Laptops For EGPU?

[8462]

Hey so im helping a friend get a gaming machine (he wants a laptop so he can use it for college also) and was wondering how to tell if a laptop is capable of using an egpu?I know it ideally needs thunderbolt but there seems to be more to it, so fi theres a method to find out or a list of compatible laptops, that would be really handy. Also i know the disadvantages of egpus but most gaming laptops for a reasonable price are only 8gb Vram which is pretty bad since he cant really upgrade a laptop but can do so with an egpu when its performance starts lacking. Any insight would be great or alternative ideas, my plan was buy a fairly cheap laptop say £500-£600 and then get an egpu dock, psu and 3060 for about £400-£500 which he can then upgrade in the future. Thank you in advance! 

[emosun]

5 minutes ago, 8462 said:

my plan was buy a fairly cheap laptop say £500-£600 and then get an egpu dock, psu and 3060 for about £400-£500

so your plan is to buy a laptop that can only ever be used for gaming while docked and connected to another monitor for the same price as a laptop that already has the gpu built in and can just do the same thing but anywhere , correct? All of which was based on the vram amount and zero thought going into the cpu or any other aspect of the machine correct?

[8462]

11 minutes ago, emosun said:

so your plan is to buy a laptop that can only ever be used for gaming while docked and connected to another monitor for the same price as a laptop that already has the gpu built in and can just do the same thing but anywhere , correct? All of which was based on the vram amount and zero though going into the cpu or any other aspect of the machine correct?

Well not quite, you see the laptops primary use is for schoolwork, so it doesnt need to be crazy powerful and the lack of gaming laptop addons (cooling systems, gpus, beefier batteries etc) mean it will be easier to carry, not to mention more efficient and as such last longer on a single charge when doing basic work. Secondly the cooling system of a dedicated desktop gpu is much greater than a laptops, meaning it would be a lot better under stress (e.g gaming) without costing further performance because of thermal throttling. This also allows him to upgrade either his gaming or schoolwork parts individually or transfer his gpu to an actual desktop, saving money in the long run. also most gaming laptops are pretty underwhelming if not being powered whilst gaming, meaning an egpu doesnt seem like such a bad idea since he would likely be tethered in one spot to achieve maximum performance anyway. Most 12-13th gen processors also have enough single core headroom to support a fairly powerful gpu which considering 1080p is his target shouldnt be a problem for a while since a ryzen 5 3600/  I5 9600k are still competent gaming cpus despite their age and being much weaker than most modern mobile cpus. Ram is modular on most laptops and so also isnt a real problem and ssds are the same. Any further questions feel free to ask if i missed anything or it is unclear.

[emosun]

12 minutes ago, 8462 said:

Well not quite, you see the laptops primary use is for schoolwork, so it doesnt need to be crazy powerful and the lack of gaming laptop addons (cooling systems, gpus, beefier batteries etc) mean it will be easier to carry, not to mention more efficient and as such last longer on a single charge when doing basic work. Secondly the cooling system of a dedicated desktop gpu is much greater than a laptops, meaning it would be a lot better under stress (e.g gaming) without costing further performance because of thermal throttling. This also allows him to upgrade either his gaming or schoolwork parts individually or transfer his gpu to an actual desktop, saving money in the long run. also most gaming laptops are pretty underwhelming if not being powered whilst gaming, meaning an egpu doesnt seem like such a bad idea since he would likely be tethered in one spot to achieve maximum performance anyway. Most 12-13th gen processors also have enough single core headroom to support a fairly powerful gpu which considering 1080p is his target shouldnt be a problem for a while since a ryzen 5 3600/  I5 9600k are still competent gaming cpus despite their age and being much weaker than most modern mobile cpus. Ram is modular on most laptops and so also isnt a real problem and ssds are the same. Any further questions feel free to ask if i missed anything or it is unclear.

ok so in the future you can just say yes and that will be shorter to read.

seems like you have it figured out already so maybe someone else will jump in with a recommendation.

[8462]

Just now, emosun said:

ok so in the future you can just say yes and that will be shorter to read.

seems like you have it figured out already so maybe someone else will jump in with a recommendation.

But the answer to your question was no? I was simply explaining that so as to answer your questions with enough clarity and show my thoughts on the areas you claimed i hadnt thought about to clear up any misunderstandings.

[g0ated]

45 minutes ago, 8462 said:

Hey so im helping a friend get a gaming machine (he wants a laptop so he can use it for college also) and was wondering how to tell if a laptop is capable of using an egpu?I know it ideally needs thunderbolt but there seems to be more to it, so fi theres a method to find out or a list of compatible laptops, that would be really handy. Also i know the disadvantages of egpus but most gaming laptops for a reasonable price are only 8gb Vram which is pretty bad since he cant really upgrade a laptop but can do so with an egpu when its performance starts lacking. Any insight would be great or alternative ideas, my plan was buy a fairly cheap laptop say £500-£600 and then get an egpu dock, psu and 3060 for about £400-£500 which he can then upgrade in the future. Thank you in advance! 

Any laptop with a good cpu that does not bottleneck a lot and has adequate ram(preferably >= 16gb) should do fine. 

[8462]

2 minutes ago, goatedpenguin said:

Any laptop with a good cpu that does not bottleneck a lot and has adequate ram(preferably >= 16gb) should do fine. 

Cool, do you know if any laptop with a thunderbolt port will work or do you need specific ones?

[g0ated]

16 minutes ago, 8462 said:

Cool, do you know if any laptop with a thunderbolt port will work or do you need specific ones?

A laptop with thunderbolt 3 or 4 is needed. I recommend this one which is under your budget but is very solid for its price but honestly given your budget you should get a laptop that has a gpu already in it. Here is my recommendation:

 

This is the one with the thunderbolt support:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dell-Inspiron-5630-FHD-Fingerprint/dp/B0C7LFTJ3J/ref=sr_1_12?crid=3SHU4UUZ4ATSO&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.N9K223bSf_5qnDBpvtvBC8yU1WGBmV8pQKAcV2DZQxkymcK8CzUEMcXzx-ro9mpm5hJWSiCuvqXc4lyG5vGfEFSDeg74CWmMtapaLEh1kHv1ivsiqEHbBp1WZ2n-ZztovZQ9XpLitfZkeYB7J_gIffaoYCiO-ov7z8m7KTqz15tL_f90rML8RX0s8G1qx4rtrGdr7rv-IeqiQyLoiyYyufi7r6LYh2TzlXIe8BwCAccVXEsZjyy1W9_7RuqECFbroV9xtBq_KV7iiALrv_tyYR9vS4M36R9nc4qKtsUA2-c.vcX87joj1-tacCfKsHLOIj9tpSISz-AZvQqU8UY4Ymc&dib_tag=se&keywords=laptop%2Bwith%2Bthunderbolt%2B4&qid=1719968383&s=computers&sprefix=laptop%2Bwith%2Bthunderbolt%2B4%2F%2Ccomputers%2C215&sr=1-12&th=1

 

This is the one of the examples where having a dedicated gpu in the laptop itself is more logical to me and you can even get a better specced laptop overall since your total budget is 1100 quid:

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/MSI-Cyborg-15-Gaming-Laptop/dp/B09XTRFF7M/ref=sr_1_24?crid=VM5VA156TNV3&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.RVmueyHneoHqMYRn0P5ryOhQnYXJuF64QOaaoBPUNmtKhvcXrcY9gewCT-lfoLXq23ryI9Zbv0dAj-bN4Tggcf4M9mY9Sivs3gL1rqVL44Exd7KizaEpYv3lf8eEgF7L9N-TZFloFRxbJfmNdnxIQ6KODZ7kI9UjkiJ_R1WhoVLJ32G635Fcw33UXPXM-YqxSI4NAeF9iInHeT6OE8sXkOQweVz80ubCh9ePZQfxwFbfoaFB3eRd_oekpzAlxPlzS9bP6F9PU4huOyKWMYJruRsTwoSfV0ox91jOXeZv6mM.NVFHMN-nsvf8_3ENnDZesuc4iO8W5hpwCN1U-JypkJk&dib_tag=se&keywords=600+pound+laptop+16+gb+ram+thunderbolt&qid=1719967522&s=computers&sprefix=600+pound+laptop+16+gb+ram+thunderbo%2Ccomputers%2C221&sr=1-24

 

[IAmAndre]

On 7/2/2024 at 11:31 PM, 8462 said:

Hey so im helping a friend get a gaming machine (he wants a laptop so he can use it for college also) and was wondering how to tell if a laptop is capable of using an egpu?I know it ideally needs thunderbolt but there seems to be more to it, so fi theres a method to find out or a list of compatible laptops, that would be really handy. Also i know the disadvantages of egpus but most gaming laptops for a reasonable price are only 8gb Vram which is pretty bad since he cant really upgrade a laptop but can do so with an egpu when its performance starts lacking. Any insight would be great or alternative ideas, my plan was buy a fairly cheap laptop say £500-£600 and then get an egpu dock, psu and 3060 for about £400-£500 which he can then upgrade in the future. Thank you in advance! 

May I ask which egpu dock you are getting?