Can the Dell XPS 13 2 in 1 (7390) be used with an eGPU

[Andrewho]

I’m thinking about getting a new daily driver, I want a 2in1 for ease of use as I travel frequently, but I also need a machine that can handle medium-weight video editing (4K footage, light colour grading, basic titles, 2-3 video layers and audio editing) for when I am at a desk, I was wondering if an external GPU such as the blackmagic design eGPU or Razers eGPU, works with the dell XPS13 2 in 1, so that I can use it with the graphics card when I’m at my desk but still have the portability and basic power of the 2 in 1.

 

cheers

[genexis_x]

Welcome to the forums

 

May I know where are you from? Budget for laptop? Preferred max weight and min battery life?

[Bombastinator]

42 minutes ago, Andrewho said:

I’m thinking about getting a new daily driver, I want a 2in1 for ease of use as I travel frequently, but I also need a machine that can handle medium-weight video editing (4K footage, light colour grading, basic titles, 2-3 video layers and audio editing) for when I am at a desk, I was wondering if an external GPU such as the blackmagic design eGPU or Razers eGPU, works with the dell XPS13 2 in 1, so that I can use it with the graphics card when I’m at my desk but still have the portability and basic power of the 2 in 1.

 

cheers

The issue with eGPUs is the speed of the connection which often isn’t great.  That particular laptop has a ton of different versions so it’s hard to say.  There’s at least 3 cpu generation variants for one.  They even package(d) one variant with linux

[Andrewho]

I’m thinking of gettting the top tier variation, i7 3.90ghz, 32gb ram, 1TB

https://www.dell.com/en-uk/shop/2-in-1-laptops/xps-13-7390-2in1/spd/xps-13-7390-2-in-1-laptop/cn73016

[Kilrah]

I have one, but no eGPU around to try...

[Andrewho]

15 minutes ago, Kilrah said:

I have one, but no eGPU around to try...

Do you like do you like it, how does it perform under relative stress? 

[Bombastinator]

59 minutes ago, Andrewho said:

I’m thinking of gettting the top tier variation, i7 3.90ghz, 32gb ram, 1TB

https://www.dell.com/en-uk/shop/2-in-1-laptops/xps-13-7390-2in1/spd/xps-13-7390-2-in-1-laptop/cn73016

It does have thunderbolt 3, which is 4xpcie3.0
 

im seeing claims that eGPU boxes will handle GPUs of any size.  I don’t quite believe it completely myself because while they would work the biggest ones would be bandwidth limited. A 2080ti saturates a bit more than 8 lanes of pcie3.  Also there’s going to be a bit of overhead.  Dunno how much.

I’m seeing claims that the razorX, the aorus game box, and the saphire gearbox all function.

 

 the saphire gearbox strikes me as a good possible personally because while it takes only shorter cards, the longer higher power cards are often too powerful for the 4 lane connection, and would be bottlenecked by the thunderbolt 3 port.  An rx580 might be appropriate.  It’s about half the power of a 2080ti. and it’s a pretty short card. A saphire gearbox and an rx580 could be had together for a bit north of $400. 

 

 

[Kilrah]

On 1/6/2020 at 4:32 PM, Andrewho said:

Do you like do you like it, how does it perform under relative stress? 

Yes very happy, display is gorgeous, feel is awesome and robust, keyboard and trackpad are great... only gripes I have is it's a little heavier than I'd like (especially in the display side) and battery life is on the short-ish side unless you're careful about power usage. Performance is good for the form factor, no problem having 2 VMs running, does great for Lightroom work, 4-year old AAA games are decently playable... haven't tried really heavy stuff like video editing yet.

About heat/noise/performance you get to choose between 4 compromises so it's pretty cool. In max performance mode under full load it will get loud and hot, and the battery won't last more than 1h-1h30. That's basically what I wanted though so it's good, I had an Ultrabook-sized machine before but with a pretty anemic CPU, I wanted something that had the capability to give more punch when needed.

And that display...

[Andrewho]

Thank you all for the advice, I bit the bullet and purchased one, The machine is fantastic, I've only just started it up and uninstalled McAfee, having had a poke around I have discovered a little thunderbolt tool that answers this thread very nicely, here is a screen shot of it:

[Kilrah]

Hah nice, I opened that app but was only looking for settings and didn't notice it

 

Impressive that you could get one of that specific variant that fast, took me 3 weeks of waiting here.