Thunderbolt 3 based eGPUs have been around for many years, offering the ability to plug a full desktop-class GPU into a laptop. Theoretically it’s an appealing idea, especially if someone is using an older laptop that has a perfectly fine CPU to handle games, but the GPU is long in the tooth. But there are some drawbacks.
In this video I talk about my experiences using an eGPU over the past 4 months to play 10 of the biggest games from the past couple of years. Each game was tested in four different ways, and below are the specs of the equipment I used—all of which is covered in the video.
Dell XPS 15 7590 specs:
- 15.6-inch 4K OLED panel
- Intel 9th-gen Core i9-9980HK
- Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650
- 32GB DDR4/2666
- 1TB Samsung NVMe M.2 SSD
eGPU setup:
- Asus XG Station Pro ($330 from B&H Photo)
- Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super Founders Edition ($856.80 from Amazon)
As you can see in the video, the 2070 Super inside this eGPU offered higher frame rates than the GTX 1650 in the XPS 15 in almost every game. The 8-core Core i9-9980HK was also able to perform with higher clocks for longer periods, because it didn’t have to share cooling with the GTX 1650. The improvements would be even more dramatic on older laptops with out-of-date video cards.