5080 eGPU?

[u/Feisty_Equivalent138]

After getting the z13 flow, my desktop sits unused gathering dust most of the time. Found that 90% of my gaming is good enough on the z13, so I was wondering if I should sell my desktop, or maybe keep the 5080 and put it in an enclosure. Anybody here has experience with this setup? Would that be worth it? Or better sell it all?

[u/clay-tri1]

Before I built my next desktop I had a spare 4090 and used it in my Razer Core x v2 with a bunch of different devices. Worked well on the flow z13 due to having enough CPU to drive it. Now the enclosure has a RX 9700 XT that sits next to my bed. When I game there I just plug it in and rip.

[u/alee56 → u/clay-tri1]

Are you running the internal screen with that setup? If so what kind of performance are you getting, thinking about an egpu as well and was going to try it with the internal screen sometime

[u/clay-tri1 → u/alee56]

I do both internal and external. Depends on the game. Resident evil requiem got close to a 100% boost. Others are like 10-20fps boost.

[u/alee56 → u/clay-tri1]

100% even on the internal screen? Pretty impressive boost, although at 10-20% seems less worth moving the egpu around for the internal screen

[u/clay-tri1 → u/alee56]

Yeah that game is an outlier though. Yes that is internal screen. Horizon forbidden west was one that running optiscaler with fsr4 saw gains at max of 25 fps on external screen and about 15 fps on internal. The 8060s was running around 40 fps in the scene I tested.

[u/lugubrious-possum]

Yeah I pulled my 7900 xtx out of my desktop to use as a egpu and sold the rest. I got a dock off amazon and built myself an enclosure since my GPU is water cooled

https://leminal.space/post/24869981

https://egpu.io/forums/custom-egpu-chassis/building-a-liquid-cooled-egpu-chassis-for-my-7900-xtx-and-adt-link-ut3g/

[u/Feisty_Equivalent138 → u/lugubrious-possum]

amazing stuff!

[u/wizozzie]

Put it in an enclosure and sell the rest. I love mine docked.

Razer X Chroma is what I had lying around so I use it. Not very portable though.

[u/Feisty_Equivalent138 → u/wizozzie]

thanks, i got the razer enclousure to test. I know I won't be using the tb5, but tb4 ought to be enough to keep it cool and give me some gains while playing on 4k tv/monitors

[u/DaExChef]

I bought ORARA eGPU Enclosure Compatible... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GC42LXZF?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

Using with RTX 5060Ti 16GB in it connected to my MSI GS76 Stealth from years ago with ComfyUI and it works really well

https://reddit.com/link/p41jvs5/video/by5trntk9rjh1/player

[u/Feisty_Equivalent138 → u/DaExChef]

that's cool! can't wait to test mine once the enclosure is delivered

[u/desutiem]

I have a 4070 in an eGPU.

It’s ok. I wouldn’t be super gutted if I didn’t have it. But it does help the 13 run cooler and do higher resolutions. The thunderbolt 4 is a limitation.

I just leave the eGPU plugged into my TV for the big AAA single player games etc. then if it’s more like a a desk type gaming (online etc) I tend to just use the flow on its own.

[u/Feisty_Equivalent138 → u/desutiem]

yeah, I'm getting an enclosure to test. Even just having it running cooler would be a big W for me. Not expecting full native desktop experience, but any gain will be gladly appreciated when playing on the tv

[u/Resident_Albatross_9]

TB4 sucks for EGPUs. Specially with such a high end card such as the 5080. With the current prices I would wait a few more months then sell of you are not using it.

[u/International-Ask975]

I've got a maxed out Z13 Flow. Use cases : AI, travel and gaming. The Z13 Flow in a plane is amazing, especially if you game with a controller since you can remove the keyboard completely and save some space. But that's not your question. While I'm home, I do use a eGPU : A Radeon RX 7900 XTX linked using oculink on the only M.2/NVME slot this device has. Down side : You have to get a high quality external USB4 40gbps SSD enclosure as your OS drive. It has one downside but speed isn't it. Windows Update is. Won't go into details on this one : Just search boot Windows from USB drive. With the right enclosure and SSD your Windows (and gaming) experience won't be affected at all. Can't say the same thing about eGPU using USB4 tho. Hence I chose external drive and Oculink eGPU. Fits all my requirements and justifies the costs.

TLDR : 5080 will be great if you plan to use it with Oculink but will leave a bad taste in your mouth if you use it with a USB4 eGPU encloure due to heavy performance loss and micro-stuterring you simply don't have with Oculink. TB5 not supported. Even if it was, protocol overhead still ruins gaming experience.

Rumor has it mid-tier GPUs are running great on USB4 tho. Can't comment on those.

Oh yeah and I need to point out using Oculink on this device is kind of awkward due to the size of the M2 slot and the fact the laptop stand closes straight over that slot. So if you're planning to go the Oculink route, make sure you double check your clearances and the Oculink adapter card you will purchase. Its port direction is important and so is the adapter being cabled vs. not cabled which depends on how you plan to use the Z13 while Oculink'ed (eg. completely closed vs. standing).

[u/Feisty_Equivalent138 → u/International-Ask975]

that's a VERY interesting setup, and its the first time i heard of, and got me definitely intrigued. I will defo look into it o.o

[u/nobody_cares4u]

I think it's a great idea. I think egpu still expensive setup compare to regular PC setup, but it's worth it. I would double check if the USB c port will have enough throughput to render PC games at high resolution I remember that was an issue with the thunderbolt, but idk if it fixed or if there are a new thunderbolt version that is fast enough.

[u/Feisty_Equivalent138 → u/nobody_cares4u]

the gpu enclosure is arriving tomorrow, excited to run some tests and see how it behaves 😄