4 ms·

You can use ExpressCard to connect an external GPU. https://egpu.io/external-gpu-buyers-guide-2018/#expresscard2-interface https://egpu.io/external-gpu-buyers-g

• paulmd 9y ago
  Even Thunderbolt speeds can bottleneck a GPU. The effects are particularly severe on minimum framerates/frame-times, as opposed to averages. https://www.pcper.com/reviews/Graphics-Cards/External-Graphics-over-Thunderbolt-3-using-AKiTiO-Node/Performance-Testing https://www.pcper.com/reviews/Graphics-Cards/External-Graphi... That's PCIe 3.0x4 speeds. In comparison, ExpressCard is either PCIe 1.1x1 speed or PCIe 2.0x1 speed. That means they have 1/16th of the throughput on older models, or 1/8th on Sandy Bridge. It's a cute way to get GSync monitor support in a laptop (this was not included in mobile until Pascal - yet another reason to upgrade), or to sidestep lack of support for DX11/DX12, but the performance is not fantastic (although surely better than a circa-2006 uarch). Given the size and price of the eGPU solution you are practically better off doing a compact mITX build in something like the Dan SFX-A4 or Silverstone RVZ01. You get desktop GPUs and desktop processors (TDP is still king of performance, and laptop CPUs are very TDP-limited). The only thing you lose is the integrated display, which you can't really use with an eGPU anyway, since sending back a display stream chokes the link for bandwidth even harder (the link I provided is measured by an external display). So yeah, either get a new laptop or get a new (small) desktop, I don't find the eGPU option all that compelling. Nehalem and Sandy Bridge are still tolerable, that doesn't make them ideal.