Question Anyone recommend an eGPU for an Intel Nuc?

[DrWho345]

Recently won an Intel Nuc on an eBay auction.
Love it!!! It plays most of my steam games, but of course since the graphics card isn’t great (was unaware before I brought it, that it can’t be physically upgraded) I am stuck unless I get a reliable, budget friendly, non bulky eGPU

I don’t know what to start and my technical jargon ends here, so any help would be greatly appreciated as long as it is not too jargony.

Basically wanted to play Scorn but it keeps crashing, and in future hopefully Diablo 4, but don’t know if the NUC will handle it.

Specs for NUC
Intel(R) Core(TM) 13-5010U CPU @ 2.10GHz 2.10 GHz
128GB
Steam games on external hard drive
Current graphics card
Intel R HD Graphics 5500.

 

[Gamefreaknet]

Really depends on what games you want to run. Currently I'd recommend an Intel Arc A770 considering it has around the performance of a high end 3060 to a 3060ti for cheaper and if you're on a budget an i3 12100 - [comes with UHD 730], (not 12100F). Really also is dependent on how much you want to spend so if you were willing to spend more you could get a higher spec (more future proof) build. Also do note I myself would personally recommend at least 32GB 3200mhz RAM though DDR4 does still cut it. Do note though that if you were to go for a 12th Gen CPU you would likely need to upgrade your motherboard if it doesn't already support LGA1700 if however you didn't want to upgrade your motherboard (do excuse me as I myself am not "an expert" in motherboard based stuff) I am pretty certain an Intel i5 10th Gen or 11th Gen would handle fine in the place of your i3.
Based on the "newness" of the Intel Arc being released so recently I am not sure whether any CPU or GPU bottlenecks will occur however based on the sheer power the i3 12100 is rumoured to have I doubt it'd be a CPU bottleneck if you were to upgrade your CPU.

 

[Corwin65]

You definitely do not have a gaming rig. You are running a weak 2015 processor with a 128 GB System drive (too small in 2022).

I know you are looking for some magic e-GPU to get you to a gaming machine but it's really only good for what you're able to do now.

The cost of an e-GPU, power supply, and the GPU itself would probably be prohibitive.

Do you have a budget in mind?