Laptop with eGPU

[Damian.Byrne]

So a short while back, Linus released a video about the ultimate stealth desktop experience, one where he doesn't have a traditional desktop tower at all, but rather a laptop that he carries around, and then when he comes home, he slides it under the top of the desk and connects it to an eGPU via Thunderbolt.

I'm considering doing it myself with my next computer sometime either at the end of this year or in early 2020. At the moment, I have a desktop with a core i7 8700K, 16GB RAM and a GTX 1080 Ti, connected to an Acer Predator XB1. I also have an Alienware 15" laptop, with a mobile core i7 7700HK (or HQ, can't remember which), 16GB RAM and GTX 1060 6GB (no Gsync though) (which I got for only a thousand euro). 

What Linus said in the video makes sense. Why pay for two motherboards, two CPUs, RAM etc when you can only ever use one at a time? So I'm thinking of getting a laptop with thunderbolt 3 and sticking my 1080 Ti in an enclosure. I'm not an FPS junkie (as long as I have above 60 at 1440p, I'm happy).

What I want to ask is for those of you who DO have a laptop with eGPU. 

1) Which laptop do you recommend? 

2) If your laptop has AMD graphics, are there conflicts when/if you connect it to an Nvidia GPU? Can you have both sets of drivers installed at the same time? I know there are conflicts on desktop but I'm wondering about laptops here.

3) If your laptop with AMD graphics but connected to an Nvidia GPU is connected to a Gsync display, do you still get Gsync? 

4) Would it make sense to get a Macbook Pro to use as my sole daily driver, and install Windows in Bootcamp? How bad is the thermal throttling on a MBP? 

5) Are there any laptops that have six or more cores (with or without hyperthreading) but a relatively weak GPU (whether iGPU or discrete)? I like to contribute to F@H and BOINC, so my practise is to throw a few cores at them while I'm doing light tasks. 

 

Just to be clear, I'm not going to replicate Linus's setup from that video. I don't mind clutter on my desk. 

[DrMacintosh]

I would not buy a MacBook Pro unless you plan on using macOS daily. The quality of the speakers and trackpad do not transfer over to Windows. 

[Damian.Byrne]

1 minute ago, DrMacintosh said:

I would not buy a MacBook Pro unless you plan on using macOS daily. The quality of the speakers and trackpad do not transfer over to Windows. 

I have a 2.1 Logitech speaker set up at home using an external Creative soundcard and I would be using a mouse regardless of OS. As for out and about, I use headphones, sometimes wired, sometimes Bluetooth. So what you raised would not be a concern for me. Thanks anyway.

[DrMacintosh]

1 minute ago, Damian.Byrne said:

So what you raised would not be a concern for me. Thanks anyway.

But it would if you ever used the machine as it was intended, as a Laptop. If you don't use macOS on a MacBook ever, then you would be better served getting similar specs on a Windows machine. 

 

A MacBook is a lot more than a design. 

[Damian.Byrne]

1 minute ago, DrMacintosh said:

But it would if you ever used the machine as it was intended, as a Laptop. If you don't use macOS on a MacBook ever, then you would be better served getting similar specs on a Windows machine. 

 

A MacBook is a lot more than a design. 

I mentioned MB because I've only ever used macOS once before in my life (about 18 years ago) so purely out of curiosity. I think I've heard noise about 6 core Windows laptops coming out. 

Oh yeah...what about Linux support for eGPUs? Same questions about drivers. My ultimate go to gaming machine would be either a triple boot OSX+Windows+Linux or dual boot Windows+Linux. 

[DrMacintosh]

2 minutes ago, Damian.Byrne said:

Oh yeah...what about Linux support for eGPUs? Same questions about drivers. My ultimate go to gaming machine would be either a triple boot OSX+Windows+Linux or dual boot Windows+Linux. 

If you wanted that you would need a machine with Radeon Graphics. 

[Damian.Byrne]

Just now, DrMacintosh said:

If you wanted that you would need a machine with Radeon Graphics. 

What do you mean? Does Linux/OS X not support Nvidia eGPUs, only Radeon? I'm looking at Nvidia drivers for my 1080 Ti, and there's only Windows and flavours of *nix listed. So Apple computers are out of the question for me, I guess.

[DrMacintosh]

1 minute ago, Damian.Byrne said:

Does Linux/OS X not support Nvidia eGPUs, only Radeon? I'm looking at Nvidia drivers for my 1080 Ti, and there's only Windows and flavours of *nix listed. So Apple computers are out of the question for me, I guess.

Mac's only run on Intel and AMD graphics and Linux runs terrible on Nvidia graphics. If you wanted a machine that could triple boot all 3 operating systems, it would need to have AMD graphics. 

[Damian.Byrne]

Just now, DrMacintosh said:

Mac's only run on Intel and AMD graphics and Linux runs terrible on Nvidia graphics. If you wanted a machine that could triple boot all 3 operating systems, it would need to have AMD graphics. 

Thing is, I'm looking at a video right now that I found just after your last reply of someone running a 1080 Ti eGPU on his macbook. Also it may be my autistic'ness, but what does the vendor of GPU have to do with what OS's a machine can boot?

 

[DrMacintosh]

3 minutes ago, Damian.Byrne said:

Thing is, I'm looking at a video right now that I found just after your last reply of someone running a 1080 Ti eGPU on his macbook. Also it may be my autistic'ness, but what does the vendor of GPU have to do with what OS's a machine can boot?

Ever since macOS High Mojave, Nvidia GPUs do not have drivers. No driver = no video. Older version of macOS on older MacBooks can use an Nvidia GPU, but a 2018 MacBook cannot boot off of an Nvidia Graphics card. 

[Damian.Byrne]

1 minute ago, DrMacintosh said:

Ever since macOS High Mojave, Nvidia GPUs do not have drivers. No driver = no video. Older version of macOS on older MacBooks can use an Nvidia GPU, but a 2018 MacBook cannot boot off of an Nvidia Graphics card. 

Okay then. So I won't bother looking at Macbook Pros. Thanks for that. So what about my questions regarding Linux and Windows? Are there laptops with high core count (4 or 6) but relatively weak GPUs? As for performance in Linux, is that true? I've just checked the Nvidia site, the latest Linux driver is 418.43, compared to Windows's 419.35. I follow this guy Evangelho from Forbes.com, who's going to put out a guide for gaming on Linux soon, in various different flavours.