Great analysis, now I know that instead of buying a new mid-range laptop for $1200 I can save money and just grab a $5000 egpu. Thanks Jarrod!

Very informative! Thank you.

im surprised that laptop has thunderbolt support cause usually most laptops has USB type C and just 3 usb slots that some still has 2.0 USB and few usb 3.0

4:19 Thunderbolt 5 will have 80 Gbps bandwidth up and down at the same time. Some cables/ports/controllers (information is limited here, but you get the point) will have a feature to sacrifice one down/upstream for the more important one have 120Gbps/40Gbps. That 40Gbps will probably be enough for sending back the video to the laptop while leaving the 120Gbps for PCIe bandwidth between the GPU and the rest of the components.

Really want to see this years flow series review. Amazing test btw ❤

Surprising to see Thunderbolt 3 in a laptop of that age but then I guess it was also quite an expensive model back when it was new. Have you done any TB3 eGPU testing to settle some arguments? there's a lot of discussion about "the fastest GPU that is worth using over TB3" and people aren't really sure, some say anything faster than a 3060 isn't really worth it but with the prices of these GPU's falling fast in the used market the $/frame calculation isn't fixed and it might actually be worth using a 3070/3080 eGPU or even something from the 40 series in a few years.

Minor Series 1 and 2 label error around 3:29 Overall epic work as always. Keep it up.

I think even slotting such a card into an used 100 usd office machine with 4 cores would be a way better experience than a Thinkpad T460 / T470

Thank you for this experiment (and other videos too). Could you please provide link or some reference for this adapter (maybe even other material used in this setup)? Thank you, and keep doing great job!

Very interesting! Couple this with the price of an eGPU and enclosure, no wonder eGPU's don't seem to be popular with current Thunderbolt technology. While Thunderbolt 5 may provide a better expereince, I suspect it still won't be on par with a similar internal GPU. I am not so sure if future versions of Thunderbolt (beyond 5) will be an optimal solution either, as PCIe used by the dGPU may evolve faster than Thunderbolt, leading to a situation where a similar eGPU is always handicapped when used with Thunderbolt. If some new technology standard came out that let us easily tap into the full power of PCIe (or whatever eventually replaces it), perhaps that would allow an eGPU to close the gap in performance.

Will definitely be waiting for the Thunderbolt 5 comparison video!

Love this channel

great video. made me forget about egpu+work laptop project. gaming laptop + desktop system + work mac it is

Great take on this, I await TB5 with hope :) I run a zenbook flip with an eGPU that does well using a RTX 3070. That's a 12500H CPU & TB4. Very portable laptop/tablet by day and some gaming when home. It's the use case that works not a desktop comparison. New things in the eGPU space are the GPD G1 and ONEXGPU, a more portable eGPU with a120w 6700M XT inside. This uses TB4 but also Oculink, that some mini laptop and gaming handhelds have (esp GPD's) There is also the fact that USB4 on amd based laptops may not have TB3 support, so eGPU access is more possible.

You could always try an oculink egpu if you aren't tired of egpu shenanigans yet. They are quite cheap to set up but do require a m.2 slot for the oculink adapter.

OEM hardware engineers could make a PCI-E/M.2 extension to the outside of the laptop like a USB port. That could solve a lot of issues. Ive always wondered why OCuLink has never been implemented for laptops. It can provide a direct PCI-E interface with more lanes.

As someone who own dual core cpu laptop i see this as an absolute win

Honestly expected the bottleneck to be far, far worse

Hey Jarrod, here’s an idea to keep in your back pocket for a future video, with PCie 5.0 nvme support coming to future laptops, slapping a Oculink port in the unused NVME slot should result in a similar PCIe bandwidth as eight lanes of gen 4. Running an Oculink cable from that port to an eGPU should eliminate bottlenecks on two fronts, raw data transfer and bypassing the thunderbolt controller. In theory, you should only be limited by raw CPU performance at that point.

Thank you for the informative video. I'm wondering if it's possible to use the Wi-Fi slot for a USB stick, which can provide Wi-Fi functionality for just $5. Some laptops have PCIe 4.0 or 5.0 lanes, and it would be interesting to see a comparison of these options. For example, if I were to purchase a $500 second-hand RTX 3090 and a $500 used laptop with a good i7 processor, could this setup outperform the best available laptops? Personally, I'd prefer to upgrade the external GPU rather than the laptop itself. My current laptops include one with an i7 12th gen and another with an i7 8th gen.

Could you provide a link to the egpu thunderbolt adapter, or at least a model name?

Cool stuff! I wonder how thunderbolt 5 would go comapred to asus PCIe connector

Can you please make a video on OCULINK? It might be the future for EGPUs

Are you going to get the FW16? It would be interesting to measure how that swappable GPU connected.

Seeing the Cyberpunk framerates in the car wcene gave me a flashback of playing Need for Speed of my 386 back in the early 90s. Our expectations weren’t so high back then!

Yeah that's the issue with both low end Laptop CPU and high end desktop CPU plugged in through a eGPU thunderbolt dock. Heck even on higher end machines it will have a similar problem where it will not be as fast as it would be if the card was used in a proper desktop setup. Thunderbolt 3/4 don't have the necessary bandwidth to get even close to desktop performance. However I heard that Thunderbolt 5 will change all that since Thunderbolt 5 will offer double the bandwidth of Thunderbolt4.

Last year I bought a laptop with 12700h and 3060 instead of 6800h and 3070 hoping that in the future I'll plug in eGPU in my thunderbolt 4 port, and call it a day, this was the move I regret the most! Remember kids, there is no profit in building a PC or buying a laptop (framework laptops doesn't count) sacrificing productivity that you can get here and now for technologies that may or may not be useful to you in the future, you can be stuck with the setup you built for a long time and by the time when you earn enough money to use those technologies your whole system (or a laptop) will be too outdated for them to somehow impact the overall usability and productivity of your system

What a cool test

Thank you, THANK YOU for mentioning this 4:50 Jarrod. Far too many people forget this exists when thinking of EGPUs, and it's actually the OG solution for the whole concept of using an external, desktop gpu with a laptop. Also yeah, good argument (also understandably why you hardly ever mention EGPU via direct pcie in your channel), but please remember that using an EGPU is most useful to people who have an obsolete laptop with an obsolete GPU, rather than to future laptop owners thinking of this as an use-case right off the bat after purchasing the laptop: really, it's more a matter of "obsolete laptop to somewhat decent desktop makeshift solution, until i get a new machine where i could re-use this gpu", than "mobility to me is paramount, therefore i seek compromise and embrace poor value". I've honestly always looked in a confused way at the relatively new trend of EGPUs via thunderbolt, never made sense to me... aesthetic over functionality and logic, a similiar concept of electrical instruments over an acoustical (to play the traditional, conventional acoustical sound): it defeats the purpose and will never be as good, it's just an inferior imitation for the sake of who-knows-what. Though, with some small modding and depending on how easy is to remove the lower panel a small hole hidden below the laptop wouldn't be that unsightly... or could prolly buy a spare bottom panel, one when carrying the laptop around, one with the hole when keeping it on the desk, it's actually quite practical if one gets a laptop designed to be easily opened.

How great would it be if producers built an M.2 connector into laptops. So that you can use them everywhere quietly and efficiently, but at home you can connect your eGPU setup. This paired with the new intel chips and Thunderbolt 5 could be amazing.

Thunderbolt 5 :- Hold up wait for me

Jarrod, can you review this laptop ? I really need to know about this model and brand. Illegear Onyx Nx Intel

Haha Jarrod you legend! great idea :)

What about non gaming workloads? How does 3d rendering, video editing, ai tasks improve while using an external gpu compared to a similar PC build.

Hey Jarrod, are you going to review the new acer nitro? the 16 and 17

Hi Jarrod and everyone. Does anybody know the name of the egpu dock/connector that Jarrod used in this video to connect the card via thunderbolt? I'm trying to find a cheaper solution to those expensive egpu boxes

hey i'm confused abt taking this one or pro 5i ,pro 7i vs slim 7i all with 4070 i'll be using this laptop for atleas 3to 4 years for gaming, programming ,streaming or editing in future so what would u suggest i'm a software developer rn

PLZZZ keep making wacky videos like this one, WE ALL LOVE THEM ❤️

Hi @JarrodsTech any idea how those 2 laptops tb ports are wired ? Many TB implementations used to wire 2 pcie lanes and less had 4 lanes

Hey Jarrod can you please compare a mid range gpu for the test and see is the thunderbolt bound also are you doing the test with external monitor? I heard that also affect the performance abit too.

Nice idea for video, Thank you. What about video 16GB vs 32GB Ram? Is this whort in Laptop?

I would like to play 3 screens at simracing, I have a 4080 notebook but it doesn't support the 3 screens because it crashes the NVIDIA sorround. I was thinking of upgrading to a notebook plus eGPU but I would like to know if on a 4070 I can connect 3 display ports? Also I would like to know if you think with a 12/13 generation cpu and Thunderbolt 4 cable I would always have the gpu performance drop for the connection? Better to make a desktop at this point?

Channel is improving

i think being able to use portable gpu is a great invention to fix heating problem on laptop for gaming. buy laptop with strong cpu and thunderbolt but have no discrete gpu. plug in portable gpu with nice cooler

Ha! I tried this with my lg gram 17 2022 and a rtx 3080. I was planning to do a review video but lost interest. I figured someone like you would do a much better job and put in more care than me! Glad my predictions panned out! Great review! I wish there was a nvme port that was external so it wouldn't involve opening up the laptop. Nonetheless, great solution for older laptops that are left stationary.

But can you make a video showing this "Faster Alternative to Thunderbolt" please? How will it compare? I wouldn't mind (at all) taking off the bottom panel of the laptop if it gives same performance as the desktop!

I actually managed to snatch a 100 euro kaby lake Thinkpad with thunderbolt3. This would be more adequate since a 4/8 c/t laptop is best. Of course an H-series chip would also be nice, but then we get into PCH issues on the H-series

I have an Asus ROG Strix G15 (2020) model with an i5 10400H and a GTX 1650 Ti. Can you please test if it will work with an ADT-Link R3G M.2 adapter and an RTX 4060 or 3060?🙏

What a shame that there are so few companies making notebooks with an Oculink port (if not only one). Nevertheless, I would have liked to see the benchmarks using that option and the 4090 Matrix. I have a notebook with two NVMe ports that's a bit old and heavy, so I don't take it out of my house that often, and a setup like that could be an option to give it more longevity. Ofc I'm not buying that card 😅

I would like to see you test the GPD Win Mini with the oculink port with rtx 4090

Hi Jarrod, can you please review the MSI Katana 15?

Damn that thinkpad has a thunderbolt port 😱

Hi Jarrod I got a question for you. I just bought a Lenovo LOQ 15APH8 82XT notebook and it performs well under stress test heatwise. GPU is 80 and CPU is 90-95 celcius degrees under stress however VRAM jumps to 110 degrees when gpu reaches to TDP. Is this degrees are normal to you ? I just bought it so I can return it back so should I ?

I'm still kinda bummed with Asus making their unique XG mobile eGPU port/dock propetiary to their laptops. Even then it's only limited to ROG Flow and only mobile GPU. If only this kind of connector being more standard so we can get the benefit of upgrading GPU to a laptops just like a desktop. I know, laptop manufacturers get their revenue from selling new models every year, but still, having the option outside thunderbolt setup with higher bandwith to fully utilize desktop GPU power would be really, really nice.

That gpu looks so good

Jarrod having fun in his past time

we need to see this on a cheaper old 4c/8t workstation with a great egpu capable tb implemetation, such as a dell precision 7520

couldnt find a tb3 sku so my latitude 5400 with 8650u needs you to remove the only ssd slot for egpu :(

Hey jarrod my laptops gaming gpu rtx 3060 support 130 watt but work only on 55watts maximum how i can use all wattages ?

The latency from the cable to the laptops gotta be literally nothing with that big of a leap.

Hello sir suggest me the best laptop to buy in lost there is so many options?

friend : what u like to game on? laptop or decktop? me : show them this video and say YES from malaysia..so my eng suck a bit

Holy moly noiceeeee gpu bro,

I wonder how would a 4090 work when connected to an old laptop with non soldered GPU like the gt72vr.

hi mr jarrod, so im confused about choosing laptop between acer nitro 5 rtx3060+ryzen 7 6800h+16gb ddr 5 lenovo loq rtx4050+ryzen 5 7640hs+8gb ddr 5 with loq price is 30$ higher in indonesia and the ram need to be upgraded (70$ total), since im just college student, im tight on budget, which one is better ? sry for bad typing

Hi can you test the new rtx 3050 6gb (dell g15 or hp victus) i think the extra vram can make the card good

Oculink connection is apparently faster ! it would be nice to try it :)

Bro does asus tuf f15 i5 11 400 rtx 3050 needs a cooling pad please tell me bro I am waiting for your reply

is Legion 5 pro with rtx 3060 ryzen 7 6800h can used eGPU like that???

Can you test T470s /Thunderbolt 3 with Adlink Pocket GPU A500?

Only problem is probably Thunderbolt not having enough bandwidth to support such high end config. Hopefully Thunderbolt 5 can have enough bandwidth to mitigate those issues.

Cool. I might consider something similar for my 10 years old Dell Latitude laptop. Wonder if an RTX 4070 will be enough, or if to get a 4090 just in case.

Can you please try it with a RPi5 with PCIe? Just for fun.

I wonder if you can output from the GPU to an external monitor instead of the laptop and get better performance that way. I assume that this way thunderbolt bandwidth won't need to be shared for both, input data to the GPU, and output rendered franes from the GPU, so probably less stutter since there wouldn't be as much bandwidth constraints. It would also probably make more sense, since you can't really bring this setup with you anywhere and it's always stuck at home, probably next to a monitor/TV anyway. Does this work at all? If it does, does it perform better? Would be nice if you could try it out sometime in the future. Really appreciate your videos, the quality is amazing as always.

Lol I enjoy these non practical videos, eveen though no one would ever do this irl but it is entertaining to watch

I'd prefer seeing a video on the best GPU for an eGPU set up as anyone who can afford/wants an eGPU set up usually knows a 4090 is overkill Since you're doing this video now you probably have some insider news on when TB5/USB4V2 is coming (hopefully it'll be in 2024 laptops and handhelds). Can't wait to see the difference.

Quick question. Why are there no eGPUs / high bandwidth peripherals giving us the option to use multiple USB4 / Thunderbolt 4 ports? Many current gen laptops come with 2 or more of those these days. Is there no way it can work?

This is the kind of video that will make you mainstream. In 5 more years we'll see the formation of JMG- Jarrod Media Group 😅

Was this tested on an external monitor or on the laptop monitor?

Hi Jarrod, thanks for amazing effort. i have a question, does lower powerful graphic card for example 3060/3070 have lesser FPS drop ? does the TB3/4 bottleneck become lesser for those GPU? So the FPS drop might not as much as 4090 ?

Turn rebar off it will give more fps on egpu

still have the bottleneck at cpu and bandwidth connection, thanks for analysis

can you test with an amd rx 7900xtx ?

Legion 9i and legion go reviews ?

Off lease thinkpads are the best deals you can get.

Jarrod we need an AMD vs Intel eGPU comparison video. 7840HS + eGPU via USB 4 vs 13700H + eGPU via TB4.

Core i5 6300U with 4090 is an absolute win

nice guide on how to convert rtx4090 into rtx 2050

Can u test MSI pulse 17 vgk

E-GPU's seem cool until you factor in the cost. It's almost always cheaper to buy a desktop-replacement laptop, and always cheaper to buy a desktop. For people like me who float around a lot and can't justify having a desktop in one of my spaces that sits dormant for 8-9 months out of the year - I'm really hoping Framework can make enough waves in the industry to push everyone toward upgradability to turn laptop chassis into upgradable frames. If they offered a 7945HX (or HX3D) and 7900m (or equivalent desktop replacement setup) I would have bought that even with the waitlist instead of the heavily discounted Legion 7. Being a "digital nomad" with the current state of laptops is less painful than it was in 2020 (when I last upgraded), but it still sucks pretty hard to have to buy a whole new machine when it should be entirely possible to buy a swapable mbo and/or gpu deck for the existing chassis I actually really like, even if it was only 20% cheaper - When you're talking about a $2500-$3500 laptop, $400-500 can be the difference between someone justifying an upgrade or skipping entirely for a year. I know there are engineering challenges in designing systems like that, but if framework can do it then so can the established giants. And no, they don't need rgb to puke all over it for an extra $500 because I'm not 12.

Can you add external gpu with Macbook M1 ?

Today 4080 and 4090 laptop is more than enough as a portable device

Perfectly balanced, as all things should be

Zephyrus G16 review please.

Skylake is 8 years old already? Damn

Lenovo are making a special thinkbook 14+ for other places around the world, it is a 14 inches laptop with intel H series CPU, it has two m.2. slots available. And one of the m2 slot is under its hidden usb2 port, there is a cover for that port. So u can buy a oculink transfer PCB, take it from pcie 4.0 to oculink port with no bandwidth lost. There were people tested the result, even u put a 4090 on it, the result are still acceptable with marginal performance lost compare to the desktop.

Before I built a PC I was intrigued by the notion of an eGPU. Then I realized that the cost of an enclosure is basically the price of a budget tower without a GPU. Ultrabook + RTX 2060 eGPU = ultrabook + RTX 2060 budget PC in price. Might as well get two whole computers with better performance for the same price…

Can we just appreciate Jarrod's taste in music?

Could you try ai generation with that setup ?

I think that Jarrod was wayyyy bored that day :D