DIY eGPU experiences

[User Retired 2]

Hi, I am trying to set up a egpu through a ViDock4+ on a T420 and from what I've read I need the 1.15 bios for it. Another user with the T420 said they were able to obtain the 1.15 bios from ThinkRob but for some reason the forum won't let me message either of them. If anyone can help I'd really appreciate it!

It's here : T420 115 BIOS.rar

Worth checking if your VD4+ can do expresscard 2.0

Can you also confirm if your T420 and VD4+ can run expresscard 2.0 (pci-e 2.0) link speed. It has previously been discovered that a Lenovo X220 + VD4+ + GTX570 can't do pci-e 2.0 here which means that either the Lenovo X220 or the VD4+ is not pci-e 2.0 compliant. VT claim their VD4+ is expresscard 2.0 capable here.

[padraig]

I installed a GTX 460 with the 275.33 drivers in the ViDock4+. How should I go about checking to see if it can run expresscard 2.0? Sorry, I'm new to all this and that X220 post you linked made no sense to me.

Edit: For what it's worth I followed the steps the other user used to install their DIY egpu, they said they had to set the PCI-Express setting in their T420's BIOS to generation 1 rather than automatic because it would freeze otherwise. Well I just went into BIOS and set it to automatic and it works just fine for me.

Edit2: Post I am referring to is here: DIY eGPU experiences

[noobganster]

hi, I want to know if adding eGPU will significantly improve photoshopping experience on my Thinkpad X200T, or will my CPU be bottlenecking?

[padraig]

I ran that eGPU 1.0f and it said 1.2 just like the guy with the X220. I took a screenshot but I can't find where it saved to. I'm assuming the 1.2 stuff means it can't run expresscard 2.0, correct? If not, please tell me what exactly what I should do.

[User Retired 2]

hi, I want to know if adding eGPU will significantly improve photoshopping experience on my Thinkpad X200T, or will my CPU be bottlenecking?

See Photoshop CS5: CUDA : Adobe CS5: 64-bit, CUDA-Accelerated, And Threaded Performance .

I ran that eGPU 1.0f and it said 1.2 just like the guy with the X220. I took a screenshot but I can't find where it saved to. I'm assuming the 1.2 stuff means it can't run expresscard 2.0, correct? If not, please tell me what exactly what I should do.

Boot windows then run \eGPU\egpu-setup-mount. A V: drive will then appear which is your disk image. In V:\diag is where your screenshots are saved as scnxxx.bmp.

Please post a screenshot showing clearly your GTX460 eGPU in the status window. A GTX460-1MB has the PCI-ID of 1de:0e22. I want to confirm 100% that your system has negotiated a Gen1 (pci-e 1.0, 2.5GT/s) link even if the port itself is set to allow Gen2 (pci-e 2.0, 5GT/s) speed via the bios option.

[noobganster]

so for photoshop, lightroom and premiere, it is best to use CUDA based GPU? ie, Nvidia?

[padraig]

Boot windows then run \eGPU\egpu-setup-mount. A V: drive will then appear which is your disk image. In V:\diag is where your screenshots are saved as scnxxx.bmp.

Please post a screenshot showing clearly your GTX460 eGPU in the status window. A GTX460-1MB has the PCI-ID of 1de:0e22. I want to confirm 100% that your system has negotiated a Gen1 (pci-e 1.0, 2.5GT/s) link even if the port itself is set to allow Gen2 (pci-e 2.0, 5GT/s) speed via the bios option.

Here you go:

[User Retired 2]

Here you go:

Series-6 Lenovo T420 + ViDock4+ + GTX460 = no pci-e 2.0 link speed

Thank you for taking the time to take that screenshot. You are now the second user confirming that ViDock4 + Series-6 Lenovo's don't want to play at pci-e 2.0 speed. The first is a X220+GTX570 here. This is clearly shown in the Status window line:

p4@x1.2 10de:0e22@x1.1

The p4@x1.2 indicates that port4 is set to allow a x1 2.0 link. The 10de:0e22@x1.1 indicates the T420 and GTX460 negotiated a x1 1.0 link due to the link b/w the two being unable to maintain x1 2.0 link speed.

Where to go next? VT would be the first place. If they canot demonstrate a pci-e 2.0 link is capable with their gear, then the product has been misadvertised. You would be entitled to obtain a replacement that can operate at pci-e 2.0 / expresscard 2.0 speed OR a refund.

FYI: BPlus are currently developing an active transmitter/receiver pair to get successful pci-e 2.0 link negotiation with their PE4L/PE4H. A refund from VT would mean you could acquire the significantly cheaper and less restrictive DIY eGPU's PE4H-EC2C instead.

[infowarrior]

As far as I can tell, the m17xR2 has a HD5870 graphics and the Clarkfield i7 has no iGPU. Meaning then that it's not optimus capable. You could go an AMD card, example ronvalencia or Kizwan on first page. Benchmarks will be impressive but Kizwan's HD5870@x1 game benchmarks noted choppiness due to limited bandwidth. Better results can be had if the system has the right port layout to do a x2 link by ganging the expresscard + mPCIe slot or mPCIe + mPCIe slot.

So I'd only advise doing an eGPU on your system if you need more monitors being attached or want to perhaps try hybrid PhysX. The HD5870 you have is not going to come close to be outperformed by an eGPU. From a performance perspective, it would make more sense to get SB gen i5/i7 with iGPU or iGPU+dGPU and then do a eGPU implementation. Moreso when the hardware can transmit at pci-e 2.0.

There's two unique GTX460 and GTX560Ti products tha supports 4 and 5 LCDs respectively:

Zotac GTX460 3DP
KFA2 GTX560Ti MDT X5

Thank you!
I have been concentrating more on the audio side currently. But i have been thinking about that a lot lately just limited funds. I will see what i can do.

[padraig]

Series-6 Lenovo T420 + ViDock4+ + GTX460 = no pci-e 2.0 link speed

Thank you for taking the time to take that screenshot. You are now the second user confirming that ViDock4 + Series-6 Lenovo's don't want to play at pci-e 2.0 speed. The first is a X220+GTX570 here. This is clearly shown in the Status window line:

p4@x1.2 10de:0e22@x1.1

The p4@x1.2 indicates that port4 is set to allow a x1 2.0 link. The 10de:0e22@x1.1 indicates the T420 and GTX460 negotiated a x1 1.0 link due to the link b/w the two being unable to maintain x1 2.0 link speed.

Where to go next? VT would be the first place. If they can demonstrate a pci-e 2.0 link is capable with their gear, then the product has been misadvertised. You would be entitled to obtain a replacement that can operate at pci-e 2.0 / expresscard 2.0 speed OR a refund.

FYI: bplus are currently testing different cables in an attempt to make their PE4L/PE4H pci-e 2.0 compliant. A refund would mean you could acquire the significantly cheaper and less restrictive DIY eGPU's PE4H-EC2C instead.

I'm not sure if I could get a refund from VT since I bought it from sewelldirect.com because I'm in the US and didn't want to pay the ridiculous $25 shipping charge on the VT site. I am happy with its performance right now though, I haven't played PC games in the longest time so just being able to play them period makes me happy.