DIY eGPU experiences

[jacob_s]

Hello again everyone! I've hit a bit of a snag in my eGPU fun today. I'm 90% certain this is due to a Dell BIOS update, though there is a possibility I screwed something up when I had it all apart taking measurements for an enclosure. Anyways, long story short I was having some issues (not yet resolved) with the battery improperly reporting that it's failing to the OS, and Dell wanted me to try a firmware update (to A13 for my 6520 I believe). I was going to boot it up to play some games this evening and I get an error in Setup 1.x:

"'compact' crashdumped so cannot do PCI Compaction on this system...."

I get the crashdump contents and it's:

"Exiting due to signal SIGSEV
General Protection Fault at eip=0004c532
eax=064015fc ebx=000080a6 ecx=06064015fc .... .... ..." etc (I can add the full thing if necessary).

It does see the video card

If I ignore these things and just do the "disable dGPU" and "chainload MBR" as I always do, it boots and everything seems fine.. the error is just a touch disconcerting.

[EpicBlob]

Doea anyone know if it is possible to crossfire/sli a discrete graphics card and external. Card?

[retles]

Trying to replace my mini hdmi cable, was going to order one off deal extreme but turns out they are out of stock. Been searching around and haven't found any other mini-> mini cables for sale, anyone know where else I can pick one up?

[surrealix]

Hello Everyone! So I'm new to this forum, and trying to assemble my first eGPU. I read through pages and pages of information, and ended up with the following components for my HP Elitebook 2540p (i7 Series 5 ):

PE4H-EC2C v2.4a adapter from HWtools
Geforce GTX560
And I clobbered a PSU from a desktop that I had lying around

However I seem to get stuck at step zero - my computer won't detect the ExpressCard when I plug it in. I've tried booting the PC, then plugging it in; I've tried plugging it in before booting; I've tried leaving the GPU off and only switching it on after boot; I've tried putting my PC into sleep mode and then connecting it. The only thing that seem to have any effect was connecting the ExpressCard about a second after power-on, in which case everything just froze (no error 12, or anything else in sight).

I see a couple of others have got things working with the same laptop, so there's obviously some subtle difference or step I'm missing. I'm running Win7 32bit (in Swedish - not that it should make a difference). There don't appear to be any relevant BIOS options, and trying to force a detect in the Device Manager doesn't do anything.

Where do I go and what do I try from here? Any suggestions appreciated .

[symthic]

Helloes.
First of all, thanks for all the information about eGPU systems.
Thanks to it I decided to give it a go too.

Today I first time installed my eGPU system and it's running somewhat good.

Only problem is that I can't get Optimus-thingy to work.
I have a HD3000 and a GTX 560 Ti as external card.

I start up my laptop, start the PSU for external card, hit F8, connect eGPU.
CPU-Z Looks like the following:



I can't "boost" laptop's screen at all and I'm out of ideas what's wrong.
With external screen it's kind-of working, 3DMark06 score was only 11 000.
Device manager shows both, the HD3000 and 560 Ti correctly and I have installed official latest drivers for both.

The laptop I'm using is Dell XT3 Convertible tablet/laptop, i5 2520M system.

Could someone help me a bit?

[WonderGoal]

Hi,

I own a T500 (type 2082-7SG) with Intel T9550 2,6GHz | 8192MB RAM | Corsair P128 | ATI HD3650. I already played ARMAII with the PE4H (Vers. 2.4a) in combination with a GTX550 TI over expresscard and get ~23-24 fps on low settings. I still using the latest standard nvidia driver (301.42) and an external lcd.

Would it be useful to invest in a PM3N? What is the maximal bandwith I can reach with my T500? Would a custom driver boost performance?

Anyone has an idea what I can improve for more fps? Would a second lane with PM3N be useful? How much would this boost performance?

[lilryu]

Hi,

I just started to learn about eGPU and I was wondering what is the difference between the PE4H and PE4L adapter? I have a ProBook 4530s (Sandy-Bridge) what do you guys recommend?

Thanks!

[EpicBlob]

Just got my new sonnet echo pro so I hit 1.2opt (finally). First impressions were.. awesome to say the least.

1.1opt Skyrim: On high settings with AA and AF off I got 50-60fps.

1.2opt Skyrim: High settings with AA at 8 and AF at 4 with high rez water and city mods on I got 60fps.

Battlefield 3 multiplayer used to be at around 25-35 with flickering, now above 45 no issues.

I'll make some comparisons soon. And this is running off my macbook pro and nvidia 560.

[surrealix]

... my computer won't detect the ExpressCard when I plug it in.

My problem turned out to be in the most unexpected direction, so I'll leave this note here for anyone else that runs into the same issue.

I'd been doing everything with my laptop in its docking station (although the ExpressCard slot is in the laptop itself). As soon as I uncoupled the laptop and tried it standalone everything worked perfectly!. After the GPU was detected I could re-engage the docking station without problem. I really can't figure out why this would be an issue, but it's nice to know things sometimes have a simple solution .

On to the next challenge - wringing out more performance.

[baconRain]

Doea anyone know if it is possible to crossfire/sli a discrete graphics card and external. Card?

Right now the best option is Radeon HD 7750 as it doesnt require CrossFire bridge. nVidia does SLI from GT 540 over pcie i think. Any other high end card would require long SLI/CrossFire bridge cable.

Im guessing with that entry level cards paired they would match your GTX 560 Ti.

If you are thinking of desktop platform then LucidLogix Virtu MVP is software that uses iGPU from latest core processors and Z77 platform to increase FPS on discreete card.