Another place to search for Thunderbolt information is the Thunderbolt Technology webpage, however, do note that this offers incomplete information, mostly with some older laptops that support TB1 or TB2 being omitted in some cases. I have DisplayPort (or mini-DisplayPort), or HDMI, or DVI, or VGA/D-Sub and I've seen some eGPUs using HDMI or USB cables, what's up with that? So, what are the different enclosure options for the various eGPU interfaces? ... Laptops, on the other hand, require a bit more care. Nobody has done it before with my laptop. The other options are way to expensive (in EU) compared to a mITX system - so I don't eat to spend that much money just because an eGPU would be very interesting. Your vital organs also get an unhealthy dose of electromagnetic radiation from your laptop computer, if you make a habit of actually putting it on your lap. Bear with me a bit longer please: PCIe comes in "generations". A desktop system with a near top-of-the-line desktop CPU (like the Intel i7 6700K or i5 6600K) and a given video card will nearly always outperform a laptop (no matter how high end the laptop is) with the same video card connected as an eGPU. When wired for PCIe, the M.2 slot can provide either 1,2 or 4 lanes of PCIe Gen2 or 3 (there was no M.2 slot back in the PCIe Gen1 days), resulting in x4.2 or x4.3 link. As a result you are out of luck. Some machines cannot support eGPUs at all. Overall, at lower frame-rates, you can expect to be very close to desktop performance, but at very high ones, you can take a 30-50% performance hit. Okay, what's Thunderbolt and do I have one? On some combinations of laptops and eGPU adapters/enclosures getting them to work is not any more difficult than connecting a USB mouse to a laptop. High quality Laptop Stickers by independent artists and designers from around the world. The Best Laptops for Kids in 2021. The egpu.io forums, NotebookReview forums (typically old setups), and the Tech|Inferno forums have records of people's eGPU setups. 1) The laptop might not be connected to the grounded outlet. Tongfang is a Chinese ODM (Original Design Manufacturer) that sells their laptop designs to vendors around the world, so far they have released 2 gaming laptops with Ryzen H processers, the GK5N--O (15") and GK7N--R (17"), you can get them (depending on the vendor) with either a 4600H/4800H and a GTX 1650 (50W [15"] 65W [17"] - MN: GK5NP5O - GK7NP5R), GTX1650Ti (50W [15"] 65W [17"] - MN: GK5NPFO - GK7NPFR), or RTX2060 (110W - MN: GK5NR0O - GK7NR0R). Expresscard is essentially a single PCIe lane (plus a USB connection, but that is of little interest to eGPU purposes). I was looking for an eGPU case as a partner for the Lenovo Miix 720 tablet, but that needs to be charged via the single TB3 slot as well. INTERNATIONAL SEO: A GUIDE TO THE GLOBAL POSSIBILITIES OF DIGITAL MARKETING. If you go to the products page of the official Thunderbolt community, there's a list of all products with the standard. Due to this, a 10% performance reduction at 60 FPS can baloon into a 30% performance reduction at 120 FPS, and it can get even worse. With regards to power delivery, the tables describe either the compatible power supply types, or the power supply already included with the enclosure. M.2 can be wired as either mSATA or mPCIe, and it comes in different "keys", on in plain English, different slot connectors. Look up reviews of the video card you plan to use and make sure you will be able to provide enough power. Dell is a household name when it comes to the best laptops, but it still makes the best rugged laptops right now. Adapters for mPCIe are by far the cheapest, coming in at as cheap as 7$. See here for an example and how to remove them. Shop the best laptops & notebooks from Dell. mPCIe provides a single PCIe lane. What is Reddit? Depends. Reddit is where topics or ideas are arranged in communities. While Thunderbolt1 and 2 devices are pretty much interchangeable (with the 50% reduction in bandwidth from the Gen1 nature of Thudnerbolt1) and share the same cables, Thunderbolt3 and the previous generations are not trivially compatible. 2) You might have touched the laptop after having rubbed your cloths that you may be wearing (typically your socks) against a carpeted floor. An Expresscard slot is also easy to spot. In this regard, there is no difference between the video card being used in a desktop and as an eGPU. The AmazonBasics Ethernet Internet Adapter takes the cake for being one of the simplest adapters out there. There are 100K active ones to choose from. Buckle up. Does the Akitio thunder3 (not the node!) The US produces more plastic waste than any other country, and a big chunk of that likely winds up polluting oceans and coastlines around the world, according to a new study. Are you sure? There are two form factors of Expresscard: Expresscard/34 and Expresscard/54 (the number refers to the width of the connector in millimeters). Keep in mind that "Thunderbolt2" is also applicable to Thunderbolt1 since the connectors are identical, and that as written above, Thunderbolt3 enclosures can be used with Thunderbolt1/2 systems by using the Apple TB-to-TB3 adapter. I couldn't find my Lenovo T430s, for example, and the Lenovo W530 and W540 are also missing. Wouldn't a desktop make more sense? How do I start? I get stutters every few seconds, short ones. Okay, I don't have Expresscard either, how do I spot the others? If you want to save a few dollars, another fantastic choice is the Spigen screen protector. If you are just starting out, however, I highly recommend you read everything. i dont hvae thunderbolt only type c and usb 3.1. my mPCIe os on the BACK of my laptop keyboard so i need to unload my keyboard and this is not easy and this laptop doesn't have any expresscard. You can view m.2 adapter options here. can charge devices? The Fastest Laptops for 2021. It is typically used by people who have 2nd, 3rd or 4th generation Intel Core i3/5/7 CPUs in their laptops (circa 2011-2014) and have no Thunderbolt connectivity. In my opinion, Expresscard is superior to mPCIe if you have both options, because it is easier to connect and disconnect and does not require removing HW from the laptop to make room for the adapter. Whether you're a gamer, a designer, a student, or simply need a laptop for everyday tasks and browsing, Amazon makes it easy to search and compare between traditional laptops and convertible 2 in 1s, so you can be more productive. A 16-lane link is a full 16 times faster than a 1-lane link, but this is not the only thing that controls the data bandwidth. Yes. If you ask this question in general, you will hear people say something like: "You should not get a video card more powerful than card X for eGPU." The first step in trying to figure out whether your system can support an eGPU should always be trying to find someone else with the same laptop model and a working eGPU setup. No, it can't. Alright thanks. Thunderbolt is a technology developed by Intel. If you know any other vendors that are offering these Tongfang models, post them in a reply to this post so I can add them. I found myself repeating this stuff often, and it would help to have this all in one place. It is a good idea to make the smallest investment possible, such as getting an adapter/enclosure, a suitable power supply and a placeholder video card (or borrow one, if you can). eGPU adapters that use off-the-shelf cables like HDMI do so because such cables are rated for the signal rates required for PCI Express, even if they are not designed to actually carry a PCI Express signal. If you're pioneering on a laptop nobody tried before, then you're running the risk of not being able to get it to work. See them all—and learn how to … The easiest way to think of Thunderbolt in the context of eGPU is "PCIe Over a Cable". Hackintosh laptops are the latest trend in the domain of luxury computing. I have a Lenovo G50-45 so i have some research to do and see if its been done before. The disadvantage of Thunderbolt is that it is not a very common connector: As it is Intel's proprietary technology, and also requires a separate controller chip, its price is driven up by royalty fees, chip costs and the need to make room for another chip on the laptop motherboard. Email. mPCIe eGPU adapters are the cheapest of all eGPU options, with a power supply and an adapter coming in at under 35$ quite frequently. While you can set the eGPU to output any refresh rate it is capable of, and in that sense, the monitor will work just fine, an eGPU takes a larger performance hit at high framerates than at lower ones. And especially the searchable implementations table where you can see if someone has already gotten an eGPU to work with your laptop/system. To complicate things a little, there is no guaranteed correlation between the actual physical slot size and the number of electric lanes it actually connects. Just follow in their footsteps as accurately as possible. An existing implementation is your best way of determining that an eGPU is possible on your machine, and what challenges, if any, you are likely to face. Joining your favorite communities will create a constant, personalized feed of content like news headlines, fun stories, sports talk, games, viral pics, top memes, and videos. Expresscard 2.0 has twice the bandwidth, but the link is still limiting to eGPU performance. As a first primer, you should be familiar with PCI Express. Based on our in-depth benchmark testing, these are the speediest laptops on the market today. The Lenovo P5X and P7X laptops seem to be the only ones still manufactured with Expresscard slots and actually have x1.3 link capability. Here's what to consider when … If you can find someone who succeeded with the same laptop model, then you should be more confident in going forward, and you should also have a reference to which parts you need to buy, as well as what difficulties you might run into (and hopefully their solutions). Most mobile CPUs are significantly weaker than desktop ones. eGPUs can be connected through one of the following options: mPCIe (mini PCI Express), Expresscard, Thunderbolt1 or 2, M.2, and finally, Thunderbolt3. It is really annoying, and it is in a bad spot where it scratches my arm when I am using the laptop. For example,the Dell Latitude 14 Rugged is a tough laptop … People who buy any of Samsung’s 2021 QLED TVs will find a new Eco Remote in the box that’s made from recycled plastic and can be charged via the solar cells on the back. There are some issues that can arise that will prevent an eGPU from working, and most of them do have solutions, but the solutions can be either complicated, cost money, or both. For example, Thunderbolt1 cannot drive a 4K monitor at 60hz, because it lacks sufficient bandwidth. M.2 is better than both due to sheer bandwidth, but the adapters can get pricey if you want a full 4-lane link. As a result, high-refresh-rate gaming is not recommended as an achievable goal for an eGPU setup. The biggest caveat with regards to mPCIe and M.2 is that many laptop vendors implement "whitelists" in the BIOS of their laptops. It is this genius design feature of PCIe that we leverage to make eGPUs a reality. Update #6: Added RaionTech, TekAdvice, BTO, PCZ, and DOSPara models, All of the Vendors that are offering the Tongfang GK5N--O and the GK7N--R. Adapters wire these cables differently for their own needs, and so, despite looking familiar, such cables are not actually HDMI, DisplayPort, or USB, but rather PCI Express cables. Earn fake Internet points (called Karma) … Look for these and make an informed purchasing decision. If you skip this and get confused by PCIe terminology later on, come back and give this a shot. See top laptop deals today. Some of the newer machines will have an x1.3 link (making this connection equivalent to Thunderbolt1 in bandwidth). Can you elaborate on how eGPU performance is affected? Once the simple card works, you can buy the actual eGPU of your dreams. A slot with a physical size of 16 lanes, can only connect 4 or 8 of them to the motherboard. Maybe, but you should try to avoid it if possible. All orders are custom made and most ship worldwide within 24 hours. Thunderbolt capable jacks on laptops, regardless of Thunderbolt generation, are typically marked with a slightly simplified Thunderbolt lightning logo. This both makes the amount of machines that support Thunderbolt relatively limited to specific higher-end or business machines, and also drives up the price of the adapters/enclosures. There's a guy over at egpu.io, based in Italy, who is can sell this stuff in Europe, but the price is high. The reason is that the amount of data sent to the GPU to render the final displayed image is far, far smaller (on average, per frame) than the size of the resulting image. mPCIe and M.2 form factors can be used to carry SATA, PCIe or USB signals (or a subset of the three, up to all three with auto-detection), and it is not always which is which without digging deep into the laptop's documentation. PCIe is based upon the concept of separate connection lanes working in parallel, and as such the "width" of a connection may vary. Desktops are (typically) large, (typically) bulky and (by definition) immobile. This is why I recommend to get the bare minimum (enclosure, power supply and a cheap or free video card to try with) before going all the way and getting a GTX1080 you are going to regret. No, you can't. Unfortunately, it is not possible to run an eGPU over USB and there is absolutely no way to make that possible in any current product, either. Great writeup! Feel free to ask questions! As enticing as it may be, avoid it. Okay, welcome aboard, eGPU pioneer. If it doesn't you didn't waste more than you had to in order to figure that out. As part of these next-generation designs, we’re also seeing a lot of new materials going into laptops as well. On a desktop motherboard you will typically find PCIe slots of various sizes: The shortest are 1-lane slots, then come 4-lane slots, relatively rare 8-lane slots (these are most common on servers, not desktops) and the most commonly used for video cards, the full-sized 16-lane slots. Update #4: Added TUXEDO (store page TBA) and Wootware models Please note that not all m.2 slots are created equal, and can expose one, two or four lanes of PCIe, and the more lanes supported by the adapter, the more expensive it gets. In most cases, it isn't horribly hard to get this working, but I won't guarantee that you will have no problems (up to and including some edge cases that will mean that your system won't work with an eGPU, at all), either. Very few laptops from the last couple of years actually have it and as a result newer non-Thunderbolt-capable laptops need to opt for a different solution. But why?! Found it in the bios hardware manual that the x230t is equipped with gen 1 :(. Again, the best way to be sure it will work is to find someone who has done it before. Gen3 mPCIe will be the most cost-effective solution, most likely, but it still carries the same baggage as any other mPCIe slot, and Gen3 mPCIe slots are still rare. All laptops have USB, can I use USB for eGPU? If the desktop runs a certain game at 40 FPS, then the eGPU setup (with the same GPU) will not be far behind (assuming no significant CPU bottleneck). The Fastest Laptops for 2021. However, you can easily drive a 4K monitor from a video card that has a DisplayPort1.2 or HDMI2.0 output when that card is used as an eGPU over Thunderbolt1. Unfortunately, the answer is not that simple. It is not intuitive, yet true, that the width of the connection between the laptop and the eGPU has no effect here. Still, Expresscard 2.0 eGPU setups can give you, on average, somewhere around 70-80% of the card's performance on an equivalent desktop for a small investment since the adapters are cheap, and this is why they are popular. Wouldn't a desktop perform better? If I get the GTX 1050Ti or the AMD RX460 card are you saying I don't need to buy an external power supply? No, you can't. This is due to the considerations of power consumption and battery life, and is particularly acute in small-form-factor laptops such as Ultrabooks and other sub 15" devices (especially ones with ultra-low-voltage, or "U" CPUs, such as the i7-7200U). As a lot of the existing information focuses on Macs and I am a PC person (and many questions on the subreddit are PC-based in nature), this is written from the PC perspective. Okay, so checking for Thunderbolt is relatively simple, but how do I check for the other ones? Nulaxy Laptop Stand, Ergonomic Aluminum Laptop Mount Computer Stand, Detachable Laptop Riser Notebook Holder Stand Compatible with MacBook Air Pro, Dell XPS, Lenovo More 10-15.6" Laptops - Space Gray 4.8 out of 5 stars 14,154 The reverse direction, of using a Thunderbolt3 device with a Thunderbolt1 (or 2) capable laptop is more complicated: It is possible to run a Thunderbolt3 device on a Thunderbolt1 or 2 system via an Apple adapter. I've created 4 tables (based on region) to list all of the vendors I could find, so people can have an easier time finding local OEMs that are selling these laptops. You can skip sections that of no interest to you to get to the juicier stuff deeper down. There are two factors to consider in performance: The first is the mobile CPU itself. In short, an eGPU is the act of hooking up a desktop video card to a laptop, or a SFF system lacking actual desktop-sized slots (such as an Intel NUC). Thanks. I found out I have M.2 or mPCIe and I want to make it easier to plug and play, can I use a short cable extender from the slot to outside the laptop? Seems to only happen in some games though. Alright. just hoping someone will find a way to use the only type c connector. man i cant even use any of the port above. Update #5: Added Clevocenter model This can be harmful for the internal (minute) components of your laptop in a long run, but once in a while, the laptops can bear such inductions. There is a high likelihood that these enclosures will also work with other laptops as there is nothing special about any of the three systems, and other enclosures have also been used since. An eGPU can drive any resolution that the video card installed in it can output. However, if the desktop manages 144 FPS, then the eGPU will lag behind quite significantly. As a reminder: All these three offer the same bandwidth, since each PCIe generation doubles the effective bandwidth per lane over its predecessor. They were really not meant for external devices, but due to the magic that is PCIe, they do work. This is probably the hardest category to figure out, because both types of connectors may or may not provide PCIe connectivity. There is convenience in having your own system with you on the road, while still being able to game in the comfort of your own home, without having to sync any data, or switch systems. "d" stands for "discrete", and refers to the stand-alone graphics chips that are used in laptops, typically alongside a processor's iGPU. For mPCIe, a good rule of thumb is that the slot that your wifi card is in supports PCIe (because the Wifi cards tend to be PCIe devices and thus rely on PCIe connectivity to work). Note: PCSpecialist and PCZ are the same company but PCZ ships to Europe while PCSpecialist ships to the UK. In general, Thunderbolt is the easiest one to get working, followed by Expresscard, and finally M.2 and mPCIe. Additional information: Aside of this guide and our subreddit, you should really take a look at the egpu.io webpage and forums. People have tried it and it does not always work. In a similar fashion, miniDisplayPort does not imply Thunderbolt or Thunderbolt2 capability, even though the two share the same physical connector. It is typically used by people who have 2nd, 3rd or 4th generation Intel Core i3/5/7 CPUs in their laptops (circa 2011-2014) and have no Thunderbolt connectivity. Expresscard 1.0 provides a x1.1 link, while Expresscard 2.0 provides a x1.2 link. Please note that a USB port is not capable of connecting an eGPU, as USB does not expose a PCIe endpoint. See them all—and learn how to look at the idea of speed before you buy. LAPTOPS & 2 IN 1s ON AMAZON.COM. In the case of video cards, it manifests itself as the "golden fingers" connector which are inserted to the PCIe slot on a desktop motherboard. Apple extended the glass layer to the laptops because it looked better (probably because matte screens looked worse than phones). To make matters worse, at some point nVidia (either intentionally, or by mistake) made it harder to get certain eGPUs working on these interfaces in the newest drivers. 2. Just to make sure I understand, a decent TL;DR for ExpressCard would be something like: Whatever GPU desired (preferably something cheap and mid-tier). Your first move is to figure out which of the possible eGPU connections your laptop (or SFF system) supports. Some video cards use only 8 lanes, and some low-end ones use only one. Overall, an eGPU's target should be ~60 FPS at your chosen games and resolutions, with a GPU and monitor chosen to match. The implementation table at egpu.io is an especially extensive record of existing eGPU setups, with over 700 setups documented. You can view the various mPCIe adapter options here. Error! You will need to buy an adapter with the right connector for your laptop. As with eGPU, the GPU part refers to a "video card". It includes a lot of information on the various enclosures and adapters. The "e" prefix stands for "external". Unfortunately, Expresscard is all but extinct. Very few laptops from the last couple of years actually have it and as a result newer non-Thunderbolt-capable laptops need to opt for a different solution. In many cases, if you have two mPCIe slots, one will provide PCIe, while the other will only provide SATA (and it is intended to be used for a SSD). With regard to high-refresh monitors, the situation is a little different. It should be noted that not all M.2 eGPU adapters can support more than 1 PCIe lane in their cabling, and the ones that do are not cheap, creeping very close to Thunderbolt enclosure territory as far as pricing goes. Choosing a laptop computer that's right for you shouldn't be difficult. Tongfang is a Chinese ODM (Original Design Manufacturer) that sells their laptop designs to vendors around the world, so far they have released 2 gaming laptops with Ryzen H processers, the GK5N--O (15") and GK7N--R (17"), you can get them (depending on the vendor) with either a 4600H/4800H and a GTX 1650 (50W [15"] 65W [17"] - MN: GK5NP5O - GK7NP5R), GTX1650Ti (50W [15"] 65W [17"] - … Since M.2 is pure PCIe, it has none of the small overhead that is added by a Thunderbolt chip, and as a result, the x4.3 link on M.2 outperforms Thunderbolt3 by a small margin. $100 OFF LG gram 14" Laptop, 10th Gen Intel Core i7, 1080p 10th Gen Intel® Core™ i7-1065G7 Processor 1.3GHz; Up to 18.5 Hours Battery Life Check out this page. I recommend Techpowerup as a good source of reviews that include card-only power consumption figures. Thunderbolt is in general the preferred eGPU connection because it is designed, at its core, to provide external PCIe connectivity for laptops. As a result, 16 lanes of PCIe 1.0 are the same as 8 lanes of PCIe 2.0 and 4 lanes of PCIe 3.0. An inexpensive PC can be a powerful (and nowadays, essential) educational tool for your child. PCIe 4.0 (Gen4) will arrive in the next few years. Such extra connectors will degrade your PCIe link, usually to the point of uselessness. The cheapest Thunderbolt2 enclosure (The Akitio Thunder2) costs around 200$, and it still needs some DIY work to get going. What eGPU (connection and enclosure) do you plan to use with the G50-45? As for the adapters using USB, DisplayPort or HDMI cables. Both are quite expensive and the Devil Box also has the drawback of being ugly as sin. Both mPCIe and M.2 are typically found inside the laptop, because these are the connections that are typically used for WiFi cards, cellular modems and non-SATA SSDs. However, I really am not sure how or if … With elegant and compact designs, the ZenBook series not only gives you the power to work anywhere, anytime, but also lets you stand out from crowd. The type of "key" is typically stenciled on the slot, or can be found in the documentation. I wrote this as a guide to someone looking into eGPU for the first time, so the questions escalate from basic knowledge to how actually to get it working. GPU stands for Graphics Processing Unit, which is more commonly referred to as a Video Card or Graphics Chip. If you are building from scratch, however, then AMD is a very viable option, or you will need to keep the additional workarounds in mind. The Expanscape Aurora 7 prototype is the world's first seven-screen laptop, a 17.3-inch behemoth designed for IT professionals and content creators. eGPU adapter connectors have the Expresscard/34 format, but thankfully Expresscard/34 cards work just fine in Expresscard/54 slots, they might just be a little loose, so don't yank on the cable or otherwise touch or move it when it is connected. I read all of this, am I ready to order my eGPU? That said, they also support Thunderbolt3, so the use of Expresscard is questionable for most cases. The options for enclosures that would charge your machine are relatively limited for now: Powercolor Devil Box and Razer Core. Though maybe my 3320m at 2.6ghz is indeed bottlenecking my hd 6850 even though its half or less % of my cpu usage?