DIY eGPU experiences

[pyr0]

Could someone please enlighten me? what are the options for my laptop, and what kind of performance decrease can I expect vs a regular desktop setup?

Thanks

Judging from your signature, you are not able to establish x1.Opt link since (until now) you need an Intel iGPU for that. Depending on other components like CPU and GPU with Optimus, you can get around 60-80% of the GPU's performance compared to the same card in a desktop. Example:
GTX460 Vantage scores:
14000P (Desktop x16, i7-920)
11000P (x1.Opt, i7-620M)

[Khenglish]

Could someone please enlighten me? what are the options for my laptop, and what kind of performance decrease can I expect vs a regular desktop setup?

Thanks

Due to the lack of an Intel IGP you can't do optimus. If you can do x2 then it's worth getting an eGPU, if not, then your internal card would perform better. The 1st page has instructions on determining if you can do x2.

x2 gets 75-90% x16 performance in most games. The only game I found to be a real exception is the original FEAR for some reason, and flight simulators perform badly. Benchmarks tend to do worse due to all the camera view jumping, which requires a lot of data to suddenly need to be loaded. x1 without Optimus really is just for people who have IGPs who wouldn't be able to play a game otherwise. There will be points where fps is very low, and you might not even be able to get 20 fps in some situations.

[wicked20]

__________________

It's not Optimus. You'd be getting 3dmark06 of 17k+.

A lot has transpired with Series-6 chipsets in the last few days with successful X220 and T420 x1.Opt implementations. The key to getting a stable link being to force the port hosting the eGPU to G1 speed. I've update Setup 1.0f-pre24 with more code to do that. Please try that.

Series-6 chipset has also locked the x16 port so can't disable it in Setup 1.x anymore. The technique to use is to disable the GT525M in Windows, reboot to Setup 1.x, do a 36-bit PCI compaction on all GPUs, but force the iGPU and eGPU to 32-bit, chainload to Windows7. The GT525M will now be 'out of reach' in 36-bit space and the GTX460 will have hijaaked it's 32-bit resources.

Please PM me if need more assistance. I'd love to see i7-2720QM (Quad core) x1.Opt results.

Thanks Khenglish and Nando,

I tried your suggestions but Optimus seems to not enable. Any other ideas? There's no "Preferred Graphics" for the gtx460 in the Nvidia Control Panel (NCP). What are the troubleshooting steps others have done when there's a dGPU? Is there a way to force "Preferred Graphics" in NCP such as using regedit or memory hacked/edit similar to games cheats program to change the value so that NCP will treat gtx460 as Optimus enabled?

If I re-enable gt525m in Device Manager, I still have "Preferred Graphics" but not for gtx460. I'm using the same driver w/ Nando modded nvam.inf.


Attached shows that pcie Gen2 is working stable but no Optimus. Is there any tools/benchmark software to monitor the actual transfer speed of the pcie bus is 2.5 or 5.0G?

Much thanks again.

[oan001]

Judging from your signature, you are not able to establish x1.Opt link since (until now) you need an Intel iGPU for that. Depending on other components like CPU and GPU with Optimus, you can get around 60-80% of the GPU's performance compared to the same card in a desktop. Example:
GTX460 Vantage scores:
14000P (Desktop x16, i7-920)
11000P (x1.Opt, i7-620M)

Due to the lack of an Intel IGP you can't do optimus. If you can do x2 then it's worth getting an eGPU, if not, then your internal card would perform better. The 1st page has instructions on determining if you can do x2.

x2 gets 75-90% x16 performance in most games. The only game I found to be a real exception is the original FEAR for some reason, and flight simulators perform badly. Benchmarks tend to do worse due to all the camera view jumping, which requires a lot of data to suddenly need to be loaded. x1 without Optimus really is just for people who have IGPs who wouldn't be able to play a game otherwise. There will be points where fps is very low, and you might not even be able to get 20 fps in some situations.

Thanks guys.

Is the x2 basically 2 ports hooked up to form 1 connection or is it possible to get x2 with just an expresscard?

I tried looking on the first page, but it is a bit messy and really doesn't explain a lot, so it's a bit hard to understand all these technical terms.

Just trying to determine if an eGPU is for me or if I should upgrade to a 6970m

[User Retired 2]

I tried your suggestions but Optimus seems to not enable. Any other ideas? There's no "Preferred Graphics" for the gtx460 in the Nvidia Control Panel (NCP).
..
If I re-enable gt525m in Device Manager, I still have "Preferred Graphics" but not for gtx460. I'm using the same driver w/ Nando modded nvam.inf.

Attached shows that pcie Gen2 is working stable but no Optimus. Is there any tools/benchmark software to monitor the actual transfer speed of the pcie bus is 2.5 or 5.0G?

The 3dmark06 SM 3.0 value would tell us if Gen2 speed is engaged. What value do you get? Gen 1 without Optimus gets ~ 2000pts.

Now as to x1.Opt not engaging, this is likely due to Optimus setting up only a single "simulated" GT525M via HD3000 link. Can see this by searching your registry for the string "simulate". Need to get it to do that using the GTX460 instead.

The way I'd suggest to do that is disable the GT525M, remove ALL existing NVidia drivers (driver sweeper), remove the GT525M entry from the nvam.inf, reinstall the 275.33 Verde + modded nvam.inf, reboot and hopefully x1.Opt engages.

If that works for you then could try to merge the two simulate registry entries (GT525M/GTX460) to see if can have both entries available, with you manually disabling one of those GPUs for it to work properly.

[xdefyoddzx]

iv given up trying to find the perfect mix of business laptop+ internal gpu for gaming. So now i have seen this thread and the diy vidock thread.

My current sony vaio sr has the express card slot or pcie i dont really know. But the new computers i am looking at the thinkpad x1, t420s and sony vaio SA do not seem to have an exxpress card or pcie slot. Does this mean they cannot take advantage of a vidock type system?

edit: So it seems as though the t420s does have an expresscard slot. Does anyone have experience using either the vidock 4, 4pplus or a diy vidock with the t420s? Also what is the maximum recommended gpu to use with this system? Is it better to purchase the non optimus t420s if i plan to use a vidock?

[tequill]

I pulled the trigger and bought the Lenovo x220!

But after reading countless pages, I still am not sure how to make my own vidock. I bought a Cooler Master Elite 460W ATX PSU, a monitor, x220 laptop(of course), PE4H, and I will soon buy a gtx 460.
Is that all I need? And if someone can give me a step by step tutorial to set everything up on a Lenovo x220 that would be great.

Thank you!

[serialk11r]

PE4H should come with all the connectors. I believe you switch on your computer, switch on PSU connected to the GPU, then plug in the expresscard adapter when it's on. Oh but go to the BIOS and set pci-e to Gen1 first.

[kizwan]

Hi nando,

I have an old PSU, FSP 400W. On the sticker, it said "12V1 & 12V2 = 384W". Can I use this PSU with HD5870? Max TDP for the HD5870 is 188 watts, right?

EDIT: Nando already answered my question.

[Mackan]

I pulled the trigger and bought the Lenovo x220!

But after reading countless pages, I still am not sure how to make my own vidock. I bought a Cooler Master Elite 460W ATX PSU, a monitor, x220 laptop(of course), PE4H, and I will soon buy a gtx 460.
Is that all I need? And if someone can give me a step by step tutorial to set everything up on a Lenovo x220 that would be great.

Thank you!

I am sure you also read about the BIOS problem on x220/T420/T520? You need to use an early BIOS version in order to make a eGPU work with more than 3 GB of RAM in your system. Can be a PITA unless Lenovo fixes the problem in a new BIOS version.