Have any of you fine gentlemen used this piece of hardware...

have any of you fine gentlemen used this piece of hardware? it seems to be a cheaper alternative to the "razer core" and pretty good (from ytube vids) for average gaming.
considering i have no desktop, it's tempting.

Don't forget to download more RAM too

This isnt TB3. Most laptops dont have a mini pcie socket

Even if your laptop has a mini PCIE(only one lane) slot, the lack of bandwith is going to bottleneck your eGPU. On top of that most laptops only have one mini pcie slot so you won't be able to use wifi. Laptop CPUs aren't as powerful as desktop ones so don't expect desktop tier performance.

yes they do idiot. most of them have a wifi card preinstalled, but some even have a free one
work fine, if youre planning to use a graphics card youll also need an external power supply

you're forced to either carry that, plus a gpu and a psu and your notebook around with you or have them sitting at home . at that point why not have a desktop ? it seems like more of a novelty and not very convenient .

such adapters have been around for many years now

first versions even used an expresscard connector so you didn't have to open up your laptop

I was going to buy one for my netbook but never got around to it

I used the Expresscard one back in the duo2cuo days, shit was pretty cash.
But bear in mind that PCIe x1 will severely bottleneck anything faster than, say, GTX 750, and it's not compatible with all laptops (generally, any laptop with a dGPU that can't be disabled in BIOS is a no-no)

depends on the game
some see a 50% degradation, some less than 1% and if eGPUs were more common I'm sure developers would optimize for better perfromance with less lanes.

you buy a laptop with good gpu
then you start saving for the next laptop with better gpu
and so on
that's how it works

Laptops with good GPUs are typically pigfat with subpar battery life.

To have both a portable laptop and a computer suitable for gaymen, you either buy them separately, paying twice for CPU and memory, or accept the hassle and performance hit of an eGPU.

you only get like half the performance with a current generation gpu
you will need to be in possesion of a capable psu
if you can get a cheap/used previous gen gpu and that meet's at least 80% of the mpci bandwidth and a cheap psu, it'll be fine then for you to enjoy modern games for some years.
IMO is better to get a cheap desktop that you can upgrade over time for games and shit, and a good laptop if that's a requirement for you to have.

Hi.
I enjoy stable 60fps (60Hz internal monitor) in Crysis 2, Metro Last Light,Alien Isolation, everything maxed.
With external monitor I have 80/90 fps at 768p or 44/50 something fps at 1080p.

Using a Gtx960.

Also, it uses pci-express 2.0 with the expresscard. In 95% of games (even recent ones) the bus isn't saturated, most of the time it stays at 85% which is perfectly good and not a bottleneck.
The only games that seemed to max the bus were gtaV and wolfenstein new order (although the second one only did that occasionally).

Games like Rome total war 2 get shafted, because they rely heavily on the Cpu, and laptop cpus perform worse than desktop counterparts. For example, in shogun 2 total war, the gpu is only at 50% or so (with bus at 65% usually) while the game in battles with a lot of troops only manages 30fps or a bit better.

In pci-express 1.0 mode I usually see the bus getting raped at 100% all the time, with performance dropping considerably, although much better than my hd4000 integrated graphics. In Metro last light performance drops from 60 to 25/30 fps.

This is all very helpful thank you friend. I May end up doing this since I have some spare gpus and laptops not being used.

Thinkpad T420 + GTX 950, running the EXP GDC as well.

The ExpressCard version is very easy to set up, almost like plug and play.

Reminder that many miniPCIe slots only have the USB wires connected
This is usually the case for 3G cards

Is it true that you can now use optimus to display the 3D content on the built-in display? How well does this work?

So heres the issues nobody ever wants to talk about with eGPU setups like OPs.

1. They're far from clean/clutter free. Unless you've got an express card setup, you're going to have to take a panel off the bottom of your laptop, and trail a cable which may or may not fit snugly under your laptop to the external interface. As well, many use external power-bricks or even full ATX PSUs, and still require an external display. So you've got to plug your laptop in, plug your graphics card in, and plug your monitor in. And the cables between all of this.
2. They take up a lot of space. You've got to have room for your laptop, room for your keyboard and mouse, room for your eGPU dock, and room for your monitor. So you've got to have a desk that'd fit a desktop anyway. In a setup where you still want portability, this is a lot of extra junk. Yeah, a laptop+eGPU might be smaller than a desktop in terms of physical footprint, but the logic doesn't really hold up during use, believe me. A desktop, while bigger, actually wastes less space, becasue you end up not wanting to put stuff on your laptop because you don't want to have to move it all again to take the laptop with you. A desktop, that doesn't matter. Plus, an extra powercable/PSU for no reason over a desktop (You if you want to be able to bring your laptop charger with you, then that cable has to be out and reachable easily. Which is more clutter and space)
3. You're reducing the portability of your laptop by a large factor. Once again, if you've got an express card slot, this issue is reduced by a decent margin. But if not, you're taking a bottom panel off/putting it on every time you want to take your laptop somewhere, potentially having to uninstall/reinstall the wireless card every time, and still plugging your keyboard/mouse in, Ethernet in, etc.

I used one with a GTX 460 and a T420 Thinkpad. Abandoned the idea after ~3-4 months. Just got a desktop.

Not well even when it does work.

I made a custom case for my atx psu + exp gdc so when i come home it's only docking the thinkpad and plugging in the expresscard cable.

But yeah using mini pci-e version looks like a nightmare.

>mPCIe 3G card probably isn't PCIe
Well fuck

I'm the guy with the above setup
It works perfectly, but gives you worse performance, because the signal must pass through the integrated graphics.
It works with both amd and nvidia.
With nvidia it's automatic because of Optimus.
Amd may work out of the box or not. If not, it needs some hacking.

hopefully the next version of thunderbolt will save us

I used it years ago with my t410s and it performed well at the time but idk if I would do it now. Honestly just buy a laptop with a 940m and game at 720p with medium or low settings. Most laptops today can handle that.

Affordable business laptops don't have a 940m

define affordable

300€

i have an acer v3 571g (i7 3610qm, 8gb ddr3, 640m), with both a card slot and a wireless card
im looking at a second hand card or a 460/470. Wat adapter do i get.

I never said to buy a business laptop, I have a business laptop but you don't have to get one. Hell you can buy that dell laptop that they just released with a 960m that only cost $800.

I currently use a t460p with a 940mx

why are you so poor? Just collect cans until you have 700 pouros and buy something.

do you have an expresscard slot?

>yes
expresscard one

>no
mpci-e

i actually have one of these, i use it with a gt 240 on my T42
works fucking great compared to the 128mb ati chip in there

I have 1500€ but why would I spend it all on a notebook that could break easily
It doesn't matter anyway, the shitty HP business laptop I have with a GMA4500 is enough for me right now

>not playing Real Speed: Need for Asphalt Race - Shift to Underground CSR Addiction 14 instead

what do you think about the lenovo T series? I am undecided between some thinkpad of the last T series or a dell xps.

Anyone has experience with M.2 adapters?

Get the dell xps, my job offered me a choice between the t460p and mbp 2015 so I went with the thinkpad.

Woah

Is there a good cheaper alternative to the razer core that uses USB type c w/ thunderbolt?

got it, thanks, it's also nice how dell is only big company to offer laptops with linux preinstalled

what's wrong with the t460p?

Anyone have experience with the various thunderbolt adapters out there? Even using TB1 would be better than expresscard.

Why isnt there a single 54mm expresscard one though?

I'm using a T430 with an exp gdc express card, and I cant get it to run on gen 2 speed without the system randomly crashing. Only pcie 1.1 speeds, does 2.0 work for anyone?

I didn't say anything is wrong with it, I just think the XPS looks better and is more affordable.

What graphics card? Gtx970 have shitloads of problems with egpu setups.

Gtx 260

Fuck off Intel shill. Thunderbolt is a trainwreck.

The practical difference between 1.1 and 2.0 is entirely negligible, and a GTX260 probably can't fully saturate a 1.1 bus. If it works, don't fuck with it. 1-2 FPS difference, tops.

argument about that instead of spouting memes? he is not a shill, just an user with a wrong (?) opinion about a technology.

Because the 34mm ones fit into the larger slot anyway and 54mm cards are not needed since there are no active components in the expresscard part

It should work. Since mPCIe is x1 you'll lose a significant chunk of performance. Best case you'll be at 65% of normal, worst case ~50% of normal. I'd post the graphs but can't remember what review site had them.

Was any special configuration used to get it to display on the internal monitor?

For wifi cards, they're connected.

None. Just werks

I bought one. Make sure your laptop is compatible before buying though. I found that it worked fine on one laptop but another laptop took a shit on it.

I'm trying to set one up right now. I'll post weeken I get it going if you like.

This me, did and have trouble getting GeForce experience going?

>trying
you shouldn't face any issues with the expresscard one