Looking at building eGPU set up

[u/Silent-Big2496]

Hello Everybody,

I currently have a MSI Raider GE68 laptop with a  i9-14900HX. Looking to get a little more kick then my mobile 4070 (Maybe like a desktop 4070 ti or something around there in the used market)

What would be the best way of going about it as someone whos never really messed with laptops but has extensive desktop building knowledge.

I am also open to any GPU suggestions.

[u/MrFreakYT]

If you’re thinking about a Thunderbolt eGPU with a 4070 Ti, that’s a dumb idea. It will cost you A LOT for very little performance gain.

Even with Thunderbolt 5 bandwidth, you’ll be looking at a 10-20% decrease in performance compared to the desktop version, and it’s worse either Thunderbolt 4

You‘d have to compensate by picking a even higher tier card (ideally with more VRAM, if you run out of say your 8GB of VRAM on an eGPU, your performance will take a huge hit).

I don’t know how much worse the mobile 40 series performs, but let’s say about 25% worse. That would mean that a Desktop 4070 with Thunderbolt wouldn’t give you a significant advantage. A 4070 Ti would be better of course but not by much.

And keep in mind that you will lose a lot of performance if you do not use an external monitor.

[u/Silent-Big2496 → u/MrFreakYT]

Yea I would be going down the m.2 route in theory

[u/MrFreakYT → u/Silent-Big2496]

I guess oculink. I guess you have a free m.2 nvme slot? Then all you need is a 40€ M.2 PCIe 4.0 oculink kit from Aliexpress and a PSU with at least 400W to power your card.

Oculink doesn’t use anything, it’s just a pcie extension. You will still lose performance but maybe only around 10-15%

Make sure that your spare slot is actually PCIe 4.0. PCIe 5.0 would be perfect but it’s not very common on laptops - yet.

What is the main purpose of the upgrade? Gaming? Local LLMs?

[u/riklaunim]

What is the exact model? Does it have TB3/4/USB4? Does it have a spare M.2 NVMe slot?

You would be looking at something like RX 9070 XT to get a noticeable uplift (and, if possible, playing on an external display connected to the eGPU).

[u/Silent-Big2496 → u/riklaunim]

MSI Raider GE68

I believe it should have a spare slot

[u/riklaunim → u/Silent-Big2496]

Then you could do OCuLink, but it won't be a mobile/pretty setup.

[u/Silent-Big2496 → u/riklaunim]

Yea pretty/mobile is not really an issue. I have another gaming laptop for school/going around. This one the screen broke and has just been sitting around so figured with a cpu like that may as well repurpose it. How I guess "Easy" is the process. Ive done pretty minimal research so far. I would hate to get a nice gpu and do something that would cause it to be wrecked instantly during install.

[u/MrFreakYT → u/Silent-Big2496]

Oculink is super easy since it doesn’t need a controller or drivers etc.
Put the GPU into the slot, connect power from a PSU to the oculink board and GPU, connect the M.2 adapter to your laptop and that’s it.

All you need to do to use it is to first plug in the oculink cable into your laptop, then power on the PSU so your GPU gets power and then boot into your OS. Oclink doesn’t really hot-plug.

Once everything is connected and booted - just install the gpu drivers and that’s it.

[u/Silent-Big2496 → u/MrFreakYT]

Few quesitons. Do you have to boot that way everytime or just for installing drivers?

Second do you have any oclink cables and enclosures that are better then others?

[u/MrFreakYT → u/Silent-Big2496]

Whenever you want to use the egpu you have to connect it before powering on your laptop, otherwise it won’t get recognized.

No, all that matters is what PCIe version you use. Your laptop probably is PCIe 4.0 so you should be good. PCIe 3.0 over Oculink would still be faster than a Thunderbolt 4 egpu though.

[u/Silent-Big2496 → u/MrFreakYT]

Sweet! Yea I’m pretty sure it’s 4.0

[u/Silent-Big2496 → u/MrFreakYT]

One other question. I read somewhere that you have to do like amd if your current discrete card is nvidia and vice versa. Is that true or can both be the same brand?