SEPTEMBER 2020 PCWorld 63Thunderbolt 3, any eGPU you run isn’t going
to perform as well as if it were in a PC tower. It
might get close, but you are always going to
give up performance.
Third, I did have to troubleshoot some
games and make changes in Windows in
order to get games to work with the eGPU,
meaning your mileage may vary depending
on the game you want to play.
With all that said, an eGPU is still a viable
option if you know the drawbacks going in
and want to get more out of a laptop. In the
future I plan on testing this eGPU setup in
creative applications and look forward to see
what Thunderbolt 4 (go.pcworld.com/thu4)
can enable on future laptops.EGPU SETUP:
- Asus XG Station Pro ($330 from
B&H Photo [go.pcworld.com/
asxg])- Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070
Super Founders Edition ($856.80
from Amazon [go.pcworld.com/
fe70])
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
- Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070
- The improvements would be even
more dramatic on older laptops with out-of-
date video cards.
But there are considerations with such a
setup. First off, you have to weigh the return
on investment. In theory it’s nice to have the
best of both worlds—the portability of a
mainstream laptop, and the power of a GPU
at home. But the price of buying an eGPU
enclosure and a desktop GPU (as you can see
from the prices of our components) can be
upwards of $800 or even $1,000—just as
much as building an equally capable PC. And
if you don’t have a laptop you will get more
bang for your buck by getting as much power
as you can afford in a laptop right now, and
then upgrading to an eGPU later.
Second, because of the constraints of
VIDEO: REAL-WORLD
EGPU GAMING
BENCHMARKS IN 2020
Watch now at go.pcworld.com/xgpWe used Dell’s XPS 15 7590 in our testing.