Will the RX Vega 56 work with the EXP GDC v8 eGPU adapter?

[PetarV]

I'm doing an eGPU set up and I'm choosing between the 1070 (I know it works with my laptop and the adapter) and the Vega 56 (not sure if it works). I know the 56 is a bit better than the 1070 in terms of performance but the main question is will it actually work? I know some people have eGPU set ups with the rx 56 and a thunderbolt 3 adapter but none with the PCIe mini adapter I'm going to use.
Adapter: EXP GDC v8 or v8.4
Laptop: Asus GL551JW, it has a mini PCIe port, OS is win7
And aside from that do you think I would be able to achieve 40 to 60 fps in all games on max graphics, 1440p? The performance drop is from 15% to 20%.
Thanks in advance!

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

Hey,

This isn't exactly an answer, but rather a Q + A!

What an interesting piece of hardware. I've seen some vids and it seems to work well (although not in all cases). The concept is a great take on the very expensive units being offered by Alienware or whomever for their GPU docks. They seem to run in the 300-400 buck mark. This is a very cheap version, but very functional.

I'm interested, as I have a very similar laptop to yours. And have always wished I could game on it. This may be a solution.

I think it's a matter of selecting an appropriate GPU so it's not bottle-necked by the CPU and subsequently wasting money. Your CPU is decent, so it can potentially run reasonably mid-high end cards. The problem with a 1070 or Vega 56 is that the CPU will bottleneck those GPU's in certain scenarios, CPU intensive games, and most AAA titles coming out soon as an example. I'd be thinking of a RX480/580/gtx1060 for more balance (and being cost conscious). If you're playing on the Laptop screen then that should be plenty. If you use a high end monitor then the others make sense, but your still CPU limited.

Thank you for posting this. I've completely missed this simple solution. I'm determined to get one and try it out. My HD4000 laptop iGPU is muck. I have a couple of old GPU's sitting around (which still work!) and with a few cables, and extra power adaptor and some driver installation, i'm gonna have a great time setting this up!

Have a good evening (or at least it's evening where I am in Ireland)

edit: on the 1440p thing, i think you will hit the 40-60 fps mark, but you may have to manage in game details to reach the desired result, which is also game dependant. The cutback nature of the mobile CPU variants, mean they are just not the same as the desktop counterparts. You may find the CPU isn't good enough to drive those GPU's at such a relatively high res. At 1080p I'd say yes. But at 1440p might stretch the CPU.

 

[PetarV]

If you're interested in this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EevOGAf6mHI , https://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/EXP-GDC-Laptop-External-Independent-Video-Card-Dock-with-PCI-E-Interface-Black/1048722_32456172794.html?src=google&albch=search&acnt=479-062-3723&isdl=y&aff_short_key=UneMJZVf&albcp=266121556&albag=7593673036&slnk=&trgt=dsa-42862830006&plac=&crea=64152518716&netw=g&device=c&mtctp=b&memo1=1t3&gclid=Cj0KCQjwvabPBRD5ARIsAIwFXBkbhcUcaG7jUzbvcg9gxFn2TWp-lzbx_03GArIVRLBOdT31oESrmicaAoaVEALw_wcB
I do know it'll be bottlenecked but do you really think it will be bottlenecked that much? I mean there are laptops with 1070m and the relatively same CPU (5% better than mine) that are great for gaming plus that I've heard that a lot of people game with the i7 930 (which is noticiably worse than the i7 4720hq) and a 1070 and doing just fine with very little fps loss.
I've seen a lot of benchmarks and no one's got a benchmark worse than 80% of the desktop variant. In shadow of war I could turn half the settings to high and the other to ultra and without AA I think I should achieve near 60fps right?

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

you could be right. it's very hard to say. The only way to really find out is to try it. Looking at the vid, it appears to work very well, and it sustains a decent FPS in those games played. What res will you be playing on? (laptop screen or separate monitor?) that will play a part in what FPS you get too.

 

[PetarV]

A seperate 1440p monitor, my laptop screen is 1080p. And I know that the bottleneck will be a lot bigger than just 15-20% if I use the laptop screen.

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

the 1070 should be fine for 1440p providing it's not 144hz or something. As you said it won't bottleneck as much at that res. I think you will be able to get 40-60fps, for some games you will have to dial some bits back like AA, AF and post processing, but you will probably be able to leave everything else on a mix of high/ultra.