Hi, I just got an Oculus Quest 2 and now - after playing most of the android games - would like to try PC VR.
I have a 2018 Matebook X i7 with MX150, I see this is can be an ok build with an eGPU. So I've been looking at Razer core x and x chroma.
My question is:
is it worth to pay the extra money to get the "chroma" with the secondary thunderbolt controller and ports on the egpu box? Would I get better performance then just connecting the Oculus link to another port on the laptop?
Has anyone had experience with this - connecting a vr headset to the laptop vs directly to the egpu box ports?
Thanks
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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Hey! I have not tried to check the connection according to scheme 1:
Laptop ↔ eGPU ↔ VR
However, I propose to speculate about how it works: to connect a laptop to an eGPU, the Thunderbolt ™ 3 connection type should be used to achieve the highest performance, and to connect a VR headset to an eGPU, USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C (proprietary Oculus cable optical, not copper, and its maximum bandwidth is only 5Gb / s - see the specification here: https://www.oculus.com/accessories/oculus-link/) while the eGPU must have two physical ports with a USB Type-C, one of which could be a simple USB.
However, in connection with the fact that we are looking for the maximum performance in the desired configuration, and despite the fact that these ports should ideally be provided by different Thunderbolt ™ 3 controllers (in practice, they can be provided by both one dual-channel controller and two single-channel / dual-channel controllers) we will have one copper Thunderbolt cable connecting the Laptop and the eGPU, and the second cable connecting the VR headset to an optical USB. Since Oculus receives information not only from the video card, but also from the processor (from the specially installed Oculus Link software), it would be wiser and more correct to connect the VR headset directly to the Laptop into another free USB Type-C port with USB mode, not necessarily Thunderbolt. You will save money by purchasing a simplified version of the Razer while getting the same performance.
Correct if I am wrong in my reasoning.
P.S. I tried to assemble scheme 2 on my laptop and eGPU bundle:
Laptop ↔ eGPU
Laptop ↔ VR
using two USB Type-C connectors on my laptop, both of which turned out to be compatible with Thunderbolt ™ 3. However, as I said, the Oculus wire is optical and works in USB 3.1 Gen 2 mode, then one of the laptop connectors worked in normal USB mode. The Thunderbolt ™ 3 controller on my laptop is a dual channel Intel® JHL6540. So it turned out like this:
First 32Gbs Thunderbolt Connection: Lenovo X1 Carbon Gen6 ↔ Razer Core V2 + GTX1080
Second USB 3.1 Gen 2 5Gbs connection: Lenovo X1 Carbon Gen6 ↔ Oculus Quest
I did not experience any problems, everything worked fine.
In order to answer specifically your question, I have reviewed the Thunderbolt ™ 3 specifications here: https://thunderbolttechnology.net/tech/solution-briefs (you will need Thunderbolt ™ 3 Tech Brief and Thunderbolt ™ 3 External Graphics Brief) as well as the specifications various eGPU boxes here: https://egpu.io/best-egpu-buyers-guide/ along with these recommendations - look carefully at footnote 7 to the table. I also recommend watching this video:
I came to the conclusion that the additional performance of the Razer Core X Chroma relative to the Razer Core X in the question you mentioned will not bring, and maybe even worse, because The Laptop ↔ eGPU cable will be forced to transfer data from both the GPU to the laptop and vice versa.
If a VR headset is connected to a laptop into the second free USB Type-C port, the load on the cable from the laptop to the external video card will be reduced.
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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