DIY eGPU experiences

Assuming I got the Y460, I would have to install nvidia drivers on it for optimus to work, right? Would these conflict with the ATI drivers in some way? In other words, would I have to completely uninstall the ATI drivers in addition to disabling the card for an external nvidia card to work using optimus? Wouldn't I need nvidia drivers either way (whether I was using optimus or not)? I'm not sure I completely understand how this all works yet...

 

Jeez, and the GT330 is one of the top of the line mobile GPU's nividia has out there currently... the ViDock or RaDock (Radeon+PE4H) surpasses them all... Definitely worthwhile investment if it suits your configuration...

 

Well, that's a bummer. I don't mind, though. The i7 it comes with is twice as powerful as the CPU in my current T61 and about 2/3 as powerful as my desktop's Q6600, so it should be alright.

I just tried out CoD 4 using my integrated 140M and my external HD 4850. The integrated 140M performed much better than the HD 4850 at x1. I am going to try to figure out x1E and see if that helps out a bit.

EDIT: Ah, bad news. The ExpressCard slot of my T61 is port 4, according to Everest:

PCI-E 1.0 x1 port #4 In Use @ x1 (ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB GDDR3 Video Adapter, ATI RV770/790 - High Definition Audio Controller)

I think that means x1E is not possible on my T61.

 

I am wondering what is the practical data transfer rate used by DIY ViDock? Is there a better work around for the laptops that do not have Express Card slot using upcoming converter for USB 3.0 ?

 

Even USB 3.0 can't touch internal PCIe 2.0 speeds... we're talking about mutil-GIGABYTE bandwidths here with PCIe 2, where they're saying USB 3.0 will be acheiving real-life numbers of 3.2Gbits/sec or 0.4 GBytes/sec. To answer your question, Expresscard delivers 2.5 GigaBITS persec, thats less than .3 GBytes/sec... And thats listed specs, not real-world, including overhead.

I believe no external device will ever come close (in the near future) to an internal PCIe configuration bandwidth allocation speeds. Theres just too much of a disparity given the current technology. This is due to the routing of information. Cords, adapters,etc. all reduce bandwidth. When you have an on-board device, bandwidths are seemingly limitless.

 

Damn... then laptops without built-in express card have no chance enjoying this, then.

 

Thanks to all of you, I have successfully set up a GTX460 on a PE4L, connected to a Thinkpad T510 (model 4314-2PU, with integrated NVS 3100, 4 GB RAM, Windows 7 64 bit) via expresscard. Works beautifully - plug and play (once you know what to plug, anyway).

I used a Sparkle Power Int'l ATX PSU (ATX-350PN), which seems to do the trick for now. It's not the cleanest setup, but it will do until I tinker with it some more.

I'll try to get some benchmarks done, try out the Optimus drivers, and take a few pictures, but for now I at least wanted to report success and thank everybody.

 

Zack, did you get the 768MB or 1GB version of the GTX? Can you please post or explain how gfx-intense games perform with it? Such as Dirt 2, Call of Duty Modern Warfare, etc..??

 

Not anymore i.e. NVIDIA Geforce GT 425M directly replaced GT330.

ASUS N53JQ-A1 - XOTIC PC - ASUS Custom Laptop

 

I got the MSI 1GB Cyclone version of the GTX460. The power connections to the PSU were a little tricky to figure out - the GTX460 needs two 6-pin power connections from the PSU, so it's important to take a good look at the power output from the PSU to see how the power comes out and which molex connectors to use. I guess anyone with experience knows that already, though.

So far, I got it all set up, fired up Dirt 2 at 1900x1080, set up most graphics levels at high, and started gaming. My eyes were getting tired in the wee hours of the morning, but it seemed fantastic. I'll keep bumping them up until the frame rates go down, but I can't test at higher resolutions just yet. That card is quiet to begin with, but I don't think it was even working up much of a sweat with Dirt 2.