DIY eGPU experiences

[NewbieKid]

Congratulations on sorting out the issue.

If you have an Optimus-capable 4500MHD/HD system then can please identify if the GTX260 and 8800GTS get the x1.Opt performance tweak? You'll know if you see the Optimus features the NVidia control panel AND your 3dmark06 exceeds 8k. x1.Opt has so far only been confirmed to work on Fermis.



It's been requested from hwtools with no details on when and even if it will happen. They mentioned it required USB 3.0<->pci-e bridging. I figure we'll see a Thunderbolt port version quicker than a USB 3.0 one since it looks like it's x2 2.0 via a mini DP cable. Regardless, you can still do a mPCIe implementation via your wifi slot. A SB DV6 providing a x1 2.0 mPCIe slot.

Oh because I was thinking if mPCIe and 1 or 2 usb 3.0 are all ultized, will the grfx card be running at full capacity? So wont it be much better if I wanna dock it? I am thinking that the 6770m should be able to last me another good 2 years until warcraft 4 comes out? And that i7 2630qm shld be able to last me another 4-5 years? So in between if i dock it, then I would want the gfx card to run at the best capacity.. Hope my ideas are possible though..

[pttyboy92]

To use Vista native NVidia drivers will require your 8800GTS active and using a NVidia driver. If it's defected to a point where that is not possible then you'll need to use XP drivers for the GTX460 instead, sacrificing Aero and DX10 support.

How does that make sense though? I actually thought you can run only one driver and card at a time, not two, and can't I just disable the 8800gts and then install drivers for the gtx 460 for it to work then since it's a separate graphics card connected to the motherboard like a desktop. Please explain because I don't see that detail on the first page. I also somehow have drivers installed on my broken 8800 gts so I might be able to do it, but do both drivers have to be the same version? Because I'm definately going to want to update that gtx 460 to a newer driver.

Details on how to confirm if your system is x2 capable are covered in (Performance) Can my system do a PE4H x2 or x4 link as shown in PCI-E Scaling Analysis? on the first post.

And I already looked at the first page because I noticed that I have a combination not mentioned which is p4+5 and I was wondering if anyone else encountered this. I was also asking how in terms of actually taking advantage of these other ports without sacrificing wifi or completey taking apart my laptop when there is only 1 expresscard slot, especially the 4th empty PCI-E slot because it doesn't really show me how. I've re-uploaded the picture with better detail to show what the PCI express slots I think belong to.(I'm a not so good at drawing and didn't want to take too long but it should be enough lol)

[Rizzett]

Ok so I managed to switch the PCI Reset to 0 seconds and my video card gets recognized after a sleep>hot plug method with brand new 266.58 drivers.

The problem I'm encountering now is that no matter what, it doesn't "turn on" the monitor on which the video card is assigned. The monitor does get recognized, but making it my "primary" desktop and turning my internal screen off, doesn't work like it used to.

[marcel_204]

While looking on internet to find out what I could put in the mini pci e slots, I found this very interesting topic. Since my laptop has some trouble running the latest games, i think this is a good solution for it.

I have a xps m1530: t9300 2.5ghz, 4gb ram, m8600gt.

A few things aren't clear for me, about using multiple pcie ports (have 3 mini pci ports, on them is written in order: wlan; wwan; uwb) and express card slot. Can i use that x2 setup? In the thread, i read that the person had to remove 2gb of ram to get it to work, is there any way arround?. Finally, which which version would you advice me to buy? (PE4L/H, and which verison)

Thanks in advance

I found an answer to most my questions, except which device to buy, thanks

[moshatz]

PLEASE HELP!
Before I start, here are my system specifications:
Dell Studio 1558
Windows 7 64-bit
Intel i5 520m
Intel HD graphics
4GB DDR3 Ram
I built a ViDOCK using a PE4H Version 2.4 and a Sapphire Radeon 5750 1GB card. I have not had any allocation errors when plugging it in and installing the driver. Output works fine; my monitor displayed the image on the first try. However performance is actually worse than before in games. I want to put the ATI card into an X2 port to increase performance but have had no success with DIY ViDOCK Setup 1.x. I have tried extensively to make the port my card is on to x2, however my card is on port 4 so I can’t change it directly to x2 as you can only do that to odd numbered ports. So how can I change either the port that my ATI card is on to x2 or change the port it runs on to let’s say port 3 or 5?
Also, to make matters worse, chainloading will NOT work. Every time I try to do it, I immediately get a fatal error from windows. How can I fix this? It is vital no matter what I do in the setup 1.x software.
Thank you for your assistance.

[User Retired 2]

However performance is actually worse than before in games. I want to put the ATI card into an X2 port to increase performance but have had no success with DIY ViDOCK Setup 1.x. I have tried extensively to make the port my card is on to x2, however my card is on port 4 so I can’t change it directly to x2 as you can only do that to odd numbered ports. So how can I change either the port that my ATI card is on to x2 or change the port it runs on to let’s say port 3 or 5?
Also, to make matters worse, chainloading will NOT work. Every time I try to do it, I immediately get a fatal error from windows. How can I fix this? It is vital no matter what I do in the setup 1.x software.

Since your 1558 can't do the x1E tweak, an ATI solution will give impressive 3dmark06 numbers but perform poorly in actual gameplay as you find. The solution would be (i) try a GTX460 instead (ii) get a IGP systemboard so can do a NVidia x1.Opt setup or (iii) do a x2 setup using the 1558's mPCIe slots: port1+port2. There is no facilty to arbitrarily change say port4 to be port1 and then make port1 a x2 port. With a x2 setup, I'd still be looking at a NVidia GTX460 instead of an ATI setup since you can't do x2E.

As for your grub4dos issue, refer to the grub4dos documentation and grub4dos forum. You probably just need to '!Edit config' to boot off another partition.

The problem I'm encountering now is that no matter what, it doesn't "turn on" the monitor on which the video card is assigned. The monitor does get recognized, but making it my "primary" desktop and turning my internal screen off, doesn't work like it used to.

I had the same problem which turned out to be a intermittent faulty HDMI cable b/w the LCD and the video card. Another reason could be the PSU is faulty or insufficient to drive the video card to run the LCD. That would manifest itself as the gpu trying to drive the LCD with the LCD doing a brief response flash before returning back to the internal LCD. Would also be worthwhile using Driver Sweeper to clean your NVidia files and/or doing a Win7 reinstall to ensure it's also not a driver related problem.

[moshatz]

(iii) do a x2 setup using the 1558's mPCIe slots: port1+port2. There is no facilty to arbitrarily change say port4 to be port1 and then make port1 a x2 port.

Number 3 sounds most plausible for me. I don't have enough money to get a new better card and changing around my motherboard isn't practical for me either. Can you please explain further about option 3? Is there some way I can hook up my ATI card to the mPCIE port? Does it require any extra hardware or modifications? What is the difficulty of doing it? I'm really in a bottleneck here on what to do... If all else fails I'm going to have to return everything.
Thanks alot

[User Retired 2]

Can you please explain further about option 3? Is there some way I can hook up my ATI card to the mPCIE port? Does it require any extra hardware or modifications? What is the difficulty of doing it? I'm really in a bottleneck here on what to do... If all else fails I'm going to have to return everything.

x2 via your two mPCIe slots would mean acquiring 2xPM3Ns ($20ea) plus another two mini HDMI cable ($6ea) to have sufficient length, plus would need a PE4H. Why not just sell the HD5750 and try a US$60 GTX460-768MB after two rebates from Microcenter instead?

[moshatz]

Will using a GTX460 work with my current setup? What I'm worried about is the card to do the exact same thing as this one. Will I still get affected by the performance loss? How do you know I will be able to run it in x2? What if it also goes to an even port?
Thanks again for your help.

[Rizzett]

I had the same problem which turned out to be a intermittent faulty HDMI cable b/w the LCD and the video card. Another reason could be the PSU is faulty or insufficient to drive the video card to run the LCD. That would manifest itself as the gpu trying to drive the LCD with the LCD doing a brief response flash before returning back to the internal LCD. Would also be worthwhile using Driver Sweeper to clean your NVidia files and/or doing a Win7 reinstall to ensure it's also not a driver related problem.

Could it be that the new drivers don't support DVI to VGA connectors to my monitor? Cause that's what I use since my monitor doesn't have an hdmi connector. I always use Driver Sweeper too.

The whole thing (monitor, GPU, PSU) functions just right with the old 258.96 drivers. For the time being I'll stick with those I guess haha and try at a later stage if i "really" need them.

Thanks again for all the help.