External GPU via thunderbolt?

[DylanSCO]

Pretty interesting concept right, what sort of trade offs would something like his present? Perhaps increased latency? I've read up on the topic but I can't seem to find any solid evidence of it for the consumer. People have done it with various different pieces of kit strung together but I'm not so sure about that. I'm thinking of doing something like it with my MacBook Air once I have ~$500 spare (not that I need to, I have a perfectly good gaming pc, but I love doing crap like that for no real reason)

[PlayStation 2]

It'd be on par with PCI-E 3.0 x1 IIRC so it's not HORRIBLE but it could definitely impede performance... if your CPU already didn't.

[DylanSCO]

It'd be on par with PCI-E 3.0 x1 IIRC so it's not HORRIBLE but it could definitely impede performance... if your CPU already didn't.

Naa, my 1.80GHz i5 is perfect for high performance gaming

[HumbleMobo]

Pretty interesting concept right, what sort of trade offs would something like his present? Perhaps increased latency? I've read up on the topic but I can't seem to find any solid evidence of it for the consumer. People have done it with various different pieces of kit strung together but I'm not so sure about that. I'm thinking of doing something like it with my MacBook Air once I have ~$500 spare (not that I need to, I have a perfectly good gaming pc, but I love doing crap like that for no real reason)

I too like doing crap like that, for instance I did something very similar.  I shat a 780 ti and shoved it up the ass hole of a dragon!  Now I have an MSI GPU and it runs games at 4K

[HumbleMobo]

Naa, my 1.80GHz i5 is perfect for high performance gaming

1.80 Ghz....I have a 2012 HP collecting dust with a 2.50 Ghz and turbo 3.0 Ghz CPU i5

[DylanSCO]

1.80 Ghz....I have a 2012 HP collecting dust with a 2.50 Ghz and turbo 3.0 Ghz CPU i5

It does the job, it's got an integrated GPU so it's more powerful than it seems. I get similar, benchmark results to my friends ~3GHz i7 with it rarely exceeding 70°C (still damn hot)

[Dschijn]

For 500$ you could build an eGPU with:

- AKiTiO Thunder2

- GTX 950 (EVGA with one fan)

- Dell DA-2 220W PSU

- some cables and adapters

 

Two problems with your setup.

1.) The MBA you have is probably from 2012? So it just has TB1, which would limit performance

2.) The dual core CPU in the MBA isn't enough for some of the latest high end games!

 

If you want to game on the internal display of your MBA you will need Windows 8.1 (not 7 nor 10) and the performance will drop by 20-30%.

 

This is the place to be, if you want to read about eGPUs: http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/

[EpIcPoNaGe]

Here is a link to another thread where @Firearm2112 put together an eGPU for his macbook:

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/277270-macbook-pro-with-a-gtx-980-setup-guide-benchmarks-egpu-setup-windows-10/

 

I have to say its a really interesting idea and would love to give it a try... if I had a macbook.... and a few hundred dollars to spare...