DIY eGPU experiences

[User Retired 2]

PS: I have an Asus G50Vt-X2
..
This system barely gets by at playing BF3 even on low settings

Agree with Kizwan. Unless you can do x1.Opt (not possible) or x2 then I'd suggest offloading the G50VT and getting a better DIY eGPU candidate like this $480 i5-2410M 14" Lenovo E420: Lenovo® ThinkPad® Edge E420 (1141-A24) Laptop Computer With 14" LED-Backlit Screen & 2nd Gen Intel® Core? i5-2410M Office Depot B&M $479.99 - Slickdeals.net

I've just completed x1.2Opt benchmarking to give an indicator of the performance SB notebooks will get when BPlus release their PE4H 3.0 in the coming weeks. See DIY eGPU implementation: i5-2540M 2.6 12.5" HP 2560P + NVidia GTX560Ti@x1.2Opt. .

I'm seeing a lot of benefits to CUDA and I have an old 430 from a friend but the trouble is my laptop is a AMD/ATI (specifically this: Lenovo - IdeaPad Y560 15.6" laptop)

Will using an external Nvidia graphics card play nice with my computer?

The i3/i5 (Arrandale) Y560 has switchable graphics so will be no problem. Can just disable the HD5730M using Setup 1.x to liberate 256MB of pci-e space for the eGPU to work with and allowing x1.Opt implementation. The i7 (Clarksfield) runs a dGPU arrangement so you'd need to check if TOLUD is 3.25GB for the same reason. See the PCI BUS resource in your Device Manager as explained, visually summarized below:

[useafo]

For those who are waiting for my benchmarks, here are the results using PE4H+EC2C peripheral with x1.Opt:

3Dmark06:


3Dmark Vantage:


3Dmark 11:


RE5 DX9 Benchmarks Test:


DMC4 DX10 Benchmarks Test:

[SimoxTav]

I've just completed x1.2Opt benchmarking to give an indicator of the performance SB notebooks will get when BPlus release their PE4H 3.0 in the coming weeks. See DIY eGPU implementation: i5-2540M 2.6 12.5" HP 2560P + NVidia .

Great work! I bought today the PSU for my config (Silverstone SST-ST45SF Strider Series SFX - 450 Watt). The enclosure should arrive on monday and then only the new PCB will be missing for the completed kit.

[celli]

@nando 2.0 Setup

wow it looks very very nice. And i cant wait to test an Opt 2.0 Setup on my Vostro
But one Question. You said that you have less problems with micro lags on pci express 2.0. But are they gone or still noticeable?

[carage]

Just wondering if anyone knows how to force PCI Express 2.0 on the Express Card slot for a Lenovo W520?

[DesZac]

Sorry, but I don't understand how to figure this out and I thought I'd just ask, will my laptop work with an eGPU?

It is the Gateway Tablet Laptop M285-E
Official Gateway Specs Page


Thanks a lot,


-Zach

[useafo]

Hey nando,
I have done posting the benchmarks.

[Kallogan]

Thank you Nando for the GTX560Ti x1.2Opt benchies. Sounds very promising especially for internal lcd.

[User Retired 2]

Just wondering if anyone knows how to force PCI Express 2.0 on the Express Card slot for a Lenovo W520?

Is Setup 1.x reporting the your port, example port4, as p4@x1.2? If so, then the port is already set to negotiate a pci-e 2.0 link. If it says p4@x1.1 then use Setup 1.x to set the port to g2 speed, then plug in your EC2C to get it to negotiate the link. Boot into Win7 then confirm by running a game/app that uses the eGPU, then fire up GPU-Z and see what the link speed is. Need the background app as otherwise the NVidia driver reverts to pci-e 1.0 speed if the eGPU isn't being used after a few secs.

But one Question. You said that you have less problems with micro lags on pci express 2.0. But are they gone or still noticeable?

If you look at the compare the FPS histograms of RE5/dmcv4 for x1.2Opt and x1.1Opt you'll see there are no longer any dips below 60FPS when using x1.2Opt. Means microlags during that benchmarking set are gone. The rendering is noticably smoother. The amount of microlags will of course depend on how bandwidth-centric the game/app you are using is.

Thank you Nando for the GTX560Ti x1.2Opt benchies. Sounds very promising especially for internal lcd.

My pleasure. The x1.2Opt performance was better than I'd expected. I've added some more comments and pics in DIY eGPU implementation: i5-2540M 2.6 12.5" HP 2560P + NVidia GTX560Ti @x1.2Opt

@All - you'll note in the link some new comments about the EC2C-045A (cable plus EC2C all in one). It was unreliable at maintaining a pci-e 2.0 link so it looks like the next PE4H 3.0 will include a mHDMI cable and EC2C all soldered together. Testing indicating the mHDMI connector on the EC2C/PE4H as being the culprit. The same soldered architecture is used by Villagetronic's ViDock.

[kizwan]

Sorry, but I don't understand how to figure this out and I thought I'd just ask, will my laptop work with an eGPU?

It is the Gateway Tablet Laptop M285-E
Official Gateway Specs Page


Thanks a lot,


-Zach

To get best performance from eGPU, you can either do x1E or x2 or x2E link setup, where latter is better.

x1E
This tweak is to enable full x1 1.0 speed on a Intel pci-e port which requires the mPCIe port to be an odd numbered port with no device on the next sequential port, eg: PCIe port#1/port#3/port#5 with no device on port#2/port#4/port#6.

x2
You can only do x2 link setup using two mPCIe ports if they're available. x2 only possible in either of these arrangements:-
- PCIe port#1 & port#2
OR
- PCIe port#3 & port#4
OR
- PCIe port#5 & port#6

x2E
x2E being similar to x1E setup but requires PCIe port#1+port#2 setup, with both port#3 & port#4 having NO physical devices attached to them. PCIe port#1 is set to x4 mode, running with only the first 2 lanes (port#1+port#2). x2E also offering 15-30% faster performance than x2 alone.

NOTE: if x1E is enabled on PCIe port#3 or port#5, the effect is the same as when x2 is engaged on them - PCIe port#1 or port#3 respectively will also be switched to x2 which in turn render the port#2 or/and port#4 non-operational.

Don't worry if the above information are difficult to understand. First & most important thing you need to do now is figuring out the PCIe port arrangement. To do this, you can use AIDA64 (Motherboard \ Chipset \ South Bridge). AIDA64 can give you rough idea the PCIe port arrangement but the PCIe port(s) that being reported empty does not necessary means they're physically available. To know for sure, you need to check how many mPCIe port(s) available on your notebook.

TIPS: first place you can look for mPCIe port(s) is in the WLAN/HDD/RAM compartment.