[SOLVED] Connecting an external graphic card via PCI-E wifi card slot in laptop

[ibrahimrastoder001]

Hello, i have a Ryzen 5 3500u laptop. I had it for like 2 years and i would like to try to get more performance out of it. The CPU is good but the iGPU isnt that powerful. I saw on some sites that people connected an eGPU trough the wifi slot. Could this be possible? The laptop is an Acer Aspire A315-42 and i added a 4GB DDR4 stick of RAM to the 8GB it already had.

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

an "external" graphics card would be connected to your system via USB or Thunderbolt.
a dedicated graphics card would be attached directly to an available PCIe slot.

which are you looking to use?

 

[ibrahimrastoder001]

an "external" graphics card would be connected to your system via USB or Thunderbolt.
a dedicated graphics card would be attached directly to an available PCIe slot.

which are you looking to use?

Sorry, my mistake. By external i mean thats its outside 😂. Yeah its a dedicated GPU connected to a PCIe slot (the wifi one).

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

By external i mean that its outside. Yeah its a dedicated GPU connected to a PCIe slot

no graphics card will fit in the slot but you may be able to use a PCIe riser/extension that would allow mounting outside somehow.
have you already opened up the laptop's internals?
if it still under a manufacturer warranty you would be voiding any coverage.

how would you be powering this GPU?
any decent gaming card needs PCIe 6/8pin power cable(s) connected from the power supply.
what wattage is the laptop's PSU?

you may be able to use a low performing card that requires no extra power but it wouldn't offer much for gaming performance.
depending on the price you find, it may not be worth it vs just upgrading the entire system.

 

[ibrahimrastoder001]

no graphics card will fit in the slot but you may be able to use a PCIe riser/extension that would allow mounting outside somehow.
have you already opened up the laptop's internals?
if it still under a manufacturer warranty you would be voiding any coverage.

how would you be powering this GPU?
any decent gaming card needs PCIe 6/8pin power cable(s) connected from the power supply.
what wattage is the laptop's PSU?

you may be able to use a low performing card that requires no extra power but it wouldn't offer much for gaming performance.
depending on the price you find, it may not be worth it vs just upgrading the entire system.

Yeah i didnt mean to put it in that slot. I have found this adapter and i would like to use a 1050 at first (because i have one thats not in use) and later switch to a 1060.
Also yes, i have opened the laptop once and added a 4gb ddr4 stick and not long ago opened it to clean it. The warranty will expire in a month or so, so im not rly worried about that. This is the adapter i would like to try out

https://imgur.com/a/WmgZbcT

View: https://imgur.com/a/WmgZbcT
and was interested if it would work with the Ryzen 3500u chip. Also i found this one

https://imgur.com/a/njUKad8

View: https://imgur.com/a/njUKad8

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

both of the larger images need a SATA power connection.
you should have one free for adding additional storage but you would need to verify that.

the second larger image doesn't show how it would connect to the PCIe slot on the board.

3 smaller images don't show how they would work.

these all appear to be PCIe 1x adapters.
this will severely limit bandwidth on any PCIe 16x graphics card.

and there's still no power specs to verify that this system could even run the GTX 1050 or 1060.
does your 1050 require extra PCIe power cables?

 

[ibrahimrastoder001]

both of the larger images need a SATA power connection.
you should have one free for adding additional storage but you would need to verify that.

the second larger image doesn't show how it would connect to the PCIe slot on the board.

3 smaller images don't show how they would work.

these all appear to be PCIe 1x adapters.
this will severely limit bandwidth on any PCIe 16x graphics card.

and there's still no power specs to verify that this system could even run the GTX 1050 or 1060.
does your 1050 require extra PCIe power cables?

The board uses a 6-pin to sata adapter, i wouldnt use that and just plug the 6-pin from a PSU.

The 2nd one connects the same way. It has 3 options to choose: through the wifi card port, through the m.2 pord or the express card port. Again i would get the wifi card port connection.

Also the 1050 gpu requites no other power connectors.

The thing i wanted to know is if someone managed to connect a GPU to his laptop like this? And about the 1x to 16Xlx, there is an option to get the 4x to 16x.

But before I do anything I would like to know how can I check if the wifi PCIe slot is 4x?

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

But before I do anything I would like to know how can I check if the wifi PCIe slot is 4x?

you would need to find complete specs of the laptop's board.
maybe contact Acer for a data sheet regarding full specs.

hopefully this would also provide power specs.
I doubt that this laptop provides enough power for a dedicated GPU since they are designed to provide minimal power per model to allow longest possible battery life.

 

[froggx]

The wifi slot isn't gonna be 4x. You have to use an M.2 slot to get a 4x connection. These things are janky af. You're gonna have the bottom half of your laptop case hanging off, the GPU just kinda hanging out in all it's glory, an external monitor balanced somewhere amongst this mess, and an ATX PSU with its junk hanging out that you're gonna have to jump start with a paper clip. If you're cool with that, then these things do get the job done if you can get it set up properly (at least the M.2 version does, I can't speak for the wifi route).

 

[DSzymborski]

Before I got to froggx's post, I was about to write "janky" as well.

This is suitable for an experiment that it can be done. It's not suitable for actual, practical use. You'll have a vivisectioned laptop that will likely perform worse than the Vega integrated graphics after the 1050 is crippled in numerous ways.

 

[ibrahimrastoder001]

Yeah i wanted the wifi card slot type cause i saw somewhere its a 4x slot but now in hwinfo64 i see its only a 1x.

The m.2 nvme is a 4x slot so i will prob go with that.

The thing is i wont rly be using this laptop for anything else than gaming and my old pc is just junk at this point. I have another laptop for normal usage and i would transform this one to a "gaming pc" until i can save some money for a real gaming pc 😂

So if this is possible, i would then buy the m.2 type adapter.

So its still not a 16x slot, i know that. But will the GTX 1050 perform at least close to the full potential?

 

[USAFRet]

eGPU
Subtitle: "How to turn a poorly performing laptop into a poorly performing desktop"

 

[DSzymborski]

So its still not a 16x slot, i know that. But will the GTX 1050 perform at least close to the full potential?

No, not particularly. It's not a good idea.