DIY eGPU experiences

[Karamazovmm]

So how is the thunderbolt vidock working? is it out yet? sony is doing something pretty similar in the Z line

[mental2]

it might be faulty but i have no idea how to check if it is. Maybe there is some driver entry in the device manager for it but as you said you dont see anything out of the ordinary so it is probably working correctly.

maybe try something else. it may sound trivial but are you sure you have connected the gpu correctly to the power source? a white connector should run to the PE4H to supply power for the fans and two black 6-pin connector should be connected to the gpu to supply power to the gpu. if not connected properly the gpu will not be detected in the device manager.

oh my goodness!! i can't believe i made such a simple mistake! thanks nlooije! if it wasn't for you i wouldn't even have paid attention to the connections! guess i was tired when i originally hooked everything up.

ok, so now the vidock is detected, but it comes up with the error 43. i saw that there are only troubleshooting solutions for win 7. does anyone know if they would also work for vista? i also can't load 258.96 or 266.35 drivers. it says i don't have the necessary components?

[pushead]

Alright, I finally got my vidock working. I am running it on 258.96 drivers, the 270.61 didnt work for me as it asked me to install the intel drivers first.


My current setup

Lenovo T400
C2D P8600 2.4Ghz
4GB ram
with switchable graphics ATI 3470 / Intel 4500MHD
Windows 7 64 bit

PE4L ver 1.5a
Corsair CX430 430W power supply
Asus GTX 460 768MB

No issues with the error 12.

Please see attached for my 3dmark 06 score.

[User Retired 2]

From this information what does this say about my BIOS pci allocation? Problems ahead when I try the 5770? Could we lower the risk of eGPU by analyzing thing's such as the above before actually buying the hardware and investing the $$.

Given the HD5470M starts at A0000000 I can tell your TOLUD=2.5GB which is very accomodating. There's b/w768MB-1GB of 32-bit PCI space available - enough to attach 3-4 eGPUs if you had that many expresscard/mPCIe slots. I'd only be concerned if your TOLUD=3.5GB (Dell Latitude series, MSI CR-x20).

So how is the thunderbolt vidock working? is it out yet? sony is doing something pretty similar in the Z line

A tentative schedule for a Thunderbolt-specific PE4H 3.0 is later this year. hwtools haven't replied as yet my request to move that forward to coincide with the Sony Z2's release (June or thereabouts).

PSU and enclosure FAQ?

Anybody want to sign up to maintain a PSU and enclosure FAQ section for the DIY ViDock->eGPU rename plan? (ithildin, Agent 9?) Some standouts to date being being custom#1, Agent9, the endless (xbox360), max_headroom, Oddious (1U) and portable 12V/120W / 12V/80W.

Would be great if a MACesque person maintained a MacBook FAQ section as well. No idea there.

[sprtnbsblplya]

I'll contribute to the enclosure in a week or two.
Won't have time to maintain it, but I'll for sure put up pics and guide when its completed.

[nlooije]

oh my goodness!! i can't believe i made such a simple mistake! thanks nlooije! if it wasn't for you i wouldn't even have paid attention to the connections! guess i was tired when i originally hooked everything up.

no problem

ok, so now the vidock is detected, but it comes up with the error 43. i saw that there are only troubleshooting solutions for win 7. does anyone know if they would also work for vista? i also can't load 258.96 or 266.35 drivers. it says i don't have the necessary components?

follow the solution to q13 from the Troubleshooting FAQ to find out how to run a system with an Nvidia eGPU and dGPU.
If this does not fix code 43, the you will need to use the Setup. feel free to send me a pm if this is the case.

[beatTheRestrictions]

Given the HD5470M starts at A0000000 I can tell your TOLUD=2.5GB which is very accomodating. There's b/w768MB-1GB of 32-bit PCI space available - enough to attach 3-4 eGPUs if you had that many expresscard/mPCIe slots. I'd only be concerned if your TOLUD=3.5GB (Dell Latitude series, MSI CR-x20).

I wasn't able to find much info about TOLUD through google as most searches point to this thread.

Not sure what TOLUD stands for assuming it's an acronym

Not sure if this calculation was correct from my post above:
AFFFFFFF - A0000000 = FFFFFFF = 28 bit(?) Therefore the 5470M is using 28-bit allocation space?

I'll just ask some maybe stupid/useless TOLUD questions now so maybe someone won't have to later on..

Does the TOLUD just say "System PCI part's I giveth thee 2.5GB of RAM to use if ye like but if ye don't needeth that much the remainder won't be used"?

Just wondering how you can deduce that there's b/w768MB-1GB of 32-bit PCI space available from the above? The other 1.5GB - 1.75GB is assumed to be used by the stock hardware of the laptop (5470M, NIC, ect)?

Cheers,
BTR

Edit:
" I'd only be concerned if your TOLUD=3.5GB "
I would have thought the more space TOLUD allocated the more accommodating it'd be to extra eGPUs for example

[bache]

Here's the 3DMark06 score from my Inspiron 1545 + GT430

Seems a little low to me, but then again, I don't know much about 3DMark06



Running the advanced version of 3DMark06 got the card to crack 6000.

[apollo-fox]

Regarding switchable graphics with AMD/Intel ~~~ and newer Nvidia drivers:

Installing Nvidia drivers with AMD/Intel switchable graphics may give you an error asking you to install Intel drivers first.

Solution is to uninstall the switchable driver from your manufacturer (Lenovo in this case); system should revert to pure Intel driver via WinUpdate (if not, you will need to reboot and disable AMD discrete GPU with Setup 1.x and let WinUpdate install or download newest Intel driver from their website). The Nvidia installer should be content with the pure Intel driver and install correctly. After Nvidia installation, reinstall your switchable graphics driver.


-> Intel driver provided by ATI (AMD) causes Nvidia installer to exit with error: You must install an Intel® driver first

[SpongeWorthy]

Did anyone see this?

Sonnet - New Product Announcement at NAB 2011

It's the Echo Express, I found it on the Sony Vaio Z thread.

Perhaps a thunderbolt Vidock solution is already on our hands?