DIY eGPU experiences

[User Retired 2]

Can someone help me out. I have:

Lenovo T400
Intel GMA 4500MHD
..
What am I capable of doing? I know I can't do optimus with an ATI card, but what about 1E or x2? How do I find out which port my express card is?

Roy50's T400 port listing shows port3=mPCIe (turbo memory) and port4=expresscard slot. So you could do a x2 link using port3+4. However since you have a 4500MHD I'd recommend a x1.Opt link instead with the cheapest possible GTS450 or GTX460 you can find. It will be a simpler solution, give internal LCD functionality, allow concurrent wifi usage, be the best bang-per-buck setup and be a good candidate to do a x1.2Opt installation if you upgrade to a Series-6 system like a T420 or X220.

Update on pci-e 2.0 cabling from bplus copied from the eGPU PCIe 2.0 and Thunderbolt update

We see bplus are going to try an active transmitter/receiver pair solution specifically designed for reliable pci-e 2.0 signal transmission over copper.

2011-9-3: GerryChen

Unfortunately, USB3.0 cable test fail for PCIe interface.
The next stage. I will try ReDriver IC. Please check attached file for datasheet.

PI3EQX5701.pdf

[Gravy9872]

thanks nando,

I'm gonna see if I can get the HD4670 working before I buy a new card. Then perhaps I'll upgrade

[gilipollas]

Your port4 needs to be disabled or else it will send pings to your HD6670 as a second lane and cause issues. Do that by adding 'call iport off 4' to your Setup 1.x startup.bat or use BarEdit/rw-everything to do the same memory write as that iport command does to turn off port4 in Windows. Actually, initializing the port by adding the following code to your \config\startup.bat will correctly establish a HD6670@x2 on your port3:

:: Enable x2 on port3
call iport x2 3
echo Connect lane2 (port4) first, then lane1 (port3) second...
:: Wait for the HD6670 to appear
call vidwait 60 1002:6758
:: Scan the ports
call iport scan
echo Confirm the HD6670 is running in x2 mode . If not hit CTRL-ALT-DEL to reboot and try again.
pause
:: Run the resultant pci.bat from PCI compaction
call pci
:: Chainload to the MBR
call grub4dos mbr

Congrats! Troubleshooting eGPU need a lot of patience. Some people already give up but you not. Your notebook can support x2 & x4 eGPU setup. It will shame if you just running it on x1 link.

The HDMI audio sometime labeled as "High Definition Audio Device" in Device Manager. Just disabled it in Device Manager. However, this only useful if you're doing Optimus setup (x1.Opt) with Nvidia eGPU. I tested this with ATI & I didn't found any difference whether HDMI audio disabled/enabled.

^^Port4 need to be disabled, like nando pointed out.

Big thx again!
Before i read your posts i managed to make the hd-audio a unknown device again. Now x2 is stable again and 3dmark2006 runs properly. Even with port 4 still active.

I will not install the hd-audio-drivers again. But i added the code to startup.bat and will see the result when i boot next time. It is really strange because i manually deactivate port4 in setup 1.x when egpu is detected and runs at x2

Now i can reproduce the procedure to run x2.

What i do to get x2 is the following:
1) Put the WLAN card to the WWAN-mpcie-slot(port1). WLAN-mpcie-slot would be port2.
2) Connect lane1(egpu) to port3(mpcie) and lane2(egpu) to port4(ec), then turn on laptop
3) deactivate LAN and card-reader in Bios(if not done already)
4) Boot to setup 1.x, egpu still turned off
5) activate pcie-port3
6) set pcie-port3 to x2(this also sets port 1 to x2 and deactivates port2 and port4)
7) turn on egpu
8) reboot to setup 1.x, egpu is detected now and runs at x2
9) deactivate port4
10 reboot to windows(port4 still seems to be active, as shown in aida)

[User Retired 2]

10 reboot to windows(port4 still seems to be active, as shown in aida)

That's because you are rebooting where the bios changes pci-e details. You want to chainload to Windows instead.

You'd need a two-pass 'automated startup via startup.bat' (\config\startup.bat) like below since you have to reboot to get a x2 link going midstream. Just 5mins ago I sent the same info to Kizwan so talk about synchronicity!!

@echo off
:: enable disk caching to speedup processing time
call speedup lbacache

:: Check if doing pass1 or pass2
if exist %DRV%:\config\pass2.txt goto pass2

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
:pass1
printf "\nDoing Pass1:  setup the x2 link and reboot to activate it.\n\n"
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

:: Ensure HD6670 is on the pci-e bus
call vidwait 60 1002:6758

:: enable x2 link mode on port3, which disables port2+4 
:: and as a side-effect sets port1 to x2 width
call iport x2 3

:: Create pass2 flagging file
echo pass2 > %DRV%:\config\pass2.txt

:: reboot to get x2 link going. Re-select the Setup 1.x 
:: 'automated startup via startup.bat' to run pass2
reboot

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
:pass2
printf "\nDoing Pass2:  ensure valid x2 link is seen,  run PCI"
printf "\ncompaction's resultant pci.bat and chainload to XP.\n\n"
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

:: Delete pass2 flagging file so next run will do pass1
del %DRV%:\config\pass2.txt

:: enable x2 link mode on port3, which disables port2+4 
:: and as a side-effect sets port1 to x2 width
call iport x2 3

:: visually confirm in 5secs the iport output shows HD6670@x2.1
call wait_e 5 "Confirm HD6670@x2.1 else CTRL+ALT+DEL and try again"

:: Run result of last PCI compaction if it was run
if exist pci.bat call pci

:: Chainload to WinXP (change mbr to xp below if using 
:: grub2 bootloader to bypass an additional hop)
call grub4dos mbr

[kizwan]

8) reboot to setup 1.x, egpu is detected now and runs at x2
9) deactivate port4
10 reboot to windows(port4 still seems to be active, as shown in aida)

AIDA64 reported eGPU is running at x2 & Port4 is enabled? As nando pointed out, you'll need the two-pass script to prevent Port4 from re-enabled.

On my Dell, I don't need the two-pass script because Port2 is remain disabled after reboot.

[User Retired 2]

kimchoo you do realize your i5-470UM 1.33 +GTX550@x1.Opt installation will run Crysis 2 significantly faster if you connect an external LCD to the GTX550Ti? Running it using Optimus' internal LCD mode means the x1 1.0 link has use a part of the bandwidth to send display traffic to animate the internal LCD.

[gilipollas]

Yes, port4 is shown active in aida. Port2 remains deactivated.

[kizwan]

Yes, port4 is shown active in aida. Port2 remains deactivated.

Wait. I wrote "On my Dell, I don't need the two-pass script because Port2 is remain disabled after reboot." because I'm using mPCIe Port1 & Port2 for x2. That is why Port2 is disabled. Yours use mPCIe Port3 & Port4. So, In your case mPCIe Port4 need to be disabled. Did you tried the two-pass script?

[afetherw8]

I'm a noob with an MSI A6200-021, gtx460, and 600w mod xtream pro psu. The video card has two 6 pin connections. I can't get my computer to "see" the video card, and it seems like my PSU is not properly hooked up to my videocard, though I found instructions elsewhere that described how to properly connect my card to my PSU.

The cables I am using have 8 pin male connections on one side, and 6 pin male connections on the other (I don't know the proper names for these). One of the 6 pin ends has an extra two pin separate piece. So I have the 6 pin sides plugged into the card (with the extra 2 pin piece dangling) and the 8 pin ends plugged into the PSU, the PSU is on and its fan is spinning, yet my video card does not turn on at this point and only one green led on the PE4H comes on, the one that signals that the vidock is connected to the expresscard slot in my laptop. In addition my computer doesn't register any activity. However, when I plug my DC adapter into the PE4H, the other LED comes on and the videocard's fan starts spinning. If I then turn off the PSU the fan spins faster. With the DC adapter plugged in, I did the "boot, sleep, insert expresscard adapter" routine and it said drivers were installing, but when I went to the device manager, all that was listed under the display adapters were Intel HD graphics. Then if I try to install the Verde drivers provided on page 123, at the end of the process I get a popup saying the comp can't find compatible hardware. I also did that process with only the DC adapter in, and the PSU off, same result. I would be so appreciative if someone could explain to me what I'm doing wrong. Here are pics of my setup:

[kizwan]

You forgot to connect the floppy power connector to PE4H.