Best eGPU Compatible Laptop

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DarkStar02

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Any recommendations? Looking for a nice laptop that's compatible with eGPU's, I just saw Apple is making Macbook Airs with i7's in them now, too bad they're not compatible. :(
 
Can always make a DIY eGPU over Thunderbolt on a Macbook. I'm guessing you're talking about ExpressCard-based solutions only?
 
CEpeep said:
Can always make a DIY eGPU over Thunderbolt on a Macbook. I'm guessing you're talking about ExpressCard-based solutions only?
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I believe I read an article saying that thunderbolt bottlenecks the GPU. It would definitely be nice to be able to have an i7 macbook air with an external GPU at home for when I wanted to play some BF3 or something though.
 
DarkStar02 said:
I believe I read an article saying that thunderbolt bottlenecks the GPU. It would definitely be nice to be able to have an i7 macbook air with an external GPU at home for when I wanted to play some BF3 or something though.
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Thunderbolt is 20Gbps. Expresscard (the only other viable eGPU interface, AFAIK) is 2.5Gbps. Thunderbolt exposes 4x PCIe lanes (IIRC), whereas Expresscard exposes only a 1x PCIe interface. The article you were reading was either wrong, or was comparing to a full desktop PCIe 16x slot.
 
The article I read said that it was 10Gbps and that was the limiting factor but if it is indeed 20gbps then would I be able to use the new macbook air with the i7 and an external GPU? Do you have any links or articles?
 
That thread is so big now, it's really hard to find specific information in there even with Google.

As far as I've read, there's a limitation in TB due to the cable or the controller inside the cable, that doesn't allow access to all 4 channels, so you're limited to 2x 10.0Gb/s bidirectional channels (assuming you're using a MacBook Pro with a Light Ridge controller instead of an Air with an Eagle Ridge controller, which only has 2 channels.) So given the limitations of the current cable, you're only getting a maximum of 20Gb/s bidirectional instead of 40Gb/s bidirectional like you should have. So presumably, once a better cable (it's not just the cable, it's the chip inside as well) comes out, you'd get full access to it. 40Gb/s bidirectional should be enough for 8x PCIe while 20Gb/s should get 4x. So the performance is a lot lower than it could be but theoretically even at 20Gb/s it should still be higher than most Expresscard setups, since Expresscard 2.0 is only 5Gb/s and I don't think it can even reach that because of the cables available.

On the flip side, a TB eGPU would be completely DIY and I'm not sure how at the moment. There's a couple of absurdly expensive docks available, but the price and availability isn't going to change until later 2012 because currently only Intel, Sony, Apple and a few selected partners have access to the TB stuff.

If there's some other limitation to TB vs. Expresscard, I haven't seen it but again, I'm missing a lot of information because that thread is huge and it's hard to parse it. :|

I'm really curious about it too. It seems like the best future-proofed eGPU notebook would be a Macbook Pro or any LightPeak/Thunderbolt enabled Windows laptop that comes out in the future. Currently, the best practical notebook for it is almost anything with an Expresscard 2.0 slot, like the Lenovo X220, Dell XPS15 and a handful of other notebooks. There's a listing of people's notebooks in that notebookforum thread. And finally, the best hypothetical notebook would be Sony's Z2 but no one is going to support their version of Lightpeak in the future (even though it's faster than Apple's) and they stuck a god awful video card in their custom eGPU enclosure - a Radeon 6650M.

FWIW, there's a video of an X220 w/ 560ti eGPU playing BF3 @ 1080p Ultra settings. There wasn't any combat going on, but the owner said it's getting 30-60fps.
 
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Jaerb4 said:
FWIW, there's a video of an X220 w/ 560ti eGPU playing BF3 @ 1080p Ultra settings. There wasn't any combat going on, but the owner said it's getting 30-60fps.
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That would be awesome. Too bad they don't make i7 x220's, still very cool though.

EDIT: Googling i7 x220 turns up results but they don't offer it on their site. Weird.
 
DarkStar02 said:
That would be awesome. Too bad they don't make i7 x220's, still very cool though.

EDIT: Googling i7 x220 turns up results but they don't offer it on their site. Weird.
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x220 is one of the best w/ eGPU... They only support the i7 dual core.
 
Has anyone tried to use the diy egpu PE4H (a vidock but without the case) and a sonnet thunderbolt/expresscard adapter? It really seems like this set up would work, since the adapter would just be letting the express card connect to a thunderbolt port (I think). It would also be a cheap alternative for macbook pro people who want an egpu. I'd really like to get this topic going since I feel like a lot of people would like to know but no one has gone out and tested it yet.
 
EpicBlob said:
Has anyone tried to use the diy egpu PE4H (a vidock but without the case) and a sonnet thunderbolt/expresscard adapter? It really seems like this set up would work, since the adapter would just be letting the express card connect to a thunderbolt port (I think). It would also be a cheap alternative for macbook pro people who want an egpu. I'd really like to get this topic going since I feel like a lot of people would like to know but no one has gone out and tested it yet.
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Bump for a good idea. Anybody have a macbook that wants to do some testing for us? :D
 
LTR said:
Look at the sony vaio z series it has a dock with an eGPU.
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Some things against it:

proprietary HD6650m PMD and connector

custom driver set from Sony that is NOT easy to upgrade (ask NBR forums)

Vaio Z2 starts at 2000usd (though, admittedly, the HW you get is unmatched in ANY laptop below 15", bar none).
 
Okay I can agree the driver support issues from Sony I have an older z series from the generation before this one, with the 330m and I could really use some new drivers, but there seem to be none forthcoming.
 
LTR said:
Okay I can agree the driver support issues from Sony I have an older z series from the generation before this one, with the 330m and I could really use some new drivers, but there seem to be none forthcoming.
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I think NBR has some drivers for the Z1 lineup (not in the newer branches, though, iirc). However, I think some of the driver updates actually require BIOS modding :eek:
 
What wizardy am I reading about? This sounds interesting. I'd buy a powerful external GPU any day, provided it is more powerful than what I have in my laptop (read: HD 6750M - which so far I am quite happy with). Please let there be a Thunderbolt GPU for Windows 7 that actually packs some punch. Please, take my money. Where can I buy this stuff :p
 
/rant/ said:
What wizardy am I reading about? This sounds interesting. I'd buy a powerful external GPU any day, provided it is more powerful than what I have in my laptop (read: HD 6750M - which so far I am quite happy with). Please let there be a Thunderbolt GPU for Windows 7 that actually packs some punch. Please, take my money. Where can I buy this stuff :p
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I can build you one, will even make a custom lexan enclosure for it -- give me your money. ;)
 
Hey guys. So I'm actually going to be testing out the Sonnet thunderbolt adapter and Vidock in a few days :) Just waiting for the Vidock to arrive in the mail.

My set-up will be a 2011 macbook pro 13inch i5 / EVGA gtx 560 1gb / Sonnet Thunderbolt adapter / Vidock 4+

If this works, I will only have numbers on Windows 7 (I will try os x, but the card I bought isn't exactly 100% compatible).
 
EpicBlob said:
Hey guys. So I'm actually going to be testing out the Sonnet thunderbolt adapter and Vidock in a few days :) Just waiting for the Vidock to arrive in the mail.

My set-up will be a 2011 macbook pro 13inch i5 / EVGA gtx 560 1gb / Sonnet Thunderbolt adapter / Vidock 4+

If this works, I will only have numbers on Windows 7 (I will try os x, but the card I bought isn't exactly 100% compatible).
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Keep us posted. :D
 
Ok so I got my Vidock and Sonnet echo working with my macbook pro :DD

It is running at 1.1 x1 speed, so bandwidth is causing some games to lag. And I still can't figure out a consistent way of getting it to work after I shut down. 3dmark06 score is 14639 (mostly due to my dual core 2.3ghz i5). Battlefield 3 had some issues while playing with all settings maxed out (performed much better with settings on high and lower resolution) but games like far cry 2 played perfectly on maxed out settings.

I will try and have my review/tutorial out as soon as possible :)

And if anyone wants an early answer, then this setup would be for the people who are willing to spend a bit of extra money to have an egpu with their macbook right now. From what we could tell, the thunderbolt versions of egpus by villagetronic and sonnet might not come out until summer (depending on intel) so an extra $200 for ~4ish months of a vastly improved gaming experience? Eh, I thought it was definitely worth it.
 
Yes. The setup does work on a 2011 macbook air.

And sorry this is taking so long to get the review up. I'm doing my best to have it up soon :)
 
I am curious if this would be able to run dual or tri displays. (Not gaming obviously!)

I picked up a 15" MBP due to having the high-res option. If the ability to have a 13" or 11" MBA, connected to a multi-monitor setup existed, there is a VERY real possibility I would sell this thing in a heartbeat and switch up.

The 15" MBP is kind of at the limits of "really" portable. A 13" MBA would be closer to what I would actually prefer. But only for traveling, I am to used to multi-monitor setups to live without one for real.
 
Zumino Zufeilon said:
I am curious if this would be able to run dual or tri displays. (Not gaming obviously!)

I picked up a 15" MBP due to having the high-res option. If the ability to have a 13" or 11" MBA, connected to a multi-monitor setup existed, there is a VERY real possibility I would sell this thing in a heartbeat and switch up.

The 15" MBP is kind of at the limits of "really" portable. A 13" MBA would be closer to what I would actually prefer. But only for traveling, I am to used to multi-monitor setups to live without one for real.
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Wait for the next Macbook Air. The new GPUs are likely to be able to drive 3 simultaneous displays. Current MBP will already do two daisy-chained Thunderbolt displays (but the internal display turns off).
 
CEpeep said:
Wait for the next Macbook Air. The new GPUs are likely to be able to drive 3 simultaneous displays. Current MBP will already do two daisy-chained Thunderbolt displays (but the internal display turns off).
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Don't get me wrong, the Thunderbolt ACD is fantastic, but I can't justify $1000 for a monitor. I'm looking for a fairly simple system that would allow me to run dual/three displays, without needing to buy an ACD and then daisy chain off that.
 
EpicBlob, nice. I am eyeing a Vidock 4 and a Radeon 7850 for my Thinkpad T420 cos I have a T221 monitor and I can only get 25Hz out of it via the thinkpad dock and also I would like to do some gaming (although not on the T221). Did you try multiple monitors? Or at least a TV and a monitor :) ?
 
chx said:
EpicBlob, nice. I am eyeing a Vidock 4 and a Radeon 7850 for my Thinkpad T420 cos I have a T221 monitor and I can only get 25Hz out of it via the thinkpad dock and also I would like to do some gaming (although not on the T221). Did you try multiple monitors? Or at least a TV and a monitor :) ?
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Hey, no sorry I have not tried a multi-monitor setup (I have my 27inch monitor but my TV recently died) :(. And the 6850 should work fine. If you are able to wait a bit, Vidock should be releasing their TB Vidock soon with a faster pci-e speed. MSI is actually supposedly releasing their egpu at the end of April as well.
 
hey, I cant yet post on notebook review, but I cannot get my MBA 2012 to recognize my sonnet expresscard 34/pro adapter

I have a vidock 4+ (275w) and GeForce 660Ti (EVGA). I cant make it past the first step and cannot find anything on people being unable to get the sonnet adapter to be recognized. I cant find it in device manager or anything

any assistance is greatly appreciated

2012MBA 2.0i7, 8gb ram (TOULD is 0A00000), Intel HD4000, 512SSD

thanks!
 
I was able to get the Sonnet to work right by downloading the windows version of the SxS sony drivers. I am currently running a GTX660Ti on my MBA setup

i7 2.0 Ivy, 8gb 1600, 512SSD, Thunderbolt Display
-ViDock 4+ (275w)
-Loaded with EVGA GTX 660Ti, 3GB SC
-Sonnet ExpressCard Thunderbolt Adapter 3/4 Pro

Working well so far, sound is buggy and cuts out, I am trying different driver versions to see what may work best. For the most part I am VERY happy with the results, I can run borderlands 2 1900x1200 on full graphics pretty seamlessly
 
New mac book pro out 13 inch with retina display nvidia 650 only 1 gig of ram but ....still a awesome laptop. Now do I wait for win/intel to get off there ass & make 1 or snag the pro this blk friday!!
 
AFTFNJ said:
New mac book pro out 13 inch with retina display nvidia 650 only 1 gig of ram but ....still a awesome laptop. Now do I wait for win/intel to get off there ass & make 1 or snag the pro this blk friday!!
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I say build one. Who knows how long it will be before they commercialize this, if ever. I highly recommend the ViDock over the Sonnet option because it is cheaper and supports up to 225w cards versus 150w

My setup works awesomely

Feel free to ask any questions, I had quite a bit of stuff to work through and have done a bit of research, should be able to save you some anguish
 
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