Question Will Adding A External GPU To My Laptop Increase My GPU Performance?

LIQMAN007

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Apr 4, 2013
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I have an Alienware 15 R7 with DDR5 16GB Ram, 1TB SSD, i7 cpu, 1440p Res and RTX 3060 in my current laptop and was wanting to know if adding an external RTX 3080Ti using my thunderbolt 4 will increase my gpu performance? I do alot of gaming and school work on my laptop now and some of the AAA games I have to run on low settings due to performance and stuttering issues. On low settings though I get really good FPS some games run around 170 FPS. If it will increase performance how much of a increase do you think I can get and is adding an external gpu with an RTX 3080Ti worth the money?
Also, should I wait for the RTX 4080 series to drop instead of buying the RTX 3080Ti?
 
Dec 12, 2022
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so one thing about computer parts that go into the form factor of a laptop. Theyre always lower in performance because of heat and available amp/volts/watts from a battery that is much more limited in scope than a desktop that can plug straight into the wall. The other problem is heat, only so much space for tiny fans and only so many vents you can move the heat around to push it outs.
So with those problems are just inherent. Until our technology in batteries and cooling advance a century or two or we make a breakthrough.
Right now the solution is lower their performance. Cut out some of the components that get the hottest and boom. You have a 3060m. The” m “ meaning mobile and probably 20-30 percent on average based on the cpu slower than a proper desktop equivalent that has good cooling.
They make external pcie like “modules”? I suppose that’s what it would be called. But basically it’s a pcie slot that has its own power and housing that you connect to your usb and output the video through usb-c. But the difference is you’re not gonna be upgrading to the same gpu you would get in a laptop that has its built in. This will be a proper full triple fanned and bulky heatsink desktop gpu. So, the jump between a 3060m and a desktop 3080ti would be be very significant. Like triple digit percentage performance gain with similar settings. A 3080ti is already 90 percent faster than a desktop 3060.

and the answer to your second question is if you can pull the trigger on a 4080 now I would probably go for it. It outperforms a 3080ti while using less power and stays cooler and they’re almost the same price currently. The market is not liking nvidias msrp for it and I’m guessing both of them are going to be below 900 by spring.
 
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