An eGPU is an external graphics processing unit that works outside your laptop to give it the much need graphics performance it needs. With the help of an eGPU, most users have attested to having better image processing and graphically better gaming. Not all GPUs that come with the laptop have high performance, and while it is slightly impossible to mount a new GPU into your laptop, it is very possible to add an external GPU instead. The connection of the eGPU could be as easy as making use of a thunderbolt port or an eGPU dock, whichever one you use will produce the same results which amounts to better gaming and rendering experience.
How much performance do you lose with eGPU? While the eGPU does a lot of good for your laptop, there’s also a loss in performance once the eGPU is connected. Most people would say they experienced a five to ten percent loss and others go further by saying it’s up to thirty percent. Whatever the case may be, there’s no real fix to this problem because it may just be occurring as a result of interference caused by the connection you’re using. Be that as it may, every story is different, some cases might record five to ten percent, while some record thirty to thirty-five percent.
Most of the time, the performance loss you get is dependent on the game you intend to play as well, there are some games that are ineptly hooked to poor performance, whether you use an eGPU or not, they are more likely than not to perform poorly and this poor performance might just be intensified once the eGPU is used as well. The performance loss also depends on your frame per second, that is the FPS. If your frame rate is high, then you’ll probably witness higher performance loss bit if it is relatively not so high, the performance percentage wouldn’t be so high either.
Performance loss could also be in tune with the type of GPU and CPU you intend to use , there are some GPUs and eGPUs that depend on the CPU and the CPU is expected to work really fast and adequately. Also, it is important to note that eGPUs that might have recorded a fifteen percent loss in the past, might have become better with newer versions or maybe just remained the same. The performance loss is also connected to using a thunderbolt connection instead of using a direct PCIe connection, the thunderbolt is said to cause an interference that leads to a performance drop. The bandwidth limitation also accrues to some performance loss of its own, so there are a lot of variables that need to be accounted for in the discussion of eGPU performance loss.
eGPU Performance Loss With Thunderbolt
The question on whether Thunderbolt 1, 2 and even 3 amount to any performance loss has been asked by several users, there are some discussions that entertain the fact that there is a certain loss in performance while using the thunderbolt instead of a PCIe and these discussions might be a bit confusing since thunderbolt is supposed to be a new invention that makes things easier and not complicated.
Using the laptop’s internal display provides a different result than when you use an external display. If a thunderbolt cable is connected to an external display that has high HD, there are no percentages to worry about. But it is a different story when the thunderbolt connection is paired with the internal display of your laptop.
The situations in this case still varies because it is said that with a high end thunderbolt connection you get less performance drop. The FPS also matters because of the bandwidth it makes, with a lower FPS you get lower performance loss but with a High FPS, the performance loss is high as well, this is extremely clear in situations where the video card you’re using makes use of high FPS and therefore has more performance loss.
Even with the performance loss, you could still play really great games with your eGPU and the thunder bolt connection, the performance loss doesn’t necessarily mean that the eGPU is completely at a fault ,you could play games with 60FPS and still have your gaming experience intact. The performance drop could be 20 to 50 percent on the internal and external display, but that doesn’t mean you can’t play all the games that you intended on playing.
EGPU Limitations
The performance of an eGPU is relatively limited because of the fact that it supports a 4x bandwidth and that therein limits how great its performance is, even with the creation of the thunderbolt3, there’s still a limit to how great the eGPU performance is.
The bandwidth is one of the limitations of eGPUs, while an normal computer motherboard might have its full fledged performance with a particular graphics card in it, the same cannot be said about an eGPU. With an eGPU, you can expect about 20 to 30 percent performance loss and it’s all because of the bandwidth limitation.
The kind of workload you’re operating also plays into how the performance loss turns out, with heavy or heavier work load, you should certainly expect a higher level of performance loss than your would if you’re operating on a lower work load. Heavy tasks might lead to a drop in performance while light tasks might have less of a drop in performance.
While the Performance loss might not be ideal, there’s still a lot to look forward to while using an external GPU, it still provides good performance for all your gaming and rendering needs and with the thunderbolt connection, it still has a lot to offer your gaming and video editing. It is quite realistic to expect a drop in performance, from five percent to thirty percent, but more than anything, the eGPU has a lot of benefits that any user could rely on, especially if the integrated GPU of your system isn’t as solid as you need it to be.
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