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> YOUR MILEAGE MAY VARY My biggest issues with my eGPU have been with Windows' weird limitations on addressing space for devices, so if you have 3+ graphics ca

> YOUR MILEAGE MAY VARY My biggest issues with my eGPU have been with Windows' weird limitations on addressing space for devices, so if you have 3+ graphics cards (builtin primary, builtin secondary, eGPU card) you end up having to endlessly screw around with disabling and reenabling devices and device buses to change the order they're initialized in, messing with bootloaders to change which PCIe lanes get loaded at startup, etc etc. It's a nightmare. By contrast, all my experiences on Mac have been either "it just works" or "after one reboot it just works". Still not ideal, but not anything close to the 4+ hours it took me to get it working on Windows for the first time (and after which it immediately stopped working again the first time I disconnected the Thunderbolt cable).

PaulHoule 7y ago
At work I have a late model Dell laptop that works well with a Dell dock. My year older Alienware (also Dell) has struggled to work with various docks, but I have built a network of single purpose USB gadgets under my desk (Hub, Ethernet, SD card, XBox dongle) that is rock solid that plugs into a USB-A 3 and leaves the USB-C for the monitor.
benologist 7y ago
My biggest issue with the eGPU, on an Intel Skull Canyon NUC so Intel from top to bottom including Thunderbolt technology, it was very flakey with the eGPU and the computer frequently getting locked into a dysfunctional state. Sometimes I'd spend 20 - 30 minutes cycling through powering on and off before it all worked. Now I use it with a Macbook Pro and it works very smoothly, even using a TB2 adapter. I can only use it in bootcamp because of Apple's policy towards nVidia, but it works every time and disconnects every time. Even with the troubled experience, being able to move a GPU between computers is really just awesome, I wouldn't buy another machine without Thunderbolt or USB 4 eventually.
picclex 7y ago
>if you have 3+ graphics cards (builtin primary, builtin secondary, eGPU card) I have not had any of these problems. Intel GPU, Nvidia MX150, AMD RX 580. I wonder if there's some weird driver interaction stuff? But yeah, the technology is clearly not at perfect maturity. All I can offer are condolences :(
- crooked-v 7y ago
  My problems haven't been with drivers, but rather with Windows being unable to allocate enough PCI resource lanes even though the hardware can physically support everything.

PaulHoule 7y ago

At work I have a late model Dell laptop that works well with a Dell dock. My year older Alienware (also Dell) has struggled to work with various docks, but I have built a network of single purpose USB gadgets under my desk (Hub, Ethernet, SD card, XBox dongle) that is rock solid that plugs into a USB-A 3 and leaves the USB-C for the monitor.

benologist 7y ago

My biggest issue with the eGPU, on an Intel Skull Canyon NUC so Intel from top to bottom including Thunderbolt technology, it was very flakey with the eGPU and the computer frequently getting locked into a dysfunctional state. Sometimes I'd spend 20 - 30 minutes cycling through powering on and off before it all worked. Now I use it with a Macbook Pro and it works very smoothly, even using a TB2 adapter. I can only use it in bootcamp because of Apple's policy towards nVidia, but it works every time and disconnects every time. Even with the troubled experience, being able to move a GPU between computers is really just awesome, I wouldn't buy another machine without Thunderbolt or USB 4 eventually.

picclex 7y ago

>if you have 3+ graphics cards (builtin primary, builtin secondary, eGPU card) I have not had any of these problems. Intel GPU, Nvidia MX150, AMD RX 580. I wonder if there's some weird driver interaction stuff? But yeah, the technology is clearly not at perfect maturity. All I can offer are condolences :(

crooked-v 7y ago
My problems haven't been with drivers, but rather with Windows being unable to allocate enough PCI resource lanes even though the hardware can physically support everything.