How much performance do we lose by connecting an eGPU with a Thunderbolt port? RTX 4090

[@givemeanameman1]

FPS loss that massive such as RDR2 is often resizeable bar on EGPU vs Internal. EGPU should have resizeable bar off in nvidia drivers. Thunderbolt 4 is cutting things up into packets, which does not play nice with large memory addressing.

[@trysometech52]

I see now. Thanks for the tip!

[@ZeFoxii]

Out of curiosity for exact numbers what “is” the fps difference

[@ZeFoxii]

And does only calling out Nvidia gpus mean it doesn’t happen on amd gpus? Is this a Nvidia driver issue only?

[@ZeFoxii]

@@trysometech52I’m actually super interested in what the differences are and what settings influence them.

[@ZeFoxii]

@@trysometech52could you make another video showing these differences?

[@mutantCybernetics]

great to see you took more effort to prove the point. eGPU for image generation is a viable option. thanks.

[@givemeanameman1]

Fantastic test, something missing across the youtube tech channels is proper EGPU/Internal comparisons. A suggestion is to test Oculink so internal/Thunderbolt4/Oculink comparisons. Oculink is a direct passthrough. Unlike Thunderbolt 4(and 5)... it also has 50% more bandwidth then TB4, 63gb vs 40gb. Thunderbolt breaks PCIE up into packets and needs to process the signal adding delay which impacts faster GPU's more then low ontop of bandwidth limitations. PCIE Oculink Risers are that can plug into M.2 slot, and M.2 PCIE 16X4.0 PCIE cards is cheaper then the TB4 dock.

[@freedomisdead9638]

Oculink port are so rare, because it s too new, and using M.2 slot is messy it would require to open your laptop or miniPC and leave it open to dust also it s not convenient because most of the time M.2 slot are already busy running your operating system on M.2 SSD.

[@givemeanameman1]

@@freedomisdead9638Oculink is not new, its actually very old tech. it was released in 2015. The M.2 slot to oculink was a work around people found to get oculink EGPU running decently because makers wont include oculink ports on devices.

[@loicbestard9940]

Thanks man ! This video was great and answered all my questions about egpu ! +1 sub

[@MrElectronicFan]

Great video, please continue with this work :) Just an idea: Maybe add some charts of your benchmark result at the end. If I got it right a 4090 has sometimes double FPS in Desktop vs eGPU. Also the RTX 2060 was a bit faster in Desktop. This results I would need somehow in a chart so I better see how big the differences are. Idea2: Also a compare to a iGPU would be nice so we would se iGPU vs RTX 2060 Desktop vs RTX 2060 eGPU. This wold give me a good overview about how much more fps I could get with a notebook (iGPU) + egpu and how much fps i loose vs RTX 2060 in a desktop and then decide if I should build a desktop system for max FPS or if i could live with Notebook + eGPU and some missing FPS^^

[@trysometech52]

Hey, thanks! Absolutely agree with you about some of the graphs. I could make it better. Not sure about the iGPU though, it will be different for everyone. UHD 630/770 or 780M all have different levels of performance. I don't know how you will be able to compare them to your iGPU. But I plan on doing such a comparison when it comes to Legion Go.

[@JoseMariArceta]

Another caveat for this is since this is a desktop setup, the thunderbolt controller is on a separate chipset present on the motherboard and is definitely not going to perform similarly to say a laptop with an Intel cpu or amd cpu (not sure on amd) that has a thunderbolt controller on-die. There would be higher latency on this desktop thunderbolt setup so you also have to consider that part. Edit: not sure if amd has an on die thunderbolt setup similar to Tiger lake onwards for Intel, and they seem to have a worse? Implementation compared to Intel thunderbolt chips on desktop motherboards so there's that as well.

[@CharredChar]

I was about to comment something similar when I saw the comparisons with the ASUS handhald. I've been looking around at some Thunderbolt eGPU docks to learn more and found that there is a 10-15% difference from the older Intel Thunderbolt 3 controller and newer ASMEDIA USB4 controller used on some of these docks. Yes, you're still limited to the "40Gbps" of the port but the older controllers could barely do 24Gbps as seen in a more recent video while newer controllers can get around 30Gbps. I would imagine the same will happen depending on what chipset is used on the PC side.

[@vladislavkaras491]

Thanks for the benchmarks!

[@carlosfraija6216]

A direct comparison between thunderbolt 4, oculink and direct connection would be interesting.... good review!!! You made me make my decision, thank you 😃👍🏻

[@trysometech52]

Thanks man, I am working on it :)

[@hixnowphantom3091]

Yooooo Thank you for your work & high dedication for this project ❤❤❤❤

[@bigd2911]

Great video dude you’ve got my sub I’m here to stay🤞🏻

[@jeffersonmp4]

Great video. Best eGPU channel!

[@trysometech52]

Thanks!

[@bogdanursache501]

The best video on eGPU!

[@ewenchan1239]

Thank you for this video. I didn't realise that the difference would actually be, in some cases, quite significant. It's too bad that a compact dGPU build, sometimes, comes with its own set of issues.

[@Recommendable]

Cant wait to see yor tests with thunderbolt5, there IS at least one laptpop on the market with this connection protocol already, the question is if there is a dock having thunderbolt5 yet?

[@trysometech52]

Yeah, I've only heard about the laptop so far

[@pavellebedev2587]

Thanks, Bro, great job! I've been waiting for this video review =) Please test the benchmarks for CGI content creators: Octanebench 2020.1, and Cinebench 2024 (GPU mode is there). Besides these two main ones, there is also VRAY Benchmark and Blender Benchmark. I work on a laptop in Cinema 4D and Redshift Render, I want to buy like your eGPU)

[@alanzowo7710]

so, I guess we would have to wait for thunderbolt 5

[@wantedyou2346]

USB 4.2 !!

[@alanzowo7710]

@@wantedyou2346 usb 5

[@jemdejager]

80gb/s

[@marv9906]

But then thunderbolt 6 will just be around the corner, why not wait for that?

[@alanzowo7710]

@@marv9906because 5 is enough so I don't think 6 gonna come out right after 5.

[@donaldadugbe6912]

Thank you for the video !!. It eould be interesting to see the difference between egpu and direct gpu for worloads like machine learning, Local Ai LLm like ollama and 3d rendering

[@ollisbumsblog_6272]

Great video thanks a lot!

[@PROUD_EGYPTIAN333]

Great video! btw, I'd like to know if a 4060 ti will be atleast 20% better than 4050?

[@renegadephalanx]

You should try out the M.2 adaptor based eGPUs using EDT link or OCU-link. Low latency, using PCIE 4.0 x 4 which is at 64Gb/s vs the 40GB/s max for egpu thunderbolt ports. I doubt I'm the first one to mention this one here, but I highly recommend it for any Nvidia GPUs that are RTX 2xxx and more recent.

[@trysometech52]

Yeah I got the same video but with Oculink connection included

[@xjul3s620]

Hey there, did you have to undo a latch at the PCIE slot of the eGPU (like on a regular motherboard) when switching the cards? Or do you just pull out the card? Thanks in advance!

[@sammygun84]

It’s will be interesting to compare laptop with pc using egpu

[@pointless7453]

I have bought the ADT-UT3G, maybe try that: it has a newer Thunderbolt controller, which means that it can convert the signals quicker between the GPU and cpu.

[@arseniyshapurov]

Following. Please update after you test it.

[@trysometech52]

Hey, if you already have it, can you run AIDA64 GPU Benchmark and tell us what "Memory Write" do you have?

[@johnpp21]

​@@trysometech52 its around 3668MB/s its far better than TB3 egpus, specially in 1% Lows, the TB3 egpus stutters like crazy in graphic demanding games i have a post in egpu io website comparison of UT3G vs TH3P4G3 but only 2 game benchmark heres the quick results UT3G: Cyberpunk 2077 Average framerate : 130.9 FPS Minimum framerate : 92.4 FPS Maximum framerate : 162.8 FPS 1% low framerate : 79.6 FPS 0.1% low framerate : 58.1 FPS Forza Horizon 5 Average framerate : 92.0 FPS Minimum framerate : 67.8 FPS Maximum framerate : 111.8 FPS 1% low framerate : 51.0 FPS 0.1% low framerate : 46.4 FPS TH3P4G3: Cyberpunk 2077 Average framerate : 101.3 FPS Minimum framerate : 62.2 FPS Maximum framerate : 132.7 FPS 1% low framerate : 38.3 FPS 0.1% low framerate : 33.5 FPS Forza Horizon 5 Average framerate : 69.7 FPS Minimum framerate : 43.5 FPS Maximum framerate : 92.5 FPS 1% low framerate : 25.5 FPS 0.1% low framerate : 19.4 FPS

[@trysometech52]

Wow, nice! Can it also be connected/disconnected at any moment just like a TH3P4G3? Or you need to turn off/on your laptop first?

[@johnpp21]

@@trysometech52 sadly that feature hotplug support isn't available in that dock i have to shutdown the system first before i connect the dock, same as disconnecting or else it bsod

[@freedomisdead9638]

Thanks you, that was the test i was looking for, i heard before about eGPU performance lost but i never thought it would be that bad, You have just proven that eGPU is a scam, if only these device were cheap it wouldn t be that bad, but my God eGPU price range from 400+ $ up to 700$, this is pure Madness. Why buying an expensive high end GPU to get a 50% performance drop on eGPU????

[@trysometech52]

Actually my eGPU dock cost less than 200$, and I personally use RTX 2060 with a handheld. It's not THAT bad, but yeah, not perfect ether :D

[@trektn]

Worth testing on those minisforum motherboards that have mobile chips to eliminate cpu variable

[@freedomisdead9638]

Exactly, i haven t the video yet, but the test is biased if CPU aren t equivalent in performance. CPU is definitely a bottleneck

[@alonsogarrote8898]

Regarding stable diffusion you said they both utilize it in the same way BUT I could see in the log you showed sometimes the GPU more than double (7.x it/s) the eGPU (3.x it/s), can you elaborate a bit more on this?

[@trysometech52]

I had different settings there, and this metric depends on the settings. As soon as I made the settings the same, the metric became the same

[@blackmedia7075]

I'd love to see such an Video with Thunderbolt 5 once it's available

[@ChadVerified]

In the end will a 4090egpu be more powerful than the best version of a laptop's dedicated 4090? especially for video editing in Davinci Resolve/Premiere?

[@sownlengoc]

the rtx4090m is actually the underwatted rtx4080 desktop, even rtx4070ti egpu can easily beat it

[@freedomisdead9638]

Editing software are not GPU heavy, there is absolutely zero difference in Davinci using an RTX 4090 or an RTX 4070 or even a an RTX 3060

[@ChadVerified]

@@freedomisdead9638 it's evident you've never used Davinci Resolve before with a statement like "Editing software are not GPU heavy" Resolve relies on GPU more than any other component, it's crucial.

[@freedomisdead9638]

@@ChadVerified you are so wrong, i am a davinci resolve studio users, it is well known that Davinci is heavy on CPU and not on GPU, only some heavy Fusion FX will demand quite a bit of GPU resources., plus Davinci is bottleneck on GPU and CPU, i stand by my words, Davinci can t use all the power of an RTX 4090 card not even 50%.. there are plenty of reddit topic covering this subject, Davinci inability to properly fully use CPU, GPU power.

[@ChadVerified]

@@freedomisdead9638 ok could you send me one of those reddit topic because I don't wanna waste my money investing in a more powerful GPU if it's not beneficial but with my own personal experience Resolve utilizes GPu more than CPU when editing and when doing Fusion FX it utilizes Cpu more lol. I'm using Laptop Rtx 3070 btw

[@carloscatly1438]

Hello thanks for this video but have you tried stable diffusion on the legion go with the egpu? It has USB4 instead of thunderbolt and was wondering if performance would still be close to lossless like how it is in thunderbolt.

[@trysometech52]

No, I haven't tried it, but USB4 uses the Thunderbolt 3 standard, so the result should be pretty much the same.

[@carloscatly1438]

@@trysometech52 Thanks for the quick Reply!

[@ИгорьЛавор-к4р]

Давно искал подобный тест, спасибо.

[@esquiche]

And if you compare laptop with egpu vs laptop with discreta gpu?

[@neysu4529]

Nice a new good tech ytb channel

[@dellenrules]

AMD doesn’t support thunderbolt. That was USB4. The Th3p4g3 supports both USB and thunderbolt. I recommend changing the hub to a thunderbolt 4 only dock and a 40Gb/s Thunderbolt 4 cable. I’ve seen an eGPU 4060 out perform an internal 4060 under the conditions I mentioned. The 4090 has just under 4X the performance boost so I can understand the bottle neck. Not so understandable on the 2060.

[@trysometech52]

USB4 uses Thunderbolt 3 specs Because they are compatible I guess you mean USB4 only dock that works only with AMD-based devices, then you can reach way better bandwidth Not possible, might be CPU/RAM or some other hardware difference Any GPU will bottleneck even with Oculink connection, you can find that in my other eGPU videos. 2060 doesn't support Resizable bar, that's why it worked better than 4090. It's better to disable it in BIOS in case you want to use eGPU. This info was in the pinned comment

[@CharredChar]

​@@trysometech52 Yes and no. I mentioned this in another comment but the controller used on both the device and PC side do matter. While USB4 "uses" the Thunderbolt 3 spec it doesn't mean they perform exactly the same. Especially if you have an older controller somewhere in the chain. Some people are seeing higher throughput on USB4 controllers than the older Thunderbolt 3 controllers for instance. I don't know about the claim for Thunderbolt 3 or USB4 vs Thunderbolt 4 but I would imagine the same can be true.

[@charliemcgrain]

I have heard that if you connect via M.2 instead of through thunderbolt, the performance loss is more like 10%. (not as convenient to go the M.2 cable method, but way better performance. )

[@trysometech52]

Yeah, I know but that's not an option for me. Like you said, m.2. is not convenient connection. I'll check Oculink soon :)

[@charliemcgrain]

I would think it would be important for your viewers to know the difference between a potential 40% loss and a a10% loss. My question was not to address your convenience or mine. @@trysometech52

[@iqbalputra9139]

is thunderbolt 3 and USB 4 basically the same thing? will all thunderbolt 3 accessories including egpu enclosure works with USB 4 without extra effort/tinkering?

[@trysometech52]

Yep

[@simcoyote]

eGPU for image generation works great. How about text generation ? I assume it works great also ?

[@trysometech52]

Can't say for sure, but most probably yes

[@dalejail]

@trysometech52 i just wanted to ask you what gpu generation/model would maximize the thunderbolt bottleneck on razer x?

[@QuentinStephens]

I hope you redo these tests with an Oculink dock.

[@trysometech52]

Oh yes I will

[@MrCoffis]

We need a universal PCIE port for egpus.

[@klaidasrunele]

if your fps ganna be capped by your GPU? No? What is the bandwidth cap in terms of fps for the CPU? A number close to that will be your FPS

[@Jesusmanuelrl1]

Creo que la pérdida de FPS en muchas ocasiones se debió a que la entrada de rayo tiene un GPIe 3.0 que no permite mucha transferencia de información. Hubo algunos juegos que estaban a 40 fps pero la CPU y la GPU ni siquiera llegaban al 90%, eso fue por el cuello de botella, 2 monstruos conectados por un cable GPIe 3.0 es como pasar por la aduana, solo hay 4 carriles que es más lento, sin embargo los resultados son sorprendentes, creo que si bajaras la resolución los FPS hubieran subido más en la EGPU.

[@Berecutecu]

If you happen to get an eGPU with Oculink and mod your laptop with a riser please share your results with us. I'm hearing that Oculink perform even better than what TB5 will provide when it launches

[@trysometech52]

Yes, I plan to purchase one of these

[@zulchaidir73]

but, while TB5 release, is this compatible on tb port laptop that staill in tb 4 or even tb3? i think both of tb 5 on laptop and tb 5 on the egpu should be same latest version, otherwise not give the best performance too. and if we need both tb5 , other laptop has been released with proper vga on it

[@andreaslassak2111]

TB4 is slow. Use TB5 or Oculink connector

[@PlayGamesWithX]

Hi, Do you think "ASUS Dual GeForce RTX 4060 Ti OC Edition 16GB GDDR6 16GB GDDR6 " with eGPU connect to iMac via thunderbolt can play game like Battlefield V at 4K 60fps?

[@trysometech52]

Hi, is your iMac intel based? I ask because it doesn't work with M-based CPUs. Also I can't be sure regarding the performance, check my other video with Thunderbolt eGPU bandwidth limit. I tested on Battlefield 2042 there and had problems with it.

[@PlayGamesWithX]

@@trysometech52 yes, it is Intel based

[@AQ-rq3qu]

Can u try using oculink and show the difference between oculink, thunderbolt and destop. Please I really appreciate Wana see the difference in performance

[@trysometech52]

I don't have Oculink eGPU at this moment, so maybe in the future

[@NikhilKumar-yq1fx]

How much will i loose in tb 5 with compated to desktop? I am buying razer 18 !

[@hericlima8997]

Very good video

[@FrancuskiAligator]

Performance difference might be due to fact that some cpu have embedded tb4 controller in cpu die and some doesnt. Desktop cpu most likely does not have embedded tb4 therefor no difference between i7/i9 (using same contoller on motherboard). Can you do benchmark on similar cpu (ex intel i7) but with embedded vs external tb4 ?

[@trysometech52]

I don't have other CPUs to test that. But most likely, it happened because of Resizable Bar. RTX 2060 doesn't support it, so we can see much more predictable behavior there

[@Spyke_misc]

Damn, thunderbolt 5 cannot come soon enough !

[@bobbysworlds]

I have a dell xps 15 intel i9 32gb ram 1 tb memorie and A Nvidia 1060 GPU I think it is. Will a e gpu with a RTX 3060 be worth it. I play warzone

[@trysometech52]

I am pretty sure that you'll notice a significant difference

[@vanraygen8772]

Please use oculink port..TB 4 not worth it

[@IvánGrullón-v3y]

new sub!

[@Jason_P]

Hey what power supply did you use with the EGPU dock??

[@trysometech52]

Hey, it's Be Quiet pure power 12 for 750w

[@D2firetech]

Test oculink you will get much more performance

[@JJ-RUN]

Спасибо за видео, очень интересная тема

[@stevenms4813]

I got the TH3P4G3 and a RX 6800xt without considering this, is kinda dissapointing only getting max 70fps on The Finals

[@mayankgaur17]

But the temperature are good in egpu

[@vosko3d]

Can you make same test pls for Blender Bench and Octane Benchmark, i am interested can people who make a 3d work with egpu

[@qayyumyumz4190]

i try egpu 1x3.0 exp gdc using amd rx 5700 play rdr2 fps lock 60 default setting / daysgone 45fps default setting . but when i use gtx 1070 rdr 30-40 balance setting / daysgone 60fps lock default setting but gtx sometime gpu spike when idle i think i need to changed my egpu dock

[@robhewitt5640]

What would perform better a laptop with a 4080 or a 4070 super egpu connected to ayaneo kun & external display?

[@trysometech52]

Can't say for sure, but most probably laptop with 4080 will be better

[@zzoli2oo4]

I don't get it why would you connect an egpu to a desktop? I was looking if can be or worth connected to a laptop. I have an old asus rog laptop what was the very top of what you could buy about 8 years ago, I7 6820hk 32gb ram and 1080gtx 8gb. Any of these egpu's can be added and how much would improve?

[@BigTylt]

To eliminate as many variations as possible so that the difference is only between direct PCIE and Thunderbolt

[@古代馬鈴薯]

Will USB 5 (with Thunderbolt 5 I guess) be better for eGPU's performacne?

[@trysometech52]

Yes for sure

[@onlysupport6969]

I confused, why egpu rtx 2060 has better performance?

[@trysometech52]

Check the pinned comment. Most likely because of the resizable bar

[@Triro]

Oof. those frametimes though. Same GPU. but you're not even fully utilizing it lol. eGPU's are fine if they NEED them, but if you can slot it into a PCIe slot, do so. Its also probably not a driver issue, you're legit putting a card through thunderbolt. It adds latency, and will make your GPU just run worse. Its just a limitation with how it works. Its the reason why you always should go with PCIe, as its closest to the CPU and all the components it needs to talk too

[@trysometech52]

Bro, eGPU are obviously for laptops/handhelds. Everyone know that :) If that's not a driver issue, why we can see such a huge difference between Ryzen Z1E and Intel CPU's in RDR2? I used same Thunderbolt eGPU there.

[@givemeanameman1]

@@trysometech52 Resizeable Bar is likely on, on your desktop computer, while likely disabled in Bios on the Ryzen Z1E and so disabled by default when Nvidia drivers are running for the 4090 when acting as an EGPU.

[@mmoairdrop3165]

how about m.2 nvme eGPU

[@trysometech52]

Check my latest video

[@hezekiahvaldez2943]

so oculink port really the goto.

[@riezalyncacapit1502]

Hello can in gpu asus phoenix rtx 3050 (PH RTX-3050)?

[@trysometech52]

Did you mean if you can use 3050 as eGPU? Of course you can.

[@riezalyncacapit1502]

Yes

[@sagarnegi9464]

Totally unrelated, but can anyone tell me what gpu will be good for modded skyrim se?

[@sanchopai907]

Можете пожалуйста проверить blender 🙏🙏🙏

[@adrianceasar5620]

can you use 2 Thunderbolt ports in the same time?

[@trysometech52]

Yes you can. I used second port for SSD in another video

[@romanturchenko8058]

Nice!

[@acwbit2368]

Test oculink vs pcie

[@trysometech52]

It's already done, you can find it on my channel

[@kompassorpigo7600]

Very informative but man, none of the tracks you chose fit the content of the video. It sounds like I'm watching a cheesy teen romance.

[@joshua7426]

Either way it's still viable to use something like an egpu+ intel arc 770 on my laptop that has a 3050ti and see better results than my what my 3050ti could produce?

[@trysometech52]

Hey, not sure if this eGPU dock supports Intel arc GPU. You better double check that first

[@joshua7426]

@trysometech52 10-4 , that sucks if it doesn't as it's very affordable.

[@joshua7426]

@trysometech52 I see I can get a 4060ti for about 350 bucks, will the performance of this and its much larger vram over the 4gb of the notebook 3050ti be noticeable enough. Seems I can get the egpu and gpu for about 500, but for another 500 I could also get a laptop with the 4060 8gb.

[@trysometech52]

I don't know man, if you're happy with a gaming laptop I'd say go for it. I just love the eGPU concept and the lightweight laptop, so I would probably go for the eGPU variant.

[@joshua7426]

@trysometech52 yeah I love the concept of it especially if you go the cheaper route of a mini pc or lower end laptop but with a decent cpu

[@alpaykasal2902]

i wish this was an oculink test :(

[@Jeetmon_Zadge]

Strange, if only it could be predictable. 😔

[@Omnitrio1]

Nvme oculink or adt link. Thunderbolt and usb are obsolete

[@trysometech52]

Yes, but Thunderbolt still has some advantages. For example, it can be connected and disconnected at any time to a device that is already powered on. It can also charge a device in parallel, and the eGPU can be a USB hub.

[@chatanick]

i can use 2060 or 3050 ??

[@trysometech52]

I used 2060 in this video, so I don't see any reason why you cant

[@lakecharlescountydev8411]

Is pcie dock good for egpu

[@nasalimbu3078]

1 whole

[@mysterychemical]

Thunderbolt for now is just equivalent to x4 of PCIe Gen 3. If it was at least x8 then there would be no difference for 1440p. I think you should check 1080p only for now due to bandwidth limitation.

[@trysometech52]

Resolution doesn't matter if you use external monitor connected to the eGPU directly.

[@AbhinavSingh-wr8um]

❤❤

[@shiro214okane]

me on GTX 1660 Ti connected to TB3 on old lenovo L580.

[@moessyd]

How is it doing?

[@shiro214okane]

@@moessyd its fine but it works better when it output hdmi or dp at the card to monitor, worst when using built in monitor. But if you want better performance but more hassle its connecting with oculink for best performance but not plug and play.

[@Deathscythe91]

Schrödinger's fps

[@Respectmyskill07]

Just use occulink

[@NakEdNinE]

Oculink is the solution

[@6poHe6ou]

oculink much better then tb

[@freedomisdead9638]

Nobody has Oculink port on their laptop or miniPC, that s stuff is brain new

[@user-0341htrs4]

How to calculate connection via OkuLink?

[@trysometech52]

I got a similar video about Oculink, you can check that as well.