DIY eGPU experiences

[Khenglish]

Do i have to use the DVI port or HDMI port on my video card to see the performance increase of using an external monitor? I just tried using the VGA output on my laptop, and I didn't see any performance gains versus the internal LCD.

Yes you must use the ports on the graphics card itself.

[Xav]

Do i have to use the DVI port or HDMI port on my video card to see the performance increase of using an external monitor? I just tried using the VGA output on my laptop, and I didn't see any performance gains versus the internal LCD.

yes, you have to use the ports on your video card. the ones your laptop will just mirror/extend your internal LCD mode.

[Khenglish]

Oh and with the 680 now out and considering how good it is (12335 3dm11 GPU score at 1.4ghz on air here). I decided it's time to let my card show its true colors to make sure that none of you get a 680 and beat my scores easily. It's an EVGA classified, which is capable of 1.8V to the GPU core. The only requirement is flashing it to an unofficial BIOS and keeping it cool. Sadly for overclocking, winter is nearly over here so no more benching at less than 10C load, but I think I'll be able to keep it under 30C (water cooling). I won't go quite as high as 1.8V, but you can bet I'll go high enough for at least 1.2ghz

[maxjiang]

It was a epic fail trying to get my PE4H 2.4 + EC2C to work on my HP Compaq 2210b and Sony Viao VGN-SZ412N for the past 8 hours. I really could do with some help.

Laptop1:
Sony Viao VGN-SZ412N
Intel Core 2 Duo T5600 1.8GHz
3GB memory
Intel ICH7 Chipset
Hybrid Nvidia 7400 Go + Intel 945 (Nvidia 7400 Go fried long ago, no longer switchable, constantly on Intel IGP now)
Windows 7 64
Setup 1.x 110b5


Laptop2:
Compaq 2210b
Intel Core 2 Duo T8300 2.4GHz
3GB memory
Intel ICH8 Chipset
Intel 965
Windows Vista 32
Setup 1.x 110b5

eGPU:
Nvidia Geforce 8800GT 512MB DVI ports only
PE4H 2.4 + EC2C
350W ATX PSU
External monitor (VGA to DVI adapter)

----
All devices are connected correctly. Everything including Expresscard, mini HDMI cables and Graphics card are all functioning.

Symptom for laptop 1:

1) Black screen (with 1 long and 2 short beep) when booting up with eGPU powered on. *Fixed by changing the PCI Reset Delay slider to 7s*

2) Booted into Windows with eGPU powered on (PCI Reset Delay slider 7s). Device Manager refreshes but nothing gets detected.

3) Booted into Windows with eGPU powered off (PCI Reset Delay slider 0s). Sleep. Power up eGPU. Resume. Device Manager refreshes but nothing gets detected.

4) Booted into Setup 1.x. (card detected). PCI compaction -> 32 bit -> iGPU + eGPU. No need to turn off dGPU as it is set to off by default.BSD occurs upon loading Windows.

5) Tried other PCI compaction options. Either froze on booting Windows or BSD.

Symptons for laptop 2 (PCI Reset Delay slider 0s):

1) eGPU powered on before booting Windows. Card detected and installed as Standard Display Adapter with Error 10 and after installing latest Nvidia driver it changed to Error 12. After setting Setup 1.x -> PCI compaction -> 32 bit -> iGPU + eGPU. The error is then changed to 43 (Incompatible display adapter). Tried to follow FAQ Error 43:

a) cannot install Verde 270.61 (hardware incompatible)
b) mini hdmi cable is fine.
c) didn't get "load a pci dump". Does it mean simply select pci->load dump?
d) Installed 258.96 with modded inf and the error remains
e) (26th July 2011 solution) 275.33 only has 64 bit modded nvam.inf.

Any help is very much appreciated.

Cheers,
M.

[kizwan]

Kizwan, thanks for all your help.
For Joss27 gpuz was showing gen2 support but was negotiated at gen1, mine only shows support for gen1. I have tried "Safely Remove Hardware" trick too, but I can never get it to reconnect after doing that.

This is Joss27's screenshot of GPU-Z showing PCIe 1.1 x16 @ x1 1.1:-

me too gpuz shows only running at PCI-E 1.1x16 not 2.0


and today i have lot of crash of windows :/

and following my suggestion, Joss27 able to get the eGPU to work on PCIe 2.0 link:-

i try this and for working, i need to disconnect/connect the EC2C card and after in gpu-z it's passed @x1 2.0 a few seconde aned passed @ x1 1.1 but when i run the GPU-Z integrated renderer, it's passed @x1 2.0

Basically, Joss27 disconnected the eGPU using the "Safely Remove Hardware" (icon in the notification area, near clock) & reconnect eGPU after that. This successfully getting the eGPU to work on PCIe 2.0 link. This method should work for you as long as you wait for "... device can now safely removed from the computer" dialog balloon before disconnecting eGPU (the EC2C card from ExpressCard slot).

If the Joss27's method doesn't work for you, you can try the same method (use "Safely Remove Hardware") but instead disconnecting EC2C card from ExpressCard slot, turn OFF eGPU & after several seconds later turn it back ON again.

Please follow this procedure to check the PCIe link capabilities:-

Please confirm by checking LCAP (Link Capabilities Register). Download & run SIV. At the bottom of SIV window, click "PCI Bus" button. In the "PCI Bus" windows, look for "0 - 28 - X" on the left, where X are:-
- X=0 (PCIe port1)
- X=1 (PCIe port2)
- X=2 (PCIe port3)
- X=3 (PCIe port4)
- X=4 (PCIe port5)
- X=5 (PCIe port6)

Check in AIDA64 what is the PCIe port number where eGPU is connected to. For example, if eGPU is connected to PCIe port1, click "0 - 28 - 0" button. A window will appear, like this:-


Look at the LCAP register. It should report "Link Rate 5.0GT/s" if Gen2 disable bit is not set. You will see "Link Rate 2.5GT/s" if Gen2 disable bit is set.

[kizwan]

It was a epic fail trying to get my PE4H 2.4 + EC2C to work on my HP Compaq 2210b and Sony Viao VGN-SZ412N for the past 8 hours. I really could do with some help.

Laptop1:
Sony Viao VGN-SZ412N
Intel Core 2 Duo T5600 1.8GHz
3GB memory
Intel ICH7 Chipset
Hybrid Nvidia 7400 Go + Intel 945 (Nvidia 7400 Go fried long ago, no longer switchable, constantly on Intel IGP now)
Windows 7 64
Setup 1.x 110b5

eGPU:
Nvidia Geforce 8800GT 512MB DVI ports only
PE4H 2.4 + EC2C
350W ATX PSU
External monitor (VGA to DVI adapter)

4) Booted into Setup 1.x. (card detected). PCI compaction -> 32 bit -> iGPU + eGPU. No need to turn off dGPU as it is set to off by default.BSD occurs upon loading Windows.

Strange the card is detected in Setup 1.x but not in windows. Did you try chainload to windows without doing any compaction?

Laptop2:
Compaq 2210b
Intel Core 2 Duo T8300 2.4GHz
3GB memory
Intel ICH8 Chipset
Intel 965
Windows Vista 32
Setup 1.x 110b5

Symptons for laptop 2 (PCI Reset Delay slider 0s):

1) eGPU powered on before booting Windows. Card detected and installed as Standard Display Adapter with Error 10 and after installing latest Nvidia driver it changed to Error 12. After setting Setup 1.x -> PCI compaction -> 32 bit -> iGPU + eGPU. The error is then changed to 43 (Incompatible display adapter). Tried to follow FAQ Error 43:

a) cannot install Verde 270.61 (hardware incompatible)
b) mini hdmi cable is fine.
c) didn't get "load a pci dump". Does it mean simply select pci->load dump?
d) Installed 258.96 with modded inf and the error remains
e) (26th July 2011 solution) 275.33 only has 64 bit modded nvam.inf.

Any help is very much appreciated.

Cheers,
M.

For laptop 2, please try Windows 7. No need to format your Vista, just dual-boot with windows 7.

The drivers version in eGPU Troubleshooting FAQ is the latest version at the time of writing the FAQ. Now, they are old version. They should be read as "275.33 or newer", even though they are not written like that. You should use the latest version available at modded drivers page.

[maxjiang]

Strange the card is detected in Setup 1.x but not in windows. Did you try chainload to windows without doing any compaction?.

Yes it is indeed strange. I have tried chainloading to windows without the PCI compaction. It is still the same. Note that if I don't do the PCI compaction and there is no beeping sound after reboot even if the eGPU is powered on. Although it is just black screen on both displays I can tell the laptop is booting and loading into windows...

Any suggestions on how to get my graphics card detected in Windows?

For laptop 2, please try Windows 7. No need to format your Vista, just dual-boot with windows 7.
The drivers version in eGPU Troubleshooting FAQ is the latest version at the time of writing the FAQ. Now, they are old version. They should be read as "275.33 or newer", even though they are not written like that. You should use the latest version available at modded drivers page.

I can see that the modded infs contain fermi desktop graphics card but mine is not one of them. Hence the "cannot find compatible hardware" error. Would installing windows 7 still help?

[madseason]

Hi,
Just waiting for mine PE4H setup with PCI-express card connector.
Yesteday I found out that it may be better to connect it over PM3N card.
Can someone please take a look at the picture and let me know, what would be better? I can see that both are x2, but it looks that PCI-ex card is working over some USB 2.0 ports that would sugest it is much slower.

Zdj?cia - Pokazywarka.pl

Thank you for your help. I really wanted to find answer in this thread but after reading 300 pages I am more and more confused.

[antiknown]

How are you reconnecting the eGPU after you remove it? Some will work by just turning the card off and on, but other require a full hotplug, or else they are not detected.

If you haven't tried it yet, after removing the card in windows through "safely remove hardware", turn the card off, disconnect it, turn it on, then reconnect it. You can also skip having the card on and removing it in the first place by just hotplugging after windows has started and is running.

I was finally able to get the Latitude e6320 into gen2 mode. The only way I can get it to work is to:
1. connect the express card after boot
2. use "safely remove hardware"
3. physically eject the express card
4. re-insert express card after several seconds

Unfortunately benchmarks do not show much improvement.
@1.1x1 3DMark06 - 6168
@2.0x1 3DMark06 - crashes every time

@1.1x1 3DMark11 - 3094 (graphics score: 2990)
@2.0x1 3DMark11 - 3184 (graphics score: 3071)

@1.1x1 Heaven (1366x768) - 1267
@2.0x1 Heaven (1366x768) - 1440

3DMark11 only shows a %2.7 improvement. Heaven was better at %13.6 improvement, but I only ran that test once in each mode so it might be less accurate. Any ideas why there is so little improvement?

The machine specs are i5-2520m, 8gb, gtx 465. I am using the latest stock nvidia desktop driver (296.10). Do I have to enable optimus manually? Is there some way to check if optimus is on/working?

Thanks!

[LoneNF]

The machine specs are i5-2520m, 8gb, gtx 465. I am using the latest stock nvidia desktop driver (296.10). Do I have to enable optimus manually? Is there some way to check if optimus is on/working?

Thanks!

Don`t you have to use the modified NVIDIA Optimus drivers?
DIY eGPU experiences