OcuLink Expansion Bay Module

Creators & Developers Expansion Bay
992

Last update from my side for some time: so, I did more benchmarking and testing today in different games. The best average results I can share for now are:

Cyberpunk: 4i: 39.5 fps ; 8i: 41.5 fps

Far Cry 6: 4i: 62 fps ; 8i: 67 fps

The board is EXACTLY what the community was waiting for - if you know how to get it running it works just fine. Also, I just had another exchange with @Filip who confirmed he went through a lot of troubleshooting too to get it running the first time ;). So I don’t feel so bad that it took me long too.

The board is perfect. What the community now has to figure out is simply: “How good is OCuLink 8i?” We need a lot more people testing. :wink:

2 Likes
993

I wonder if your gpu is the limitation as you mentioned before. I will be using an RX 9070XT, so hoping to see different data. However, it will still be limited to PCIe 4.0 instead of it’s native 5.0. Very interesting that you have very little difference in results for fps. The data Filip showed me was twice the transfer rate than the 4i I currently use, so how is it so minimal I wonder?

994

It depends on the workload most likely. For gaming it might make a small difference for most GPUs due to there not being a lot of talking between GPU and CPU needed after everything is loaded into VRAM besides occasional synchronization and new texture loading, but I bet it would make a huge difference for more bandwidth intensive tasks. I guess we’ll see the general difference after we see more benchmarks.

EDIT: I bet it can also greatly vary depending on the game.

995

You can say that again. Just went through 5 more games, as I mentioned, I will provide a more detailed update later, but just to already say it here. Battlefield 6 is the best one so far, a solid, noticeable 10-12% increase in fps. Damn. It’s like a GPU upgrade almost. Good to finally see it. OCuLink 8i is real, and very game-specific apparently.

3 Likes
996

Final Test “Report” on OCuLink 8i with Framework 16 (AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS / RTX 3090)

Hi all, I did more testing with a total of 10 AAA titles of the last 5 years, all in maximum settings or close to maximum settings, and compared both OCuLink 4i with 8i. Here is my “final report” of my experience regarding performance and also troubleshooting for anyone interested.

Does it work?

Yes, once you figure out how to set it up, it does work well and in a stable way with the board of @Filip . And yes, the tech is real, and it does result in a performance increase.

In my testing, I have seen about half of the games that did only show a minor improvement of about 2%, close to margin of error. About one additional third of the games showed noticeable improvements of around 5%. And a few games showed significant gains of 10% or even slightly above. So yes, OCuLink 8i is real, it is an improvement in games. Overall, across all testing I have done, I would say you can expect on average a performance increase of 5%. I also confirm that the bandwidth I measured is close to twice that of 4i, so for other use cases than gaming this may also be significant (perhaps even more).

Is it worth it?

I would say yes. Given the time of current costs of hardware, 5% performance increase for the cost of a cheap Aliexpress EGPU plus the board is a good way to go. However, it is pretty game specific, varies a lot. Perhaps the reason is that some are more CPU heavy, while others depend more on the GPU. Another argument in favour of 8i is that it provides you with 5% increase of base frames. For those using AI tools such as frame gen, you can multiply the gains accordingly ;).

How do I get it to work?

So once you know what to do it is pretty straightforward. You can order the Aliexpress EGPU plus the cable on Aliexpress, you get the board from @Filip and plug it together. If you have a GPU that requires a PSU, don’t forget to turn on the power switch in the EGPU. Once the hardware is set up, you turn on the EGPU, then the notebook. If nothing happens and you do not see the GPU in device manager, run the error 43 fixer. If this does not work, then change the script in the .bat file of the error 43 fixer. If this is also not sufficient, go to your BIOS, press F9, and then F10, to reset the BIOS to “optimal default” settings. Finally, if this is still not enough, you can do a battery disconnect in the BIOS, save it, wait 2 minutes, and then turn on the notebook and EGPU again (after replugging the power cable). That should do it. I also checked out all these steps in 2 different BIOS versions, 3.07 and 4.03, both work fine.

It was a fun experience and is an amazing step forward for the Framework 16 community that the board exists. Thank you again to @filip for allowing me to test it. I will also definitely get the final “product” from him once we have it.

5 Likes
997

Thanks for the troubleshooting steps. Might have to put some of these to use when getting my board. Do you by chance know what the BIOS settings default to when enabling optimal settings? Just curious what it is going to change if I have to go that route. I’m at work or I’d check myself.

998

From what I understand it is simply a reset of the BIOS, so if you didn’t make any previous changes in the BIOS yourself, then it should be no difference. It is setting it back to software factory mode as I understand. OCuLink 8i needs a clean reset so-to-say, to make sure there are no previous settings that are in conflict with it. That’s also why sometimes the battery disconnect is needed. However, @Filip surely can explain more.

And by the way, I also just wanted to mention that we are comparing apples and pears here a bit. We are comparing a finished retail EGPU from Minisforum with a signal amplifier on the one hand, with a very simple Aliexpress EGPU that feels and looks really basic and does not have any signal amplification at all. Personally, I am now waiting for a more trustworthy 8i EGPU (but not sure this will ever be produced by any company).

999

It’s been a while since I dabbled in my bios settings. I can’t remember what all I’ve messed with I’d have to check. Only thing coming to mind was my battery limit.

1000

Hi, just letting you know that i am also interested in purchasing (and/or testing) the board. I have the AI 350 Framework and live in Germany.

1001

Hi.

I would also like to purchase one board.

Greetings

1002

Count me in for the first batch :wink:

1003

I’d love to buy one when the time comes :slight_smile:

1004

Since others are chiming in here, I would also be interested in acquiring a board!

To add to the discussion, what OcuLink 8i-compatible eGPU docks or adapters are out on the market at this point in time?

The one I was looking at was on Aliexpress, and it clearly would need a base to be fabricated for it: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256809000385961.html

image
image960×960 82.9 KB

1005

If the time comes maybe we should organize something so people can register there interest for the Board.

This Forum might work, but difficult to keep track of everybody. And we need to organize getting addresses, payment etc…

But definitely interested as well..

Axel

1006

I’ve ordered exactly that pair: Data Cable + SFF-8612 (with discounts ~69 euro). you need also the GPU interposer if you don’t already have it.
For the base you can print this one already linked in previous post.

1 Like
1007

Hi, this is indeed the recommended EGPU and cable. However, there is no good base yet. What we would need is something sturdy, similar to the base that exists for the DEG1: Reddit - The heart of the internet

If anyone in the community has 3D printing skills, that would be fantastic to try to adapt this one or start a new one.

Personally, my plan is to use this EGPU with a 3D printed small adapter in my FormD T1 case, V.2.5. What I am trying to do is to get a 3D printed small adapter that can be used to attach this EGPU to the bottom of this SFF PC case.

If anyone has 3D printing skills in terms of design, please let me know. It would be amazing to start this.

1 Like
1008

In the next few days hopefully the 8i SFF-8612 board and data cable i bought at aliexpress (mentioned from autocannon20 and polxmod) will arrive - it’s already through german customs. Some other oculink stuff of that order like the 8i to 2x4i is still needs to get shipped… That order is a bit cursed by delays.

The board from Filip is already installed in my FW16 and is recognized in the UEFI & framework_tool, but I couldn’t test it without the other hardware :frowning:

I am curious to see how the Radeon 6900XT with Oculink i8 compares to a connection with USB 4.0 (and later Oculink i4).

1009

Fingers crossed it starts working on your end. I do keep having some issues with the latest BIOS on my 7940HS, but there’s pretty much no older BIOS on the Ryzen AI boards, so it would be a bummer if it didn’t work. FWPL did manage to upgrade to 4.03 on his 7840HS and have it still work at x8, so it is an odd issue.
I am able to get it to work at x4 configuration… I just have to downgrade if I want to use x8. Really hoping this is just a me issue and no one else gets this. I did open a different thread to talk about it though: Issues with getting a PCIe device detected using v4 BIOS on the 7940HS

1010

I did write some simple troubleshooting steps for the testers troubleshooting.md · GitHub.

It also includes different EEPROM binaries for changing the PCIe configuration.

I did notice an odd issue with framework_tool writing malformed data, so I included a script written in PowerShell that writes data in smaller chunks using ectool. And also a way to recover the EEPROM power in case it turned it off due to the malformed data (it happened to me).

1 Like
1011

I’ve been watching this closely as you get your board close to ready - I’ve been running the 7840HS + RX 7700S since launch, and dreaming of swapping out the 7700S for a serious eGPU solution at some point. Absolutely interested when you’re ready to put these up for sale.

Regarding 3D printing - I’m a hobbyist, but I’ve done a fair bit of design work in Fusion360. Currently gearing up to get a small Etsy store put together for some of my custom models (grips/cases for retro handhelds).

I did pick up the 8i-eGPU board referenced here for experimentation; haven’t gotten the cable yet, need to get that ordered. I’d be happy to take a whack at remixing that case for this board and putting it up on Printables. That said, it’s gonna be a hot minute before I have time to dedicate to the project - probably wouldn’t be able to start until sometime in March - so if anyone else is eager, they’re welcome to beat me to the punch. :smiley:

1 Like