Summary
Laptops with extremely high-speed portsUSB 4, Thunderbolt, and OCuLinkare becoming more common.
One of the consequences is external graphics cards (eGPUs) becoming less of a niche product.
Is it something you really need?
Razer
Here are some things to consider.
That’s just for the enclosure, the actual graphics card requires yet another purchase.
you’ve got the option to always use one you have lying around, of course.
There are reasons for this price tag.
Converting the graphic card’s PCIe interface to the smaller connectors used in laptops requires complexand expensiveparts.
You’ll likely don’t even need a dedicated graphics card in your laptop.
You might be tempted to get one “just in case.”
If you favor macOS, your mileage may vary.
Let’s get into detail for each case.
At the eGPU.io forum, users have alist of unofficial solutionsthat work with more cards.
Apple Silicon Macs, though,don’t work with eGPUs at all.
External graphics card cases, however, can’t by any means be called tiny.
They’re meant to be external, but not necessarily portable, mind you.
There are smaller enclosures, but those are limited to entry-level cardsor even laptop GPUs.
If you’re going for a desktop-class eGPU, though, be ready to lose some desk real estate.
We’re talking about investing hundreds of dollars in a solution.
A bottleneck is the slowest component of your setup.
The only real question is whether your GPU offers enough performance at the fidelity level you need.
Start the software or task, then press Windows + G to check which component is limiting your performance.
Thunderbolt 3 (and 4) goes up to ~8GB/s, while USB 4 reaches about 16GB/s.
Thunderbolt 3/4 and USB 4 are somewhat on par with the requirements of midrange models.
If you’re using the eGPU to power the laptop’s internal screen, things get worse.
That means double the conversion, and more data loss.
Flagship graphics cards suffer more significant drops, sometimes over 50%.
This flexibility may be the solution to your problems.
It may not, too.
There are a lot of factors to ponder.
