Here's the first actual implementation details of the XPS 15 along with benchmarks.

https://egpu.io/forums/implementation-guides/dell-xps-15-9560-asus-rog-xg-station-2-gtx1080-windows-10-jackeyjoe/

After testing Rise of the Tomb Raider fully maxed out...
"For my use case (4k external) this puts me 5-7 FPS behind what reviewers are getting online..., which is acceptable losses for me." - jackeyjoe

Use of the internal display is also tested with the x2 bi-directional PCIe lanes.

And for anyone still unfamiliar with the range of Intel's Thunderbolt 3 specifications of what they actually mean...

"The Basics
A Thunderbolt 3 port requires that each connector be provided
with at least:
• The equivalent of two lanes of PCI Express Gen 3 data
• One full DisplayPort 1.2a (four-lane) interface"

https://thunderbolttechnology.net/sites/default/files/HBD16235_Thunderbolt_TB_r05.pdf

Hi,
to know what you are buying, this is the Feb,27 official PCIe lanes by model' note DeLL posted on "Knowlege base" to stop any further claims : http://www.dell.com/support/article/en/en/frdhs1/QNA44089/thunderbolt-3-data-transfer-speeds-up-to-40gbps?lang=EN
good reading.

Hello,
AquaeAtrae tells us, in every thread about the design flaw with xps13 9350 &  atest 9360, 9550 & latest 9560, that x2 lane TB3 is equal to x4 lane TB2 and that does not affect gaming at all !
Remember first that TB3 is running from 2015, and 9560 is 2017 a fresh selling, 9360 same few months before.
So with that XPS FAKE TB3, there is NO WAY to run eGPU greater than GTX750i (2014) without 20% drop at leat drop on any external FHD, and that is 50% drop at least when using internal FHD screen (more of course on 4K display or QHD+ internal screen...).
DeLL retired not workingTB15, and 4K display with TB16 is still buggy and only 30fps capable.
Finally, it's the same with rapid SSD (9560pro & so) that can't deliver all their juice at 12mbps (2x8Gpbs minus overhead) and needs for sure TB3 REAL implemantation.
Nice job DeLL, nice companion AquaeAtrae ....

there is no ips so its a shortcoming but the price is pretty suitable for a egpu laptop,and i think it well be better if it get a little bit thiner

Quote from: uPanda on February 19, 2017, 13:02:38
@AquaeAtrae
I'm the one who wrote this reddit post

That, again, does not mean it is true. ...

So, before buying anything, I would advise to wait for actual benchmarks and reviews of the laptops.

Thanks for digging that list from Dell uPanda. I looked but wasn't able to find a twitter post from them, so I assume this was a DM. I am well aware how difficult they are to work with ...and how inaccurate Dell reps can be. Hopefully, we'll find the information proves true. You certainly posed a very useful question to them.

My own difficulties with Dell / Alienware have now connected me with a special team trying to resolve terrible factory issues many of us encountered last December. I've spent around 20 hours and am still helping them clear up misinformation. But at least, I'm working with better trained sales reps. Just now, I've been told my rep has found some "new source" for technical details other than pre-sales. Hopefully it will prove more fruitful and might answer some of these mysteries..

Just curious, have it USB power delivery option?
Afaik there is no HQ notebooks with USB-PD, but based on specs, USB-C capable of up to 100W...
Already, it's awesome

is it 5480-5840 naming mismatch in this news?

@AquaeAtrae
I'm the one who wrote this reddit post : https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/5ufjk9/dell_thunderbolt_number_of_pcie_lanes/

As I said in the replies, I only asked Dell support about XPS, Precision and latitude laptops (because I do not care about AW) and this is the DM they replied. I cannot guarantee this is true, but I can assure you this comes from an official Dell twitter account. These are the tweets that lead to the DM : https://twitter.com/DellCaresPRO/status/832172041226842117

That, again, does not mean it is true. While the person from DellCarePro assured me this list came from Dell's engineers, if I remember correctly, Dell support also said for quite a while that the 9550 and 9560 had full speed TB3.

So, before buying anything, I would advise to wait for actual benchmarks and reviews of the laptops.

Myths vs Benchmarks
https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/5rxclq/xps_9560_w_razer_core_1080_gtx_benchmark_requests/

Thanks for the article Douglas. I'm very excited to see the eGPU revolution finally reach consumers. And I agree we should all be watching the Latitude 5480, 5580 and Precision 5520 for viability. Their support of WiGig and better security options. Mind you, they don't have as bright a screen as the XPS 15, a low power pascal GTX 1050, nor the polished aluminum build. But they're still very interesting options that we'd love to have tested with eGPUs.

The article suggests that the Latitude 5480 is wired differently than the XPS 15, with all x4 PCIe lanes. Is there any evidence backing this up yet? I've been looking. So far, I've only found a second-hard account reportedly from @DellCarePRO listing some but not all Thunderbolt laptops (excludes AW, etc).
https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/5ufjk9/dell_thunderbolt_number_of_pcie_lanes/

eGPU performance (FPS) is not "half speed" with x2 lanes
That's a myth. x2 PCIe lanes provides 16GTps which rarely affects the utilization of even the most powerful GPUs. This all reality isn't intuitive given the complexities of eGPUs and Thunderbolt. But gaming isn't nearly so affected as many expect.

PCI scaling tests by TechPowerUp show that 16GTps showed at worse 7% impact on FPS and that's based on x4 PCIe 2.0 and its 20% overhead. Overhead in PCIe 3.0 is now just 1.8% so the impact should be even less with an XPS 15. PCIe scaling would really depend on the specific game and the specific moment within the game. As more benchmarks come in, you'll notice games are barely affected. The impact may be more noticeable in other PCIe applications like large SSD RAID arrays.

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_1080_PCI_Express_Scaling/24.html

The article also suggests that the XG Station 2 is not viable until Dell certifies for eGPUs. That may or may not be true. To date, I believe only one XG Station 2 (@jackeyjoe) has been tried and there's some indications that the specific unit may be defective. We're still trying to confirm that.

https://egpu.io/forums/pc-setup/dell-xps-15-9560-asus-rog-xg-station-2-a-tragic-love-story/#post-2794

Also, there's some question if using the internal display has as much impact on the limited PCIe lanes or not. This too is the common belief. Yet both PCIe and Thunderbolt are bi-directional with their upstream and downstream bandwidth operating independently so this may not prove true. Again, we're looking to test this more.

Overall, I commend the article for increasing awareness of the wide range of options for eGPU. I believe eGPU capable Thunderbolt will become as common as USB is today. And I agree the Latitude 5480 is very interesting. But readers should note that these technologies are, as of yet, barely tested or understood. There is a lot of rumors and misinformation being promoted that needs ground-truthing.

https://thunderbolttechnology.net/sites/default/files/HBD16235_Thunderbolt_TB_r05.pdf

I was thinking the same way about business laptops. How about ThinkPad series? Are those better/worse suitable?

How do you confirm that the TB3 is full speed?

Quote from: Porky Pig Jr on February 17, 2017, 18:47:16
Dell configuration site says NVIDIA card is optional for i7-7820HQ. This is correct that the HD 630 performs roughly as 930MX given the fast DDR4 memory, both banks are configured.

Technically it's the TB3 that comes with the 930MX. You can get the i7, but you won't have any TB3. :(

Quote from: Andrey Konstantinov on February 17, 2017, 22:02:39
Thanks for the heads-up, Douglas! I bit the bullet recently - dragged my rig's internals halfway across the world and bought new case and monitor for it, but I wish I didn't have to. This is still too expensive for me but I like the direction things are moving in. Hopefully within a few months we could see a ZenBook with a similar config - quad-core i7, no dGPU, TB3 - and a non-overpriced dock (preferably small sized, fitting Mini ITX cards only). Having used an Asus N550 for several years now, I really prefer the feel of their multimedia laptops to Latitude even at the expense of corporate features, and just wish mine had a TB3 port so I wouldn't have to get rid of it :( I suspect some resistance among the laptop vendors to release eGPU-focused laptops because this would mean decreasing their profit (less frequent upgrades) so this Latitude is at least a good sign.

I think it's come down to planned obsolescence as well. If only Asus had actually released that laptop they put out at CES 2015.

Thanks for the heads-up, Douglas! I bit the bullet recently - dragged my rig's internals halfway across the world and bought new case and monitor for it, but I wish I didn't have to. This is still too expensive for me but I like the direction things are moving in. Hopefully within a few months we could see a ZenBook with a similar config - quad-core i7, no dGPU, TB3 - and a non-overpriced dock (preferably small sized, fitting Mini ITX cards only). Having used an Asus N550 for several years now, I really prefer the feel of their multimedia laptops to Latitude even at the expense of corporate features, and just wish mine had a TB3 port so I wouldn't have to get rid of it :( I suspect some resistance among the laptop vendors to release eGPU-focused laptops because this would mean decreasing their profit (less frequent upgrades) so this Latitude is at least a good sign.

Dell configuration site says NVIDIA card is optional for i7-7820HQ. This is correct that the HD 630 performs roughly as 930MX given the fast DDR4 memory, both banks are configured.

I hope that there will be a possibility to pass through the whole Thunderbolt port to a VM. I am dreaming of a solution where I have Linux host for office work and Windows gaming VM, all enclosed within a mobile case and software securely isolated from each other. At work I would use basic notebook functions, while at home I could just plug in some Thunderbolt docking station and be happy with great graphical performance.
For now only best/most expensive dell precision notebooks (with that hardware docking station) would fit that possibility. I hope new Thunderbolt solution will manage to pull it through.

Herva: It's confirmed to have 4 PCIe lanes, which is why I was interested :)

uPanda: I hope so too ;)