Hey everyone, I just put together a new setup with an XPS 13 9370 and the Aorus 2070 Gaming Box with help from the excellent resources here. Here's my dilemma: I want to upgrade to a higher refresh rate monitor than the 60Hz I'm using with my old rig, but I'm not sure what to do. I hear that you get better relative performance on eGPU with higher resolutions, so would it be worth it to invest in a 144Hz monitor at 1440 or should I stick with 1080? I guess the simplest question is, how close would framerates on 1440 be to the same settings on 1080 with this minor added boost of playing on higher resolution, generally speaking?
Thanks!
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144Hz monitor at 1440 would be a nice option for the RTX 2070 Gaming Box. You reduce Thunderbolt 3 performance loss at the same time making the most of the RTX 2070. Even if you don't get 144Hz consistently it's a much smoother visual in games and during regular use vs a 60Hz monitor.
Alright, yeah, that's what I was thinking. I appreciate the input, thanks!
Pending: Add my system information and expected eGPU configuration to my signature to give context to my posts
Most importantly, you should get a decent adaptive sync monitor.
Since Nvidia gpu now support adaptive sync, you get the best smooth gaming experience even if the monitor is not branded g-sync.
A decent 1440p, 144Hz adaptive sync panel with 40/144Fps range would be a must if you plan to plug directly the monitor to the gpu.
@iraqcanada, 144 Hz is not recommendable for eGPU setups. On high FPS the limited bandwidth plays a big role. If you stay with standard FPS like 60 Hz or 72Hz you are good, but not above.
@oliverb dunno man, I get well over 60fps in most games and I’ve got a double bottleneck, so 144hz would make sense..
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@iraqcanada, 144 Hz is not recommendable for eGPU setups. On high FPS the limited bandwidth plays a big role. If you stay with standard FPS like 60 Hz or 72Hz you are good, but not above.
@oliverb this highly depends on the game itself, with the primary bottleneck being the Thunderbolt chip overhead and not the bandwidth as demonstrated here.
For example, I was able to achieve 200+ FPS on an RX480 over Thunderbolt 2 in Rocket League. A counterexample would be F1 2018 at any resolution High-Ultra settings. On TB3 + V64, I get good results (60+ easily at all times at 4K/2K). However with "rain" weather effect, even at 1080p the FPS seems to bottleneck at about 30~35. However, I did not test then, if it was a CPU bottleneck or not. Distinguishing CPU bottlenecks and the thunderbolt effect is important.
Nonetheless, w.r.t. gaming, we could say that for most modern titles, pushing out very high frames can be a challenge over Thunderbolt.
purge-wrangler.sh ✧ purge-nvda.sh ✧ set-eGPU.sh ✧ automate-eGPU EFI Installer
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Troubleshooting eGPUs on macOS
Command Line Swiss Knife
eGPU Hardware Chart
Multiple Build Guides
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Current: MacBook Pro RP560X + 480/R9 Fury/Vega 64 | GTX 780/1070
Previous: 2014 MacBook Pro 750M + 480/R9 Fury | GTX 780/980 Ti/1070
@eightarmedpet and @mac_editor, of course you are right and it depends highly on the game. In Portal, an older and perfect optimized game I get almost 300 FPS while in Forza Horizon 4 it's impossible to get over 80 FPS, no matter how low the settings.
It should more like a guideline (with exceptions): Newer titles though tend to be limited more, it looks as they send more data through.