Best external GPUs for laptops: Buying guide for eGPUs 2021
Friday, July 09, 2021
No matter how good laptops are for productivity, they’ll always lag behind desktops when it comes to gaming. There are a few ways to approach this problem. Users can purchase a gaming laptop, which are usually heavier and bulkier than ultrabooks. Alternatively, they can pair an ultrabook with one of the best
eGPUs available in 2021.
Our eGPU buyer’s guide will recommend some of our favorite products that can be used to connect an external GPU to a laptop. We’ll also discuss compatibility and what type of laptop can use an eGPU.
If you require strong PC gaming performance, traditionally that meant a desktop was your only option. However, the advent of modern high-speed external interfaces such as Thunderbolt has allowed for the integration of desktop-class graphics cards with laptops. These products, known as eGPUs, are an easy way to bring enhanced graphics performance to laptops without discrete graphics. Basically you put a desktop GPU in a special box and then plug that box into your laptop. The laptop then sends programs that need strong graphics power to run on that box.
All eGPUs on the market currently use the Thunderbolt interface. Intel and Apple designed Thunderbolt as just a fancy wrapping of the PCIe and DisplayPort interfaces in an external cable. This allows for a connection between PCIe devices and Thunderbolt-enabled laptops with a single controller chip.
Asus ROG Flow X13 and XG Mobile eGPU review | Rock Paper Shotgun rockpapershotgun.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from rockpapershotgun.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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The latest AAA games require more graphics horsepower for an immersive experience than the typical ultraportable laptop can provide. Dedicated gamers will often buy a beefy gaming laptop that can run such titles to their satisfaction, or reserve gameplay for their desktop PCs at home. A third option is to connect an external GPU like the Asus ROG XG Mobile to an ultraportable laptop. The XG Mobile is one of the better external GPU (eGPU) concepts we’ve seen, but it’s still an imperfect and expensive solution, with the XG Mobile and bundled ROG Flow X13 laptop starting at $2,999 and offering decent but hardly noteworthy performance. Most gamers will be better off with sticking with a beefier gaming laptop.