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eGPU experiences [version 2.0]


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Noticed these things popping up on eBay.

New USB 3.0 PCI-E 1x to 16x Powered 1M Express Extender Riser Adapter Card UK | eBay

Not very useful for us at the moment, but it shows that:

a) PCIE1x can be carried though USB3.0 Cable

B) If a UK seller can sell this, at profit, with 1st class delivery, for £6, then it shows how much this kind of kit truly costs.

It's also interesting to note that that adapter also looks like it has the 6pin through-hole mounting point for PCIe 6pin power connector, even though Molex is soldered on.

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Noticed these things popping up on eBay.

New USB 3.0 PCI-E 1x to 16x Powered 1M Express Extender Riser Adapter Card UK | eBay

Not very useful for us at the moment, but it shows that:

a) PCIE1x can be carried though USB3.0 Cable

B) If a UK seller can sell this, at profit, with 1st class delivery, for £6, then it shows how much this kind of kit truly costs.

It's also interesting to note that that adapter also looks like it has the 6pin through-hole mounting point for PCIe 6pin power connector, even though Molex is soldered on.

Anybody want to test this socketted mPCIe product to see if can do a Gen2 link?

Yep, equivalent to a PE4L-EC060A 2.1b product but with socketted ends and way lower cost.

Question is, does this thing transmit pci-e 2.0 reliably? Appears he's using high quality USB 3.0 ends and USB 3.0 cables with strict tolerance to achieve USB 3.0's 5Gbps transmission rate. If this can transmit 5Gbps pci-e 2.0 reliably then this socketted product would be ideal for mPCIe users. A socket ends mPCIe eGPU product highly desired as discussed in http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/2958-pe4l-pm060a-mini-pcie-extender.html#post40824

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It's not mPCIe though sadly, it's just 1 PCIe 1x slot.

It's designed for desktop users to have 4+ GPUs for *coin mining.

But I don't mind picking one up just for testing if you think it would be useful.

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It's not mPCIe though sadly, it's just 1 PCIe 1x slot.

It's designed for desktop users to have 4+ GPUs for *coin mining.

But I don't mind picking one up just for testing if you think it would be useful.

Whoops. Quite right. Rather than a mPCIe board, it's a 1x-to-x16 extender board. If this guy did make a mPCIe board with a USB 3.0 connector on it, then we may finally have a socketted mPCIe eGPU solution. Whoever is making them probably hasn't contemplated extending his market to expresscard/mPCIe notebooks. Would be nice for us if they did.

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Whoops. Quite right. Rather than a mPCIe board, it's a 1x-to-x16 extender board. If this guy did make a mPCIe board with a USB 3.0 connector on it, then we may finally have a socketted mPCIe eGPU solution. Whoever is making them probably hasn't contemplated extending his market to expresscard/mPCIe notebooks. Would be nice for us if they did.

Given that they seem to be sold by lots of different sellers on eBay, I would assume he isn't related to the OEM, just an importer.

However, if USB3 cables can handle Gen2, maybe that knowledge would help BPLUS develop something that has a chance of catching up with the EXP GDC.

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I just got home with a nice MSI GTX 560 Ti :) wish me luck, I will set it up and report back in a few minutes.

Well.... Error 12 here, so I will need to do some wizardry to get it working :(

Dell E6430, only igp, and only 4GB RAM - I was hoping I will avoid getting here... Seems Win8.1 was a bad choice for this setup.

Anyone can help me out? I started reading the instructions but got lost after a few steps. Isn't there anything that doesn't need me to alter system files?

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Well.... Error 12 here, so I will need to do some wizardry to get it working :(

Dell E6430, only igp, and only 4GB RAM - I was hoping I will avoid getting here... Seems Win8.1 was a bad choice for this setup.

Anyone can help me out? I started reading the instructions but got lost after a few steps. Isn't there anything that doesn't need me to alter system files?

I'd search in the main DIY eGPU thread. I think there is another E6430 implementation in there. I did my crossfire test with the E6420 under Ubuntu, and normal testing under Win7:

http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/5622-%5Bblog%5D-crossfire-testing.html#post82280

You'd have to look around for E6430. Do you know if you are using a MBR or UEFI/GPT install of Win8.1?

Post the details in the main thread so more people can help you out.

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Hi All,

I have an error 12 with the following setup:

Dell E6430 - Core i5, 4GB RAM, only igp, MBR

EXP GDC with Expresscard

MSI GTX 560 Ti

I need some assistance where to start fixing my issue...

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Hi All,

I have an error 12 with the following setup:

Dell E6430 - Core i5, 4GB RAM, only igp, MBR

EXP GDC with Expresscard

MSI GTX 560 Ti

I need some assistance where to start fixing my issue...

E6430 would have the same issue with TOLUD=3.5GB that I had with the E6230 in http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/2747-%5Bguide%5D-12-dell-e6230-gtx660%40x1-2opt-hd7870%40x1-2-pe4l-ec060a-2-1b.html#post37197 . Fortunately, mine dynamically adjusted down to 3.25GB from a mix of installing more RAM and getting the eGPU detected by the bios once on bootup . You could try the same. If that doesn't work for you then the solution is to use a DSDT override/substitution to allow the eGPU to be hosted outside of 36/64-bit pcie space. You may also need Setup 1.x to preallocated the eGPU into that area if Windows isn't willing to do it.

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E6430 would have the same issue with TOLUD=3.5GB that I had with the E6230 in http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/2747-%5Bguide%5D-12-dell-e6230-gtx660%40x1-2opt-hd7870%40x1-2-pe4l-ec060a-2-1b.html#post37197 . Fortunately, mine dynamically adjusted down to 3.25GB from a mix of installing more RAM and getting the eGPU detected by the bios once on bootup . You could try the same. If that doesn't work for you then the solution is to use a DSDT override/substitution to allow the eGPU to be hosted outside of 36/64-bit pcie space. You may also need Setup 1.x to preallocated the eGPU into that area if Windows isn't willing to do it.

Nando4, thanks! I tried DSDT override yesterday without success, but today I found an MSDN article where it is explained that DSDT override is disabled in Win8.1 by default. To enable it, you have to switch testsigning ON via bcdedit. After I found this out, everything went smooth :) Now the card is recognised and I have no error12 anymore. According to GPU-Z I am at PCI-E 1.1 x16@x1 1.1

Update: With some load according to GPU-Z the bus changes to PCI-E 2.0 x16@x1 2.0 :)

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I'm trying to reconcile my benchmarks with @Tech Inferno Fan's Implementations: Thunderbolt, expresscard and mPCIe eGPUs post, but I'm having little luck.

I've run Unigine Heaven on Extreme settings at 1920x1080 and achieved a score of 750. What does this mean? By cross-referencing the above benchmark post, I'd be in the bottom third performance-wise, which is kind of weird given that I'm running a 15" Haswell MBP retina and using the Thunderbolt TH05 with a GTX 670 OC.

I've also downloaded 3DMark and ran Fire Strike (score: 5,405), Cloud Gate (score:17,627, and Ice Storm (score:115,705). I'm not sure what these scores mean, but I think that's DX 11, 10, & 9, respectively. But those scores don't match up with anything on the leaderboard.

I'm looking for some insight as to what these numbers mean. I frequently get unrecoverable black screens when playing specific MMO's (TESO & TSW), but none for others (EVE and SC2). So, I'm trying to diagnose what's going on and if these benchmarks have anything to say about it.

(Note: setup is in my signature, but benchmarks were run using an Antec 80 bronze 450W PSU instead of my modded xbox psu)

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hello guys!

ive hit the problem...

i bought EXP GDC v6.0

i received it today, well reasons of buying that thingy wasnt to gameabout, but to make proper PC based mediacenter

i have oldish Samsung r70 for all this setup, with known problem of Videooverheat and eventual death

so after reading a lot i found this EXP GDC V6.0 thingy

lucky for me that Laptop has extra Mpci-e slot, but after getting that thingy, installing it to my oldish machine, ive hit the problem,

it dose recognize my GPU (also oldish or rather OLD, radeon 2400pro (dual monitor(vga) and S-video to component plug) ) but it dose nothing... exactly nothing, as well as it shows me Base System Device code28

any ideas?

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Please let me know if I should post this to another topic...

So about performance: I ran 3dmark and got disappointing results. My igpu did around 40k score at the Ice Storm test and the egpu GTX560Ti scored only 18k: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti video card benchmark result - Intel Core i5-3320M Processor,Dell Inc. 0CPWYR

Is this normal? Any suggestions what I could configure differently?

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Please let me know if I should post this to another topic...

So about performance: I ran 3dmark and got disappointing results. My igpu did around 40k score at the Ice Storm test and the egpu GTX560Ti scored only 18k: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti video card benchmark result - Intel Core i5-3320M Processor,Dell Inc. 0CPWYR

Is this normal? Any suggestions what I could configure differently?

Compare against a similar specced system at http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/6578-implementations-thunderbolt-expresscard-mpcie-egpus.html#post89707 to see if you are getting the correct level of performance.

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Yes, but atm you should not order anything from him - seems the guy is offline and not shipping/responding to paying customers :(

That thing looks even more industrial than the PE4L :)

Did he rip you off?

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That thing looks even more industrial than the PE4L :)

Did he rip you off?

No, not me - it was not convincing enough for me based on the pictures so I went for the EXP GDC. But two local guys were complaining. To be fair: In the meantime it turned out he had some kind of life issues so we shall wait and see...

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No, not me - it was not convincing enough for me based on the pictures so I went for the EXP GDC. But two local guys were complaining. To be fair: In the meantime it turned out he had some kind of life issues so we shall wait and see...

I understand, but I don't really see the point of buying it since it cost ~$60 (excl. shipping, taxes, etc etc). I just found it rather primitive looking =)

Let's hope he gets his life back on track and makes something awesome for us!

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If you have an accessible mPCIe slot (eg: wifi), then you can implement a x1.2Opt GTX770 eGPU. You'll need a PE4L-PMxxxA 2.1b + PSU + GTX770 + Setup 1.x (to disable the GTX660M to allow eGPU to run as Optimus device).

I've been reading various egpu forums, mostly $cost$ per benchmarks score, for fun and now this seems to me like a pretty good solution in replacing my 660m, which is dead (I think). So, forgive my ignorance if what I'm asking has been asked 9274581 times but I'm finding a lot of contradictory/difficult-to-grasp info, or maybe I'm reading/understanding it wrong... I have a y580, and my OS doesn't detect my 660m, sometimes if I wiggle the three mini cables on the bottom (one of which I had to replace, for the PSU), one of them will get it working for one boot albeit running extremely hot and glitchy.

Anyway, for my specific situation, am I correct in thinking that I don't need to "perform Setup 1.x" since my 660m is pretty much as good as disabled. And do I still need to get a "PE4L-PMxxxA 2.1b" even if I wasn't planning on the GTX 770? All I'm really looking for is something that can easily score ~4k - 5k on a 3DMARK11 run, with my budget for the card itself (not the connectors/adapters) being about $100. I already have a 750W psu, so can someone shove me in the right direction? Any, and all responses are welcomed and appreciated.

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Then I'd definitely go for the GTX750ti + the $99 EXP GDC v6.0 (220W ac-adapter + shipping includedi) from yoybuy.com

Thanks for the reply, the GTX 750 Ti is a bit too steep for me, I was actually looking at getting a gtx 650 ti. Thanks for the reply + mentioning yoybuy, they have better deals than aliexpress & ebay for some things.

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