Question E gpu for CAD workstation HP

[victorastroem9]

Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-10850H CPU @ 2.70GHz 2.71 GHz
Ram 32,0 GB

HP ZBook Studio G7 Mobile Workstation
NVIDIA Quadro T2000 with Max-Q Design

This is the usual computer in my workplace, and we work a lot in inventor 2023 with heavy metal engineering in first hand, my question is bigger cad models are a hassle to FEM, (Finite element method), and just work with, i know that the detail level can be managed but i want it to work anyways.
I know work in a heavy model and i wanted to upgrade the combined computing power for not only me but my colleagues, And then i thought about an E GPU with a Quadro card or something that can boost our workstations while not buying new pc:s for everyone.

Im keen on getting answers so please the great community of tom`s can you help med with this dilemma!

 

[hotaru.hino]

As long as the laptop has a Thunderbolt 3 port (which your model seems to have one), then you can use an external GPU. Though do note that enclosures that inspire confidence and not something jury rigged on Linus Tech Tips will set you back another $200-$300.

Also there's the issue of whether or not your application is sensitive to PCIe bandwidth since external GPUs are limited to 4 lanes, so keep that in mind.

 

[victorastroem9]

All of our laptops are thunderbolt 3 im quite sure, its just if there are E Gpu’s that can provide more performance in our situation. I have only read about 80-85% of the performance can be assured, those percentages seems only to be in gaming not in a work setting i was just wondering if it is possible and where i can buy it with a quadro or something, although the compability is an issue im not sure on yet. Dont HP have something that could be of interest

 

[hotaru.hino]

All of our laptops are thunderbolt 3 im quite sure, its just if there are E Gpu’s that can provide more performance in our situation. I have only read about 80-85% of the performance can be assured, those percentages seems only to be in gaming not in a work setting i was just wondering if it is possible and where i can buy it with a quadro or something, although the compability is an issue im not sure on yet. Dont HP have something that could be of interest

I'm pretty sure nobody sells Quadros inside of an eGPU enclosure. Regarding compatibility, for all intents and purposes, the TB3 port is effectively a PCIe 3.0 x4 slot you can cable up to somewhere else. So there shouldn't be a problem as long as the computer can see the card in some form or fashion.

 

[victorastroem9]

Yeah but dont you only get 1/4 of the pcie buffer then?

 

[hotaru.hino]

Yeah but dont you only get 1/4 of the pcie buffer then?

PCIe bandwidth is only necessary if the workload being run on the video card needs stuff from the computer constantly. This can happen if the workload requires more VRAM than the card has or simply keeps requesting stuff from storage.

A lot of workloads try to avoid the above or work around it so it doesn't stall as much.

 

[victorastroem9]

Its weird though when im doing the simulation of FEM the GPU doesn’t load up according to the activity panel, maybe its the cpu taking the simulation load and not gpu, in rendering software it’s the opposite i suppose then this is a no problem

 

[hotaru.hino]

If you want to really make sure there's no PCIe bandwidth issues, run the workload with GPU-z in the Sensors tab and note the Bus Interface Load.