eGPU experiences [version 2.0]

[arvazzz 10]

Yes, Setup 1.30 can downgrade your mPCIe link to Gen1 to resolve your problem of an unreliable Gen2 link you describe at http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/2109-diy-egpu-experiences-%5Bversion-2-0%5D-467.html#post129275 .

Oh and i forgot to mention before. In any games there is a little screen flickering (only when actually playing, in loading screen or pause there is no flickering) but in windows enviroment there is not. Is that caused by the same problem?

[ugleex 11]

Hi Nando4 - I didn't quote your name fully so not sure if you saw my post as I had a similar question - I fixed my dsdt override issue but now I receive bsod (without egpu plugged in) if I have more than 2 gb installed - will your setup fix this?

I tried setting a fixed memory range like endy to no avail.

Google only found issues with boot manager (that may possible be an issue - I've used MS instructions to revert mine to its original form - no changes).

As a last resort I'll try a fresh win7 enterprise install tomorrow if setup doesn't address this followed by win 8.1 if the former doesn't do it. If setup cannot work for me right now - will installing 8.1 fix it and since I'm not entirely sure how it works - what happens when I run laptop w/o egpu plugged in - will I still receive bsod or is this setup thing pretty much good to go after?

[aaurnab 11]

Guys, i have tried a lot of times. Laptop doesnt detect any gpu, actually egpu doesnt appear in device manager. HWinfo sees my r9 270x but there is no source for working ( there is no memory adress ) when i hot plug(on sleep mode), device detected sound is heard. after 1-2 sec device removed sound ! ( doesnt appear on device manager ) ((on my exp gdc light is red))

What should i do ?

How can i activate my egpu on laptop ?

I can't disable my gt540m. I dont know how to disable it, i dont know where are those settings too.

Please make suggestions. I have read many topics but i cant do this. It is waste of time because i couldn't find how to do this.

@Tech Inferno Fan

If your setup saves my time i want to buy it

Notebook : Asus K53SV - 6GB Ram

Graphics Card : Asus R9 270X

Dock : EXP GDC Beast

[ATTACH=CONFIG]14575[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]14576[/ATTACH]

It is familier to me. at the first time installed GTX750 ti on PE4L 2.1b windows not detecting GPU, I unstalled completely onboard HD graphics card driver, so it is rebooting then came back with 2 device in device manager, I straight installed Nvidia latest drive and grab the card....my system is Lenovo T420....

[arvazzz 10]

Like @Tech Inferno Fan recommended i used DIY setup to try to fix Nvidia driver crashes. I tried both, changing GEN1 and GEN2 link speeds and i did not work. However, when i choose any of those is asks "Do link restraining". What do i have to choose there?

I dont know what else can i try. Could PSU cause this?

These are the specs:

And as i mentioned above there is some screen flickering in games, not very noticable but still. And also when in-game PSU makes a little bit weirder noises which are not caused by spinning fans. In windows enviroment that does not happen.

Daym this setup is getting costly.

- - - Updated - - -

P.S. When i press test chainloader it shows this:

[Tech Inferno Fan 20]

Like @Tech Inferno Fan recommended i used DIY setup to try to fix Nvidia driver crashes. I tried both, changing GEN1 and GEN2 link speeds and i did not work. However, when i choose any of those is asks "Do link restraining". What do i have to choose there?

I dont know what else can i try. Could PSU cause this?

These are the specs:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]14578[/ATTACH]

And as i mentioned above there is some screen flickering in games, not very noticable but still. And also when in-game PSU makes a little bit weirder noises which are not caused by spinning fans. In windows enviroment that does not happen.

Daym this setup is getting costly.

Change the PCIe port hosting your eGPU to Gen1 (PCIe Ports->Gen1). When prompted to do link retraining, say "YES". Then do Chainloader->Test Run and select Win7 at your bootmenu. This is chainloading your OS where the PCIe config changes made by Setup 1.30 are preserved as opposed to rebooting where they are not preserved.

Please ensure you run at Gen1 during the remainder of your testing and only switch back to Gen2 if you get stability.

Your GTX750OC tops out at 76W according to ASUS GTX 750 OC 1 GB Review | techPowerUp . Your PSU specs indicate it's more than capable of supplying 76W. Furthermore.

Only remaining issue is whether your GTX750OC is clocked beyond what the onboard GPU can handle. Use MSI Afterburner to downclock the card to say reference GTX750 GPU and RAM frequencies of 1020 MHz and 5Ghz respectively.

[rorschach_ 10]

i didnt uninstall intel hd drivers only gt540m. thanks, i will try

[aaurnab 11]

Dear Nando, Should I buy a Elitebook 8540w , Is it compatible with egpu...

[dan 24]

i am using dsdt override .please investigate this.The qualty of the video is bad,but the stuttering cames from my way of moving the phone while recording,otherway the benchmark under dx11 is very smooth.if you want i could ask a friend with a better phone to record me while playing and post the videos.Thank you! i just made another benchmark,this time with extreme settings(dx11)!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBQgEFlS1mg&feature=youtu.be

[rorschach_ 10]

It is familier to me. at the first time installed GTX750 ti on PE4L 2.1b windows not detecting GPU, I unstalled completely onboard HD graphics card driver, so it is rebooting then came back with 2 device in device manager, I straight installed Nvidia latest drive and grab the card....my system is Lenovo T420....

it did not work ((((

i am thinking about change my notebook for this problem ://

[Tech Inferno Fan 20]

Dear Nando, Should I buy a Elitebook 8540w , Is it compatible with egpu...

Not Gen2 capable and no iGPU either. Avoid. Grab an expresscard equipped Sandy Bridge or newer system with an iGPU: http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/4109-egpu-candidate-system-list.html#post57511

[ATTACH=CONFIG]14584[/ATTACH]since i sold my msi ge620dx that i was using along with my egpu gtx 750ti i come back to my old fujitsu amilo pi 3540 and tryng to play batllefield 3 online with my friends.So my best configuration was egpu x2.1,until i was a bit schoked that without khnowing the compaction failed and realise that i was playing all that good quality in just x1.1 bandwidth!!!!!!!!!!!.i begin to investigate what was happend,and after 2 days i am prrety sure it is not a placebo thing.with windows 10 ,WDDM 2.0,all my dx11 games began to have an incredible quality.look for those two benchmark and notice the boost that it has dx11 using just x1.1 bandwith.the incredible comes when i enter a dx11 game and is much more better than in benchmark.now i am using just x1.1 configuration since the x2.1 give me worse experience!!!!!!!!

x1 1.0 can only be faster due to PCIe compression OR if your x2 1.0 link is unreliable. x1 PCIe compression will only engage on your Fujitsu only if you are running a 306.97WHQL driver since NVidia stopped Optimus features when using the 4500MHD after that: http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/6253-t500-compat-q-4500mhd-optimus-ends-306-97whql-3.html#post89243

Can see the faster x2 1.0 versus x1 1.0 performance on a similar HP Elitebook 6930P with 4500MHD + core2duo CPU at http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/2109-diy-egpu-experiences-%5Bversion-2-0%5D-336.html#post96830

[write2dgray 10]

I am looking at purchasing a PE4C2.1 adapter and a GTX 960 card to use with a Lenovo T530.

Will this set-up work for medium level gaming and is there anything I should look out for along the way? I plan to use a 200W laptop style power supply to power and run through the ExpressCard slot.

Thanks!

[Ibiza20v 10]

Hi,

I work mostly with structure design software. TEKLA and Autocad. I travel a lot from construction site to construction site so its imposible for me to have a desktop computer. I bought the best machine I can buy with my limited resources, a DELL XPS 15 L521X with 16GB ram and a quad core cpu but the mobile Geforce GT 640 lacks the guts to handle decently even small bulidings models.

I saw this eGPU technology and I think its a solution for me since in every construction site I have external monitors available. The main problem is that I dont want to take out wireless to connect a cable to pci express there.

Is it possible to use a Pci express card to USB 3.0 adapter and plug the PE4H with a Quadro K2200 card with it to the Dell?

If it isnt possible to connect PE4H using USB 3.0 how would you recommend to do it?

I thanks in advance any advice.

Thanks!

[aaurnab 11]

Hi,

I work mostly with structure design software. TEKLA and Autocad. I travel a lot from construction site to construction site so its imposible for me to have a desktop computer. I bought the best machine I can buy with my limited resources, a DELL XPS 15 L521X with 16GB ram and a quad core cpu but the mobile Geforce GT 640 lacks the guts to handle decently even small bulidings models.

I saw this eGPU technology and I think its a solution for me since in every construction site I have external monitors available. The main problem is that I dont want to take out wireless to connect a cable to pci express there.

Is it possible to use a Pci express card to USB 3.0 adapter and plug the PE4H with a Quadro K2200 card with it to the Dell?

If it isnt possible to connect PE4H using USB 3.0 how would you recommend to do it?

I thanks in advance any advice.

Thanks!

I am an Architect, and I have to travel sites like you. I am using Lenovo T420. I use to design Autocad, Revit 3dsmax a.nd Photoshop. This laptop is too comfortable and fast to do a lot of things. I upgraded it SSD and to 16GB Ram gradually. The last update it to EGPU. so it is expanded build real time renderings like in Lumion3D. I am using PE4L 2.1b with GTX 750ti. I don't know why thia card is scorring low rather then GTX 560. but it produces good score in lumion around 8000. the complex sceen is 50-40 fps.

[Ibiza20v 10]

I am an Architect, and I have to travel sites like you. I am using Lenovo T420. I use to design Autocad, Revit 3dsmax a.nd Photoshop. This laptop is too comfortable and fast to do a lot of things. I upgraded it SSD and to 16GB Ram gradually. The last update it to EGPU. so it is expanded build real time renderings like in Lumion3D. I am using PE4L 2.1b with GTX 750ti. I don't know why thia card is scorring low rather then GTX 560. but it produces good score in lumion around 8000. the complex sceen is 50-40 fps.

Lenovo end up being great since most of them have thunderbolt or pci express ports. Dell is a great computer but not even a pci express port or thunderbolt in it!

[aaurnab 11]

Lenovo end up being greate since most of them have thunderbolt or pci express ports. Dell is a great computer but not even a pci express port or thunderbolt in it!

As thanderbolt expensive, Expresscard slot very helpful to upgrade....[emoji4]

[tbalazs14 10]

I am looking at purchasing a PE4C2.1 adapter and a GTX 960 card to use with a Lenovo T530.

Will this set-up work for medium level gaming and is there anything I should look out for along the way? I plan to use a 200W laptop style power supply to power and run through the ExpressCard slot.

Thanks!

Your computer is ideal for the egpu. All the abilities are given, you should buy a PE4L or a PE4C express card type, and try it. But all Nvidia GTX 9xx cards need 256Mbyte PCIE config space, so I would rather choose a GTX 770 or a GTX 680 (eventually these 2 are identical).

[write2dgray 10]

Your computer is ideal for the egpu. All the abilities are given, you should buy a PE4L or a PE4C express card type, and try it. But all Nvidia GTX 9xx cards need 256Mbyte PCIE config space, so I would rather choose a GTX 770 or a GTX 680 (eventually these 2 are identical).

Thanks so much for the advice!

I must admit I'm a bit lost on the PCIE config space issue...is it that the GTX 9xx cards won't work, or just won't work optimally, hence, GTX 770 or 680 will perform better?

[tbalazs14 10]

Thanks so much for the advice!

I must admit I'm a bit lost on the PCIE config space issue...is it that the GTX 9xx cards won't work, or just won't work optimally, hence, GTX 770 or 680 will perform better?

I think they would perform similarly. It is sometimes not easy to make it work. With the GTX 960 you can simply get error code 12, which means the system cannot allocate enough resources for the gpu. This may be solved by disabling the dgpu (if you have one (you can do that in your bios)). But sometimes it does not help and you have to do a DSDT override, or use the setup 1.x program. You can buy that from Tech Inferno Fan for 25$.

Check out this thread: http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/2129-diy-egpu-troubleshooting-faq.html#error12_faq1

[Perseidas 13]

Hi all,

Wonder if anyone tried the pe4l experience with Dell m4700 workstation with Nvidia k200m dGPU and hd4000 iGPU ?

I have an external screen, so it doesn't bother me to play always on the external screen.

Do you think the x1 2.0 mode is efficient ? should I go for an AMD or an Nvidia, I will choose between R9 280 and 960 (or R9 290 / or GTX970) it will depend on the global budget.

Another question guys, How much of the performance could one get with the pe4l solution ? I wonder if there is a real comparisons between performances of cards on desktop and with egpu since I think if one will spend half the price of a desktop on a good video card to get far results from video card with less price but mounted on a pc, it will not be interesting ?

My specs are : i7 3840QM, Ram : 16GB, dGPU : Nvidia Quadro K2000M , iGPU : HD4000. Optimus can be disabled from Bios, and is actually disabled on my usual use of the laptop..

Thank u a lot for this wonderfull forum and I hope someone can help !

[ugleex 11]

Hi guys - would any of you gents be able to help me with a somewhat pre-eGPU setup issue as I'm striking out left and right trying to get this going. I'm particularly asking fellas who got the 2540p running with a clear dsdt (the GPU is not important as I'm not at that step yet).

I have done the override for dsdt and received hundreds of errors, someone at hackintosh forums has helped me compile it down to 0 by adjusting the memory code.

It compiles with 0 errors both with the fixed code and with the override but once I load the tables and restart I receive a blue screen http://i.imgur.com/3ulJiCB.jpg (linked - not sure how to thumbnail) but ONLY if I have 4 gb+ of ram. Soon as I go back down to 2, no problem.

I'm thinking either the person who has suggested (not sure if rules allow me to link their forums) their code took this into account or what, but I think they probably would have since this happens even without the override on a freshly installed win7 64 enterprise. 0 errors on compile http://i.imgur.com/KIa41CE.png just some warnings/remarks and still.. 4 gb = bsod. I've been searching and searching and so far.. not much aside from random high-level comments regarding acpi issues with older bios (mine is newest and according to hp's driver's site, cannot be downgraded), and similar things - but the bsod happens only when the windows is about to load. On a fresh install, I have only installed the wifi driver, nothing else - even igpu still says standard vga display. But the old install gave me the same problem.

So, if anyone with a 2540p could help, I'd really appreciate it. A clean dsdt or ways you worked yours out or anything of the sort.

I've only made 2 changes to mine to go from hundreds to 0 and they were -

deleting the following on line 3142 due to syntax error:

If (CondRefOf (FPED))

{

FPED ()

}

and adjusting the memory length on next to last entry from 0's to 0xFEE00000 (otherwise it compiles and says min/max mismatch).

I can get my 750 to run games at 1080p with 2 gigs of ram and they look beautiful but seeing the bottleneck makes me cry I would really love it if I could get this going but before I can get to that step, I have to compile the dsdt so that it boots with more than 2 gigs and I'm not sure what the issue is.. so if you have a 2540p and got it to override - would love to know how - and if you have any other advice - would love that too. This little pc is really quite a beast, I love it and I'm hoping I can keep it ><

[Tech Inferno Fan 20]

Hi all,

Wonder if anyone tried the pe4l experience with Dell m4700 workstation with Nvidia k200m dGPU and hd4000 iGPU ?

I have an external screen, so it doesn't bother me to play always on the external screen.

Do you think the x1 2.0 mode is efficient ? should I go for an AMD or an Nvidia, I will choose between R9 280 and 960 (or R9 290 / or GTX970) it will depend on the global budget.

Another question guys, How much of the performance could one get with the pe4l solution ? I wonder if there is a real comparisons between performances of cards on desktop and with egpu since I think if one will spend half the price of a desktop on a good video card to get far results from video card with less price but mounted on a pc, it will not be interesting ?

My specs are : i7 3840QM, Ram : 16GB, dGPU : Nvidia Quadro K2000M , iGPU : HD4000. Optimus can be disabled from Bios, and is actually disabled on my usual use of the laptop..

Thank u a lot for this wonderfull forum and I hope someone can help !

Closest we have is an existing Dell M4600 and Dell M6800 eGPU implementation:

http://forum.techinferno.com/implementation-guides/8762-17-dell-m6800-m6100-gtx980%404gbps-c-ec2-exp-gdc-v6-win7-%5Bdarkydark%5D.html

http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/2109-diy-egpu-experiences-%5Bversion-2-0%5D-93.html#post42350

Should be pretty straight forward. However I'll mention that if you are technically minded then it might be possible to get a x2 2.0 link from your M4700. Check your port listing by swapping the wifi card into unused mPCIe ports and build a list. If you have mPCIe+mPCIe or EC+mPCIe port that is either [port1+2], [port3+4], [port5+6] or [port7+8] then it's possible to modify the FE FW to run the appropriate odd port in x2 2.0 mode. You'd need a PE4C V2.1 eGPU adapter to be able to do this with, running two cables to your system.

[Perseidas 13]

Should be pretty straight forward. However I'll mention that if you are technically minded then it might be possible to get a x2 2.0 link from your M4700. Check your port listing by swapping the wifi card into unused mPCIe ports and build a list. If you have mPCIe+mPCIe or EC+mPCIe port that is either [port1+2], [port3+4], [port5+6] or [port7+8] then it's possible to modify the FE FW to run the appropriate odd port in x2 2.0 mode. You'd need a PE4C V2.1 eGPU adapter to be able to do this with, running two cables to your system.

Indeed I learned about that, I must have two ports which are closest to each other, but in fact if I moved to this thread of pe4l it's because I read your thread about the pe4c in details, and I saw that it's faulty and there is problems with cables that are not soldered, and people that was not satisfied ? So how is it right now ?

[Tech Inferno Fan 20]

Indeed I learned about that, I must have two ports which are closest to each other, but in fact if I moved to this thread of pe4l it's because I read your thread about the pe4c in details, and I saw that it's faulty and there is problems with cables that are not soldered, and people that was not satisfied ? So how is it right now ?

Last updated on revised PE4C is at http://forum.techinferno.com/enclosures-adapters/7941-bplus-pe4c-2-x-discussion-8.html#post129196 . Summary: still don't have a soldered cable PE4C V2.1 version as yet.

[louiek 13]

Hi aaurnab,

I updated my thread on the X230/T430s with information on my bios/windows 8.1 settings as well as some new benchmarks. Hopefully it may help you with your setup despite having different chipsets. The 750Ti has been surprisingly a very strong performer for me. I am getting outstanding results for such a tiny and cost effective setup. I wish you the best on yours as well.

[Perseidas 13]

RE: http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/2123-diy-egpu-setup-1-30-a.html

Hello all,

Nando4 thank you for your nice work, I guess I will bother you a lot with questions x) Since there is lot of informations which is new for me before deciding which solution to adopt for the external egpu

In the FAQ og 1.3 setup it says :

F1. Why would I need DIY eGPU Setup 1.x?

Setup 1.x is a FreeDOS environment used to configure your DIY eGPU before chainloading to your OS. Required if you:

• ----
  
• want to set pci-e 1.0 (2.5GT/s) or pci-e 2.0 (5GT/s) link speed (Series-6 or newer chipset).
  

Now in my m4700 I want to use 1 x 2.0 with my expresscard or maybe 2 x 2.0 with double link,so I'm confused :

- when is says "want to set pci-e 2.0 linek speed on series-6 or higher" does this mean that if I want 2.0 connections using pe4c I must use 1.3 setup ?

Another thing I wish I get clear about it, the 1.3 setup is only requiered when we want to use internal screen and it isn't required if we use external sceen ? and same question about the memory problem and dsdt override ?