Tech Virgin, Hunting for eGPU

[scs_789]

Hello,

I am a design student who knows very little about computers (dad is an IT guy so i got the basics but my problems have gone beyond running a task manager), and I am determined to upgrade my laptop for both work and games.  I have a HP Z Book 15 G2, and essentially the problem that I am facing is that the GPU in my laptop is not powerful enough to keep up with my CAD designs, nor is it running newer games very well.  When I first got it, it was fantastic, but the only game I was running was Starcraft II and the cad designs that I was making were incredibly simple.  Now I am running games like Dying Light and Fallout 4, and as a 4th year design student I am developing quite sophisticated 3D models and renderings, and quite frankly my computer can no longer keep up with my demands. 

 

In my own research I have determined this was the fault of my graphics card, as most of the time I am not using even half of my available memory (16GB RAM).  I am currently equipped with a NVIDIA Quadro K2100M GPU.  HP's support site lists very few compatible chips, and I want to open the possibility to upgrade in the future, thus I have decided the best way forward is through an external GPU.  

Now comes the part where I have become stuck.  There is a lot of technical knowledge needed to upgrade a computer, and it is the type of knowledge that I lack.  Normally I try and study these things myself until I feel comfortable, but I feel as though every tech tutorial and explanation I have found makes the assumption that all their viewers are tech-savvy, and I am not.  I don't have a clue what the difference between a thunderbolt 2 and 3 port is, I don't get what a core clock is, I don't know how important VRAM is, etc etc.  

 

Basically the help that I am looking for, is can someone explain to me what to look for while shopping around for an eGPU so that I actually know what I am getting?  And can you explain it with the assumption that I have no clue what the word you just used means?

Thanks very much!!

[Get Booda]

4 minutes ago, scs_789 said:

 

Unfortunately, your laptop is only equipped with a thunderbolt 2.0 port which does not have enough bandwidth to smoothly run an external GPU properly, so I would't recommend it. 

[scs_789]

1 minute ago, Get Booda said:

Unfortunately, your laptop is only equipped with a thunderbolt 2.0 port which does not have enough bandwidth to smoothly run an external GPU properly, so I would't recommend it. 

Ok so eGPU aside, are there ways to improve my laptop's graphic rendering abilities without incurring the compatibility issues I was worried about?

 

[Get Booda]

4 minutes ago, scs_789 said:

Ok so eGPU aside, are there ways to improve my laptop's graphic rendering abilities without incurring the compatibility issues I was worried about?

 

I'm not a CAD expert, but there's no way to realistically increase the GPU compute power of your laptop, so the only solution would be a software one. Although you could make sure your current hardware is not thermal throttling. 

[dizmo]

Honestly, even with the price of the eGPU, you're probably better off just replacing the laptop with something better.

[scs_789]

14 hours ago, Get Booda said:

I'm not a CAD expert, but there's no way to realistically increase the GPU compute power of your laptop, so the only solution would be a software one. Although you could make sure your current hardware is not thermal throttling. 

I did find that my laptop was indeed thermal throttling.  Opened up the bottom (for the first time ever) and found that the air intake was pretty clogged with dust.  This has helped a bit, but I still have dreams where it doesn't take my computer all night to render a 35 second product showcase animation........

[dragonhart6505]

14 hours ago, scs_789 said:

most of the time I am not using even half of my available memory (16GB RAM).  I am currently equipped with a NVIDIA Quadro K2100M GPU

this is not your graphics (GPU) memory. this is your system memory (RAM). itll have little to no effect on your graphics performance.

 

for the price of a decent external enclosure worth your time on a supported laptop (yours could do it, but not efficiently) + the price of the GPU to put in it, youd probably be better off reselling your current laptop and getting one with a better dedicated GPU and updated CPU architecture (like 7th gen Intel) while spending near the same if not saving a few bucks

[scs_789]

22 minutes ago, dragonhart6505 said:

this is not your graphics (GPU) memory. this is your system memory (RAM). itll have little to no effect on your graphics performance.

 

for the price of a decent external enclosure worth your time on a supported laptop (yours could do it, but not efficiently) + the price of the GPU to put in it, youd probably be better off reselling your current laptop and getting one with a better dedicated GPU and updated CPU architecture (like 7th gen Intel) while spending near the same if not saving a few bucks

I was already aware of the difference between graphics memory and system memory.  I determined that when my computer hits the big slowdown, I am usually using around 7GB of RAM, and i have 16GB installed, so from that I deduced that it is my graphics memory that needs the upgrade.  Plus I do already have the Core i7-4810MQ CPU, so I am still pretty sure that my gpu is the product of limitation.

[dragonhart6505]

32 minutes ago, scs_789 said:

I was already aware of the difference between graphics memory and system memory.  I determined that when my computer hits the big slowdown, I am usually using around 7GB of RAM, and i have 16GB installed, so from that I deduced that it is my graphics memory that needs the upgrade.  Plus I do already have the Core i7-4810MQ CPU, so I am still pretty sure that my gpu is the product of limitation.

RAM usage shouldnt be considered in your case is what im trying to get at. 7GB usage for 3D rendering is pretty standard, maybe more than necessary. there are very few applications that would use all 16GB of your RAM, 3D rendering being pretty low on that list.

 

now what SHOULD be used is, yes, your GPU but also ITS dedicated VRAM. you only have 2GB of dedicated VRAM on the K2100m. thats separate from your systems internal memory. 2GB of VRAM is quite low for 3D rendering. youd want nothing less than 4GB if your looking for performance in exporting the final project.

 

the reason i brought up the CPU is that it has more to handle than youd think and its not just about core clocks (the speed at which your CPU is running in MHz.) in your case this is 3.8ghz (or 3800mhz) max. that being a 4 core/8 thread chip (physical cores/virtual cores...sort of) it should be ok handling such a task. however this is a mobile chip which is far less efficient at performing than a desktop counterpart would. upgrading to a system with a much more efficient and powerful 8th gen i7 CPU and a GTX 1060MQ GPU with 6GB of VRAM, youd be rendering much faster and should see a sizable performance increase while youre working on the modeling as well. the gaming performance wouldnt be too shabby either

 

your system currently goes for around $400 here in the US on the used market (ebay as a reference). add on a worthwhile external GPU enclosure with dedicated power supply (easily $300-500...but remember, your system wont handle it well) and a decent enough GPU to do the heavy lifting (another $400-700 depending) and your up on a pretty big expense. the system im linking below has the spec i suggested above for $1300. take off the ~$400 for the sale of yours and youve already beat the price of the eGPU combo.

 

https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/cty/pdp/spd/g-series-15-5587-laptop/fncwf625smp?cid=312465008&st=&VEN1=s00vvrGhJ,256712733263,901pdb6671,c,&VEN2=,&lid=59673390035&dgc=st&dgseg=dhs&acd=1230923830920600&VEN3=811004460151053845