problem: windows cant start up (possibly without nvidea driver)

2) if i plugged egpu in w power off, then hibernate it, and restart, my external lcd's light will lit, but then nothing happens. all screens are black and im doomed to force shut down whole system.

3) i plug in egpu turned on after i on my computer (ie hotplug). nothing happens, i try to install nvidea driver (tried old version 306.97 and latest 310.90, both will run through installation but just hangs at about 10% into installing). it will just not progress (left it for hours going out for dinner).

4) cannot install nvidia driver w/o detecting a nvidia card.

5) i swear it worked the first time. i had nvidia control panel, everything was working like a charm, suddenly i off computer and on again, the driver is missing and now im in hell.

p/s my egpu configuration worked marvelously with my old vaio laptop with nvidia dGPU. just changed new laptop. might be because of windows 8 driver compatibility?

[Quest Ng]

i've also tried nando's separate guide on e6230. i think the problem lies at, i couldnt install the nvidia driver. it will just stuck at about 10% and do nothing for ages........ T_T

[Khenglish]

i've also tried nando's separate guide on e6230. i think the problem lies at, i couldnt install the nvidia driver. it will just stuck at about 10% and do nothing for ages........ T_T

I think you had a corrupted driver installation, or at some point your eGPU hardware went bad.

What does the device manager say about the eGPU? If the driver attempts to install, then the card is detected. Check the device manager for an error code. If the device manager does not list an error, then uninstall the eGPU's driver with the device manager. Make sure you check "remove files from system", or else win8 will immediately reinstall the driver without asking.

Below is just some general info:

The system should be able to boot with no driver with the iGPU disabled. If no driver was installed, windows will use the generic video driver.

Hibernate/resume is the same as a full power cycle as far as the BIOS is concerned. Do sleep/resume, not hibernate.

[Quest Ng]

I think you had a corrupted driver installation, or at some point your eGPU hardware went bad.

What does the device manager say about the eGPU? If the driver attempts to install, then the card is detected. Check the device manager for an error code. If the device manager does not list an error, then uninstall the eGPU's driver with the device manager. Make sure you check "remove files from system", or else win8 will immediately reinstall the driver without asking.

Below is just some general info:

The system should be able to boot with no driver with the iGPU disabled. If no driver was installed, windows will use the generic video driver.

Hibernate/resume is the same as a full power cycle as far as the BIOS is concerned. Do sleep/resume, not hibernate.

i reformat and slowly system restore step by step, didnt work out that well in the journey but finally made it. it is now working on my external, gpu Z detecting gtx660 but still running on 1.1. trying to make it unlock faster connection speed.

[Quest Ng]

just ran 3dmarkdx11, got 5200 but its running on x1 v1.1

i tried off egpu => on laptop => f12 to freeze boot => on egpu => cont start up. ended up the laptop didnt recognize the egpu at all. so i dont understand how to upgrade it?

[Quest Ng]

there is this bios update, should i update it? i scared that it will be back to 0 again

[Tenkes]

there is this bios update, should i update it? i scared that it will be back to 0 again

Sure. It should affect your egpu at all, just your rig becomes better.

I have an E6420 and I use the setup1.x program. Its good for this notebook because it stops the boot process right after the bios loaded, so I know when to plug it on, and it will work on gen2 speed surely. I was thinking about making it automated, but It is not a big deal and makes me sure about the system.

[Quest Ng]

Sure. It should affect your egpu at all, just your rig becomes better.

I have an E6420 and I use the setup1.x program. Its good for this notebook because it stops the boot process right after the bios loaded, so I know when to plug it on, and it will work on gen2 speed surely. I was thinking about making it automated, but It is not a big deal and makes me sure about the system.

my 3dmark06 (dx9) score now is 8.9k. can you explain how you start up your laptop? is it not like my above mentioned sequence?

- - - Updated - - -

Sure. It should affect your egpu at all, just your rig becomes better.

I have an E6420 and I use the setup1.x program. Its good for this notebook because it stops the boot process right after the bios loaded, so I know when to plug it on, and it will work on gen2 speed surely. I was thinking about making it automated, but It is not a big deal and makes me sure about the system.

my 3dmark06 (dx9) score now is 8.9k. can you explain how you start up your laptop? is it not like my above mentioned sequence?