DIY eGPU experiences

[anarkie]

I have my system connected to ATI 5770. The result was fantastic.

Laptop spec: Sony Vaio CW i5 520m core with 4 GB ram + 330m


I've never used any booting method but just connect it and it runs like a charm!!!

Here is score with ATI 5770 (10.6 driver)
3DMark06: 11758

Pics:




Everest report:




But I wonder how to enable x2 mode...-_-

[flaunt]

@nand

I tried combing this forum for specifics on my system, and I am confused about a few things. Hopefully someone can help me!

I currently have a Dell XPS M1330 (ICH8 version)
it is a T8300 @2.4GHz with 4 GB ram and win 7-64bit
It also has the geforce M8400 GS 128MB

I am very interested in getting this external graphics solution working for my rig. As I understand it, I have some PCI express slots that are open, but my wifi is in port 2, and this needs to be moved? Is it possible to move it to another empty PCIE slot and it will still work? (I read somewhere that the ICH8M version has 6 PCIE ports, and therefore is it possible for me to run my vidock in 2x, and still have my wifi enable in another slot?)

Also, if I just run the 1.0 x1 version, how do I set the x1E workaround (i.e. - do I still need to move my wifi to another spot?)

And finally, I cant find any data for my rig's current performance to one that has the external graphics up and running - most of the ones I saw were for a PCIE 2.0 system and such, do you know about what performance gain I would get with just the 1.0 x1 version?

One final question: Is it true that with the new catalyst 10.6 or a newer NVIDIA card, I do not have to do the PCI allocation at all to use this with 4gb ram? (essentially it would just be plug in/install drivers and play?))

Any help would be much appreciated.

[User Retired 2]

Yeah I'm also suspicious of that result. The DiRT 2 bench runs are not entirely reproducible because the 8 cars are A.I. controlled and vary in how well they drive between runs. It might have been a weird run (e.g. cars piled up during the lap). I'll run some more runs in triplicate to see if I can reproduce that particular result.

A good one to get sorted to confirm x1E is only required for ATI or older NVidia cards.

Can you also do HD5750@x1 benchmarks even if it's in August? That is by far the most common link speed and would probably just confirm my results showing a GTX4xx is the better performance choice. Eg: I got 3dmarkvant.gpu of 8k on my 2510P+GTX470@x1 or just shy of 4k for my HD5750@x1. That's with a 3-year old u7600-1.2@1.6 cpu. New Calico test in 3dmarkvantage with the GTX470@x1 is spectacularly smooth HD5750 is jumpy. Exactly as observed in NFS Shift - the GTX470@x1 plays it great. The HD5750@x1 is unplayably jumpy. Yes.. the 2510P+GTX470 plays NFS shift smoothly.

what should i do nando?? i am currently blur...and helpless..

1. ensure your HD5770 is seen in Everest attached to a pci-e port (Motherboard->Chipset->South Bridge)

2. If your HD5770 is detected but no driver loaded then it will appear as a VGA device in Device Manager->Display Adapters. Uninstall that driver.

3. re-install Catalyst 10.6 which upon detecting your HD5770 will load a driver for it.

But I wonder how to enable x2 mode...-_-

Your experience is now linked off the first page. You have no options for either x1E or x2 mode. Only way to get noticable better performance is to get a GTX460 which you'll need this info for..

Hybrid Graphics owners

We've had two Sony owners with Hybrid Intel/NVidia graphics. One owner tested a NVidia card finding the Sony Switchable gfx driver caused some conflict and could not get it to work.

The good news is I found that these systems (eg: HP DV6-3006TX, Sony) bootup with both the IGP and the extra NVidia/ATI graphics active with the IGP being the primary. On the DV6-3006TX I just disabled the x16 port hosting the HD5670 using 'setpci -s 0:0.0 54.l=0:8' so the HD5670 was never registered on the PCI bus. This had the secondary beneficial outcome of freeing up an additional 256MB of 32-bit PCI space perfect for hosting the desktop graphics.

A Hybrid Graphics menuitem has been added to the next beta Setup 1.0e2 version to enable/disable the IGP/discrete graphics or anxious power users can refer to this for the time being.

@nand

All the implementations shown are pci-e 1.0 2.5Gbps speed. The series-5 chipsets are pci-e 2.0 compliant for the power management component but link speed is still 2.5Gbps. There are currently three variations on performance shown on the first page: x1 1.0, x1E and x2 1.0.

XPS M1330

Based on the M1330 port layout consider two options.

1. do a x2E link using your wifi and wwan ports. Means could go a NVidia GTX4xx or ATI HD5xxxx, both with great performance. Would mean having access doors to the underside of your system OR removing the plastic cover.

2. do a simpler x1 1.0 link using your expresscard slot port4. In that case I would suggest going a GTX4xx for it's superior x1 1.0 performance as shown by the GTX470 versus HD5750 benchmarking.

[flaunt]

Thank you so much for the prompt reply Nando4;

I will think more about which configuration I want to do -

I do have another question, is there anyway to preserve wifi function AND have a x2 config without needing the USB WIFI? meaning, can I use the port 1 and port 2 for x2 and then move the wifi to another port?

thanks again!

@ ithildin

Where did you buy you gainward GTX 460, and how much was it - I think im gonna run a 1.0 x1 for now with the GTX 460 1gb - (maybe go to x2 in the future)
Im looking to spend around 200 for the card. let me know!

[anarkie]

Thanks for comment, nando4. But I will look for ATI 5850, for I really want to play Arma 2 with a better Dx 9 performance. If I get ATI 5850, I will post the improvement from 5770. 460 OC version is really nice to have but I need more performance for Arma 2 that is hard coded only with Dx 9.

Updated: Here is RE5 Bench result:

[User Retired 2]

Thanks for comment, nando4. But I will look for ATI 5850, for I really want to play Arma 2 with a better Dx 9 performance. If I get ATI 5850, I will post the improvement from 5770. 460 OC version is really nice to have but I need more performance for Arma 2 that is hard coded only with Dx 9.

If the HD5770 is not peforming well then suggest get a GTX460. A HD5850 will not give you much more than a HD5770 at x1 1.0 speed. A HD57xx+ really needs x1E to give it a bit more oomph. Worth noting that NFS Shift is a DX9 compile and runs far far better on the GTX470 than the HD5750. Pretty much all GTX460's can be overclocked to ~GTX470 levels.

At the very least would be worth getting a GTX460 from a retailer with a generous return policy to do comparative testing with Arma 2.

[ismailfaruqi]

I found other portable dock companies beside Magma:


Spectrum this looks expensive...


DECA Japanese company, expensive about $350


HP Riser Card this looks nice and cheap,,, $32-ish?


HP PCI Expansion Blade (perhaps too long??) = expensive... $700ish

I really wish someone could build PCI enclosures + room for TFX/Flex ATX PSU for cheap!!!

Perhaps someone interested to buy HP riser card? I'd be glad to hear his experience

[flaunt]

I've decided to run the 1.0 x1 for now with the geforce gtx460. I had a couple of questions though. Are there some brands I should stay away from due to overheating/too much power consumption? Also since I'm only running x1 do I need to get the 1 gb version for optimal performance? Or will the 768mb be comparable. Also which power supply should I use?

Finally, if I put ports 1+2 on my m1330 Dell as shared x2, can I put my current wifi pcie card into ports 3 or 4?

I'm in the u.s. And am having trouble finding some good geforce gtx460 availability. Also other than the geforce gtx460, is there a cheaper option that would still give me excellent performance on x1? My main goal is to play the new sc2 on high (or dare I say ultra) settings, as right now it only works ok on low settings

[ageaol]

Okay, so I've got a HD 5750 connected with the PE4L to my Thinkpad, and it starts up fine. I can get the laptop to output through the video card to my external monitor. However, after several minutes of running, even if I'm just doing simple web browsing, the monitor just all of sudden reports that there's no signal and I'm forced to restart the laptop to do anything.

Any ideas what's wrong?

[ithildin]

Only major discrepancy in your x1E versus x1 is Dirt2 DX9 getting 72.86 and 58.99 respectively. Can you double-check that is the result? The other results show x1E and x1 to give exactly the same results when factoring in slight variations between runs. If Dirt2 does show this difference then it's still an issue with Intel chipsets underdelivering only 70-80% of x1 1.0 bandwidth requiring Intel investigation. If Dirt2 shows the same result then it's a handshaking issue with ATI/Older NVidia cards and Intel I/O chipsets that requires ATI/NVidia and Intel investigation.

I've repeated some the DX9 checks and indeed that first result is not reproducible. Here are the results of the 7 subsequent runs:

DiRT 2	Samples	Min FPS	Avg FPS	DirectX
GTX 460 x1E	4771	30.32	56.68	9
GTX 460 x1E	4985	35.03	58.51	9
GTX 460 x1E	5781	44.56	65.70	9
GTX 460 x1E	4776	35.53	56.83	9
GTX 460 x1E	5094	43.64	60.36	9
GTX 460 x1E	4876	36.79	57.32	9
GTX 460 x1E	5395	35.40	63.72	9

I sat and watched every single one of these runs. Basically, every time some of the cars in front crash or the AI driver lags behind, the game has to render fewer cars in the picture and so the frame rate climbs (>60 avg fps). The median entry regarding Avg FPS is highlighted - 58.51 fps which is very similar to the DX10 result, confirming that there is no performance difference between x1 and x1E on Fermi GPUs.