I “upgraded” this mini PC with an RTX 3080Ti | feat. MinisForum UH125 Pro & Oculink

Using the MinisForum UH125 Pro mini PC’s Oculink port to connect it to an external graphics card, using an inexpensive adapter.
Oculink is a relatively new standard in external GPU connectors, but it’s already having an impact. As well as being cheaper to licence than Thunderbolt, it is a native PCI-Express x4 connector, meaning fast, simple communication between EGPUs and compatible devices. The only thing standing in the way of Oculink taking over the EGPU world is availability, and now that mini PCs like the MinisForum UH125 Pro are launching with native Oculink support, “upgrading” mini PCs with powerful graphics cards is more realistic and practical than ever. If you can call a mess of power cables and exposed PCBs an upgrade…
Specs as provided:
Intel Core Ultra 5 125H Arc Xe LPG 128Eu graphics
32GB DDR5-5600
1TB Gen 4 NVME SSD
Buy it here:
s.minisforum.com/IcebergTech-...
External GPU:
EVGA Geforce RTX 3080 Ti
EGPU Adapter:
Chenyang Oculink Adapter
amzn.to/4cy4Sp7
00:00 “Upgrading” Mini PCs with Oculink EGPUs
00:46 The MinisForum UH125 Pro
01:59 Oculink
03:47 Connecting the EGPU
05:16 Gaming
10:04 Synthetic Benchmarks
12:41 Productivity
13:43 Conclusion: UH125 Pro
15:48 Conclusion: Oculink EGPUs
A D S
The following links are affiliated. Everything costs the same to you, but I get a commission.
G E A R
Audio:
Behringer UM2 amzn.to/3aV17wq
Shure MV7X amzn.to/4e91KkR
Generic microphone arm amzn.to/339yZRC
Video:
Fujifilm X-T3 Camera & 18-55mm lens kit: amzn.to/3nGapRY
Fujifilm 23mm f2 amzn.to/3udXvgn
FeiyuTech G6 Max Gimbal amzn.to/3nHndYs
Interfit LM8 Video LED amzn.to/2SkESJL
Neewer 120cm Softbox amzn.to/2RjlMDm
Raleno Rechargeable Bicolour Video LED Panel amzn.to/3f2l7hV
C O N T A C T
Twitter/Insta @IcebergTop10s
Email [e-mail]
#miniPC #scalperpandemic #egpu

[@UndyingGhost]

Can we see 6900XT vs 3080Ti in late 2024? Maybe some demanding latest games. It would be interesting video.

[@IcebergTech]

Mmmmmmaybe? 😉

[@AlexandruJalea]

​@@blueboy3990but not as fun as Iceberg's 🎉😂

[@bubbablake3983]

Yeah Iceberg just does it better. Between the narration and little stories about the product, he just makes a better video

[@blueboy3990]

@@AlexandruJalea Iceberg's *SEXY* voice never fails to turn me on 😍

[@gwramim4807]

Agree bro​@@bubbablake3983

[@crashgamesuhd]

Finally, someone covering eGPUs in 2024. I (try) to run a 6800U with my PCs RX 7900XT via USB4/Thunderbolt 3. In Forza Horizon 5, I lost >40% performance. It also takes anywhere between seconds to hours to connect.

[@aswadevg]

You mean at 4k, so that you can have the least bottleneck

[@eagle56786]

Yeah 20-40% performance loss is usually my experience as well over TB3

[@eagle56786]

I also had to get a custom bootloader, and a custom pci.sys driver for windows to properly connect to the eGPU. code 12 and code 43 give me nightmares man

[@crashgamesuhd]

@@aswadevg I tried 4K120Hz. PC gets around 85-130fps, eGPU got 45-90fps

[@kubotite9168]

​@@crashgamesuhd does it stutter bad? maybe a low tier budget gpu is good atleast its not igpu?

[@bighmm6301]

You should compare the igpu to an arc a380, as they have the same number of cores.

[@Trick-Framed]

Half the cores, less than half the bandwidth, this wasn't bad at all. I expected a little worse. Now I REALLY want to see one in an SER7!

[@RobloxianX]

eGPUs wont be good until we get Thunderbolt 5.

[@keerthan7558]

and more cables that support 75 gb/s bandwidth lol

[@3lkPeople3uiltTh3Pyramids]

Albino have u ever seen someone struck by lightning 😊

[@Heavy_Chevy]

Always a pleasant day when I get to watch performance numbers!

[@12100F]

3:50 damn that synth goes HARD

[@cairnex4473]

Cool video idea and well executed. It's also great to see the sub counter constantly rising. Well deserved.

[@eagle56786]

still rocking my 2018 mac mini with an eGPU. 5700xt still going strong enough for my lighter esports titles at 1080p. within the next year I’ll be upgrading to a PC (keeping the 5700xt until prices come down a bit on the higher end 40 series)

[@DarkZenith]

12 screws on the cooling system... That honestly feels like a simple task, 12 is alot but they are all just basic screws and from what it looked like they were all the same. I'd take the beefier cooling system with the screws over simplicity [with higher heat

[@AlexandruJalea]

Procrastination time!!!! Thanks Iceberg 😁

[@TheAmazingCowpig]

Oh hey, I picked up that exact PCIe adapter myself. It's a pathway to getting funny records on TimeSpy lol.

[@justinpatterson5291]

I'm not schitting on Oculink for their efforts. But, it would be awesome if they could double the bandwidth for next gen... A healthier 126GB/Sec.

[@fracturedlife1393]

how cool would a 5090 look plugged into the mains with a miniPC hot glued to the back-plate 😅

[@Order..66]

Gigabit, not gigabyte. If it were gigabyte, that would be faster than a Pcie 5 x16 connection.

[@toseltreps1101]

you know that Oculink is not a company, right? right? thought so

[@jlmpc8733]

Finally an interesting twist to one of your multiple billion mini pc videos

[@Kenneth-jr7lp]

Hi iceberg. How are you? Love the content! Keep the vids coming 😄

[@XbladedGG]

It's kind of funny that you and RandomGaminginHD uploaded this at similar times.

[@raute2687]

I currently use an M.2 to pcie x16 adapter to use my laptop with an external GPU but I can feel that the connection is both PCIe 3.0 and limited to 4 lanes. The most exciting part about Oculink becoming somewhat mainstream in this niche is the possibility of an Oculink x8 expansion bay for the framework 16 laptop.

[@FavoriteHoney]

Will u talk about lossless scaling? Here's an Idea using the software paired with a piss poor gpu and a high end gpu and only using the low end gpu for frame generation

[@cybernd6426]

It would be interesting how high you can go with this connector and CPU till you see the upgrades being minimal

[@VSG-vj2ug]

No more mini pc!

[@Space_Reptile]

Oculink is just 4x PCIe..... so why not use Thunderbolt/USB 4? this is yet another port that fills a slot that is already taken

[@reeveho1384]

MORE POWER🔥🔥🔥

[@vshade]

I would love to see how much performance lower end cards lose compared to desktop, something like 3060/3050 or a 6600

[@Trick-Framed]

Can you PLEASE slap that M.2 adapter into the spare M.2 port of the SER7 and re run this? PLEASE?

[@Elomentoplayz]

Try the Oculink thing with a PCIE x8 GPU. I wanna see if it's any better.

[@tendosingh5682]

What is this fascination with EGPUs. Just buiid miniitx and done.

[@lamhkak47]

IIRC Oculink should provide 8 lanes instead of 4 in USB/Thunderbolt?

[@9-ac-7]

Would be amazing to see you try to get and benchmark an old flagship laptop

[@geekedaf]

im curious as to what kinda performance this would get with a gpu using 8 lanes like the 4060ti or 4060, would the drops be less by comparison to if it had full lanes?

[@jjr9198]

What port is the monitor connected to? If the nvidia card has to send its framebuffer back over the pcie bus, it can slow down a ton

[@zevidmusic]

Do the lanes affect the performance? Because that oculink only utilizes x4 lanes which is the quarter of max bandwidth.

[@ariavachier-lagravech.6910]

Could we get the power consumption difference as well?

[@pranavsivakumar3873]

why not use the ultra 7 155h and compare it with the 8945hs for egpu?

[@RoofusRoof19]

Takeaway: Be careful of how good your cpu is before spending a ton of money upgrading a mini pc

[@jorge69696]

The issue is the connection. It tanks performance.

[@SebastianReichenbach]

How did you use the Graphics Card? With just an external PSU? And how did you set it up? Curious...

[@alibozkuer5022]

While reviewing minipcs please display CPU temp. I believe it's crucial to know the temp situation with a smaller factor pc

[@SterkeYerke5555]

If it supports pcie 4.0 over oculink, I guess that means the UH125 should also support Oculink 2. With an Oculink 2 adapter that gives you 8 pcie lanes instead of 4. I wonder if that would help the gpu. I also wonder if there's a difference in pcie bandwidth utilisation between nVidia and AMD gpu's.

[@ryanmalinowski7529]

Since it's a pcie 4 x4, could you use a x4 video card, like a 6500xt?

[@krakencars]

I have a 6900 XT and would like a 2024 3080 ti comparison

[@rch5395]

Can someone explain to me the apeal of mini pcs?

[@YetAnotherSADXFan]

IGPU on top🤑🤑

[@Nicholas-nu9jx]

I hope for 890m amd graphics in mini pcs later this year.

[@Quryam]

Another mini pc video, at least this isn't a review again

[@ravipeiris4388]

Now...if we could see this in a laptop format 😂.

[@abithampi9474]

This man has never released a flop video. 10/10 bangers everytime. Love the content bro, I;m curious if you've thought about reviewing say workstation laptops and the Quadroo cards they come with?

[@TrusteftTech]

Wait, unless I am not seeing this right, it is far easier to access the CPU fan area. Why isn't that mentioned as a positive thing? You are far more likely to need to clean a fan or even replace the thermal paste, than to swap the RAM or SSD. I mean sure 12 screws is not a good thing, but how many other mini PCs allow you to easily reach the CPU fan? It might be harder to add RAM and SSD if you buy this without them, but in the long run it's far far better to have easy access to the fan and CPU. At least that's how I see it. I would like to see this with lower tier GPU, 4060/3060/1660 Super, if the percentage is the same as with this far more powerful GPU. Also I would love to see if a more powerful CPU would and how much eliminate the difference between the two connections. I think it's a fine computer and I am saying this even though I am not fan of Intel's iGPU. Fun video, thank you for sharing.

[@IcaniCorrono]

High chance the x16 slot is gen 3 so no advantage from oculink reapect to tb4

[@tzuyulikestoaim]

I dont want anymore more mini pc's 😢

[@igudeng2595]

what's up with that white noise every time you talk? is that always there...

[@radmanace]

👏👍

[@Trick-Framed]

16:17 That's you?

[@n0.nam358]

Ah yes, legendary Intel core I5 (i3 inside).

[@simontrebilcock6661]

Can I just say, THANK YOU for the death star reference!

[@MeowMeowMeowMeowMeowMeowMeowww]

Man, eGPUs are just too bottelnecked by its bandwith to be a generaly usefull and costefficient solution. Seriously, if people want eGPU to be a real option, they need to create a connection that carries the whole x16 slot.

[@harizgotsomething]

How is the bottleneck

[@justinpatterson5291]

Pretty hefty with only 63GB/Sec bandwidth. Better than USB 3 and Thunderbolt's 40GB/Sec.

[@trinityforce9138]

Looking at the RivaTuner overlay, TDP usually seems to be about 85% of the 3080Ti‘s 350W TDP. „Usage“ of the GPU seems to be about 90% on average but varies a lot more than power usage depending on game. So I‘d probably say average FPS is around 85% of what you‘d be getting on a desktop with a beefier CPU.

[@fajaradi1223]

You'll gonna get hit by 2 kind of bottlenecks : The mobile processor The Oculink itself

[@LukeTheJoker]

Another good video Mr.GlacierTech. Always been curious about external GPU's.

[@truthdoesnotexist]

thanks for doing blender

[@fracturedlife1393]

stupid things I want to do

[@Mo-mn7ij]

This is Kind of a dumb comparison Like you cant Just leave Out the Factor of the CPU. The concept is interesting but i would have used the Same Desktop Setup once with the x16 Slot and once with x4 to See the relative drop in Performance when every other variable is the Same. This Just kinda means nothing

[@richardmcgowan1651]

Oh, god. They are putting Co-Pilot buttons onto these things now? That is an auto no-buy from me.

[@youraveragejoephoto]

Here in less than a minute

[@alexmcn5939]

Hey man love the channel and watch pretty much every video but I really can’t with these mini PC videos. They’re not particularly interesting as it’s just basically testing ultrabook CPUs with somewhat ok integrated graphics. Would love to see more videos with older GPUs and CPUs or more dream builds from x year but the mini PC videos have got to stop.

[@lanelesic]

Mini PCs with Strix halo will destroy this so hard in performance. If the rumored apu with gpu part made out of 40 CUs (rdna 3.5 is) is even close to desktop gpu equivalents it will even destroy the combo with the external 3080ti.

[@NotPhly]

More views than my whole channel in 2 hours💀

[@djmaye15]

no gunshot sound fx on the title screen... my disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined.

[@nothingfadeslikethelight]

im so early omg

[@neonevan00]

This mini pc video is at-least different than the others but these videos are so dull. These are office PCs that go mounted behind monitors they work well enough for that function and gaming performance is not interesting past the first couple of videos you did.

[@codygrayson3676]

This is an L take on your part... I think your being hyper critical.

[@Flyon86]

Yeah these mini PC's are pretty niche. This video is interesting at least because of how ridiculous and impractical it is. Mini PCs are either for business use or as a cheap console emulator box to hookup to a TV or something.

[@MateoThePro]

Bro we know you are sponsored but STOP WITH THE MINI PCs. No one actually cares about them, especially when over half of your content is just those.

[@toseltreps1101]

true, fuck this endless stream of cookie cutter mini pc content

[@justsomepandawithinternet]

no views in 42 seconds bro fell off

[@toseltreps1101]

the only thing that fell off is your evacuated cranium