External Graphics Card Enclosure (eGPU)

When it comes to high-end gaming, a gaming desktop PC often reigns supreme over an equivalent laptop. With the introduction of the external graphics card enclosure, gamers no longer have to choose between performance and portability.

Generally speaking, laptops simply don’t have the same graphical processing power as their PC counterparts due to limited cooling and power limits. Using an eGPU is a great way to bump up the performance of your portable device, as the external graphics card enclosure is able to more closely mimic the graphical performance of a PC. While you won’t necessarily get the same power that you would from a PC, an eGPU can make your laptop’s graphics almost in-line if said GPU was installed into a desktop PC.

So, how does it work? In most cases, you'll need to provide your own desktop graphics card that is then to be installed into the external graphics card enclosure. External GPU enclosures usually have a PCIe slot for you to install your graphics card + an included power supply for connecting to the 6, 8, 12 or 16-pin PCIe power connectors. Once the eGPU enclosure has the graphics card installed, it can then be connected to your device via a Thunderbolt cable. When it’s all set up, your portable device routes graphics requests to the external graphics card enclosure instead of your laptop’s graphics card or integrated GPU. Be sure to check if your device has a compatible Thunderbolt port to ensure compatibility with the eGPU enclosure. Additionally, some external graphics card enclosures feature a proprietary connector for use with selected devices.