External graphics card vs internal graphics card?

We cannot always have a desktop computer because our lifestyle is in constant motion. For this reason, many gamers turn to gaming laptops or external graphics cards to enjoy video games wherever they go. Today, we have decided to confront external and internal graphics cards to see the differences.

Index of contents

What are external graphics cards?

It is an external graphics card that is inserted into a kind of " dock " or base that stores a PCIe port to connect it. To connect it to our PC we do it with a Thunderbolt or USB-C cable. Of course, to use the dock we need to install the card, the drivers, restart and install the dedicated software.

Disadvantages

With everything installed, the PC will redirect the graphics to the external GPU instead of the one installed. This is an alternative that few use to have better graphics on our PC, especially on laptops. Up to here, everyone would be buying a cheap gaming laptop and an external graphics card, right?

However, this has its disadvantages, which we detail below.

The performance we receive is less

The first one we find is that this type of GPU is not going to give us the same performance as if we had it installed inside. Specifically, we will lose up to 15% performance compared to internal ones. This does not like anything, which does not incite many to buy this type of GPUs.

In this way, an external graphics will not get us to play " Ultra " in the latest titles, which does not mean that it does not increase the graphics performance of our laptop. Simply, we want to say that we are not going to receive the performance change that we expect in theory.

The problem that this causes is the lack of preparation that laptops have to manage all that power. When not, the laptop in question will already have a powerful internal graphics card equipped, which will refuse to look for an external one.

In addition, direct data transfer to a PCIe port rather than a USB-C or Thunderbolt port must be considered. Therefore, your laptops were not prepared for all that power, but… you will notice the difference.

The prices and compatibility of the docks

We are not talking about little money, precisely. Think of a dock as a small part of a motherboard that incorporates a PCIe port and connector. If we go to the Razer Core X, we will go to € 322 only for a case without a graphics card.

Then, we find other cases or docks that go to € 500 or even € 800. Of course, they bring a GTX 1080 or a level graphics card. On the other hand, all the docks are not compatible with all brands of notebooks, so we may not be able to connect it to the notebook. Not to mention that many laptops are not officially certified to work with an external dock.

There are many things to consider

I wish it all came down to compatibility, pricing or loss of performance. There are more things to consider, which makes a purchase of such a device more complex. Specifically, the following:

Graphics card measurements. Not all docks can hold normal graphics cards, so you have to see the size of these before buying the dock from us. Ports It should be noted that the dock brings Thunderbolt or USB-C to avoid dying to the manufacturer's own connector. Others only work with Thunderbolt 3. Mini-ITX cards. Many docks only support this type of graphics due to their measurements.

So, you will have to investigate several details before buying one of these "devices".

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Non-portable size and little offer

This product is made not to leave users who want a turbo boost to the graphic performance of their laptop, "right?" Well, these docks are not portable at all. They are usually heavy and, if we add the weight of the GPU… be careful because we will leave our back / shoulders.

On the other hand, we access the market and there is very little supply of these products because, apparently, they have practically no demand. This makes things more difficult by exposing everything we have said above. Few variety to choose from closes our search range very much.

Conclusions about internal and external graphics cards

First of all, we go to the gaming laptop market and we can get really good setups for a price that's not too bad. We can see gaming laptops with the RTX 2060 for less than € 1, 000. This already makes us discard the idea of an external graph versus an internal one.

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On the other hand, we don't like the following:

Compatibility. There are docks that are not compatible with all laptops. Price. A dock without a card already costs € 300… in the end it is cheaper to buy a good gaming laptop. Ports Not all of them have the same ports and there are not a thousand docks to choose from. Performance. After choosing the dock and spending a fortune, you will have a performance that may be 15% lower than that provided by an internal GPU. If, for example, we have an external GTX 1070 versus an internal GTX 1060, we can see the latter offer more FPS. Portability. It is not a device that can be transported wherever we want; in fact, we will put you at risk if we do. Many laptops do not come prepared. Surely, your laptop will not work together with an external graphics card.

Therefore, it seems to us that this product has too many disadvantages compared to an internal graph. Therefore, we recommend that you buy a good gaming laptop before a device of this type.