# External GPU for laptops



## connoisseur (Apr 24, 2015)

So I came across this video:
External GPU Adapter

What do you guys think? Is it even worth?
If anyone has any experience with this, do share.


----------



## warfreak (Apr 24, 2015)

1. Hard to find
2. Expensive
3. Underperforming compared to PCI-E

So, no. Totally not worth it!


----------



## sam_738844 (Apr 24, 2015)

^^

1. Hard to find --Not so hard. True in India though.
2. Expensive    -- As far as gaming laptop goes with dGPU soldered in chip, they already are expensive, having a dock with a serious upgrade path laid down actually justifies the extra greens.
3. Underperforming compared to PCI-E  --*NOT TRUE at all*

I quote from Anandtech

MSI GS30 Shadow.



> If you’re curious how MSI is interfacing with all of these extra devices and whether there will be sufficient bandwidth, the answer is that the dock uses a full x16 PCIe 3.0 based connector. That means not only is there plenty of bandwidth, but the discrete GPU will also be able to run at maximum performance.



Read full at : MSI Announces GS30 Shadow Laptop and GPU Expansion Dock


----------



## warfreak (Apr 24, 2015)

I was talking specifically about the USB adaptor. Having to pay the extra bucks but still not being able to get full potential performance is not worth the price and effort.

If they provide an interface which makes full use of the PCI-E bus with minimum bottleneck then its good.

Even then, the extra components needed to carry around defeat the purpose of a gaming laptop i.e. portability.


EDIT: My bad!! It does have a PCI-E interface. 

Still looking at the product reviews, many people faced problems with it. Also that is not available here in India yet. So yes, they are still not worth it.


----------



## SaiyanGoku (Apr 24, 2015)

connoisseur said:


> So I came across this video:
> External GPU Adapter
> 
> What do you guys think? Is it even worth?
> If anyone has any experience with this, do share.



Not worth it IMO. get a laptop with dGPU like 860M or higher instead of depending on external gpu for laptops which lack decent dGPU.


----------

