AW18 using Desktop GTX 970 EGPU Setup

I was using dual 980ms in my pc until one fried. These cards have been highly unrelieable. I've had to change these cards twice each. If I replace the fried card it would be a third time for one card!!!!! Of course these cards are now out of warranty and I would have to come up with over 700U$D out of pocket for it (that's not gonna happen). Instead of trying to find my 880ms, I remembered I was interested in the egpu thread on this forum and started reading it. It lead me to Techinferno where I found a thread written by a person that had a AW18 R1 and he made it work. So I bought the following:

-http:// www.amazon.com/Bplus-version-interface-mPICe-Length/dp/B00ZI33ZQK/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1458182418&sr=8-7&keywords=bplus

and borrowed these items:

-http:// www.amazon.com/ZOTAC-GeForce-GTX-970-ZT-90101-10P/dp/B00NNXVPS2/ref=sr_1_1?m=A2L77EE7U53NWQ&s=warehouse-deals&ie=UTF8&qid=1458182453&sr=8-1&keywords=zotac+gtx+970

-http:// www.amazon.com/Corsair-CX850M-Modular-Supply-Certified/dp/B00OVCJKWC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1458182636&sr=8-1&keywords=corsair+cx850m

I removed my wifi card connected the mini-pcie card and setup the stuff. I turned on my pc and everything came to life. I installed the 361.51 Nvidia driver for the 970 and rebooted. The card is seen in device manager, and I disabled the internal card. The only game I have on my pc right now is Fallout 4. I fired up the game and the game detected the card and set the game to ultra. I played for about an hour getting 45-50FPS. I'll keep testing and share what I learn. I do know from reading the forums that I should not expect to get the same results as someone who uses the card in a desktop, because it not the getting the full bus speed (blah, blah). I have to laugh the if this works out I can update this desk top gpu a lot cheaper than the mxm cards.

 

There is also this model.

http://m.banggood.com/Mini-PCI-E-Ve...al-Independent-Video-Card-Dock-p-1011222.html

 

I had that model, but I thought it wasn't working and sent it back for the model I'm using now. It turns out the psu wasn't working so the unit I sent back could've been okay to use. The one I have now I do like the base better. The card feels more secure.

 

I would love to see a pic of this setup. Is the card enclosed, is it just sitting next to the 18? And how about the power supply? Also, and yes this may be an even dumber question but, are you now without a wifi card permanently or did you have to remove just to access the connection? Anyway, pic would be cool. This is interesting.

 

i am very interested in this do you have any pictures taken ?

also where can i find those other topics about EGPU in alienware 18 can't seem to find other threads about it

thanks

 

View attachment 133190 View attachment 133190 View attachment 133190 View attachment 133190

-Wifi was removed and replaced with mini-pcie card
-Wifi drivers were also removed
-Removed small portion above phone jack to allow cable out of pc. Would've tried to remove phone jack if I had better skills.
-My OS is win8.1
-System is pure UEFI, I was early adapter for 980ms and UEFI was required. To lazy to change back
-Everything powers on when I push power button on pc
-External monitor plugged directly into card. I noticed this makes games run a 45-50fps. If run through pc major loss of fps.
-Dedicated GPUs removed from PC. EGPU not seen in bios, but seen in device manager. Don't know if this is a problem. EVERYTHING WORKS.

@Trulyfatal This is the website. Sorry it was a AW18 R2

https://www.techinferno.com/index.p...gtx780ti2gbpsc-mpcie2-pe4h-24-win7-riri-fifi/

 

Very cool. Some of you guys make me feel so tech stupid with the things you do. Impressive.

 

Just in case anyone wanted to know :

 

Do you still have your dead 980M? I want to try to revive it.

 

Sorry, I traded it to my friend, engineer student, for the 970 and psu. He wanted to mess with it. I'm so technical

 

Is the mini PCI-E fast enough? I allways thought that was a x1 PCI-E port.

 

The 970 is not as fast as it would be in a desktop, as seen in the benches I posted. I read about loss of some bus speed in the forum, but I'm not technical in that regard. However, it performs well enough to run my game in ultra and I'm getting 50fps. I can get more fps when I remove the fps lock (90+) fallout 4

 

That's a brave feat bud well done +5 rep !!

 

How did you disable the Intel iGPU? Just did it in Device Manager? Or, does the graphics switching feature work with an eGPU like it does with MXM? This would be a good example of where having an unlocked BIOS might be very advantageous... being able to totally disable it 100%.

 

I disabled the IGPU in device manager. If I had not done that my external monitor would not have turned on, the monitor is plugged directly into the card. Oddly, fn+f5 did not didn't work to switch between the igpu and dedicated card.

 

I am mighty interested in it. being a still owner of m18x currently. Can you please make video of how you did the set up with configurations and drivers and everything please?

I might sell my only gtx 780m and put used gtx 970 desktop to play with it

 

will the express card version work also?

http://www.bplustech.com/Adapter/PE4C V3.0.html

 

Why you need the external monitor? It doesn't work with the built-in screen?

 

No, unfortunately it is not. It only looks like it because the mini-PCI/DMC slot is on a USB port. The only thing that is mini PCIe is the socket/form factor. ExpressCard should be MUCH faster assuming it is working from PCIe rather than USB. Otherwise, it would likely make no difference compared to using the mini-PCI/DMC slot .

An ExpressCard has a throughput of 2.5 Gbit/s through PCI Express (which is PCIe 1.1 speed) and a very pathetic 480 Mbit/s with USB.

Yeah, in theory it should work fine. But, only for M18xR1/R2 because Alienware 18 does not have ExpressCard, unfortunately. It would also have the added advantage of requiring zero hardware modifications. Just slide it in and go.

Good question. Having to use an external monitor would suck if you don't want to, or don't have one.

 

oh Aw18 dont have expresscard slot...then good for my m18x r2 then

this guy did it with expresscard i think.

is external monitor a must ? @Scanner have you tried with internal monitor?

 

-Internal monitor only gave me 8-10fps on my games. External monitor 40-50fps in game. So, I need one.

-I did not use express card, since my AW18 does not have one.

-earlier post explains what I did in detail

-Anyone with an AW18 R2, I posted link , earlier in this thread, to thread on tech inferno where R2 owner describes what he did

 

It looks as though your GPU-Z and the info reported by Riri-Fifi indicate PCIe speeds are being achieved on both machines, so that's all good. Maybe the DMC slot in the 18 is truly attached to PCIe, which is also great. It must be the case that using the native LCD only allows use of the Intel HD Graphics and an external display must be required in order to use the external GPU. Until @Swick1981 can find a way to make M18xR2 support Maxwell, using it with an eGPU might be the best option for now. It can still be fantastic playing games with 780M SLI... don't need 980M for that, but it would kind of cool to see how a 980Ti or Titan benches with the 3920XM running about 4.8GHz.

 

M18xr2 does Maxwell right? Many people are running 980m sli in m18x r2 though its throttling, but its running well on stock speeds with gaming performance.

For Expresscard Adapter I see two options, one is EXP GDC Beast V8 and Pe4c V3 which one is best?

Its mentioned pe4c v3 supports gen 3 pcie speeds? What speeds Exp gdc beast v8 support?

 

I have had the mini PCI-E versions of both of these adapters. The beast was returned because I thought it was not working, when in fact it was a dead psu. I got the Pe4c V3 as a result of that mistaken belief. But, having had both I like the Pe4c V3 better. The Beast, at least the one I had, was mostly plastic and it did not feel sturdy. I like the base of the Pe4 v3, its wide and the card is firmly seated and held in place. Everything is placed on a well built platform. I refer you to this site because it details what all the areas on the board are:

http://www.hwtools.net/Adapter/PE4C V3.0.html

I did not get my unit through this site, but Amazon ( see my OP). I couldn't tell you the speeds of either of these adapters, but I would send you to Tech Inferno to ask your questions since they are more active there:

https://www.techinferno.com/index.php?/forums/topic/1636-diy-egpu-experiences-version-20/

Their members seems to do bench marks. You should also look at this thread:

https://www.techinferno.com/index.p...gtx780ti2gbpsc-mpcie2-pe4h-24-win7-riri-fifi/

This person also has an R2, and his setup consists of the use of an express card. He also seems to have used some sort of setup software:

https://www.techinferno.com/index.p...egpu-setup-130-previously-setup-1x/#post27337

I did not seemingly need this software, as mine was basically plug and play. You should try and contact this person as he has the some pc as you. Also, if you need the setup software, I believe you can only get it from the person named nando on that site. I think he created it and sells it for @25 bucks.

Pay attention on the seller of whichever version you get, remember most of them are shipped from China, so it could be a month before you get what you paid for. I think my sell was in the USA, since it came within 4 days, paying for express shipping.

Good Luck

 

cool thanks for the tip. I will So you bought the V8 version of exp gdc beast and returned it? I found a pe4c in germany soon I will try to get it

 

Please advise:
Which is better and faster, if I have Express Card slot better use it with adapter? or use the mini PCIe slot and removing my WiFi card?

I have a Clevo P570WM with GTX 780m SLI. BTW, can I get any advantage of my SLI cards with eGPU setup?

Regards

 

Might not provide any advantage on the P570WM with 780M SLI. 780M SLI is already close to the same performance as a single Titan desktop GPU and 980M SLI is slightly more, so there would be nothing to gain except more clutter on your desk. It might be worth doing as a geeky project just for the fun and experience of something new to play around with, but I would not expect to realize any gaming performance benefits to the contraption with a high spec SLI system like yours.

I think the performance over mini PCIe and ExpressCard should be the same PCIe 1.1 speed.

 

Another win for the M17x/M18x...expresscard and go....and another loss for the Alienware 18, for being such an invasive procedure. Even the Alienware 17 left the wifi card on the bottom instead of under the keyboard.

 

-------
Thank you @Mr. Fox for your advice, really appreciated, I'm following your work and contributions everywhere and you are really adding value for many of us. Regards.

 

What laptop cooler are you using that fits the AW18? I havent been able to find one that fits.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Cooler Master Notepal U3Plus Laptop Cooler "R9-NBC-U3PK-GP, 3 x 80 mm removable fans, aluminum surface

 

Is this the same one you are using in the photo? From the photos it looks very different. No usb or ports like from your photo. Is that a separate dock your using?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Maybe you mean this:
https://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Maste...68&sr=8-2&keywords=Cooler-Master-NotePal&th=1

 

That looks more like it. Which one is better in your opinion?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

The laptop cooler that I was using in the photo was the Cool Master Storm SF-19 with 2 140mm fans. Unfortunately, the model is discontinued. Once I removed the GPU and used the external 970 the was no heat problems.

 

hi look at this


http://www.thermaltakeusa.com/products-model.aspx?id=C_00001629

https://www.amazon.com/Thermaltake-...qid=1481818714&sr=8-1&keywords=thermaltake+17

I own the previous model (alluminium chassis) and its still workin solid

 

hi Scanner,

is it possible to use the EGPU for notebook with burned GPU? Mine is Toshiba M840 with Radeon 7670M integrated to the board.

thanks,
Andy

 

Wow it’s been a while since I’ve been in this thread. Remember when I first did this thread one of my 980m cards fried. Both cards were removed and the only thing left was the internal gpu. If your pc has a removable mini PCIE card, or can use the other model you should be fine. You’d be even better with a thunder bolt connection.

 

Hi Scanner,

I'm rather late into this eGPU game. Good thing I can still found your post.

As for my M840, the internal Radeon is fried. I believe the notebook has mini PCIe, although the question is whether I can plug in the eGPU and expect it to kick in right from the POST-UP screen? If I need to install it in Windows first then I'm out of luck here.