System Specs:
17" Dell XPS 17 9700
Intel Core I7-10875H
Geforce RTX 2060 Max-Q + Integrated
32GB Ram
Monitor:
Msi 34" MAG341CQ Ultrawide (3440x1440,100Hz)
BenQ RL2755 (1920x1080)
Egpu Hardware:
Msi Geforce RTX 3080 Ventus
Included cable
Installation Steps:
1) Installed gpu and plug in gpu
2) Install most recent drivers to get 3080 to show up (Studio drivers help with stability issues right now)
3)Disable igpu or dgpu, dgpu being disabled i found didnt reduce performance while igpu did (Did this because i had really bad stuttering while doing basically anything in windows and i found that this was the only way to fix this issue)
4) Underclock+Undervolt 3080 roughly 100Mhz core clock should help (Without this the card would crash while gaming, seems to be a driver issue)
Benchmarks:
Dedicated Graphics (2060 Max-Q)
TimeSpy : https://www.3dmark.com/spy/14203915
TimeSpy Extreme: https://www.3dmark.com/spy/14204145
Port Royal: https://www.3dmark.com/pr/344982
Egpu Internal Display
TimeSpy: https://www.3dmark.com/spy/14203311
TimeSpy Extreme: https://www.3dmark.com/spy/14203500
Port Royal: https://www.3dmark.com/pr/344911
Egpu External Display
Time Spy: https://www.3dmark.com/spy/14202443
TimeSpy Extreme: https://www.3dmark.com/spy/14203051
Port Royal: https://www.3dmark.com/pr/344867
Comments:
It was quite stressful to get everything going and quite a lot of hours diagnosing the issues I was experiencing but after I got everything working I have to say I am very happy the results. It plays games beautifully and with no stuttering or glitches and having all the i/o the Saturn pro offers helps very much with the one cable setup I was going for. My only issue now that everything is setup is that the egpu is quite loud but that not being the fault of the Saturn pro, it would appear the card I got have quite a bit of coil wine making it very audible without headphones but for me that isn't the biggest issue but I thought I would mention it.
I am very unsure about my disabling the dgpu stop the stuttering, i believe it could be some sort of weird issue with having so many graphics devices at once active in a computer. I assume that most of the problem I personally experience and other with the 3080 have experience will be solved soon with drivers so I'm just happy everything is working now. On the note of getting everything working messing around with the voltages on the card in Msi afterburner I was able to get the card to the point were a -5 mhz underclock got my card stable in all of the external benchmarks and getting the memory slightly faster once the clock was finally stable. I was also achieving fairly decent gpu temps between 70-74 degrees and the cpu in the low 70s average which is quite alot better than when running it with the dgpu were it would be in the high 80s / low 90s.
Overall the egpu setup was defiantly worth the investment as I love the portability of the laptop and the convince of only having one computer as well as it having some gaming capabilities when I end up staying out and when I get home I can plug it in and have quite the spectacular gaming experience on all the games I play.
@robeet, Thank you for sharing this excellent build! Does the 100W Power Delivery from the eGPU enclosure charge the XPS 9700 sufficiently?
• external graphics card builds
• best laptops for external GPU
• eGPU enclosure buyer's guide
2020 14" MSI Prestige 14 EVO [11th,4C,G] + RTX 3080 @ 32Gbps-TB4 (AORUS Gaming Box) + Win10 2004 [build link]
@itsage, Yes the 100w power delivery is enough to fully charge after a couple hours of gaming. I feel like the computer is using alot less power without using the internal gpu at all
@robeet, That's great. The dGPU is typically drawing more power than the CPU so it's not only lower power consumption but also lower operating temp in the host laptop while using an eGPU.
• external graphics card builds
• best laptops for external GPU
• eGPU enclosure buyer's guide
2020 14" MSI Prestige 14 EVO [11th,4C,G] + RTX 3080 @ 32Gbps-TB4 (AORUS Gaming Box) + Win10 2004 [build link]
Thanks for your great build; but compared to my build you have e.g. in Timespy with the internal display over -15% GPU points ...
What is the resolution of your laptop? Who could create this difference ...
- @w7_basel, My internal display is 1920x1200 so a little but bigger than what I should have tested at but I feel like something else is going on because I don't think that it would cause -15% loss. Going to look into this one a bit and see if I can achieve a better score on the internal
@robeet, Thanks for sharing your great build! I was thinking of getting the 3070 since the 3080 might be a bit overkill for my CPU (i7-10750H) would you recommend this? I have the 2020 omen 15 but I'm thinking of getting an egpu for more performance.
To do: Create my signature with system and expected eGPU configuration information to give context to my posts. I have no builds.
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@robeet, how did you disable the 2060 Max-Q, is there a BIOS option for it in the XPS 17?
LG Gram 17 | Sonnet Breakaway Box 550 | Asus Strix RTX 2070 OC Edition | Win 10 Pro 20H2 + Fedora 32 Dual Boot
Build Link
2018 17" LG Gram 17 [8th,4C,U] + RTX 2070 @ 32Gbps-TB3 (Sonnet Breakaway 550) + Win10 [build link]
@robeet, hey I’m running a similar setup just with a razer core x and a 3060ti instead of a 3080. I am having major cpu temp issues as well, what did you do to fix your problems?
Dell XPS 17 9700 with 2060 Max Q and i7-10750h
Razer Core X
Nvidia zotac 3060Ti
Sorry for the very late responses everyone, I never got the notification about the posts
@bejo sari, I feel like based off of some of the other build if you can get your hands on a 3070 i feel like it has a amazing price to performance compared to the other 30 series cards currently out
@odin, If you go into device manager and disable the internal gpu (being the 2060 max q in this case) it fixed all my stuttering issues
@hickbran, What kind of temps are you reaching? The highest i get it high 80s and that's on games that are really pushing the cpu as well and I didn't think that was too high but to keep things a tad bit cooler i got a mesh laptop stand and screwed in 2 noctua fans i had around and it dropped temps by a couple degrees. I've never throttled the cpu while gaming so if you are maybe have the laptop propped up on something to keep it getting cool air