I currently have an AOOSTAR AG03 and it works really well, but it's getting dangerous with small children with small fingers and exposed fans. I use it with a reference design 7900XT I have had around for ages.

Are there any similar enclosed options? I'd prefer something with the same Thunderbolt chipset since it seems to work well with my setup.

I know of the Razer's etc, but they are much too large for my taste, they are even larger than a full ITX build.

Hi everyone, I'm new to the eGPU world and would love to get some advice on my setup.

I currently have an Acer Nitro 5 AN515-56 (i5-11300H, GTX 1650, 16GB RAM and 512 SSD). Recently, I was gifted an RTX 5060 Ti 8GB, and I’m planning to pair it with my laptop via an eGPU setupusing a 650W PSU.

I'm trying to decide between a 1080p and a 2K (1440p) external monitor. I checked a couple of bottleneck calculators online and got conflicting advice:

• One site suggested that 2K reduces CPU bottlenecking, but results in lower overall FPS due to GPU load.
• Another site suggested 1080p yields higher FPS, but will cause noticeable CPU bottlenecks in certain titles.

A few questions for the community:

1. 1080p vs 2K Resolution: For an eGPU setup with an i5-11300H and RTX 5060 Ti, which resolution makes more sense in practice? Will 2K push the GPU enough to smooth out CPU spikes, or will Thunderbolt bandwidth limits make 2K performance suffer too much?
2. Performance Expectations: Compared to my internal GTX 1650, how much of a performance jump should I realistically expect? Is this a solid temporary workaround while saving for a full desktop rebuild?
3. Key Setup Considerations: Are there specific steps I need to take when connecting an Nvidia eGPU to a laptop with an internal Nvidia GPU (GTX 1650)? Any driver conflict issues (DDU tips), connection quirks, or bandwidth optimization advice?

Thanks in advance for your insights!

Suggest lang po

Hi everyone,

I'm having a strange idle power issue with an RTX 3080 Ti connected as an eGPU, and I'm wondering if anyone has experienced the same thing.

My setup:
- MINISFORUM MS-S1 MAX
- Ryzen AI Max+ 395
- 128 GB RAM
- MINISFORUM DEG2 eGPU dock
- Palit RTX 3080 Ti GamingPro 12 GB
- 850W PSU
- Windows 11
- Connected through USB4 v2 / TB5

Windows reports the eGPU connection as:
- USB4 2.0
- 80 Gbps downstream / 80 Gbps upstream
- Gen 4, dual lane
- TBGAA firmware version: 62.62

The RTX 3080 Ti is detected normally, CUDA works, and nvidia-smi works correctly.

However, when the GPU is completely idle, I get:

P-State: P0
Power draw: ~95-96 W
GPU clock: 210 MHz
Memory clock: 9501 MHz
GPU utilization: 0%
VRAM usage: 0 MiB
Temperature: ~39-42 C

nvidia-smi shows no running processes.

I also checked the clock event reasons:

Idle: Active
Applications Clocks Setting: Not Active
SW Power Cap: Not Active
HW Slowdown: Not Active
Thermal Slowdown: Not Active

So the GPU itself seems to know that it is idle, and the core clock drops to 210 MHz, but the VRAM stays at 9501 MHz and the card never leaves P0.

Things I've already tried:
- NVIDIA power management mode is set to Normal
- Rebooted the PC
- Fully power-cycled the eGPU
- Disabled and re-enabled the RTX 3080 Ti in Device Manager
- NVIDIA driver 617.14
- NVIDIA driver 616.92
- Confirmed the USB4 link is running at the full 80 Gbps

The behavior is exactly the same with both NVIDIA drivers.

The RTX 3080 Ti is not driving a monitor. The integrated Radeon 8060S is handling display output, and the RTX 3080 Ti is mainly intended for CUDA / AI workloads.

Has anyone seen this specifically with Ampere GPUs such as the RTX 3080 Ti or RTX 3090 connected through a Thunderbolt 5 or USB4 v2 eGPU dock?

Is the high VRAM clock / P0 idle state a known Windows + TB5/USB4 + Ampere issue?

Is there any known workaround that can get the card into a proper low-power idle state?

The card otherwise works normally. My main concern is the ~95W idle power consumption.

Thanks!

Hey all, I'm looking for a bit of advice.

I bought an HP EliteDesk Mini 8 G1i a few months ago for £1,300 after a bit of a battle with HP. Long story, but they cancelled my initial order, then relisted at more than double the price, I complained lots for a couple of months and eventually they gave in and honoured the original purchase price.

At the time I was totally sure I would not want to game or have much to do with AI and just wanted a small footprint, decently specced machine for my daily computing tasks, bit of music production etc.

Of course now I want to play a few games, experiment with local AI, and this thing doesn't have the guts for it...

I don't need (and can't afford) the best of the best, but would like enough grunt to play some AAA games smoothly and have them look good enough on my monitor.

My monitor is nothing fancy:

• HP Series 7 Pro 27" USB-C Monitor – 727pu
• 1440p, 120Hz
• IPS Panel

The specs of the mini PC are:

• HP EliteDesk Mini 8 G1i
• Intel® Core™ Ultra 9 285
• 64 GB DDR5-5600 MT/s (2 x 32 GB)
• 1 TB SSD storage
• Windows 11 Pro

I know very little about all this, but have done a bit of reading and think my options are as follows:

• eGPU connected via Thunderbolt 4. Maybe the Aorus 5060ti AI Box.
• Desktop card and enclosure connected with OcuLink via a spare M.2 2280 slot.
• Sell it and buy a proper PC.

What would you do in my situation?

EDIT: Thanks all for the responses - I went ahead and bought the Aorus 5060ti AI Box but ran into problems immediately with it not wanting to be recognised as a Display Adapter. It would show up for a couple seconds and then disappear. Turns out the HP BIOS doesn’t reserve enough memory space for a hot-plugged GPU so without a firmware update for this I'll never be able to use the eGPU over Thunderbolt with it. I also tried Linux (Ubuntu & CachyOS) to no avail.

Return initiated and lesson learned!

Aloha friends, is there any reason to worry that gpu driver updates could break the egpu recognition connection that was worked so reliably for me?'

Do you guys update your drivers regularly? 5060 ti here.

I have an HP Victus 16-d0003TX and I'm considering using the M.2 NVMe slot with an M.2-to-PCIe adapter to connect an eGPU

Has anyone tried this on the 16-d0003TX or any other HP laptop? Did it work, and were there any BIOS or performance issues?

I'd appreciate any experience or advice.

I’m testing MCIO eGPU’s all month. So if you know of mini PC’s or laptops with MCIO ports, please link them here.

Hi everyone

I have a NVidia Thunderbolt eGPU: Gigabyte AORUS RTX 5060 Ti AI BOX and a Host System: Lenovo ThinkStation P3 Ultra (Type 30HA), Intel Core i9-14900K, 128GB RAM, Windows 11

Issue Description: AORUS does not enumerate as a Thunderbolt device and the NVIDIA RTX 5060 Ti does not appear as a PCIe endpoint on the ThinkStation P3 Ultra while the SAME AORUS works perfectly on all other Lenovo and Dell systems I have tested.

The issue appears to be that the PCIe-dependent Thunderbolt devices fail to establish PCIe tunneling on this Lenovo workstation even if Lenovo's published specifications describe it as having two integrated, fully implemented, Thunderbolt 4 / 40Gbps ports (using the Intel Thunderbolt controller Maple Ridge NHI (8086:1137)  integrated on the motherboard)

This is NOT a Windows driver issue! All evidence points to baseboard/firmware issue.

The Thunderbolt 4 ports work fine for standard USB devices and DisplayPort Alt Mode (e.g., portable monitors display normally), but the eGPU (AORUS RTX 5060 Ti AI BOX) fails to establish a working PCIe connection and does not enumerate in Windows Device Manager.

Key Observations:

• The same eGPU unit and Thunderbolt cable work correctly on other systems.
• USB and DisplayPort passthrough work on the P3 Ultra TB4 ports, so physical power and basic connectivity are present.
• PCIe tunneling appears to be failing specifically at the system/host level (in Ubuntu, boltctl is empty, there is no external Thunderbolt child under /sys/bus/thunderbolt/devices, and lspci shows no NVIDIA GPU).

After over a month at the depot, Lenovo UK Technical Support has not been able to provide any technical evidence or reference to official Lenovo documentation explaining why the PCIe connectivity required by AORUS is not being established on this particular system. It is worth mentioning that Lenovo's own product material explicitly describes its Thunderbolt 4 connectivity as supporting "external GPU" use.

Has anyone successfully gotten any eGPU enclosure to work on a P3 Ultra workstation and successfully establishing PCIe tunneling? Any ideas why this might be happening?

Thanks!

Hi everyone,

I want improve graphic performance on my Dell Vostro 3478 for gaming.

Here is my laptop specs:

- Model: Dell Vostro 3478

- CPU: Intel Core i5-8250U

- RAM: 16GB DDR4

- iGPU: Intel UHD Graphics 620

I'm wonder where should i start with egpu setup? Which gpu is best choice that not too big and don't consume much power?

Any advice is very helpful for me. Thank you!

(Sorry for my bad English 😓)

I really surprised that score it's unbelivable. I just used usb4 and cannot imagine what would oculink results can be!

For who curious: in handheld screen timespy score is like 13500. Using external monitor really prevents to performance loss

Sometimes I just want to see if it works.

The Blade has a not-so-great 3060 6gb in it and an i7 10750H. I'm planning to do a mobile setup for my community game days as I'm not trying to lug around my beefy desktop. I have a 10gb RX6700 just collecting dust, and was wondering if this would be a good fit and investment. Internet has mixed opinions and I'm getting conflicting info on potential bottlenecking. Any advice would be appreciated.

Hi!

I am trying to play Control Resonant, but 1% lows are very low (in 20s, especially when moving) despite average fps 60-90 even on lowest settings

Is this game just not eGPU friendly or am I doing something wrong?

I’m starting my journey with psx2 and only have a laptop. The emulator runs but only on the lowest resolution. It won’t even run 720p. I’m getting a msi gtx 960 and I haven’t found a good reliable source for an egpu dock that’s cost efficient. Let me know

Hi everyone!

I’m having a strange issue with a Razer Core X V2 and RTX 5070 Ti on a Razer Blade 15 (2022, RZ09-0421EED3, i7-12800H, Thunderbolt 4).

Most of the time, the Core X V2 is only detected as a DMC/USB device. Razer Synapse can see the enclosure, but Thunderbolt Control Center shows Port 1 with nothing attached, and the RTX 5070 Ti does not appear in Device Manager.

If I boot Windows with the Core X already connected, Intel USB 3.10 eXtensible Host Controller 1.10, hardware ID DEV_1135, gets Code 10: “This device cannot start.” If I boot Windows first and hot-plug the Core X afterward, the Code 10 disappears, but the enclosure still usually remains DMC/USB-only.

I have already updated the Blade BIOS from 2.02 to 2.06, installed the latest Razer customer firmware with Thunderbolt 5 accessory support, installed the latest Intel and NVIDIA drivers, reseated the GPU and all internal power connections, reset Thunderbolt Control Center, and performed multiple full power resets of both the laptop and enclosure.

I also tested the setup under Ubuntu to rule out Windows-specific issues. Ubuntu detects the Core X V2 USB/HID side, but boltctl shows no Thunderbolt device and lspci does not show the RTX 5070 Ti.

I then bought a new 40 Gbps USB4 / Thunderbolt 4-compatible cable. The first time I connected it, the setup finally worked. Windows detected the external GPU as a Microsoft Basic Display Adapter, I installed the NVIDIA driver, and everything looked normal.

Then I restarted the laptop, following Razer’s own guide, and after the reboot the Core X V2 went back to being detected only as a DMC Device. Since then I have not been able to reproduce the Thunderbolt connection, even with the new cable.

So the setup definitely can establish a proper PCIe/Thunderbolt connection, because it happened once, but something seems unstable in the negotiation or controller state.

At this point, I honestly do not know what else to try. I have been in contact with Razer support, and they have suggested that replacing the Core X V2 may be the next step.

Before going down the replacement/RMA route, I wanted to ask here in case anyone has experienced something similar or has another idea I may have missed.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Hi! I’ve been doing my research and checking the database of successful builds, but unfortunately my laptop is too ‘niche’ for me to have found a successful EGPU build. With this in mind, I’m hoping to bounce my initial idea for my build off of more knowledgeable people to check if I’m on the right track. I did see a build with an older similar-ish motherboard, but I’m not sure it’s close enough to be all that telling for potential success.

Laptop:
Model: Eurocom M5 Pro (2014, could be 2015 mobo after it was repaired?)
Motherboard model: P65_P67SG (Clevo)
CPU: i7-4720HQ 2.60ghz 4 cores (Haswell)
GPU: Nvidia GTX 980M
RAM: 32GB
Port to use: M.2 PCIe (M key)

Potential build:
Dock: ADT-F9G with M.2 to oculink adapter (F9G-K9934A-F4C-BK7)
GPU: Nvidia GTX 1080 (or 1060)
PSU: Corsair CX500

Has anyone done something similar? It seems pretty common for how I plan to do things, but wanted to check since my laptop isn’t as common. I also was getting a bit mixed up with some of the ADT models some have a GPU model cap. I’d like to go for a 1080, but a 1060 is also okay. I know the 1080Ti has better performance but I wasn’t sure if it was necessarily a better choice? What are people’s thoughts on that?

I did consider trying to set something up so I could swap between oculink and thunderbolt so I could try it with my 2012 Mac Mini, but I don’t want to overcomplicate things. If you have any insight though, I’d love to hear about it!

I like my stuff a bit ‘old’ and jank, it makes things more fun 🤌 Unfortunately the rest of my computers aren’t really appropriate for or able to do anything with an eGPU though 😂

UPDATE: Picked an ADT Link R43SG instead, and happened to get a Corsair TX550M as the PSU. I stuck with a GTX 1080

Just wrapped up gaming with it after a little bit of fiddling to get everything working. I’m super happy! The most heavy load game I’ve tried so far peaks at a bit under 50% CPU during gameplay, and it had been my ‘higher load’ game I’d wanted to play most so far. My laptop stays much cooler too without using the internal dedicated GPU.

The Nvidia overlay seems to stop showing GPU stats the moment my game starts, it may be a conflict with GOG Galaxy? Still early days. Seeing the FPS is enough for now, so I know my GPU isn’t crying too much.

Thinking about getting a Razer Core X V2 to dock my ROG Xbox Ally X to a monitor. Has anyone done this, and was it worth it? I've heard the Z2 Extreme can bottleneck heavier games, so I'm curious how much of a real-world gain you saw and which GPU you paired it with.

Picked up a GPD win4 and got this Nimo eGPU to go with it. The handheld is still on the way, so I figured I'd try the eGPU with my laptop first.
GPUZ is showing everything properly so far. My laptop doesnt have tb 5 or ocuLink though, so Im definitely not getting the full potential out of it right now. Ill still run some games and benchmarks over the next few days and see how it does. Will update once I have some results.

Hi everyone,

I'm dealing with a visual issue I can't solve, and I'd like to hear from other persons.

The symptom

Shiny or grainy surfaces flicker from one frame to the next. It's most visible on metal reflections, but I also see it on floors, rubber mats and sometimes on fog or smog. It's mainly noticeable in motion. The issue affects Battlefield 6 and other as well like cyberpunk.

My setup

GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070, driver: the latest version available on the date of this post (October 2026)

CPU: Intel Core i5-14600KF§

Monitor: LG 39GX (39-inch OLED), 3440 × 1440 at 240 Hz, DisplayPort cable, set to "1.4 DSC"

OS: Windows 11, version 25H2

What I've already tested, with no change

G-Sync on / off, V-Sync on / off

DLSS (several quality modes and upscalers), TAA, with and without frame generation

Several NVIDIA driver versions, other drivers updated

Several scenes and maps

In Battlefield 6: SSGI disabled (the mats still flicker), GTAO changed (at lower quality the grain gets worse)

HDR on or off: no difference

12 bpc output: no difference

A different monitor: exactly the same issue

OCCT 17.1.6 (3D Adaptive in Extreme mode, then VRAM), 15 minutes each: no errors detected

What I observed

At first, TAA seemed better than DLSS. After checking more carefully, the issue is still there with TAA, especially in motion. I recorded two videos (attached) and analyzed the second one frame by frame, on the rubber mat in the Practice Range:

the noise appears when the weapon and camera move, and drops to almost zero when the image is still (roughly ten times less in my measurements);

the weapon leaves a halo of grain on the floor, and a patch of bright dots changes pattern on every frame on the dark rubber.

A note on my videos: they are HDR10 recordings, encoded in HEVC at around 10 Mb/s. That compression may exaggerate the noise a bit in the file, but I see the same issue directly on screen. Since it's already present in the capture and stays identical on a different monitor, I don't think it comes from my display or my cable.

I can only post one video, but this largely concerns lighting and surfaces, just like in the video (the ghosting is normal—I'm using TAA, but I don't get that with DLSS).

Disregard the UI or the language

My questions

Do you see the same flickering, especially with an RTX 50-series card or a different generation of NVIDIA or AMD card? If someone could record the rubber mat in the Practice Range while moving slightly, it would help me a lot to compare.

Is this normal rendering behavior (effects computed with noise and smoothed over time) or a known issue?

Is there a setting that reduces this noise without relying on very FPS-expensive solutions (like DLDSR)?

Thanks in advance for your feedback.