DIY eGPU experiences

[jrw77]

I'm having some SERIOUS driver issues now. Not with the egpu, just with my laptop in total. There is no CCC, nothing, my internal GPU isnt recognised, All CCC installers do NOT install, just get errors, and AMD'd auto detect and download will not open. Help please?

[carage]

@carage - the same applies to your W520. However, as you have a VD4+ I'd ask you either ask Villagetronic (VT) to help you accomplish effectively the same thing, or purchase a $25 license for the Setup 1.x software from HIT and send VT the bill (or request a refund if they are overall uncooperative).

Why is there a $25 fee for VT users? Unfortunately VT have been sending/linking their users to use this software, violating the previous 'not for commercial use' license. They also declined to sponsor the development of this software when an offer was made in May 2010, software that resolved many of the technical issues (error 12, switching g1/g2, disabling dGPUs, x1E performance tweaks) that they could not solve or find themselves.

It therefore makes sense to have VT pay by proxy of their users to help offset the development costs to make this software. Based on these experiences, I do not consider VT to be an honorable company to deal with.

Could you provide a link to the pay site? I don't mind paying you and whoever developed this wonderful tool but I don't want to get into other people's fights.

[User Retired 2]

Could you provide a link to the pay site? I don't mind paying you and whoever developed this wonderful tool but I don't want to get into other people's fights.

Setup 1.x license purchase

For the time being, please contact HIT to arrange manual purchase. That will highlight to HIT that an automated webpage needs to be up and running sooner rather than later for Setup 1.10+. I expected a webpage to have been up already.

Purchasing a license will entitle you use the latest version 1.10 beta (available via PM, screenshot below), which uses a significantly more responsive FreeDOS kernel with no Microsoft licensing issues, uses a HDD image (with ~9MB free), has UEFI chainloading, cleaner Status window and Function key bar item layout, various fixes, etc. The UEFI chainloading may be important for the W520.

It seems too that the VD4+ can negotiate a pci-e 2.0 link as shown, so would be great to get comparative x1.1Opt versus x1.2Opt gaming benchmarks on a i7-quad W520 + GTX4/5xx once you piece it all together.

[ronvalencia]

I'm having some SERIOUS driver issues now. Not with the egpu, just with my laptop in total. There is no CCC, nothing, my internal GPU isnt recognised, All CCC installers do NOT install, just get errors, and AMD'd auto detect and download will not open. Help please?

Can you use system restore point? Have you uninstalled all Radeon HD drivers and reboot?

What eGPU adapter solution did you use?

I use PE4H ver 1.0 which needs to be modified i.e. an Amp fuse needs to be remove and bridged with soldier beads.

[kizwan]

IS it possible to get my w520 to work? I have PE4L-EC2C (expresscard) or PE4L-PM3N (mPCIe) but last I tried (only quickly ) I couldnt get it work but I dont have a gpu atm, just wonder if my dedicated 1000m makes it not possible?

It is possible. According to W520 specification, it doesn't have Intel HD 3000 iGPU, which means you won't be able to do x1.Opt setup. You'll can only do x1 link setup & the performance will not good. You might want to get PCIe 2.0/Gen2 compliant kit when they available. It will give better performance when running at x1.Opt 2.0 (5Gb/s speed).

EDIT: Sorry, my mistake. Yes, it does have Intel HD 3000 iGPU. It say so in the specification: "Extreme graphics with NIVIDIA® Quadro® 1000M / NIVIDIA® Quadro® 2000M with Optimus™ technology". So, you can do x1.Opt setup. Opt=Optimus will provide PCIe data compression which boost performance over PCIe x1 link. When PCIe 2.0/Gen2 compliant kit available, you'll be able to get much better performance.

Do you remember what is the error code when you tried last time? You might need to use Setup 1.x, to turn off dGPU and also probably PCI compaction. Please post screenshot of the Device Manager (set View to "Resources by connection" & expand the Memory tree). When dGPU off, eGPU will be able to use the vacant PCI space.

I'm having some SERIOUS driver issues now. Not with the egpu, just with my laptop in total. There is no CCC, nothing, my internal GPU isnt recognised, All CCC installers do NOT install, just get errors, and AMD'd auto detect and download will not open. Help please?

You might want to consider doing fresh windows installation. When CCC failed to work/run as it should be, it's hard to troubleshoot & get it to work again. D.N.A. drivers should be able to detect dGPU (discrete). Recommended to use D.N.A. drivers because dGPU & eGPU are ATI. If you don't want to use D.N.A. drivers, you can use official ATI desktop drivers for both dGPE & eGPU (by adding the dGPU PCI ID in .inf file). You'll need to boot with “F8 -> Disable Driver Signature Enforcement” for successful driver installation.

[DaSinical1]

Nando, I have a ES GTX480. Is there a way to add the hardware id's to the nvam.inf so I can install the optimus verdi drivers (either 275.33 or 285.62)? As is, the installer states "This graphics driver could not find compatible graphics hardware.

[kizwan]

Add GTX480 PCI ID in 285.62 (verde) nvam.inf:-

Under "[NVIDIA_SetA_Devices.NTamd64.6.0]"

%NVIDIA_DEV.06C0.01% = Section004, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_06C0

and

Under "[NVIDIA_SetA_Devices.NTamd64.6.1]"

%NVIDIA_DEV.06C0.01% = Section005, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_06C0

After you added the PCI ID, run setup.exe to install the driver.

[dero56]

Looking to add a egpu to my dell inspiron 1520 but not sure about a few things:

PE4H or PE4L - If i wanted to run it in 2x 1.0, will i need to physically connect it to one of my pcie-m slots? While also having it plugged into the expresscard. Ideally though i would like to run my egpu through only the expresscard slot.

what video card to get for optimum performance from my system and setup
(I have a T6400 processor and 4gb of ram atm)
I'm thinking about a radeon 6770 and ill be picking up a 400 or 450w micro atx PS.

Was also wondering if i could use a 120W laptop ac adapter instead to power the videocard? Or would it not work because that setup is ideally for 80w> setups?

Also was wondering if anyone has attempted to make a enclosure out of a 5.25 ide drive enclosure? Or anyone else know other things we can buy to convert into a egpu enclosure?

Thanks

[kizwan]

If you wanted to run x2 setup, you'll need PE4H. For x2 setup on Dell Inspiron 1520, you'll need to connect one cable to ExpressCard & another one to mPCIe. You can see Moerf's eGPU implementation for more information. BTW, you might only be able to use 3GB of RAM when using eGPU due to high TOLUD on this notebook. Please post screenshot of Device Manager (set View to "Resources by connection" & expand the Memory tree). I want to check TOLUD. Your notebook also capable doing x4 setup base on the PCIe ports arrangement. Of course will need you to confirm the PCIe ports arrangement. Remember, there will be 4 cables connected to your notebook.

Power supply choice depend on your choice of graphic card. You can see few example of eGPU using AC adapter at Getting Started section (no.2). ATX PSU is always preferred for eGPU. When choosing power supply, remember to look at the max current on the +12V, not the total power. For example, ATI HD 6870 power requirement is 151W. So, the PSU must have at least 14A on the +12V (12V * 14A = 168W, calculated with 10% safe margin) - stock clocks only, not including overclock. Always buy reputable brand such as Corsair, Seasonic or FSP (to name a few).

[Mech0z]

Yes it's possible. wicked20 (Dell XPS L502 w GT525M) and Fardavid (Fujitsu AH531 w GT525M) have so far done a Series-6 DIY eGPU implementation of a system with a Optimus dGPU. You will require Setup 1.x to disable the dGPU as the NVidia Verde drive doesn't place nice with the eGPU when it detects two NVidia GPUs. Do note:

- the released Setup 1.0f-pre28 cannot chainload UEFI GPT partitions, something that Lenovo *may* have implemented on the W520 as part of the Lenovo Experience 2.0. There are three workarounds. Please PM me to discuss if affected.

- the BUG section on that page as you'll need to apply that as well as setting your expresscard slot to G1 speed. G1 speed being necessary as the current BPlus/HIT hardware cannot do pci-e 2.0 link speed and leaving the port in G2 speed causes the NVidia driver to hang.

Btw the old mPci card and pci-e slot I have is that capeable of pci-e 2.0 speeds?

You'll need a startup.bat that will look something like the one below. Ensure you use the menu-based setup, disable the dGPU, then run 32-bit PCI compaction on your eGPU so as to create a pci.bat that is used.

call speedup lbacache
call iport g1 [your expresscard port no]
call iport dGPU off
call pci
setpci -s 0:1c.[your expresscard port no - 1] 1c.w=20,20 (comment: per BUG section)
call grub4dos mbr (comment: or 'call grub4dos w7', whichever works)

Reminder: Villagetronic users are exempt from free use of the Setup 1.x software

@carage - the same applies to your W520. However, as you have a VD4+ I'd ask you either ask Villagetronic (VT) to help you accomplish effectively the same thing, or purchase a $25 license for the Setup 1.x software from HIT and send VT the bill (or request a refund if they are overall uncooperative).

Why is there a $25 fee for VT users? Unfortunately VT have been sending/linking their users to use this software, violating the previous 'not for commercial use' license. They also declined to sponsor the development of this software when an offer was made in May 2010, software that resolved many of the technical issues (error 12, switching g1/g2, disabling dGPUs, x1E performance tweaks) that they could not solve or find themselves.

It therefore makes sense to have VT pay by proxy of their users to help offset the development costs to make this software.

Thanks, I think I will wait and see what this guy finds out Lenovo W520 Owner's Thread as he has the same laptop, I dont have a GPU atm and I am not in dire need, might wait until 28nm parts are released as that should be Q1 and as I only play SC2 atm its not an issue