DIY eGPU experiences

[mattlach]

Any suggestions which step to take next?

I assume it will be one of the reallocation steps at the top of this thread, but which would be the best to choose given that the newest Catalyst drivers have failed me?

Any help appreciated,
Matt

Interesting development.

I removed one of my two sticks of ram to test at 2GB, and - as expected - it worked.

The funny part is, once I put the second stick back in and rebooted, it continued to work without me changing anything else.

I am wondering if once the system successfully booted with the desktop card installed, this triggered a address space remap, which held after booting back up with 4gb ram.

It will be interesting to see if it still works after a few reboots without the desktop video card plugged in, or if it will revert to its old address space configuration.

[mattlach]

Interesting development.

I removed one of my two sticks of ram to test at 2GB, and - as expected - it worked.

The funny part is, once I put the second stick back in and rebooted, it continued to work without me changing anything else.

I am wondering if once the system successfully booted with the desktop card installed, this triggered a address space remap, which held after booting back up with 4gb ram.

It will be interesting to see if it still works after a few reboots without the desktop video card plugged in, or if it will revert to its old address space configuration.

Alright, here are my results.

Laptop:
Dell Latitude E4310
Core i5-520M
4GB Ram
Windows 7 Pro 64bit

Video Card:
Radeon HD6850

Connected via expresscard only. (I don't feel like having my covers hanging open...)

3DMark 2006 at default settings:

3Dmark2006-vidock by mattlach, on Flickr


Resident evil DX9 fixed benchmark at 1280x800:

RE5DX9_2010_10_27_18_16_01_665 by ]mattlach, on Flickr


So what do you guys think, am I suffering from the AMD 1x problem?

It's lower than my Core i7-920 Desktop with a GTX470 which gets 17623, but really not bad considering the laptop only gets 2082 with internal graphics.

[User Retired 2]

So what do you guys think, am I suffering from the AMD 1x problem?

A respectable performance, but your result indicates to me that the AMD problem still persists. Consider 3dmark06 results from the first page which show you to be pretty much on par with a HD5850:

T410s: i5-520M+HD5850.2GB@x1=12765
Dell E4310: i5-520M+HD6850@x1=12994

Comparison to GTX460@x1.Opt

i5-540M+GTX460@x1.Opt gets 3dmark06=13910. It's SM 3.0=7227, which is a 15% faster than your HD6850's 6320.

We do see that the 1280x800 RE5 fixed on a i7-620M+GTX460@x1.Opt gets 58.9, a good 29% more than your 45.7. I'd expect a maximum of 15% of that is due to the faster i7-620M CPU, which means the GTX460 is still at least 15% faster.

EDIT: I see you have a GTX470 in your desktop. Consider using it to do back-to-back of the HD6850@x1 versus GTX470@x1.Opt on your E4310 to confirm for yourself that the NVidia Fermi Optimus setup is the superior performer. The NVidia Optimus driver's peformance and internal LCD mode enhancements would also engage on your Intel HD equipped E4310. This opens up the possibility of a GTS450+120W or GTX460+150W portable AC adapter NVidia solution for gaming-on-the-go.

[mattlach]

A respectable performance, but your result indicates to me that the AMD problem still persists. Consider 3dmark06 results from the first page which show you to be pretty much on par with a HD5850:

T410s: i5-520M+HD5850.2GB@x1=12765
Dell E4310: i5-520M+HD6850@x1=12994

Comparison to GTX460@x1.Opt

i5-540M+GTX460@x1.Opt gets 3dmark06=13910. It's SM 3.0=7227, which is a 15% faster than your HD6850's 6320.

We do see that the 1280x800 RE5 fixed on a i7-620M+GTX460@x1.Opt gets 58.9, a good 29% more than your 45.7. I'd expect a maximum of 15% of that is due to the faster i7-620M CPU, which means the GTX460 is still at least 15% faster.

EDIT: I see you have a GTX470 in your desktop. Consider using it to do back-to-back of the HD6850@x1 versus GTX470@x1.Opt on your E4310 to confirm for yourself that the NVidia Fermi Optimus setup is the superior performer. The NVidia Optimus driver's peformance and internal LCD mode enhancements would also engage on your Intel HD equipped E4310. This opens up the possibility of a GTS450+120W or GTX460+150W portable AC adapter NVidia solution for gaming-on-the-go.

Thanks for your analysis.

Keep in mind - however - that the 6850 replaces the 5750, not the 5850. (AMD decided to free up more space in the low numbers for mainstream cards)

I'm actually really surprised it performed on par with a 5850, unless - of course - this is as a result of being bottlenecked by the AMD 1x problem, making the system unable to take advantage of the full potential of the 5850...

It would be interesting to pull out the GTX470 for a comparison, but I doubt the poor old little power supply I am using could handle it, and it wouldn't be a fair comparison. The GTX470 is on par with the 6850's older brother, the 6870, when on a 16x bus.

[Faruk]

Hey nando, what do you think of the Dell DA-2 adapter? It's 12V and 220W. It seems to me that it should be able to easily power any card... The only problem, of course, is the connector. But it seems that other people have successfully modded it:

SPCR • View topic - Antec NSK1300 with PW-200-V DC-DC and Akasa Evo-120

I'm not too familiar with all these types of plugs so I couldn't exactly follow what was going on. But it seems to me that it should be possible to convert the connector directly into a Molex plug. What do you think?

[Faruk]

And btw mattlach, how did you hook up your HD6850? Did you use an ATX power supply or a DC power brick?

[mattlach]

And btw mattlach, how did you hook up your HD6850? Did you use an ATX power supply or a DC power brick?

I use a marginal DC power brick that I modded together. Its barely sufficient. I found it in a box of old wires. Can't really remember what it was for.

Long term I'll need to figure something else out.

[mattlach]

A respectable performance, but your result indicates to me that the AMD problem still persists. Consider 3dmark06 results from the first page which show you to be pretty much on par with a HD5850:

T410s: i5-520M+HD5850.2GB@x1=12765
Dell E4310: i5-520M+HD6850@x1=12994

Comparison to GTX460@x1.Opt

i5-540M+GTX460@x1.Opt gets 3dmark06=13910. It's SM 3.0=7227, which is a 15% faster than your HD6850's 6320.

We do see that the 1280x800 RE5 fixed on a i7-620M+GTX460@x1.Opt gets 58.9, a good 29% more than your 45.7. I'd expect a maximum of 15% of that is due to the faster i7-620M CPU, which means the GTX460 is still at least 15% faster.

EDIT: I see you have a GTX470 in your desktop. Consider using it to do back-to-back of the HD6850@x1 versus GTX470@x1.Opt on your E4310 to confirm for yourself that the NVidia Fermi Optimus setup is the superior performer. The NVidia Optimus driver's peformance and internal LCD mode enhancements would also engage on your Intel HD equipped E4310. This opens up the possibility of a GTS450+120W or GTX460+150W portable AC adapter NVidia solution for gaming-on-the-go.

I have thought some more about this, and what really surprises me is that the 3DMark score is so high, and the RE5 score is so low...

Other cards in the test archive have lower 3DMark scores, but higher RE5 scores...

Does anyone have a good link on how Nvidia Optimus works? It looks like it really does wonders. Maybe I'll try to replace my HD6850 with a lower powered GTS450, and still get better performance, at a lower power envelope...

Maybe I'll see if I can pay a restocking fee and switch

Also,

Did I do the RE5 benchmark incorrectly? How come you only posted a - for it on the first page?

[avlan]

Hmm, I've tested my GTS with Fallout New Vegas. About 40fps under heavy carnage on 1280x1024 and Ultra settings ;d

IMO GTS450 is the best option when we are talking about PCIE x1 1.0.

[User Retired 2]

Did I do the RE% benchmark incorrectly? How come you only posted a - for it on the first page?

The front page has RE5 variable 1280x800 results. You did a fixed benchmark which gives lower numbers. This is why you have a "-".

I'd be going a GTS450 or GTX460 if it was my Optimus cable capable E4310. An overclocked GTS450 at x1 Optimus would very likely outperform the HD6850 at a lower price and power usage. Benchmarks show a GTX460 would outperform the HD6850 at ~ the same pricepoint.

Hey nando, what do you think of the Dell DA-2 adapter? It's 12V and 220W. It seems to me that it should be able to easily power any card... The only problem, of course, is the connector. But it seems that other people have successfully modded it:

SPCR • View topic - Antec NSK1300 with PW-200-V DC-DC and Akasa Evo-120

I'm not too familiar with all these types of plugs so I couldn't exactly follow what was going on. But it seems to me that it should be possible to convert the connector directly into a Molex plug. What do you think?

That Dell adapter is available for peanuts on ebay with enough power on tap to drive a GTX460 or a HD6850. Being fanless, it is silent too. Quite attractive features for a DIY ViDock implementation.

The 8pin plug has 3 12V/GND pairs, each which can deliver ~72W. So if prepared to splice in heavy gauge wiring could adapt it to so two pairs can drive up to two 6-pin pci-e sockets and the remaining pair provides the slot power via the floppy molex plug on the PE4H/PE4L.

Perhaps someone can volunteer to do a mini project to show how it can be done?