DIY eGPU experiences

[Khenglish]

Sadly, with this cable PC won't even recognized the eGPU. I'm trying to see if somehow we can solder the 5V pin to the pin18, maybe at the P4H usb?

It'd probably be easier to take 5V from a molex connector. Nice big wires.

I'm worried that the ICs are actually working, but since we are using different signals than HDMI that it sees our whole signal as noise and blocks it.

[serialk11r]

bplus tell us the cable is the problem. What's odd is the Villagetronic claim their cable is pci-e 2.0 capable but their setup has also been unable to negotiate a x1 2.0 link on a Lenovo X220 and T420.

Unfortunately your idea of using a amfeltec riser will not work. It introduces pci-e 1.0 specced cabling (as confirmed by amfeltec), so might as well stick with a PE4L/PE4H + EC2C instead which also uses pci-e 1.0 spec cable.

The PE3A was presented to folks as a way to avoid the non-compliant cable. Required would be modding 12V power to drive the slot as shown at PE3A v3.1a unrecommended modification for external 12V DC power supply. - YouTube. So you'd be in effect testing the EC2C + PE3A [~PE4L/PE4H] to confirm those components are pci-e 2.0 compliant.

Speaking of the PE3A setup, I am moving into my college dorm in a few days, when I get my new address I'll be ordering a PE3A right away. My plan is to use molex connectors wired to the PE3A to make it a bit more...tidy than that guy's alligator clips and what not. I was going to sell my 500W Antec NeoHE for a 235W Dell RM112 90% efficiency PSU since the Antec is way too big, but I couldn't find anyone who wanted to buy it so I'll be using it. It, very conveniently, is SLI certified (for 2006 lol) and has 2 PCI-e 6 pin cables which is handy. I hope my molex connector doesn't fry...

By the way, I just read up on molex connectors and apparently they are 18 gauge and have 11A rated pins, but I still think people using molex to PCI-e adapters should be wary as the connectors seem to have somewhat significant resistance, given the 11A figure (compared with 14A for just 18 gauge wire).

So in due time, we'll see if the PE3A can do a 2.0 link (with Lenovo X220).

[i has m11x]

In Australia too, the local X220 price can be anywhere from double to triple the US price. Quite a few interested users are therefore ordering them from the US via forwarding agents.

Perhaps consider other cheaper systems in the Thin-and-light link in my sig? eg: 13" HP 4330s and Dell Vostro 3350 both have expresscard slots and are available for a reasonable price in the UK:

£500 13" Dell Vostro 3350 i5-2410M *refurb* 2.0kgs
£556 13" HP Probook 4330s i3-2310M 2.0kgs
£759 15.6" MSI GE620 i7-2630QM + GT540M 2.4kgs

Vostro 3350 does not have an expresscard slot. I researched this laptop for someone and found out that it doesn't come with one. What is annoying is that Dell shows pictures of their other Vostro laptops with an expresscard slot in their 3350 gallery.

[User Retired 2]

Sadly, with this cable PC won't even recognized the eGPU. I'm trying to see if somehow we can solder the 5V pin to the pin18, maybe at the P4H usb?

5V can be accessed from the RED floppy molex pin. You'd want to isolate pin18 on both ends so that neither the PE4L/PE4H or the EC2C/PM3N receives the 5V signal because if they did you could most certainly cause damage. So the pin18 line needs to be fished out, 5V applied to it and the endpoints isolated to prevent damage.

The 5V would drive the ICs in your active HDMI cable. Khenglish makes a good point. We don't know what active ICs are being used so can't look up a datasheet to find out. I'd assume they would be a transmitter/receiver pair that applies some additional modulation or filtering for better signal transmission.

Worth noting serialk11r will be volunteering to test a modded PE3A, which doesn't require a cable, so consider waiting for those results before you get stuck into your NXG active cable.

So in due time, we'll see if the PE3A can do a 2.0 link (with Lenovo X220).

Thank you for volunteering to do this. An important test to give more clues. Might even be able to negotiate a x1 2.0 link

Vostro 3350 does not have an expresscard slot. I researched this laptop for someone and found out that it doesn't come with one. What is annoying is that Dell shows pictures of their other Vostro laptops with an expresscard slot in their 3350 gallery.

You describe perfectly how I came to believe the 3350 had an expresscard slot. Oh well.. in that case, the HP Probook 4330s is the budget 13" with an expresscard slot to go for. I've updated the thin-and-light link indicating the Vosto 3350 has no expresscard slot. Thank you for pointing this out.

[Xenitic]

Vostro 3350 does not have an expresscard slot. I researched this laptop for someone and found out that it doesn't come with one. What is annoying is that Dell shows pictures of their other Vostro laptops with an expresscard slot in their 3350 gallery.

Took me ages to find that out. As far as I know the 3350 won't get produced much more anyways (correct me if im wrong) but it got replaced with the Vostro v130 series. Which also does not come with an express card. :|

HP is producing 13" laptops with express cards but those are quite expensive(which is why i went for the 14" vostro instead).


On a sidenote, does anyone know why my 3dmark06 score with the internal hd3000 is so low? 2,5k? I did the same test 2 days ago and achieved 3,5k (which is what it should be about).

http://3dmark.com/3dm06/15975119;jse...KrXBu03AxPQAM4


edit: win7 is too stupid to go from energy saving to max performance automatically if you reconnect power.... score is 3,6k now...http://3dmark.com/3dm06/15975192;jse...jdtck0UAvb2zaV

[gilipollas]

Yesterday i noted something interesting.
In Warcraft 3 the egpu(HD6670) shows less fps than the dgpu(8600mgt). The interesting thing is that this is independent from the resolution.

E.g. in one scene the egpu shows about 25fps at all resolutions from 800x600 up to 1800x1440 where the dgpu shows 60fps at all resolutions up to 1400x1050.


Another thing i noticed is that the playback of flash-video(only 360 lines) in full-screen-mode at 2560x1440 is stuttering a lot. I would guess there are only 10fps at 100% cpu and 100% egpu usage.

Lowering the resolution during playback solves this problem.

[User Retired 2]

Yesterday i noted something interesting.
In Warcraft 3 the egpu(HD6670) shows less fps than the dgpu(8600mgt). The interesting thing is that this is independent from the resolution.

I've reviewed some of your posts, but it's not clear if you did a mPCIe or EC implementation, and what your Vostro 1500's port layout is. If you've got an EC2C for an expresscard slot AND your port layout matches Inspiron 1520's (ie: port2=wifi, port3=expresscard, port4=mPCIe), then you could do a x1E or x2 link to give noticably improved performance. You'd give up concurrent wifi for each and need to install and configure Setup 1.x to do it.

[Xenitic]

im currently trying to set up my egpu;
had an error 12 but thats solved as far as i can tell;
The problem is now, if i plug in an external screen into the card my screen of my laptop automatically turns black, however the external screen also stays black (no signal). So I can only unplug it again. My Nvidia control panel (used the driver from the forum here) doesnt have a lot of options and i cant enable advanced settings for some reason.the button seems to be missing. any ideas? Also how can i choose to use the 560gtx for example in 3dmark06? In the nvidia control panel i can choose to use either the external gpu or internal gpu, but even if i force 3dmark06 to use the external gpu it will use the internal hd. :|

[User Retired 2]

My Nvidia control panel (used the driver from the forum here) doesnt have a lot of options and i cant enable advanced settings for some reason.the button seems to be missing. any ideas?

Have you made the monitor that is hosted off your GTX560 be the main display?

Also, what system are you running? If it's a HD6630M Vostro 3450 then you are treading on new territory. It might have the AMD muxless switchable graphics that works like Optimus so consider deleting the Intel + AMD driver and loading a stock Intel HD3000 driver, then the Optimus driver if the system doesn't behave as you'd expect.

[Xenitic]

cant install normal intel driver (only accepts dell drivers i think).

win 64 bit professional is the OS. I attached a screen here: the pci gadget with the expression mark is (As far as I know) the mobile broadband which i havnt installed since im not using it anyways.

what i find strange is how i got no options and also no option to enable advanced settings.

I cant set the external screen as the main screen since everything turns black immediatly as soon as i connect it (and without connection i cant see it)

ImageShack® - Online Photo and Video Hosting

edit: oh i can actually set the screen up without the auto detection by detecting the outputs before i connect devices. However, if i for example set the screen to my extended screen the external screen still stays black and if i set it as a main screen it also stays black (internal screen works normally as expected). whats strange is that the screen actually gets recognized: It says E22-W-1ISA as the screenname which is the name of the monitor.

edit2: oh wow that also seemed to have enabled the advanced settings in the nvidia control panel