Can i improve gaming experience on my laptop by adding an external GPU or Graphics card?

[animesailemartin]

I have an Acer Aspire E5- 575G Signature Edition
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-7200 CPU @ 2.50GHz 2.70GHz
RAM: 8.00GB
With a NVIDIA GeForce 940MX

I've been getting notifications, that my system doesn't meet the minimum requirements for optimal settings on a few games. I wanted to know if I can add an external GPU/eGPU (or whatever is needed) to solve this/increase my laptop's performance for a better gaming experience.

Thank you!

 

[toshibitsu]

In order to use an eGPU, the laptop needs to have a Thunderbolt 2 or 3 connector on it. The old 2's are for cards like the 960, 970. Thunderbolt 3 is required for all the newer cards (980, 980 ti, 1060, 1070, 1080, etc...)

If there is a dedicated PCI-E slot on the motherboard, you may be able to remove a bottom panel on the laptop and hook up something like this: https://www.amazon.com/XCSOURCE-External-Independent-Graphics-AC774/dp/B071RTC9HP/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1531264176&sr=1-1&keywords=exp+gdc+laptop+external+pci-e+graphics+card

Of course the issue with doing it that way is it's going to look ugly and it's a pain in the ass to get it to work properly.


From the looks of it though, you probably cannot use an eGPU on your laptop.

 

[animesailemartin]

In order to use an eGPU, the laptop needs to have a Thunderbolt 2 or 3 connector on it. The old 2's are for cards like the 960, 970. Thunderbolt 3 is required for all the newer cards (980, 980 ti, 1060, 1070, 1080, etc...)

If there is a dedicated PCI-E slot on the motherboard, you may be able to remove a bottom panel on the laptop and hook up something like this: https://www.amazon.com/XCSOURCE-External-Independent-Graphics-AC774/dp/B071RTC9HP/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1531264176&sr=1-1&keywords=exp+gdc+laptop+external+pci-e+graphics+card

Of course the issue with doing it that way is it's going to look ugly and it's a pain in the ass to get it to work properly.


From the looks of it though, you probably cannot use an eGPU on your laptop.

So is there anything else I could buy to increase my gaming experience/laptops performance?

 

[toshibitsu]

You could upgrade the memory to 16GB. I believe there's already an SSD in your model so no point in suggesting that. There's also the possibility of installing 'Steam OS' and using that instead of Windows. The OS change may help improve game performance... but probably not enough to justify doing such.

I'd say you're probably better off just making do with the laptop the way it is and save up money for a proper gaming laptop or a desktop.