Can a TI83-based Powercolor Devil Box owner please confirm this firmware gives full TB3 bandwidth by capturing CUDA-Z/AIDA64 screencaps before and after doing the firmware update? Full 32Gbps-TB3 bandwidth H2D values are shown at:

https://egpu.io/external-gpu-implementations-table/#perf

If this firmware fixes the H2D issue, then a US$300AR TI83-based Devil Box is comparatively great value for an enclosure with I/O ports. Do note this is physically (by volume) the largest TB3 enclosure we have listed at:

https://egpu.io/external-gpu-buyers-guide-2017/

Posted by: nando4

Can a TI83-based Powercolor Devil Box owner please confirm this firmware gives full TB3 bandwidth by capturing CUDA-Z/AIDA64 screencaps before and after doing the firmware update? Full 32Gbps-TB3 bandwidth H2D values are shown at:

https://egpu.io/external-gpu-implementations-table/#perf

If this firmware fixes the H2D issue, then a US$300AR TI83-based Devil Box is comparatively great value for an enclosure with I/O ports. Do note this is physically (by volume) the largest TB3 enclosure we have listed at:

https://egpu.io/external-gpu-buyers-guide-2017/

I get an error when i try unfortunately. 

Also, for the record you can remove most of the outer case so its smaller 🙂 

What PC are you using and do you know that you have a ti83 controller?

New 8th gen intel HP Spectre x360. No idea which controller is being used - is there a way to find out with software or do I need to open it and look at the board? 

good news: i just tried the firmware update and it works. it also fixes the h2d bandwidth problem as promised by powercolor 🙂

@troywright: i dont know how to figure that out, i just knew i have the ti83 because of incompatibility with macbooks in the beginning. usually the date of purchase can give you a good idea which version you have. if its newer than half a year it should be the ti83. but you can search for other topics issuing the devil box, i remember there was a way to determine which controller you have.

Posted by: troywright

New 8th gen intel HP Spectre x360. No idea which controller is being used - is there a way to find out with software or do I need to open it and look at the board? 

TI82 works fine with Windows. macOS is the picky one and will show "Unsupported". You should be able to flash the firmware regardless of the TI82/TI83 controller. Which Intel Thunderbolt Software version are you running?

Posted by: theitsage

Posted by: troywright

New 8th gen intel HP Spectre x360. No idea which controller is being used - is there a way to find out with software or do I need to open it and look at the board? 

TI82 works fine with Windows. macOS is the picky one and will show "Unsupported". You should be able to flash the firmware regardless of the TI82/TI83 controller. Which Intel Thunderbolt Software version are you running?

NVM20. I wonder if it's the laptop having problems. I'll try again today.

I tried as well with my old XPS15 and I also get the same message. Must have a dud...

Two things to try next. First option is to remove the GPU from the enclosure prior to flashing the firmware. The second option is to install Intel Thunderbolt Software version 16.2.55.275.

Thanks for your help! Downgrading did the trick. New picture attached. Doesn't seems to be as big of a difference that other experienced, but it's higher. I'll test it with real world fps games sometime during the week. 

troywright I also have an XPS 9550, also had to downgrade the software version and also have about the same throughput as you. A couple of questions if anyone knows:

- Should we be sticking with that particular Thunderbolt software version and if so why? The latest is 17.X

- Is the throughput speed troywright and I seeing normal for our (admittedly gimped PCIe x 2) laptops?

Posted by: yoshiwaan

 

- Is the throughput speed troywright and I seeing normal for our (admittedly gimped PCIe x 2) laptops?

You are seeing 2-lane TB3 (16Gbps-TB3) bandwidth throughput after applying the H2D fixed Powercolor Devilbox firmware. Can compare against the reference at:

https://egpu.io/external-gpu-implementations-table/#perf

Thanks nando4

Just as an FYI, I ran into the same error message and got the firmware programmed from the Linux side. Note that when you're seeing this error message a named FW...something.bin (don't recall the exact name) is temporarily created in the running directory of the update EXE.

If you copy that file into a different directory and boot into Linux, you can use the "dd" process described here to update the firmware. Be sure you're targeting the correct device (0-1 in my case)! 0-0 is usually the host laptop's device in Linux. It does have to be a recent Linux kernel (4.14.x or greater), but it worked well for me. Things are much faster!

As far as reliability goes, I've had bad luck with the TB3 cable provided by PowerColor. I now use a longer, "active" cable and see none of the weird USB device issues and (mostly correctable) PCIe errors that I saw with the stock cable. My conclusion: TB3 is sensitive to noise and the active cable helps mitigate this.

Also, though I know PowerColor have moved on from this product, I've received ZERO response from several queries via their customer support. Though I figured things out (mostly) on my own, batting "0"fer is not a good look PC!

Cheers!

Ura

Posted by: troywright

Thanks for your help! Downgrading did the trick. New picture attached. Doesn't seems to be as big of a difference that other experienced, but it's higher. I'll test it with real world fps games sometime during the week. 

Hey Troy, 

I have the exact same error message and same exact laptop. What and how did you "Downgrade" ?

I assumed you meant the Intel Thunderbolt Driver? I tried downgrading to 16.2.55.275, but I get error message:

Exception has been thrown. Closing application...
Exception type: FwUpdateAPI.TbtException
Exception message: Error: 0x211
SDK_UNKNOWN_CHIP Unknown Thunderbolt(TM) chip.

Wow after several hours, I figured out.

1. Uninstall current Thunderbolt Drivers (go to Windows Uninstall and find the Thunder software)
2. Install Old Thunderbolt Drivers from Intel
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/27344/Thunderbolt-Bus-Driver-for-Windows-10-8-1-and-7-for-Intel-NUC-Kit-NUC6i7KYK
3. Now the firmware update tool from Power Color should work.
4. I went ahead and reupdated my Thunderbolt drivers afterwards.