Years in the past, I actually needed a laptop computer with an exterior GPU. It appeared just like the holy grail of moveable laptop computer gaming — a power-hungry GPU that lived in your desk, to be plugged in for gaming efficiency as wanted, then unplugged if you wanted to work on the go.
Sadly, exterior GPUs by no means actually took off. Whereas some merchandise had been launched, the thought by no means went mainstream. However that doesn’t imply the dream is useless! In reality, certainly one of our favourite showings at CES 2025 was a brand new Asus exterior GPU with Thunderbolt 5 connectivity.
Are we lastly on the cusp of exterior GPUs taking off? Let’s have a look at what occurred to exterior GPUs, why they didn’t take off, and why 2025 might be the 12 months that sparks an eGPU revolution.
The primary exterior GPUs weren’t so good
Exterior GPUs now return at the least a decade. In 2015, we reviewed the Alienware Amplifier, an exterior GPU for Alienware laptops. A couple of years later, they had been changing into extra standardized and will hook up with laptops over Thunderbolt 3. For instance, in 2017, we reviewed the Akitio Node Cupboard, a Thunderbolt 3 eGPU.
The issue was, eGPUs like these solely labored on some Thunderbolt 3-enabled laptops. It didn’t cease individuals from utilizing them, but it surely wasn’t precisely ultimate. So whereas some hobbyists even created their very own DIY exterior GPU setups, eGPUs languished in uncertainty.
Moreover, they only weren’t as quick as having the identical GPU immediately in your PC. Why? Effectively, the velocity of the Thunderbolt 3 connection was a bottleneck, plus the additional latency that got here from connecting the GPU over a cable slightly than inserting it immediately right into a motherboard slot.
PCIe lanes had been one other issue. Once you insert a GPU right into a PCIe slot in your PC’s motherboard, you’re typically inserting it right into a PCIe x16 slot with 16 “lanes” for information switch. An exterior GPU would doubtless use a PCIe x4 slot as a substitute, with solely 4 lanes. That doesn’t make it 4 occasions slower, but it surely does have a non-trivial influence on efficiency.
Adam Patrick Murray / Foundry
And this isn’t simply theoretical hand-waving. We are able to level to actual benchmarks that present this in apply. In 2020, PCWorld’s Adam Patrick Murray benchmarked quite a lot of video games with a Thunderbolt 3 eGPU. With The Witcher 3, the eGPU ran the sport at 60 FPS whereas the identical GPU in a desktop PC ran the sport at 140 FPS. That’s greater than double the efficiency… with the exact same GPU! (By the best way, the eGPU was sooner than the laptop computer’s older built-in GPU, however not by a lot.)
Why exterior GPUs did not take off
As PCWorld’s benchmarks demonstrated, whilst you may slap a strong desktop GPU into an exterior GPU enclosure, you’d get significantly better efficiency from that exact same GPU if it was working immediately in your PC. So, your hard-earned money was higher spent shopping for a greater gaming laptop computer with a extra highly effective built-in GPU.
In the meantime, gaming laptops grew to become ever thinner, lighter, and extra moveable during the last decade. Sure, they’re nonetheless a bit bulkier than thin-and-light laptops, however they’re not the heavy bricks that gaming laptops had been a decade in the past. Now you can get surprisingly good battery life and portability from many gaming laptops, no exterior GPU required.
Plus, to actually get essentially the most worth out of a desktop GPU, you wanted it inside a full-blown desktop PC, not sitting in an enclosure that was bottlenecked by cable speeds. And apart from, when you had been spending that a lot on a strong desktop GPU that you possibly can solely use whereas sitting at your desk anyway, why not simply construct a strong gaming desktop? (Or purchase an equally highly effective pre-built PC.)
Ultimately, eGPUs had been simply too sluggish and too costly. As gaming laptops grew extra moveable and as desktop PCs grew extra highly effective, it was onerous to justify the expense again then. However perhaps not anymore.
How Thunderbolt 5 makes a distinction
In 2025, we’re speaking about eGPUs once more as a result of we now have Thunderbolt 5, the cutting-edge tech that provides extra.
Whereas Thunderbolt 3 may solely hit 40Gbps max, Thunderbolt 5 can attain as much as 80Gbps — and even 120Gbps in some conditions. And with Intel (who develops the Thunderbolt commonplace) trumpeting Thunderbolt 5 for exterior graphics, it’s all fairly thrilling. However is it simply hype?
Mark Hachman / Foundry
Asus was at CES 2025 exhibiting off the most recent model of the Asus ROG XG Cellular, an exterior GPU resolution that helps all the pieces as much as Nvidia’s new $1,999 GeForce RTX 5090 GPU. Whereas it appears spectacular, will it carry out in addition to an RTX 5090 immediately inside a desktop PC?
We haven’t had an opportunity to benchmark it but, however I’m excited to see what these checks will present. If merchandise like this may shut the hole, that’ll be wonderful — and I’ll be the primary to leap on these new exterior GPUs.
Asus
However there’s an enormous hurdle proper now: the shortage of Thunderbolt 5 assist within the newest PCs. As PCWorld’s Mark Hachman identified, Thunderbolt 5 was basically a no-show on the most recent laptops at CES:
“From my conversations at the show, device makers blamed two things. First, the continued lack of Intel chipsets with integrated Thunderbolt 5 inside. But they also pointed to the stalled transition to 8K content. Without it, device makers say that consumers seem happy enough with the capabilities Thunderbolt 3 and Thunderbolt 4 provide.”
So, even when Thunderbolt 5 exterior GPUs show to be wonderful, the “year of the external GPU” might not come till Thunderbolt 5 itself arrives in additional laptops. And the business might zoom proper previous these eGPUs, like with Nvidia saying that GeForce RTX 50-series graphics playing cards will come to laptops. Why trouble with an exterior GPU when you may get a sooner built-in GPU in your laptop computer?
Why eGPUs won’t be the long run
A decade after my curiosity in eGPUs was piqued, I’ve to be trustworthy: eGPUs nonetheless don’t really feel like they’re about to go mainstream. Sure, the tech is getting higher and extra succesful due to Thunderbolt 5, however the remainder of the business continues to alter round it.
Gaming laptops simply aren’t that inconvenient anymore. A gaming laptop computer may be your solely laptop computer now, particularly now that gaming laptops may be surprisingly light-weight and moveable. You don’t want an exterior GPU to have a very good gaming expertise on a laptop computer.
IDG / Chris Hoffman
If you happen to’re chasing absolute top-end efficiency, nothing beats a desktop gaming PC. Theres extra to it than a GPU, too. Even in an ideal world the place exterior GPUs carried out equally in addition to inner GPUs, the gaming PC would have a greater CPU with stronger efficiency!
And the fee remains to be an issue. Greenback for greenback, you is likely to be higher off spending your money on the fitting gaming laptop computer (or constructing a gaming desktop) than shopping for an exterior GPU along with a standard laptop computer.
Dominic Bayley / IDG
To not point out that efficiency isn’t all the pieces. The rise of gaming handhelds like Valve’s Steam Deck proves that, with built-in graphics {hardware} getting increasingly more succesful as properly.
Personally, I’m nonetheless intrigued by exterior GPUs. I need the expertise to work and I need it to succeed. It’s simply cool. However I not crave one like I used to as a result of gaming laptops have develop into moveable sufficient for me.
In 2025 and past, exterior GPUs seem like they’ll get higher and higher. However will they ever really go mainstream? We’ll see!
Additional studying: The very best gaming laptops beneath $1,000
