Couldn't find a setup like this anywhere else on the internet, hopefully I can help those interested in pairing something similar with something similar 😅
Before you say this setup is a waste of money, I get it 😂😂 I have a very niche type of work doing art and 2d animation (I also do music production, audio engineering, and mixing) so it works beautifully for me as I work away from home often I was very much into the whole idea of only having one system do it all.
When searching in the first place I knew I needed and wanted a laptop that had a strong CPU, and this laptop was on special at the time for only $4289 AUD roughly $3100 USD for the i9-9980HK model with 32gb's of ram
System specs
PC is UX581 Asus Zenbook Pro Duo https://www.notebookcheck.net/ZenBook-on-Steroids-Asus-ZenBook-Pro-Duo-UX581-Laptop-Review.434762.0.html
EGPU: Razer Core X Chroma
GPU: RX 5700 XT (with the 6000s series launching next week here in Australia I was pretty torn between buying that or just going for the 5700, after some thought and abit of thinking I think I saw somewhere that the RX 7000s will have just as big of a leap so I'll probably wait for them since i'm not a full time gamer, I just need something thats powerful, quiet, and works.
Monitor: AOC 49
Before this I used the same setup but with an RTX 2070 Super that I yanked out of my original tower build but now its all sold
eGPU hardware
Only thing to note here its a belkin active 2m cable
Hardware pictures
Installation steps
1. Disabled dGPU (rtx 2060), disable auto hardware installation (driver stuff)
2. Restart, plugged the TB3 cable in
3. Fully detected, waited about 5minutes then installed the AMD drivers downloaded off their website
4. Changed some resolution settings, ensuring free sync was on, refresh was at 120hz, resolution was at 5120x1440
5. Vola? It probably wasn't as bad because I initially suffered through getting the RTX 2070 super to work back then so transitioning to AMD I'm sure would be better.
Benchmarks
https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/35340763
Will do more if requested, but I wont pay for a program to do bench marking >.>
Comments
0. Yes I know this setup is not worth the price to value, but to me its perfect, I plan on travelling more in the future when things re-open again and this makes me super happy. Before being split between a tower and a semi decent laptop was just a pain in terms of file management/game management and everything in general (plus gaming laptop fans are obnoxious, I had a ROG laptop before)
1. Iunno if im 32Gbps, I'm not sure how to check
2. Main laptop screen always has to be left on (brightness lowest cuz OLED sadness) while gaming otherwise microstutters occur (same thing happened with my RTX 2070 super back then so not surprised here, its prob the iGPU (intel) freaking out that it has no where to send a signal to if set to "extend only"
3. My Core X Chroma is modded with a noctua fan in the PSU so this setup is DEAD SILENT, especially because the EGPU has that under X temp 0 RPM setting and in general taking the dGPU load off the laptop makes it cool as ice)
Thanks for reading!
@c_west, Very nice build! I was really tempted by this laptop with its amazing dual OLED display arrangement. Enjoy your eGPU!
• external graphics card builds
• best laptops for external GPU
• eGPU enclosure buyer's guide
2021 15" ASUS TUF Dash F15 [11th,4C,H] + RTX 3080 @ 32Gbps-TB4 (AORUS Gaming Box) + Win10 2004 // my 3rd RTX 3080 build [build link]
@c_west, nice setup! it'd be cool to see your Superposition scores ( https://benchmark.unigine.com/superposition). if you decide to run it, please do 1080p medium as well for me (i'd be happy to see how this badass notebook compares to my humble sff desktop with 5500 xt). cheers!
System: ASRock Deskmini A300 | Ryzen 5 Pro 4650G | 2x8 GB G.Skill Ripjaws CL16 @ 3200 MHz | Adata SX8200 Pro 256GB SSD + Kingston 2x240GB SATA SSD in RAID0
eGPU: ADT-Link R43SG 50 cm M.2 to PCIe 3.0 x4 adapter | Dell DA-2 D220P-01 PSU | SAPPHIRE Radeon PULSE RX 5500 XT 4GB | LG 29UM69G 21:9 IPS Gaming Monitor
2019 ASRock Deskmini A300 [R4K,6C,G] + RX 5500 XT @ 32Gbps-M2 (ADT-Link R43SG) + Win10 // first SFF Desktop Ryzen 4000 Pro x4 3.0 M.2 eGPU build [build link]
@c_west, nice setup! it'd be cool to see your Superposition scores ( https://benchmark.unigine.com/superposition). if you decide to run it, please do 1080p medium as well for me (i'd be happy to see how this badass notebook compares to my humble sff desktop with 5500 xt). cheers!
Sure! here the benchmark, I dont think I did it right 😯 they seem even worst than the dgpu inside the machine LOL
@c_west, Very nice build! I was really tempted by this laptop with its amazing dual OLED display arrangement. Enjoy your eGPU!
Thank you! and yess haha I think its the only acceptable option CPU wise in the thunderbolt 3 laptop market. Having 8c and 16t is just day and night for me o)-< And I agree with the OLED statement! Though I do get worried about burn in's 😛
Sooo big update
Turns out the AMD 5700 XT has some major conflicts with the program I use for work/animation (major memory leaks, slow system, etc)
Ended up flipping the card (only 80$ lost) and got my hands on a second hand RTX 2080ti for 900 AUD
Benchmark below
Much happier with this, unsure if I should make a new thread or delete this one
Needless to say, the AMD card was fine just not with the programs and plugins I use (AE, and others). Guess i'll be staying with nvidia for some time.
• external graphics card builds
• best laptops for external GPU
• eGPU enclosure buyer's guide
2021 15" ASUS TUF Dash F15 [11th,4C,H] + RTX 3080 @ 32Gbps-TB4 (AORUS Gaming Box) + Win10 2004 // my 3rd RTX 3080 build [build link]