eGPU help

[Below27]

Hey guys,

 

I just found out about Thunderbolt 3 and eGPU yesterday and I've been trying to understand the technology and capabilities.

 

I intend to buy a new laptop which has only one thunderbolt 3 capabilities, and I am trying to figure out how I can best use this. If possible, I would like to replace my current desktop set up by using the egpu.

 

From what I've seen online, I am able to connect a thunderbolt 3 hub into the thunderbolt 3 port, then I can connect my Keyboard, mouse, headphones, mic, and ethernet cable all into this hub, and its supposedly even able to charge my laptop. Is that right, basically I just need to plug and unplug one USB c (thunderbolt 3) whenever I want to use my current set up or whenever I want to leave, and everything will be connected?

 

Also on this note, can I also use my current external monitor with this set up? It's a 27inch 1440p 165hz monitor. How will this connect to the set up, can it be done via the HDMI on the thunderbolt hub? Or does it connect directly into the laptop? I saw some specs saying the HDMI is only able to support up to 60hz so I'm not sure. Or does this connect directly into the egpu? And on that note, where can I connect the egpu if there is only 1 thunderbolt 3 port on the laptop, or does this gpu connect via the hub as well?

Thanks in advance for your help!

[leo1798]

5 minutes ago, Below27 said:

From what I've seen online, I am able to connect a thunderbolt 3 hub into the thunderbolt 3 port, then I can connect my Keyboard, mouse, headphones, mic, and ethernet cable all into this hub, and its supposedly even able to charge my laptop. Is that right, basically I just need to plug and unplug one USB c (thunderbolt 3) whenever I want to use my current set up or whenever I want to leave, and everything will be connected?

Not all laptops support charging through USB-C, but if yours does and is also a thunderbolt port, then you can do a single-cable solution, yes. As to the rest of your concerns, be sure to check if the eGPU enclosure that you plan on getting has the IO that you desire, I'm sure some cut costs.

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Also on this note, can I also use my current external monitor with this set up? It's a 27inch 1440p 165hz monitor. How will this connect to the set up, can it be done via the HDMI on the thunderbolt hub? Or does it connect directly into the laptop? I saw some specs saying the HDMI is only able to support up to 60hz so I'm not sure.

Yes, you can use any monitor by plugging it in to one of the ports on the GPU that you insert into the enclosure. You should use a Displayport cable rather than HDMI just to be safe because adaptive sync only works over HDMI with Radeon GPUs, and, depending on the spec of your monitor or GPU's HDMI ports, it could be limited to certain refresh rates and resolutions. 

 

I definitely see the appeal of a setup like this and I would definitely do it if I had the money and a need for an upgrade, lol. Let me know if you have any other questions.

[Below27]

10 minutes ago, leo1798 said:

Not all laptops support charging through USB-C, but if yours does and is also a thunderbolt port, then you can do a single-cable solution, yes. As to the rest of your concerns, be sure to check if the eGPU enclosure that you plan on getting has the IO that you desire, I'm sure some cut costs.

Yes, you can use any monitor by plugging it in to one of the ports on the GPU that you insert into the enclosure. You should use a Displayport cable rather than HDMI just to be safe because adaptive sync only works over HDMI with Radeon GPUs, and, depending on the spec of your monitor or GPU's HDMI ports, it could be limited to certain refresh rates and resolutions. 

 

I definitely see the appeal of a setup like this and I would definitely do it if I had the money and a need for an upgrade, lol. Let me know if you have any other questions.

Thanks so much for the reply.

 

I just realised that the enclosures also have an IO. 

 

So basically I can avoid the hub, and connect the laptop via thunderbolt 3 directly to the enclosure, which would then connect to my keyboard, mouse, ethernet cable, headphones, mic, and possibly power my laptop (depending on the laptop). Then connect the monitor directly to the egpu right?

 

How do I connect the laptop to the egpu? Or is it also automatically connected via the enclosure and tb3? If it connects via the tb3 port, is there enough bandwidth to have the egpu as well as all the other peripherals, ethernet, (possibly) power? Does the monitor connected through egpu also transmit data to the laptop via pass through egpu? 

 

Sorry I'm not really that tech savvy and trying my best to learn everything from articles and videos online, but thanks again for your reply!

[leo1798]

Just now, Below27 said:

So basically I can avoid the hub, and connect the laptop via thunderbolt 3 directly to the enclosure, which would then connect to my keyboard, mouse, ethernet cable, headphones, mic, and possibly power my laptop (depending on the laptop). Then connect the monitor directly to the egpu right?

 

How do I connect the laptop to the egpu? Or is it also automatically connected via the enclosure and tb3? If it connects via the tb3 port, is there enough bandwidth to have the egpu as well as all the other peripherals, ethernet, (possibly) power? Does the monitor connected through egpu also transmit data to the laptop via pass through egpu? 

 

Sorry I'm not really that tech savvy and trying my best to learn everything from articles and videos online, but thanks again for your reply!

This is a fairly simple breakdown of the different parts of an eGPU enclosure, although they differ based on model, brand, etc.

 

So basically, the enclosure has a thunderbolt port to hook up to the laptop. This connects with the enclosed power supply, PCIe slot, and IO. You plug in your devices, except the Monitor, into the enclosure's IO. You put whatever GPU that you want in the PCIe slot and hook your monitor up to that instead. Depending on the GPU, you are already going to be bandwidth starved, but most of your peripherals will not make an impact on such. If possible, I would not, however, make use of the external ethernet unless you have really terrible WiFi. A Keyboard, Mouse, Headset, etc. use such an insignificant amount of bandwidth that they don't matter.

 

One last thing - Be careful to avoid eGPU enclosures that already have a built in GPU - these are not upgradable, and, while cheaper, are a terrible long-term value.

[Below27]

8 hours ago, leo1798 said:

This is a fairly simple breakdown of the different parts of an eGPU enclosure, although they differ based on model, brand, etc.

 

So basically, the enclosure has a thunderbolt port to hook up to the laptop. This connects with the enclosed power supply, PCIe slot, and IO. You plug in your devices, except the Monitor, into the enclosure's IO. You put whatever GPU that you want in the PCIe slot and hook your monitor up to that instead. Depending on the GPU, you are already going to be bandwidth starved, but most of your peripherals will not make an impact on such. If possible, I would not, however, make use of the external ethernet unless you have really terrible WiFi. A Keyboard, Mouse, Headset, etc. use such an insignificant amount of bandwidth that they don't matter.

 

One last thing - Be careful to avoid eGPU enclosures that already have a built in GPU - these are not upgradable, and, while cheaper, are a terrible long-term value.

Great, thank you so much for the info I'll try to take note.

 

Actually the laptop that I intend to buy has an ethernet so I can just plug it in directly,I thought for convenience I could just plug into the thunderbolt 3 dock instead, so whenever I bring my laptop out just need to unplug the tb3 and the power, and when I'm back just need to plug two things in, but I guess adding the ethernet for a third cable isnt too troublesome... haha thanks!

 

On another note, a lot of videos say that the egpu will have around 15-20% less performance than an internal desktop counterpart, but most of these reviews are quite old. Do you know if this is still the case? 

 

My original intention was to purchase the zephyrus s gx531gx-xb76 - basically with RTX2080 maxq. But the zephyrus does not ha e tb3 and it would be really troublesome to hook it up to my current set up, looking at other choices with tb3, I decided on the Gigabyte 15 XA, which only has a RTX2070 maxq, but otherwise almost identical specs but around USD800 cheaper, so I was going to use the $800 to purchase the egpu and enclosure.

 

Does this make sense? Will any egpu even offer significant improvement over the rtx2070 max q? Or should i just stick with the 2080 maxq and suck up the inconvenience of not having the tb3?

[leo1798]

16 hours ago, Below27 said:

Great, thank you so much for the info I'll try to take note.

 

Actually the laptop that I intend to buy has an ethernet so I can just plug it in directly,I thought for convenience I could just plug into the thunderbolt 3 dock instead, so whenever I bring my laptop out just need to unplug the tb3 and the power, and when I'm back just need to plug two things in, but I guess adding the ethernet for a third cable isnt too troublesome... haha thanks!

 

On another note, a lot of videos say that the egpu will have around 15-20% less performance than an internal desktop counterpart, but most of these reviews are quite old. Do you know if this is still the case? 

 

My original intention was to purchase the zephyrus s gx531gx-xb76 - basically with RTX2080 maxq. But the zephyrus does not ha e tb3 and it would be really troublesome to hook it up to my current set up, looking at other choices with tb3, I decided on the Gigabyte 15 XA, which only has a RTX2070 maxq, but otherwise almost identical specs but around USD800 cheaper, so I was going to use the $800 to purchase the egpu and enclosure.

 

Does this make sense? Will any egpu even offer significant improvement over the rtx2070 max q? Or should i just stick with the 2080 maxq and suck up the inconvenience of not having the tb3?

Sorry for the late response, I was moving all day and this is the first time that I've gotten to sit down at my PC. An eGPU's Thunderbolt connection is capped at 4 PCIe (bandwidth) lanes which will lower performance to some extent, but it still scales up to at least the level of a 2080. If you still haven't made your decision, I would suggest going for something much less powerful such as a Razer Blade Stealth with an MX250 or GTX 1650 (or cheaper competitor) that can play games on the fly at medium settings, but in general get MUCH better battery life as well as run much quieter. Then, when you need better graphics performance, you dock your laptop into an eGPU with a monitor and whatnot and you're good to go. If you're after an on-the-go gaming system that can be setup as a desktop, I'd look for a nicer monitor with thunderbolt-as-display support, or for a Thunderbolt hub that has display-outs as well as these can retain all of your peripherals while still providing a one-cable solution - you just would have to rely on your laptop's GPU instead. Regardless, if you plan on docking your laptop at all, Thunderbolt is a must. 

[Below27]

On 9/9/2019 at 3:15 PM, leo1798 said:

Sorry for the late response, I was moving all day and this is the first time that I've gotten to sit down at my PC. An eGPU's Thunderbolt connection is capped at 4 PCIe (bandwidth) lanes which will lower performance to some extent, but it still scales up to at least the level of a 2080. If you still haven't made your decision, I would suggest going for something much less powerful such as a Razer Blade Stealth with an MX250 or GTX 1650 (or cheaper competitor) that can play games on the fly at medium settings, but in general get MUCH better battery life as well as run much quieter. Then, when you need better graphics performance, you dock your laptop into an eGPU with a monitor and whatnot and you're good to go. If you're after an on-the-go gaming system that can be setup as a desktop, I'd look for a nicer monitor with thunderbolt-as-display support, or for a Thunderbolt hub that has display-outs as well as these can retain all of your peripherals while still providing a one-cable solution - you just would have to rely on your laptop's GPU instead. Regardless, if you plan on docking your laptop at all, Thunderbolt is a must. 

No problem at all for your late reply, I'm sorry mine is so late, I completely forgot to check the forum again the last few days.

 

Anyway thanks so much, I really learnt a lot and this definitely helped me make my decision!