eGPUs still aren't worth it, right?

[Redaktion]

Intel recently integrated Ice Lake into their U-series processors, as well as switching to a more efficient 10nm process. Have these changes done anything to improve eGPU performance, and are eGPUs any more financially viable than before?

https://www.notebookcheck.net/eGPUs-still-aren-t-worth-it-right.450952.0.html

[Martin Fogg]

That's an article??
Price of GPU was never main drawback of eGPU setup. If GPU prices drop it will be even cheaper to build a PC.

Enclosure price and performance penalty was main issue and unless it's changing eGPUs will stay dead.

[necovek]

Main draw of an eGPU is to be  able to have a single portable laptop, and be able to dock when extra graphics power is needed.

I don't care about extracting every last bit of performance, but I haven't jumped on the bandwagon yet — the main reason being that software on Ubuntu is not handling hotplugging well.

The big draw of the approach is to avoid data syncing mess — by not having to sync at all :)

[MichelM]

Thundebolt 3 Bandwidth = 32 Gbps 

PCI Express 3.0 Bandwidth = 126Gbps

Average Performance Drop = 20%

I would expect 30% or more with Ampere/Navi 2

[nope]

@Martin Fogg was thinking the same thing... they must be running out of ideas for new content?

[kony]

I have eGPU and it runs perfectly fine combined with my XPS 13. It's not like ExpressCard, which had a slow bandwidth and hence many games had huge performance losses or were even unplayable. Thunderbolt 3 gives enough bandwidth to run everything flawlessly, at least so far. I have yet to encounter a game that gives any noticeable performance loss due to limited bandwidth on TB3.

Here's my old ExpressCard build:
(https://i.imgur.com/TIwReHN.jpg)


Here's my current TB3 build:
(https://i.imgur.com/RUaaxUb.jpg)

[HamsterIsCool]

Is that a hamster there just wandering around the table? 😀

[kony]

Is that a hamster there just wandering around the table? 😀

Yup :D Lovable creature, I miss him. However, now I have two guinea pigs, just as charming.

[theo]

Right call on keeping those comments - they are pleasantly amusing.

Did i get confused - or you never mentioned internal mini pcie or nvme kits in the article yet the Amazon link is about one?

[Loki Rautio]

Right call on keeping those comments - they are pleasantly amusing.

Did i get confused - or you never mentioned internal mini pcie or nvme kits in the article yet the Amazon link is about one?

At the time of writing, the ADT-link kit link pointed to a Thunderbolt 3 version of it as far as I remember. There is a M.2/mPCI-E version of it, however.

I didn't cover those since while those are technically eGPU setups, talking about their practicality almost deserves a separate article.

[jeremy]

Thundebolt 3 Bandwidth = 32 Gbps 

PCI Express 3.0 Bandwidth = 126Gbps

Average Performance Drop = 20%

I would expect 30% or more with Ampere/Navi 2

TB3 (and TB4 for that matter) are actually ~22Gbps data rate for PCIe. DP gets the rest, even if there is no video stream, the limit for the PCIe datarate is still ~22Gbps.

[phila_delphia]

Thank you for the article. I guess notebookcheck should focus on eGPU capabilities of notebooks somewhat. I`d also like to see an in depth article on the subject. Here is an example why:

I need to have a convertible for my kind of work/leissure routine (teaching/mobility/some gaming while traveling).

I was going with two computers for years but felt that it was time to only have one machine. In order to test, how I would get aling I bought a used Lenovo Yoga 720 15" just before the holydays which I connect to a Razer Core X Chroma + external monitor when at home.

As I was very saftsfied with the solution. So satisfied, that I decided to switch from the 3 year old Lenovo 720 15" to a Lenovo Yoga c940 15"

However: Even though the c940 has a better CPU and is said to have 4 lanes instead of the 2 lanes in the 720, the older convertible performs about 12% better in gaming scenarios (not synthetic benchmarks) when connected to the Razer Core X... Even though the bandwith of the c940 is much higher... An I can not figure out why...

On its own the c940 if supperior to the 720 by far, so that I will galady keep it - anyhow I`d like to have experts like notebookcheck check out the capabilities of notebooks Thunderbolt 3 ports on upcoming machines!

Best regards

phila

P.S.: If you want all the details about my setup: https://egpu.io/forums/pc-setup/less-egpu-performance-with-better-notebook/

[xpclient]

They should make an eGPU solely for AV1 encoding which we can add to our existing machines. Since AV1 software encoders are extremely slow currently.

[Loki Rautio]

However: Even though the c940 has a better CPU and is said to have 4 lanes instead of the 2 lanes in the 720, the older convertible performs about 12% better in gaming scenarios (not synthetic benchmarks) when connected to the Razer Core X... Even though the bandwith of the c940 is much higher... An I can not figure out why...

The difference in gaming scenarios likely has something to do with the c940's cooling profile, or just some sort of performance restraint put in place by Lenovo in some way. Solving those kinds of issues can be a bit of a pain, but usually Throttlestop, disabling BDPROCHOT and checking "Unlock turbo limits" in the FIVR menu disables most CPU limitations. It looks like the GPU performance is relatively the same too, which would fall in line with the GPU benchmarks.

[phila_delphia]

However: Even though the c940 has a better CPU and is said to have 4 lanes instead of the 2 lanes in the 720, the older convertible performs about 12% better in gaming scenarios (not synthetic benchmarks) when connected to the Razer Core X... Even though the bandwith of the c940 is much higher... An I can not figure out why...

The difference in gaming scenarios likely has something to do with the c940's cooling profile, or just some sort of performance restraint put in place by Lenovo in some way. Solving those kinds of issues can be a bit of a pain, but usually Throttlestop, disabling BDPROCHOT and checking "Unlock turbo limits" in the FIVR menu disables most CPU limitations. It looks like the GPU performance is relatively the same too, which would fall in line with the GPU benchmarks.

Hey Loki! Thx for responding. I repasted the CPU and use Throttlestop to undervolt the machine allready (it runs once and cool at about 72°C when under heavy load while the eGPU is connected) and tried the "performance profile" in the bios & Vantage software as well. I tried different TB3 drivers and different GPU drivers...

However: I will check out BDPROCHOT & "Unlock turbo limits" and report back as soon as I get home end of the week!

All the best!

phila