eGPU experiences [version 2.0]

[Khenglish]

so, those 2 model is just the same that can only running up to gen2? hmm, i need to disable the 460m to use my eGPU properly? btw when using the eGPU, the performance of the graphic card will be adjusted to just only 50% of desktop pc appliance? sorry if asking so many question

The PE4C has a full length slot and is x2 capable. It is highly doubtful that your system can do x2, as systems with a dGPU tend to have few mPCI-E slots. Even if it could it will be complicated trying to set the ports to x2. As for only 50% performance it depends on the game. Some will run just as fast on x1 2.0 as x16 3.0. Some will only run 30% as fast. It varies, but you're usually around 80% with x1 2.0. The eGPU will still work with the 460m enabled, but performance will be poor with the 460m outperforming it in many situations. With the 460m disabled the eGPU will be overall much faster.

[elpresidenteffg]

The card will only run up to gen2. You will also need to disable or physically remove the 460m to get the optimus performance benefits. Nando4's setup program can disable the card.

- - - Updated - - -

Have you installed a graphics driver for the 970?

Yes. It shows up as Nvidia GeForce GTX in device manager. It just won't display on an external monitor.

[ha1o2surfer]

Hi everyone! I have managed to set up a GTX 970 through Thunderbolt, and have it showing in the device manager with no errors. Whenever I connect my monitor to the card, the monitor does not appear in Device Manager, so I cannot get the card to output. Also, my Nvidia Control Panel isn't opening - I suspect the two problems may be related. Does anyone know why this could be happening?

You need to make sure your dGPU is fully disabled before trying to plug in an eGPU. Try disabling it then do a restart and once windows is at the desktop, plug in your eGPU. Then right click on the desktop and click screen resolution and see if an external monitor appears. You may also have to do a clean install of the nvidia drivers after you've followed these steps.

[andrizmitnick]

The PE4C has a full length slot and is x2 capable. It is highly doubtful that your system can do x2, as systems with a dGPU tend to have few mPCI-E slots. Even if it could it will be complicated trying to set the ports to x2. As for only 50% performance it depends on the game. Some will run just as fast on x1 2.0 as x16 3.0. Some will only run 30% as fast. It varies, but you're usually around 80% with x1 2.0. The eGPU will still work with the 460m enabled, but performance will be poor with the 460m outperforming it in many situations. With the 460m disabled the eGPU will be overall much faster.

are u using x2 or x1 capability? which one is more stable? btw about ordering an PE4C with soldered cable option, how i can order that?

[elpresidenteffg]

You need to make sure your dGPU is fully disabled before trying to plug in an eGPU. Try disabling it then do a restart and once windows is at the desktop, plug in your eGPU. Then right click on the desktop and click screen resolution and see if an external monitor appears. You may also have to do a clean install of the nvidia drivers after you've followed these steps.

Thanks. I'll try to do this.

[davide445]

To be deleted

[jacobsson]

@elpresidenteffg

You might also try this too (I don't need to disable the dGPU for my G46VW):

1. Boot w/o eGPU attached

2. Connect eGPU (with it a monitor attached) -> GPU fan spins up and then settles, no output external monitor

3. Safe remove method and disconnect eGPU/TB-cable

4. Re-connect eGPU/TB-cable, GPU spins up again, settles and external screen output works.

[elpresidenteffg]

@elpresidenteffg

You might also try this too (I don't need to disable the dGPU for my G46VW):

1. Boot w/o eGPU attached

2. Connect eGPU (with it a monitor attached) -> GPU fan spins up and then settles, no output external monitor

3. Safe remove method and disconnect eGPU/TB-cable

4. Re-connect eGPU/TB-cable, GPU spins up again, settles and external screen output works.

How do you safely eject the egpu?

[PJ²³]

How do you safely eject the egpu?

Use the safely remove hardware tray icon

[kamerplant]

Hello everyone,

I got myself a PE4C V2.1A and an 8800GT (for testing), and i'm currently trying to get it to work with my M18X R1.

I got myself an AC adapter that fits the jack plug, however the adapter is 19V and 7A, when i power things up the fan starts up spinning real fast but nothing else happends, its not being recognized in device manager. i tried connecting them in differend orders, does anyone know what my problem could be? i already tried reinstalling windows 7.

[Tempest]

Hello everyone,

I got myself a PE4C V2.1A and an 8800GT (for testing), and i'm currently trying to get it to work with my M18X R1.

I got myself an AC adapter that fits the jack plug, however the adapter is 19V and 7A, when i power things up the fan starts up spinning real fast but nothing else happends, its not being recognized in device manager. i tried connecting them in differend orders, does anyone know what my problem could be? i already tried reinstalling windows 7.

Hi Kamerplant,

Did you plug in the auxiliar power cable to the 8800GT? Since you are using an AC adapter maybe you forgot. Also the AC adapter should be 12v but I'm not an expert on that... I used a 8800GT for a short amount of time while testing eGPU setups and It was more prome to issues than newer generation cards.

[darkydark]

Dell Latitude E5430 i3, 8gb + GTX 760 + exp gdc v6

Just plug in EC, boot up, install drivers and profit

GPUz reports pcie x1 @ 1.2 and optimus was workingg - I was able to run games power by nVidia GPU on internal screen.

No need for DSDT Override or eGPU DIY Setup

Dell Precision M6800 + exp gdc v6 + gtx 760

Machine would not boot with eGPU plugged in, hotplugging during sleep did the trick.

Once windows were booted - go to sleep, plug in eGPU and wake up - install drivers and shut down. Unplug eGPU then turn on system - once system is up go to sleep again plug in eGPU then just wake it up and in few seconds you will have eGPU working on M6800

GPUz reports nVidia connected at 1.2. Still need to see if is it possible to use optimus with dGPU not disabled.

[Para94]

Hi,

So as in the title I'd like to make my egpu work also on internal. But I didn't find some sort of Tutorial. So maybe someone of you could help me

thanks

[darkydark]

I have some issues on M6800.

I have gtx 760 working - if I plug egpu in while notebook is in sleep upon waking i get egpu working fine on external monitor, didnt do any detailed tests, but bf3 and world of tanks show significant fps improvement. Device manager shows no errors and igpu, dgpu and egpu are shown.

Under no circumstances i can get windows to boot if egpu is plugged in. Even if I disable dGPU with diy egpu setup.

When i disable dgpu via egpu setup - sleep option is grayed out and i'm fucked

If i hotplug nVidia when in egpu setup - i cant get it recognized and fans are on master blaster speed.

When eGPU is hooked up and machine then turned on - post takes a bit longer, eGPU setup sees eGPU but windows bsod on loading screen with some ACPI error.

Any idea what to do with eGPU setup to circumvent dGPU so I can try to use optimus for better score results?

[Tech Inferno Fan]

This Thread is to help put together a list of stability reports on eGPU configurations. Please do not flood with comments.

It would be great if Everyone could post (and update if necessary) their own setup with:

- Graphic card model

- Laptop Model

- OS Version

- Driver version

- Powered riser ?

- PSU Model

- What do you use your eGPU for ? (Rendering, Gaming, Browsing, Extended display)

- Is the system stable ?

- What type of issue do/did you encounter?

- Did you manage to solve it and get a 100% stable system?

I hope I did not forget any important informations, If so add it to your post and I will update the guidelines accordingly.

Thank you for taking the time to do this. I hope this helps everyone get a better understanding.

I'll point out that the GUIDES written with 3dmark11/13 runs are generally stable implementations or else they could not run those benchmarks. Implementation Guides.

Suggest review appropriate GUIDE for your system and/ore enclosure to sort out any lingering issue you have. http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/6578-implementations-hub-tb-ec-mpcie.html. There is far more stability than instability.

A comprehensive listing of implementations already. If there is specifically information you believe is missing in the user volunteered GUIDES then I'll suggest volunteering a guide template to include that info. However, the guides are volunteered by users so they decide the content of their submission.

[deprekate]

I have an HP 8460p, it is dual booting OSX and Win7 (so it is using UEFI). It has 16GB of ram and a PE4L 2.1b. I bought a EVGA GTX750ti, and followed all the steps in the DSDT override, got everything to compile and, loaded into the registry. I can see a new Large Memory entry in device manager (but no other Memory entries, which i think is correct. the guide just has two Intel HD graphics circled in red for some reason).

I have tried the fixes, removing Device manager entries/restarting/hot pnp. I still cannnot get the "Code 12" to go away. I was going to try the setup 1.30, but then I saw that it doesn't work for UEFI (although beta might?).

1) So my question is it possible to get the 750ti running on UEFI Win7 with 16GB ram?

2) Or should I eBay the 750ti and pick up a "GTX560Ti, GTX660, GTX660Ti GTX670, GTX760, GTX770", or some other card you recommend?

3) Is there any card/possibly of the eGPU and same card working on my OSX partition?

[Gensc]

Hi,

I have a Fujitsu Siemens Amilo Xi 3670 - QX9300 @ 3.9Ghz/GM45/8GB DDR3/ Intel 4000+NV130/ W8.1. I got an HD7850 work along with the notebook (exp gdc v6) and so everything is fine expect the fps. It is much better than the NV130 do not get me wrong, but the thing is, that the bandwidth is quite small and that is why I am here.

I was wondering if the eGPU Setup 1.30 could help on this a little? Any other solution?

Thanks for your reply in advance.

Regards,

Gensc

[Petrroll]

Hi, I'm the one that had problems with Lenovo L440, EXP GDC 6, and AMD R270 (freezing & not recognizing) and I have some bad news for all Lenovo T/L4xx owners, it seems that Lenovo has messed with the firmware so that eGPU is no longer possible. Or at least I wasn't able to get it working.

---

My story:

As you might remember I had issues with EXP GDC 6 and an AMD card some month ago. To be more specific, cold boot with the card plugged-in didn't work and hotplug always resulted in one of three scenarios:

- 50 %: OS / Setup 1.30 freezed, unfreezed immediately after un-plug (nothing showed up in event log)

- 50 % Nothing happened, nothing has been recognized in device manager / Setup 1.30, ...

- less than 1 %: It worked as expected

The weird thing about that was that the setup (hot plugging specifically) worked fine with another (though much older Express Slot gen 1 / Core2Duo) laptop and didn't work (actually did the same) with other Lenovo L/T 4xx laptops. The Express Card slot was diagnosed as working correctly (other Express Cards worked well).

After that I concluded that the problem had to be in EXP GDC and told CloudHero that he had sent me a faulty product. He, to my pleasant surprise, agreed to send me a new EXP GDC Beast for free. It arrived yesterday and solved non of my issues.

When used with AMD R9 270 it worked very similarly to EXP GDC 6:

- pre-boot plug didn't work

- hotplug resulted in either:

-- frequent micro-freezes (80 %)

-- nothing happening (20 %)

After that I realized that I have an old NVidia GT9800 at home. When I tried that card it worked well with both the EXP GDC 6 and the Beast (it always got recognized both under Win and Setup 1.30, no freezes) so I came to a conclusion that the problem might be in GPU vendor.

With a rekindled hope that NVidia might eventually save me I managed to borrow a NVidia GT560Ti from a friend and try it in my glorious eGPU setup. Unfortunately, it didn't work either. The weird thing about it is that it didn't work in a new way. With NVidia card, the hot-plug-in did never do anything (no recognition, no freezes or microfeezes) in either Setup 1.30 and under Windows. The Win Event log viewer didn't show anything as well. The only thing that was consistent was that pre-boot plug-in resulted in black-screen freeze.

It's also noteworthy that the GT560Ti didn't get recognized even with the old laptop that recognized AMD R9 270 just fine.

---

Conslusion: I've tried two different enclosures (EXP GDC 6, EXP Beast), two different modern cards, all possible settings (pre-boot plug, hotplug in Win, hotplug in Setup; with EC slot gen speed locked to 1 and set to automatic), and enclosure configurations (all combinations of CTD / PTD) and none of that worked on my laptop while it worked (somehow) on other notebooks.

---

Lenovo L440; TOLUD 3.5GB; Windows 8.1 Pro, Legacy BIOS, Setup 1.30 (with tested chainloading); Grub2

EXP GDC 6 & EXP GDC Beast (both Express Card)

Dell 220W AC brick

AMD R9 270 & NVidia 560Ti

---

BTW: I'm willing to sell at lest one (EXP GDC 6 / Beast) enclosure for cheap to anyone in Europe (Czech republic preferably). Might be also selling the AC power brick and the card in near future.

[Tech Inferno Fan]

Hi, I'm the one that had problems with Lenovo L440, EXP GDC 6, and AMD R270 (freezing & not recognizing) and I have some bad news for all Lenovo T/L4xx owners, it seems that Lenovo has messed with the firmware so that eGPU is no longer possible. Or at least I wasn't able to get it working.

EXP GDC Beast has two bootup timers you can play with to bypass the bios halting on boot AND to initialize the GPU correctly. It would be quite unusual if that didn't help with your bootup issue.

Please use Setup 1.30 to switch your expresscard slot to Gen1. I had a previous Lenovo user for which we found the bios was not correctly doing that.

I'll mention that with my Dell E6440, a EXP GDC V6 + GTX770 card will glitch in Gen2 mode with a "NVidia driver has stopped responding" error. Using a PE4C V2.1 or PE4L 2.1b resolving the issue. PE4L 2.1b is recommended if you want the absolute best possible signal integrity. That's because it uses a soldered cable rather than a socketted one.

[Petrroll]

EXP GDC Beast has two bootup timers you can play with to bypass the bios halting on boot AND to initialize the GPU correctly. It would be quite unusual if that didn't help with your bootup issue..

Yep, I know about these. Tried booting up with all their combinations... didn't help one bit, the laptop still stays on black screen. What seems to be a bit weird is that the GPU fans always (no matter the timers configuration) start the second I "bootup" the laptop.

And even if that worked, shouldn't hot-plugging always trigger some sort of action? I mean even a BSOD would be something, but to me, nothing is happening after hot-plug.

[andrizmitnick]

wanna ask, about x1 and x2 capability, which one is more stable? btw about ordering an PE4C with soldered cable option, how i can order that? thanks hehe

[Petrroll]

Ok, me once again. Just to make sure I didn't do anything wrong I've recorded all my attempts on video so I'd be glad if someone experienced could look at the videos below and tell me whether I did or did not screwed up something .

Initial BIOS settings:

Setup overview & NVidia 560Ti (not working):

NVidia GT9800 (working):

Changing BIOS settings & testing with NVidia 560 Ti (boots up, doesn't get recognized):

Oder (EXP GDC 6 & AMD R9 270 videos):

Freeze in Setup 1.30 (notice how it starts reacting after unplugging):

Hotplug uder Win (nothing happens):

Hotplug under Win (freeze):

Cold boot:

[donut]

Hi everyboy,

since today i use eGPU on my laptop gs70... why ? because is silent solutions for and i like to hack computer generally

If I try to launch unigine benchmark or game (diablo 3, csgo) i've a message > error D3D or doesn't recognize my gfx card please check your drivers, etc

Work only if i plug external screnn on the gfx card, not with the screenlaptop

Drivers is ok, my laptop is ok. I've disabled my 870m and also IntelHd4600

So, i've a questions about PE4H

Possible to use internal screen on my laptop or only external screen ?

Thanks so much

sorry for my poor english, is hard to explain my problem

[Dschijn]

Seems like your Optimus isn't working properly.

[donut]

Thanks for the response.

First, in my bios I desactivate Nvidia gfx cards. I choose Intel card for boot and 870 doesn't appears in device manager.

I reboot

Second,

I turn on my the P4, turn on my laptop.

I see AMD 7800 series in the device manager. I disabled my intel Hd4600 and I reboot.

Third

Go back to the device manager, Intel is disabled

nothing else to do ?