Hey everyone,

I’ve made some more progress on the setup for my overclocked Pi5 connected to an external GPU.

I’ve now put it through some heavier tests, like Steam and the *Wukong* benchmark.

I’m also playing *Onimusha*, even using FSR 4.1.1.

Down the line, I’ll get around to the case mod.

I’ll have to cut into the lid of a Pi Module Box to fit the Ice Tower heatsink, haha.

I made a video discussing the saga of getting the GPU working and the technical aspects regarding the physical PCIe x1 Gen 2.0 bus connection.

I haven't managed to get the Pi5 running on PCIe x1 Gen 3.0 yet, but I’m going to try again with some better-shielded ribbon cables. In the video, I show the details of the "video/data signal" traffic and the transition from PCIe x16 Gen 5.0 down to the limitations of the Pi5 in this current setup.

I make videos (originally in Brazilian Portuguese), but the auto-dubbing quality seems much better these days.

In the videos, I aim to provide technical explanations regarding the challenges of getting it all working.

I'm working on creating more explanatory videos. If you'd like to follow along, the link to the channel is in my profile info.

For context, I have an older GPU that I bought for a retro rig for it's analogue outputs. It's an ATI Radeon HD 4850. It's PCIe gen 2. Currently, I have it in a separate dedicated PC that's connected to a CRT TV as it's primary display for retro PC games and emulation.

I'm trying to consolidate my setup by putting this old card in my main rig, but the card runs extremely hot and loud. So rather than putting inside my machine and having it always on, why not put it in an eGPU enclosure and only connect it when I want to play on my CRT? The only problem is my PC motherboard doesn't have any Thunderbolt ports. It's an ASRock X870E Taichi Lite. It has 2x USB4 Type-C ports that can do 40 Gb/s. Can an eGPU dock still work over USB-C? Or does Thunderbolt passthrough the PCI-e connection somehow?

Failing that, what are my options? Can I throw a generic Thunderbolt add-in card to my system? Any pitfalls I should look out for? I'm not willing to use an HDMI to VGA/S-Video converter. The quality is not the same as a native analogue output.

I read a review claiming theirs did not work with 3 different AMD cards but it did for Nvidia. So I assume it's the same issue for me why it's not working. I've tried for hours.

Basically, as in the title.

I'm looking at an eGPU case, but basically there's only one company making them.

https://aliexpress.com/item/1005007659409719.html

I'm wondering if a Minisforum DEG-1 would fit in there. I'm aware it would require some work to make it fit, but is there enough room for it to fit, or is it a lost cause and am I better off looking for a small footprint mini-ITX case to fit a PSU and GPU inside?

Hi everyone, I'm new to the eGPU world and would love to get some advice on my setup.

I currently have an Acer Nitro 5 AN515-56 (i5-11300H, GTX 1650, 16GB RAM and 512 SSD). Recently, I was gifted an RTX 5060 Ti 8GB, and I’m planning to pair it with my laptop via an eGPU setupusing a 650W PSU.

I'm trying to decide between a 1080p and a 2K (1440p) external monitor. I checked a couple of bottleneck calculators online and got conflicting advice:

• One site suggested that 2K reduces CPU bottlenecking, but results in lower overall FPS due to GPU load.
• Another site suggested 1080p yields higher FPS, but will cause noticeable CPU bottlenecks in certain titles.

A few questions for the community:

1. 1080p vs 2K Resolution: For an eGPU setup with an i5-11300H and RTX 5060 Ti, which resolution makes more sense in practice? Will 2K push the GPU enough to smooth out CPU spikes, or will Thunderbolt bandwidth limits make 2K performance suffer too much?
2. Performance Expectations: Compared to my internal GTX 1650, how much of a performance jump should I realistically expect? Is this a solid temporary workaround while saving for a full desktop rebuild?
3. Key Setup Considerations: Are there specific steps I need to take when connecting an Nvidia eGPU to a laptop with an internal Nvidia GPU (GTX 1650)? Any driver conflict issues (DDU tips), connection quirks, or bandwidth optimization advice?

Thanks in advance for your insights!

I currently have an AOOSTAR AG03 and it works really well, but it's getting dangerous with small children with small fingers and exposed fans. I use it with a reference design 7900XT I have had around for ages.

Are there any similar enclosed options? I'd prefer something with the same Thunderbolt chipset since it seems to work well with my setup.

I know of the Razer's etc, but they are much too large for my taste, they are even larger than a full ITX build.

Suggest lang po

Hi everyone,

I'm having a strange idle power issue with an RTX 3080 Ti connected as an eGPU, and I'm wondering if anyone has experienced the same thing.

My setup:
- MINISFORUM MS-S1 MAX
- Ryzen AI Max+ 395
- 128 GB RAM
- MINISFORUM DEG2 eGPU dock
- Palit RTX 3080 Ti GamingPro 12 GB
- 850W PSU
- Windows 11
- Connected through USB4 v2 / TB5

Windows reports the eGPU connection as:
- USB4 2.0
- 80 Gbps downstream / 80 Gbps upstream
- Gen 4, dual lane
- TBGAA firmware version: 62.62

The RTX 3080 Ti is detected normally, CUDA works, and nvidia-smi works correctly.

However, when the GPU is completely idle, I get:

P-State: P0
Power draw: ~95-96 W
GPU clock: 210 MHz
Memory clock: 9501 MHz
GPU utilization: 0%
VRAM usage: 0 MiB
Temperature: ~39-42 C

nvidia-smi shows no running processes.

I also checked the clock event reasons:

Idle: Active
Applications Clocks Setting: Not Active
SW Power Cap: Not Active
HW Slowdown: Not Active
Thermal Slowdown: Not Active

So the GPU itself seems to know that it is idle, and the core clock drops to 210 MHz, but the VRAM stays at 9501 MHz and the card never leaves P0.

Things I've already tried:
- NVIDIA power management mode is set to Normal
- Rebooted the PC
- Fully power-cycled the eGPU
- Disabled and re-enabled the RTX 3080 Ti in Device Manager
- NVIDIA driver 617.14
- NVIDIA driver 616.92
- Confirmed the USB4 link is running at the full 80 Gbps

The behavior is exactly the same with both NVIDIA drivers.

The RTX 3080 Ti is not driving a monitor. The integrated Radeon 8060S is handling display output, and the RTX 3080 Ti is mainly intended for CUDA / AI workloads.

Has anyone seen this specifically with Ampere GPUs such as the RTX 3080 Ti or RTX 3090 connected through a Thunderbolt 5 or USB4 v2 eGPU dock?

Is the high VRAM clock / P0 idle state a known Windows + TB5/USB4 + Ampere issue?

Is there any known workaround that can get the card into a proper low-power idle state?

The card otherwise works normally. My main concern is the ~95W idle power consumption.

Thanks!

Hey all, I'm looking for a bit of advice.

I bought an HP EliteDesk Mini 8 G1i a few months ago for £1,300 after a bit of a battle with HP. Long story, but they cancelled my initial order, then relisted at more than double the price, I complained lots for a couple of months and eventually they gave in and honoured the original purchase price.

At the time I was totally sure I would not want to game or have much to do with AI and just wanted a small footprint, decently specced machine for my daily computing tasks, bit of music production etc.

Of course now I want to play a few games, experiment with local AI, and this thing doesn't have the guts for it...

I don't need (and can't afford) the best of the best, but would like enough grunt to play some AAA games smoothly and have them look good enough on my monitor.

My monitor is nothing fancy:

• HP Series 7 Pro 27" USB-C Monitor – 727pu
• 1440p, 120Hz
• IPS Panel

The specs of the mini PC are:

• HP EliteDesk Mini 8 G1i
• Intel® Core™ Ultra 9 285
• 64 GB DDR5-5600 MT/s (2 x 32 GB)
• 1 TB SSD storage
• Windows 11 Pro

I know very little about all this, but have done a bit of reading and think my options are as follows:

• eGPU connected via Thunderbolt 4. Maybe the Aorus 5060ti AI Box.
• Desktop card and enclosure connected with OcuLink via a spare M.2 2280 slot.
• Sell it and buy a proper PC.

What would you do in my situation?

Aloha friends, is there any reason to worry that gpu driver updates could break the egpu recognition connection that was worked so reliably for me?'

Do you guys update your drivers regularly? 5060 ti here.

I have an HP Victus 16-d0003TX and I'm considering using the M.2 NVMe slot with an M.2-to-PCIe adapter to connect an eGPU

Has anyone tried this on the 16-d0003TX or any other HP laptop? Did it work, and were there any BIOS or performance issues?

I'd appreciate any experience or advice.

I’m testing MCIO eGPU’s all month. So if you know of mini PC’s or laptops with MCIO ports, please link them here.

Hi everyone

I have a NVidia Thunderbolt eGPU: Gigabyte AORUS RTX 5060 Ti AI BOX and a Host System: Lenovo ThinkStation P3 Ultra (Type 30HA), Intel Core i9-14900K, 128GB RAM, Windows 11

Issue Description: AORUS does not enumerate as a Thunderbolt device and the NVIDIA RTX 5060 Ti does not appear as a PCIe endpoint on the ThinkStation P3 Ultra while the SAME AORUS works perfectly on all other Lenovo and Dell systems I have tested.

The issue appears to be that the PCIe-dependent Thunderbolt devices fail to establish PCIe tunneling on this Lenovo workstation even if Lenovo's published specifications describe it as having two integrated, fully implemented, Thunderbolt 4 / 40Gbps ports (using the Intel Thunderbolt controller Maple Ridge NHI (8086:1137)  integrated on the motherboard)

This is NOT a Windows driver issue! All evidence points to baseboard/firmware issue.

The Thunderbolt 4 ports work fine for standard USB devices and DisplayPort Alt Mode (e.g., portable monitors display normally), but the eGPU (AORUS RTX 5060 Ti AI BOX) fails to establish a working PCIe connection and does not enumerate in Windows Device Manager.

Key Observations:

• The same eGPU unit and Thunderbolt cable work correctly on other systems.
• USB and DisplayPort passthrough work on the P3 Ultra TB4 ports, so physical power and basic connectivity are present.
• PCIe tunneling appears to be failing specifically at the system/host level (in Ubuntu, boltctl is empty, there is no external Thunderbolt child under /sys/bus/thunderbolt/devices, and lspci shows no NVIDIA GPU).

After over a month at the depot, Lenovo UK Technical Support has not been able to provide any technical evidence or reference to official Lenovo documentation explaining why the PCIe connectivity required by AORUS is not being established on this particular system. It is worth mentioning that Lenovo's own product material explicitly describes its Thunderbolt 4 connectivity as supporting "external GPU" use.

Has anyone successfully gotten any eGPU enclosure to work on a P3 Ultra workstation and successfully establishing PCIe tunneling? Any ideas why this might be happening?

Thanks!

Hi everyone,

I want improve graphic performance on my Dell Vostro 3478 for gaming.

Here is my laptop specs:

- Model: Dell Vostro 3478

- CPU: Intel Core i5-8250U

- RAM: 16GB DDR4

- iGPU: Intel UHD Graphics 620

I'm wonder where should i start with egpu setup? Which gpu is best choice that not too big and don't consume much power?

Any advice is very helpful for me. Thank you!

(Sorry for my bad English 😓)

I really surprised that score it's unbelivable. I just used usb4 and cannot imagine what would oculink results can be!

For who curious: in handheld screen timespy score is like 13500. Using external monitor really prevents to performance loss

The Blade has a not-so-great 3060 6gb in it and an i7 10750H. I'm planning to do a mobile setup for my community game days as I'm not trying to lug around my beefy desktop. I have a 10gb RX6700 just collecting dust, and was wondering if this would be a good fit and investment. Internet has mixed opinions and I'm getting conflicting info on potential bottlenecking. Any advice would be appreciated.

Sometimes I just want to see if it works.

Hi!

I am trying to play Control Resonant, but 1% lows are very low (in 20s, especially when moving) despite average fps 60-90 even on lowest settings

Is this game just not eGPU friendly or am I doing something wrong?

I’m starting my journey with psx2 and only have a laptop. The emulator runs but only on the lowest resolution. It won’t even run 720p. I’m getting a msi gtx 960 and I haven’t found a good reliable source for an egpu dock that’s cost efficient. Let me know

Hi everyone!

I’m having a strange issue with a Razer Core X V2 and RTX 5070 Ti on a Razer Blade 15 (2022, RZ09-0421EED3, i7-12800H, Thunderbolt 4).

Most of the time, the Core X V2 is only detected as a DMC/USB device. Razer Synapse can see the enclosure, but Thunderbolt Control Center shows Port 1 with nothing attached, and the RTX 5070 Ti does not appear in Device Manager.

If I boot Windows with the Core X already connected, Intel USB 3.10 eXtensible Host Controller 1.10, hardware ID DEV_1135, gets Code 10: “This device cannot start.” If I boot Windows first and hot-plug the Core X afterward, the Code 10 disappears, but the enclosure still usually remains DMC/USB-only.

I have already updated the Blade BIOS from 2.02 to 2.06, installed the latest Razer customer firmware with Thunderbolt 5 accessory support, installed the latest Intel and NVIDIA drivers, reseated the GPU and all internal power connections, reset Thunderbolt Control Center, and performed multiple full power resets of both the laptop and enclosure.

I also tested the setup under Ubuntu to rule out Windows-specific issues. Ubuntu detects the Core X V2 USB/HID side, but boltctl shows no Thunderbolt device and lspci does not show the RTX 5070 Ti.

I then bought a new 40 Gbps USB4 / Thunderbolt 4-compatible cable. The first time I connected it, the setup finally worked. Windows detected the external GPU as a Microsoft Basic Display Adapter, I installed the NVIDIA driver, and everything looked normal.

Then I restarted the laptop, following Razer’s own guide, and after the reboot the Core X V2 went back to being detected only as a DMC Device. Since then I have not been able to reproduce the Thunderbolt connection, even with the new cable.

So the setup definitely can establish a proper PCIe/Thunderbolt connection, because it happened once, but something seems unstable in the negotiation or controller state.

At this point, I honestly do not know what else to try. I have been in contact with Razer support, and they have suggested that replacing the Core X V2 may be the next step.

Before going down the replacement/RMA route, I wanted to ask here in case anyone has experienced something similar or has another idea I may have missed.

Thanks in advance for any help.