DIY eGPU experiences

[User Retired 2]

Do you think I should try to find some premium v1.4, gold cable? Is it sure that with the existing adapter we cannot go for 2.0? If it is sure, I would just buy the cheapest...

Go the cheapest. The current PE4L 1.5 and PE4H 2.4 provided by HIT/BPlus cannot do pci-e 2.0 regardless if you go goldplated 1.4 cables or not. New versions of those products will be released with the a ReDriver IC as a receiver/transmitter pair (on the EC2C/PM3N) to be able to transmit pci-e 2.0.

[kizwan]

Sorry I dont know how to resize pics. I am going to switch over the wifi card to my other pci port, will report back as soon as im done

From the screenshot, first PCI Bus with 8 digits memory address is 0xC0000000 which mean TOLUD is 3GB. As long as TOLUD is equal or lower than 3.25GB, there won't be any problem with eGPU & 4GB++ of RAM.

Ok i switched over the wifi card to the right side and this was the results. I think that the right side pci is used for bluetooth if im not mistaking.

PCIe Port#1: LAN
PCIe Port#2: [second mPCIe port]
PCIe Port#3: Wireless card
PCIe Port#5: ExpressCard 54mm (maybe)

So, doesn't look good. You can only do eGPU x1 link setup. You won't get good performance with x1 link only. Games will be stuttering when too many effects. If you can find/borrow ExpressCard device, for example ExpressCard to eSATA or ExpressCard to USB device, you can plugin it to the ExpressCard slot to confirm the PCIe port#. You're using AIDA64 trial version which usually failed to show empty ExpressCard slot. I'm hoping ExpressCard slot is PCIe port#4.

[Fardavid]

Go the cheapest. The current PE4L 1.5 and PE4H 2.4 provided by HIT/BPlus cannot do pci-e 2.0 regardless if you go goldplated 1.4 cables or not. New versions of those products will be released with the a ReDriver IC as a receiver/transmitter pair (on the EC2C/PM3N) to be able to transmit pci-e 2.0.

Ok, thanks, Nando4!

[cosmo_trouble]

If anyone is following, I think I have figured out the issue with using the 12 dc adapter with the PE4L adapter.

The silk screening on the board indicates 15-20 volts DC, which begs the question: Why did I ever think a 12V adapter would work in the first place? Well it is the adapter that is recommended in this very thread (pro's and con's section, link below) in addition to the graphics card I have (Radeon HD5670).

http://forum.notebookreview.com/gami...html#pros-cons

Someone might want to update that...

Anyway, the reason it doesn't work:

I first wanted to test if the adapter was using the 5V rail, so I disconnected the lead from the floppy connector on my ATX power supply. It did not work at all, so the answer is yes; the adapter does need the 5V rail.

So the unit is using a basic passive voltage divider on the input from the dc source(15-20V) to create both 12V and 5V rails. I'm thinking it pulls the 3.3V strictly through the express slot.

A voltage divider using just passive resistance isn't really going to care what the input voltage is so I imagine that 15V will be making the bottom limit on tolerance for the 5V and 12V rail(probably 5-10%) whereas the 20V is going to be hitting closer to the top end.

What that means is that a 12V DC source is going to be making voltages outside of the tolerance that is built into the card; hence the card does not power up in order to prevent damage.

The solution for me right now is to use an ATX power supply; bypassing the voltage regulator on the card. I am going to try and find myself another DC adapter that falls inside the tolerance range in order to prove the above. I will post again when I have it figured out.

Also, I am not using any third party software(setup 1.x) at all with mine, just the DNA drivers. I guess that means my card is running at 1x speeds. My 3dmark score is 8275. Not bad at all.

[Mjolner]

I just realized that my expresscard slot (which my eGPU is currently in) is port 4 while my mpcie wifi card is slot 3; doesn't this mean I could run a x2 setup? Is there any chance of a x2 optimus setup working in the near future, or is it something that will never happen?

[User Retired 2]

If anyone is following, I think I have figured out the issue with using the 12 dc adapter with the PE4L adapter.

The silk screening on the board indicates 15-20 volts DC, which begs the question: Why did I ever think a 12V adapter would work in the first place?

It's the PE4H that has a 15-20V to 12V regulator. PE4L accepts only 12V with only a 5V to 3.3V regulator onboard. Can see for yourself:

PE4H (PCIe passive adapter ver2.4)
PE4L ( PCIe passive adapter ver1.5 )

I just realized that my expresscard slot (which my eGPU is currently in) is port 4 while my mpcie wifi card is slot 3; doesn't this mean I could run a x2 setup? Is there any chance of a x2 optimus setup working in the near future, or is it something that will never happen?

Your Y460 is Series-5 chipset so can do a x2 implementation, similarly to the DV4-2000+GTX470 x1.Opt/x2 implementation here. Both systems have iGPUs so can do a x1.Opt implementation but the driver only engages the pci-e compression when it detects a x1 link.

Will NVidia change the code to allow x2.1Opt? Your guess is as good as mine with the likely outcome being a continual non-response to Khenglish's request: Optimus with 2 Nvidia cards? (no intel IGP) - NVIDIA Forums. The way then to get than bandwidth would be to upgrade to a Series-6 system to get x1.2Opt which serialkllr has confirmed engages with his i5-2410M 2.3 +GTX460@x1.2 here.

Furthermore x4 is not a possible as we see from the Y460 schematic:



Trying to go for x4 would require removing extensive hardware modes - removing the card reader chip to tap port1 and finding a way to tap port3. So we can say x4 is not feasible.

[gamblor420]

I will try to borrow an express card device from a friend and will report back, thanks for the help.

[arnierobert]

Inspiron 1525 can do x2 (p3+4) or x1E (p5)

The Inspiron 1525 schematic shows the pci-e port layout as:



So you can do a x1E ATiAMD link using the expresscard slot, or a x2 link using mPCIe port3+4 but will have no concurrent wifi there. A x4 link is not possible.

What would a x1E ati/amd with a semi good vidcard do for me if I also get a faster CPU and keep my current memory? The only two games I want it for are UT3 and Portal 2.

[markjue]

Can someone explain what should I do with my

acer aspire 4741
- Intel Core i3
- Intel HD Graphics
- 3 GB Memory
- Windows 7 ultimate

I want to play FIFA 12 smoothly. Please guide me, thanks.

[kizwan]

What would a x1E ati/amd with a semi good vidcard do for me if I also get a faster CPU and keep my current memory? The only two games I want it for are UT3 and Portal 2.

You won't see much difference in game experience between current CPU & faster CPU. I read Portal 2 & UT3 support multicore CPU. If you can upgrade from dual-core to quad-core, you might see improvement in the performance with these two games.

Regarding the eGPU setup, x2 link setup can deliver better performance than x1E ATiAMD setup. You can do x2 link with PCIe port#3 & port#4 as I explained here & here. Your notebook have "Large Memory" in the Device Manager (source) & this show you can use 4GB++ RAM with eGPU. This also show you can keep your current memory.