DIY eGPU experiences

[User Retired 2]

Thats a shame, I just got the parts too to make it X2.

I'm looking at ATI's own registers: http://developer.amd.com/gpu_assets/..._rrg_1.01o.pdf . Suggest search for keywords "link_width" and "reversal". I did that and came up with x2-p3p4.bat code here that *might* be able to do a x2 link using port3+port4 (x4 link, lane reversed).

Requires testing to confirm.

[HerrKaputt]

Nando, as per your suggestion, here is my southbridge setup from Everest.

If I understood your PM well, I will have to switch around my wifi card to see which ports are accessible, and if either (port1 and port2) or (port3 and port4) are accessible, I can have a double speed link?

[User Retired 2]

Nando, as per your suggestion, here is my southbridge setup from Everest.

If I understood your PM well, I will have to switch around my wifi card to see which ports are accessible, and if either (port1 and port2) or (port3 and port4) are accessible, I can have a double speed link?

Your Dell E6400 bios has enabled port1-port4. wifi is port2. Good news is your port2 is wifi. Now I know the E6400 has other mPCIe ports. Can you swap the wifi over and see what port it reports itself on? You want to build up a table of "portx | physical port" pairs.

If you have an expresscard product (eg: e-sata), please insert that as well so we know what port the expresscard is? You are looking for a port1+port2 combo of mPCIe and mPCIe/expresscard ports which will definitely give you a x2 1.0 link. port3+port4 is still being checked to confirm if it can do a x2 1.0 link, findings here.

Noteworthy point: this thread overtook the VIDock 2 - my experiences so far thread in view count on 1st of March 2010.

[jamesbond007]

pyro15 great news. Any hope of benchmark with the 5870

[HerrKaputt]

Your Dell E6400 bios has enabled port1-port4. wifi is port2. Good news is your port2 is wifi. Now I know the E6400 has other mPCIe ports. Can you swap the wifi over and see what port it reports itself on? You want to build up a table of "portx | physical port" pairs.

If you have an expresscard product (eg: e-sata), please insert that as well so we know what port the expresscard is? You are looking for a port1+port2 combo of mPCIe and mPCIe/expresscard ports which will definitely give you a x2 1.0 link. port3+port4 is still being checked to confirm if it can do a x2 1.0 link, findings here.

I don't have an expresscard product (this ViDock or DIY ViDock would be the first). I'll ask in the E6400 thread, someone is bound to have one.

As for switching the wifi around, that should be easy. I'll get back to you (catchphrase copyright of Jack Bauer).

[Pyro515]

jamesbond,

I am hoping to benchmark it tomorrow nite...

Nando,

Thanks for the lane reversal script, I can't tonight, but tomorrow night I am going to test it out and see I can get it to work.

Again, thanks for all the effort with this.

Mike

[HerrKaputt]

Can you folks clarify one thing for me?

According to the FutureMark website, the typical 3Dmark06 score for an ATI HD5770 is 9200. However, the people here at NBR who did a DIY ViDock through a x1 1.0 link (which should cut speed into roughly 50%) report scores very similar to that.

My question is simple. My laptop currently scores 1839 in 3Dmark06. 9200 is about 5 times larger. If I do a DIY ViDock, am I looking at a 5-fold increase in graphics power, or only 2.5?

Thanks in advance!

[Stacky]

I'm not too sure. I'll post my results when I get the adapter which should be here hopefully on Wednesday. Hopefully I'll be able to run it at 1 x 2.0 and get some readings in for this.

[HerrKaputt]

I'm not too sure. I'll post my results when I get the adapter which should be here hopefully on Wednesday. Hopefully I'll be able to run it at 1 x 2.0 and get some readings in for this.

That would be appreciated Stacky, thanks in advance.

By the way, which PSU should I get for an HD5770? I know it's slightly above the 75W PSU commonly talked about in this thread, but an ATX PSU seems like overkill. Won't it drain ~400W from the plug just to power a 80W GPU?

[User Retired 2]

US$200 HD5750/HD5770 installation using 12V/120W AC adapter

My previously used HD4670 was designated a new home so an upgrade was in order.

- *some* HD5750's consume < 80W power so can use a 12V/80W
- a HD5770 uses 112W peak. So could have done a 12V/120W setup below instead.

Software and hardware setup [total=US$200] 1. US$65-delivered (HIT) OR US$77-delivered (hwtools) PE4L. 2. US$100AR HD5750 or US$100AR HD5770 3. US$25 12V/120W AC adapter with 2.5mm/5.5mm (or 5mm) barrel end 4. US$5 molex splitter/gender changer, with female ends like this 5. US$2 pci-e to molex (male) adapter (came with HD5750) Using Win7/32 + ATI Catalyst 10.3b drivers

Above: HD5750 with 12V/80W PSU. Can see the PE4L's DC jack=input, floppy molex=ouput NOTE:Unstable HIS 5750 replaced by Gigabyte HD5750

Explanation of power splitting being done due to the 6-pin pci-e connector (not relevant if using a HD5670 or GT430)

Example below is a 12V/80W but a 12V/120W GTS450 has been successfully implemented &.

- 12V/80W supplied by AC adapter is going in via the PE4L's DC jack
- the PE4L then has up to 80W it can deliver from it's 12V rail
- power is split off via the floppy molex to the 6-pin pci-e plug
- total power needed by Gigabyte HD5750 is 80W at full load
- this setup applies only to *some* HD5750 models requiring < 80W at full load.
- cards such as a HD5670 have no 6-pin pci-e connector, so require < 75W.
- A HD5770 has peak power of 112W, so could not be powered this way.

Performance comparison - HD4670 versus HD5750

video card		T2050-1.6 DV2000			U7600-1.2@1.6 2510P
model	Power: Peak/Max	RE5DX10	RE5DX9	3dmk06	RE5DX10	RE5DX9	3dmk06
HD4670	49W/65W	26.1	-	5047	27.5	34.7	5475
HD5750, Gigabyte	~80W	35.5	38.2	6591	39.0	44.8	7341

We can see that a HD5750 performs on average, 33.4% better than a HD4670 on a x1 1.0 link. A U7600-1.2@1.6 12' HP 2510P giving 3dmark06 of 7341 points for US$249 is an impressive graphics upgrade imho, which would provide better benchmarks numbers for faster CPUs.

I used the same PCI scripts as did originally for the HD4670 without any modifications. Benchmarks were performed at stock clocks. I was able to overclock the card for some tests, finding it would eventually hang. A 20% GPU+VRAM overclock (840/1380) netted like 1.2FPS more in RE5 and 100 points in 3dmark06. Not worth the instability. This would indicate to me that the pci-e bandwidth is bottlenecking the performance overclocking the gpu/ram would offer.

Stability - running a HD5750 with 80W PSU?

I originally used a HIS Icooler IV, rated at 72W/92W here, admittedly the peak measured under Furmark loading levels not possible in real life. Their otherwise peak power consumption was 72W during real gaming. I did run into some instability issues with random 'ATI card has reset itself' error. The 12V/80W PSU got very warm to the touch.

I resolved the stability issue by replacing the HIS HD5750 with a Gigabyte HD5750 which draws lower power and has been rock stable, even after repeated RE5/3dmark06/NFS Shift testing and playing for hours on end.

It is also for this reason why I recommend non-reference, more power efficient designs like the Powercolor Go Green! or PCS+ product, rated at 72W or found by techpowerup to draw 81W max respectively as shown here or the Gigabyte card. The HIS card had higher-than-reference power consumption, likely designed for more overclocking headroom.

Overclocking

Overclocking the Gigabyte from 700/1150 to 800/1430 gives performance close to a stock-clocked HD5770. This overclock was flakey on the 12V/80W but stable on an ATX PSU.

Conclusion

The US$249 12V/80W HD5750 implementation gives a compact, high performance, good value graphics upgrade to notebooks. To me the extra $50 and small effort to make a DIY floppy molex to pci-e power is worth it for superior performance over a HD4670/HD5670 AC adapter implementation. Though an ATX PSU can be cheaper than a 12V/80W PSU, so could do a HD5770+ATX PSU setup for pretty much the same cost.