Looking for Cheap External Graphics

[cammmy]

Hi All.

I'm using a vertical GPU riser that's gen 3 but am now running Gen 4 graphics and Mobo/CPU. I can put the card into the Mobo and set the slot to gen 3 BUT, this is only because there's no availability of GPU blocks and I use soft tubing watercooling. Once I watercool the card and switch to hardline, this won't be possible.

Gen 4 riser cables are both expensive and hard to find. My question is, are there cheap USB or NVME cards that I can get? All I would need it to do is get me into the BIOS.

This is the only time I've ever wished I had integrated graphics.

Thanks

 

[decto]

Not really clear what you are trying to do.

A cheap auction special GT710 will plug into a riser, or you can use a x1 to x16 riser with it if all you need to do is a bios change.

I have a 45cm riser so can just prop the card somewhere.

 

[cammmy]

Does it work when using a gen3 card and gen 3 riser?

My issue is that my card and Mobo are now both pcie gen 4. So I believe that they negotiate gen 4 but the riser is only gen 3, so it refuses to post and throws a VGA light. Whenever the BIOS is reset, I need to get in and set it to gen 3 again. I'm looking for the easiest way to do that as it will not be physically possible to connect the card directly to the Mobo once I've watercooled it.

If using a gen 3 card and gen 3 riser allows it to auto negotiate then I'll look into that. I have enough access to get the riser cable out of the slot and another in but all the other pcie slots are blocked.

 

[decto]

GT710 is a PCI-E Gen 2 card so will negotiate to that, it also needs very little power so can be run on an unpowered riser.
I paid ~ £12 for the last one, I keep a couple around for when I just need an image.
Passive best so no fans to break or mess with.

If you can get a PCI-E x1 plug to a slot, you don't need much space if you can get behind the vertical GPU.
Or you may be able to lift your card out of the riser and either slot in the card, or slot in the PCI-E x1 extender.


Something like come in different lengths up to 60cm or so.

I haven't heard of any USB bootable devices that will allow you to access BIOS, though Linus did have M2 card with a very basic output... expensive though.

 

[cammmy]

Nice one mate, thanks for the replies. A friend thinks he has an old gen 2 unpowered card he can give me and I'll order one of these:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PCI-Expr...-/254576741934?_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49292

I can easily unplug the vertical mount from the top pcie slot to get a different one in.

I only got the vertical mount a week ago. I wasn't planning to replace the Mobo etc quite so soon but I saw a 5600x in stock so went for it, as my old X99 stuff was still fetching decent money and eBay had a £1 selling fee offer. I'll replace the vertical mount cable with a gen4 one when they come down in price.

Interestingly, I was gambling on the better IPC of the 5600x being better for games than my octo core 5960x at 4.5ghz. the 5600x benches lower in 3DMark but definitely seems to be an improvement in poorly threaded games, which really makes a difference in VR. So I think it paid off. If you can use all the threads, the X99 stuff is still pretty beastly though, even 5-6 years after it released.