The best external GPUs for your laptop in 2022
Using one of the best external GPUs can improve your laptop’s performance, even if you’re just trying to gain a few frames. top legends Or make your Premiere Pro a little faster. We’ve gathered the top options available on the market that can accommodate even the most powerful graphics cards, including the RTX 4090 and RX 7900 XTX.
A good GPU enclosure is more than just a box for your graphics card. Our picks come with enough power to feed hungry graphics cards without compromising efficiency, and they’re cool and quiet, allowing you to game or create without distractions.
Gigabyte Aorus RTX 4090 Gaming Box
The fastest eGPU you can buy
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Razer
razer core x chroma
Overall best eGPU enclosure
Pros
Fits almost any graphics card
PSU big enough for any GPU
there is intense cold
RGB model has fancy lighting effects
Shortcoming
Cannot fit RTX 4080 or 4090
The Razer Core At around $400, it’s a little more expensive than some of the other options available (though cheaper than others), but still balances looks, thermals, and performance. The base model is packed with an internal 650-watt power supply and can fit up to a three-slot GPU.
The more expensive Chroma model comes with a beautiful RGB underglow and bumps the power supply to 700W. It can also fit a three-slot GPU and comes with four USB ports and Gigabit Ethernet. No matter which model you choose, you’ll only need a Thunderbolt 3 cable to connect the enclosure.
You’ll need to bring your own graphics card, but you can fit almost anything inside it razer core x Outside of the RTX 4080 and 4090. In addition to ample space, the power supply is more than enough to handle even the most power-hungry graphics cards. Also, the unit comes stock with a 120mm fan, which adds a little more cooling capacity.
razer core x chroma
Overall best eGPU enclosure
saga
Sonnet eFX Breakaway Box
A great budget eGPU enclosure
Pros
Has up to 750W PSU
Can fit most dual-slot graphics cards
It has plenty of USB ports for device charging
Provides Gigabit Ethernet networking capability
Shortcoming
Supports Thunderbolt 3 only
Can’t fit the largest GPU
If you’re looking for a slightly cheaper enclosure, the Sonnet eFX Breakaway Box is for you. The current version is the Breakaway Box 750, and Sonnet offers it in two different models – the 750 and 750ex. Both models come with 750W power supplies, but the 750ex also comes with four USB ports and Gigabit Ethernet at a $50 premium.
You can use the latest graphics cards from AMD and Nvidia in the enclosure, including Nvidia Quadro cards for professional workloads. Although it was designed around older, lower TDP GPUs, it still has enough power and cooling for all of the latest RX 7000 and RTX 4000 models, outside of the massively larger RTX 4080 and 4090.
If you have enough Thunderbolt ports, you can link multiple Breakaway boxes together, connecting up to four boxes, allowing you to accelerate even the most demanding workloads in applications like Davinci Resolve and Cinema 4D. It only supports Thunderbolt 3, but has a maximum bandwidth of 40 Gbps.
The only downside is that breakaway box 750 Supports only dual-width graphics cards. It has enough power for something like an RTX 3090, but many models are too large to fit inside.
Sonnet eFX Breakaway Box
A great budget eGPU enclosure
gigabyte
Gigabyte Aorus RTX 4090 Gaming Box
The fastest eGPU you can buy
Pros
It has an RTX 4090!
It is a self-contained solution that does not require anything additional
Excellent cooling for quiet operation
Fancy RGB lighting looks great
Shortcoming
Can’t deliver anything close to the full power of the RTX 4090
Lack of Thunderbolt 4 support
If you want extreme external graphics power, the Gigabyte Aorus RTX 4090 Gaming Box is perfect for you. Inside is the world’s most powerful graphics card, the Nvidia RTX 4090, with all its CUDA cores, RT cores, Tensor cores, and high clock speeds, and it delivers the fastest gaming experience out of an external GPU enclosure.
However, note that the RTX 4090 is so powerful that it completely saturates your laptop’s poor Thunderbolt 3 connection, so it won’t be able to make full use of the RTX 4090. In fact, performance may be closer to half that of the full-speed 4090. That’s still faster than almost any other gaming laptop out there, and even most gaming desktops, but it’s worth keeping in mind.
To take full advantage of this type of eGPU enclosure we will need Thunderbolt 5 or USB4. Still, this is about as fast as you can realistically expect from an eGPU enclosure today, which means it will let you play any game at any setting with ease. It also looks good, has nearly silent water cooling and actually costs around $2,000, considering you’re getting a watercooled RTX 4090, which would cost around $2,000 on its own.
Gigabyte Aorus RTX 4090 Gaming Box
The fastest eGPU you can buy
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