I’ve had two ally’s and returned both after having issues with them. Each time I took them back to Best Buy every cashier I spoke to said they’re being returned a lot (Not sure why that’s not being talked about).. I took my shot at the Go and I’ve been LOVING it!! It feels like an upgrade all around. I’m heading to Mexico this week and looking forward to seeing how well it does while I’m traveling. The fact that you can use it as a desktop replacement is just icing on the cake. I would recommend this PC to anyone in the market for one.
I've been wanting this legion go or steamdeck oled but can't decide which one to get. Ally used got my attention but the fact that you need to get the dock to connect it to a monitor is a fatal flaw for me. i know legion go is more powerful than the steamdeck oled, but I'm still hesitant about the handheld experience since it's massive and the battery life is not as long as steamdeck. can you tell me how's the experience of this device? TIA
@@DamnitMan88 my first time returning my ally was because the software kept crashing even after multiple updates. Second time I returned it was because it wouldn’t turn on after being on the charger. Both times I went to return it (two separate Best Buy’s) the cashier said “here for a return aren’t you” and the other one said “these things are getting returned more than anything else in the store”. … which shocked the hell out of me because I’ve never heard of it having a return reputation on UA-cam or any other forums. Side note: Just because something is “sold out” doesn’t necessarily means it’s good. They don’t keep a lot of these handheld PC’s on hand in stores anyway so for It to be “sold out” probably means they just sold the hand full that they might have had in the store.
@@hafidhadhiet like I stated before, you can’t go wrong with the Go. After having the ally for a few weeks and then switching to the Go. It felt like a upgrade because of the screen alone. You have legitimate concerns that you’re going to have to determine how much they matter for you and how you intend to use it. However, this PC is hands down the best one out of my experience having owned the Ally, the original deck, and now the Go. Give it a shot and take it back within the return period at Best Buy if you don’t like it.
It replaced my desktop and laptop, I sold them both and put a nice sum into savings. Happened to have a Razer Core X Chroma eGpu enclosure I had not used in a long time and tucked in a 4070 inside. Hums like a charm. 1440p and 2160p are my preferred resolutions. Legion FTW. Asus, Valve, Aya are all good options. I prefer Lenovo and they have great warranty plans if one is willing to pay. You can get up to 48 months of premium depot support and also 48 months of Accidental Damage Protection (ADP). No BS, I have had Lenovos warranties in the past and I am satisfied with their products.
hey im planning on getting a 4070 as well and a egpu enclosure any problems so far? and do i need anything else besides a razer core x chroma egpu and the gpu??
I'm kind of thinking about doing this. The cpu in the legion is a decent amount more powerful than my current main Rig. If I buy a gpu and a enclosure it should be a pretty decent upgrade. Although I don't know what the bandwidth limitations are because I would like to put something like a 4080 in there.
I created a custom power plan in Windows when I use my LLG as desktop. In the new power plan, I disable PCI-E power management and putting hard drive to sleep, and select maximum performance in switchable graphics. I also created a very large fixed size page file for memory demanding game. Apparently it helps cutting down some types of stuttering I experienced on this little device.
I'm sure handhelds will be big in the future, imagine you can take them anywhere, to accompany you when playing, even when you work. and when you get home, you just pair it with an eGPU and you get performance on par with a regular PC. However, this will be a big homework for manufacturers, they really have to look at the market for this eGPU module, because until now just for an eGPU module, the price is very expensive.
The reason I’m fascinated by handheld rn is because I only use controllers for pc gaming anyways so I figured it’d be more convenient/comfortable then carrying around a laptop with a seperate controller. Issue I’m facing is the purchase itself is risky considering the mixed reviews on performance, durability, and the fact that for the same price can get a more powerful budget gaming pc and still be able to use as regular pc
Thing is, it's not even very expensive in the scheme of things. The eGPU is about £300, but if you were building a PC, that would be largely eaten up by the cost of a PC Case & the PSU & fans.
I have this setup too. I agree, it's incredible to be able to play on the Legion Go, dock it to my RTX 3080 + Razer Core X egpu, and play the same games in 4k high settings on my tv. An equivalent pc would probably be around the same cost of the Legion Go + egpu. Maybe trading some frames for portability. But I'm still able to hit 60 fps at 4k high settings on every game I throw at it. That's worth it to me!
@@Patrick-y4d1z I'm hoping the Switch successor will have something of the sorts. Maybe it'll be like a Wii U where there's a handheld and console...but instead of a console it's an egpu to upscale the graphics when docked...maybe that's how Nintendo is able to have the Switch successor run that Matrix demo 🤔
@@davecurry5604 I have a 3080 and am using afterburner to limit my gpu usage to 67%. I'm getting the exact same performance, maybe even a little better performance, than if I use my gpu at 100%, which is interesting. Until these handhelds and egpus' usb ports support 80 gbps (usb 4 version 2 🤔), it's not really worth using a 4090 as an egpu. Maybe a 4070 at best, but you'd still be missing out on a lot of performance that you had paid for with a 40 series cards.
I really hope the 2nd gen handheld S offer an occulink port. That should be the standard for external PCI’s devices as it has been in server IT for a long time.
It plays well with the GPD G1. And I saw a video for the SGWzone using the LeGo. They used a 6600M in that video but they also have a 3070 and 4060. And theirs is upgradeable for future GPUs and TB5
Legion Go (& their gaming laptops too) should start supporting Oculink for external GPU solutions. The Legion eGPU should come up with an Oculink version too. Then that would be a perfect upgrade option or combination to buy for on-the-go AND home gaming.
@@Ducky-DuxfordTHATS WHAT IM WONDERING WE NEED TO KNOW ! Ordered my legion go yesterday and it should be here by Wednesday, By chance do you know if it’s capable of running a 4070 in the grazer core x with the legion go? I’ve heard the type c bottlenecks it and doesn’t allow for full use of a 4070 :(
@@BigPositivity A 4070 will run very well with eGPU and the Legion Go. My 4060 runs well with very little bottleneck issues, you should be good for 1440P I am on 1080P here.
After watching this video it is definitely worth it. Instead of building a gaming PC for way cheaper I just started using my Legion Go. I have both graphics drivers installed. When I want to switch to the Legion goes graphics all I have to do is go into device manager. And update the display driver select the package
This is certainly expensive but if you bought and enjoy the legion go it is a great way to have a desk setup without building a second PC. Glad you are enjoying yours
This video is starting to convince me that this is a decent option to pursue. I'm holding out for the ROG Ally X. If the ergonomics are improved, I'm on board with this type of setup since it'll now have USB 4 connectivity. I'd be curious to see more benchmarks from a wide suite of games with fps measured at native resolution in handheld mode vs the fps at 1440p in desktop mode on the 3060ti.
Does playing in docked mode for large amounts of time affect the battery retention on the legion go during handheld mode? I wonder if the legion go is smart enough to disable the built-in battery completely during docked mode and use the power from egpu/cable instead. Otherwise I would assume battery would be damaged over time?
Great video and information, I just found a BoostStation at a good price and have a 4060 card here to use, you mentioned the driver installs were a bit tricky do you have any advice about driver installs for the new Nvidia card alongside the existing AMD Z1 Extreme drivers please ?
my guide still holds true. Just make sure you clean the AMD drivers in safe mode before you install Nvidia drivers. Once Nvidia drivers are installed and you reboot install the AMD drivers again (windows update will put on the official drivers or you can download newer AMD drivers direct) and you are Golden!
@@MashITTech Thanks for getting back to me appreciate it ! I will go into "safe mode" and follow your advice, I have DDU installed so will erase the AMD drivers first. Regarding the LeGo AMD drivers did you install the 780M drivers direct from AMD website after installing Nvidia drivers ? Regards Neil (Norfolk UK)
Hi Neil, I spent so much time testing and playing with the EGPU in preparation for the video that I tried both AMD drivers directly from them and also the windows update/legion versions. I had no problems with any version I tested so far :)
What im personally excited and waiting for is when thunderbolt 5 and NPUs have been better optimised for playing these games in the second gen models of these hand helds. im hoping that by then these handhelds should be able to play all modern titles at full 1080p with maybe improved battery life
won't be in the second gen. Thats approaching next year (2025). The optimized pc handhelds will have to move on from lithium ion batteries, into the graphene market once they are able to be mass produced. (reason why we have not moved forward yet). You can only make a chip so efficient before having to address the battery problem.
@Awaken122112 fair enough and I acknowledge the major hurdles that lie ahead but if I could play modern titles (even futute ones ) at full 1080p on a handheld with high quality settings and maybe stretch the handheld battery to about 4 hours while playing less demanding titles....I'd be happy. I am actually looking at about five or so years from now in this regards tbh. I never dive deep into first interations of tech products as I know they are still working out the kinks. All in all the future is promising. For now we will settle with power banks and turning down settings.
EGPU are never good value, a gaming laptop or desktop is always cheaper but if you have a legion go then picking something like this up can make sense. I got the EGPU for $100 on ebay and I also picked up the 3060ti cheap second hand too
I saw a different review saying that having to install different drivers in the legion go for an E-GPU completely screwed up the portability of the device and they had to revert the drivers again if they wanted to go back to handheld mode. Have you experienced any issues like this? Also you mention dollars, is there a UK equivalent for sourcing an e-gpu?
I've now got a Razer Core X Chroma and a RTX 4070 Super which I've tried on my Dell 17 9700. Unfortunately I'm getting poor performance with stuttering. I did try DDU but I didn't do it in safe mode as per your video - so I will give that a try. Great to see Legion Go and other devices can make use of an eGPU. I might pick up the next generation of these devices.
Great video, thanks! Which egpu are you using in this video? It looks like it has the Legion logo, is it the Razor X Chroma? Seems like the link you provided to Amazon they no longer sell it?
I don’t know if it’s because of Legion Go updates, but I use the Aiko Node Titan egpu enclosure, and I did not have to uninstall the Ryzen egpu. I just downloaded the RTX3060 drivers from Nvidia and installed them. USB 4 is hot swappable. So I don’t need to restart to switch from the internal Ryzen gpu or the external RTX gpu. It worked with my Lenovo Legion go and with my AOKZOE A1 Pro. Yes, I like large screen in my portables….
I was going to go the egpu route but I don't want that big box taking up space so im going to wait for videos of the onexgpu paired with the legion go since the onexgpu is the size of a 20k mah powerbank .
Hi, thanks for the great video. I have the Legion Go, Razer Core and RTX 3060, could you please share the link to how you set up the drivers with DDU. I can't seem to see it in the video description @2.22.
It sounds nice, but it's not that easy to just plug & play.. Seeing usb4 is great for this, Windows only support Multi-GPU in DirectX mode, and OpenGL, Vulkan might not be able to change to the EGPU.. And if you use Linux based OS, I've not been able to really find a workable GPU switching functionality, always had to turn of the iGPU to get any other GPU working properly.. It can quite as easily become a nightmare to setup.. Don't know about MacOS seeing I don't own any Apple devices..
Thank you so much for doing this. I am between the Rog Ally and The Legion Go but I feel like the Go is more of what I need, based on the same idea of adding an eGPU. Just a quick question, when you unplug, do you have to revert the driver to AMD? How seamless is it?
I currently have a gaming rig 4070 ti and with the up coming msi claw, I'm hoping I can transition into that. I have high hopes for the claw but if it doesn't pan out well maybe the legion go or the steam deck Oled will be my next choice. Nice vid as always mate! Keep it up!
@@MashITTech Im looking forward to your video mate! You have saved me a lot of money because of al the reviews you've made. I had to let go of the M16 I previously owned for a desktop and have been happier. I still watch your alienware area 51 vids from time to time because it somehow pops on the local marketplace haha. The Claw has alot of hurdles atm and I really really hope intel made good on their claims of it being efficient. I want to keep my current msi ecosystem hehe
From the initial impressions I have watched it does seem to need more power to reach the same performance as the Ryzen z1, but hope that improves as it gets closer to release. My only other worry is driver support as that has always been really lacking from intel
@@MashITTech I hope msi fixes their device. The thunderbolt 4 is kinda what made me want it too. Having that plus the chonky battery plus the cooling seems a perfect recipe. I do find that some of the vids they showed with it playing ac mirrage kinda stuttery or is it just me? I mainly want a handheld so I can play some of my mobile games on the go better. Seeing how fast gaming phones become obsolete made me go to the handheld route.
Yeah it did but I am hoping drivers will also improve for launch! I am always impressed with how well games play on the z1 extreme and now it’s got usb4 and we can get egpu working going the intel route may not be the best option but obviously I will put them head to head when it releases
HI, thanks for the great Video Could you please share the link to how you set up the drivers with DDU. can't seem to see it in the video description as you said.
sorry I meant to write this in description but... Download DDU and latest Nvidia drivers, plug EGPU in to go and reboot to safe mode. Uninstall AMD drivers via DDU but choose do not reboot on completion. Once drivers are uninstalled install the Nvidia drivers and reboot the go. Once back in windows the EGPU will be working and the AMD drivers will auto install from windows update. That's it :)
You only remove the drivers initially to get the nvidia drivers installed, then the amd drivers install fine again and it works both in portable mode or desktop egpu mode 👍
Terrific video thank you! One question: so you had to uninstall the AMD graphics drivers for this to work, what happens when you disconnect the egpu? Doesn't the 780M need those drivers to operate properly? Do you need to reinstall AMD drivers anytime you want to go mobile? Thanks!!
Hi there, you only uninstall the AMD drivers once to install the Nvidia drivers. Once the Nvidia drivers are installed and you reboot back into windows windows update automatically installs the AMD drivers again and you are good to go :)
Mine must be faulty then. I've followed the instructions you put in the description and will have every game I run crash after less than 5 minutes, lose output to the external monitor and reverts back to Legion Go display.
Potentially stupid question: How you deal with game settings? Wouldnt you want to change them depending whether you are on the go or connected to the GPU? How do you do that fast?
the 4070 super is a really efficient card and the majority are a normal size so you will have no problem fitting it. I use a 4070 and the performance is great so the super will be even better
I just got this. Not thrilled so far. I worried that I had to change my graphics every time I switched from portable to egpu and that is the case. Every time I change I also have to cache shaders for 100 years. Mortal Kombat runs slower with the egpu than without, Halo Infinite selected the integrated graphics so I had to manually choose the egpu as well as change the graphics. When I play most games they work well but not every game. It feels like an overpriced novelty so far. 😩
Looking great! Have you tested that does the USB4 based eGPU present input lag or stability issues? If there is input lag, is ot on the level of milliseconds or tens of milloseconds?
I have had no stability issues at all, it is the first time I have used an egpu and not faced issues other than the faff of initial setup. I haven’t perceived any input lag but also haven’t scientifically tested it. If I get time I will put a high speed camera on it and test
The thunderbolt link is a raw PCIe link. It’s practically directly connected just like any other GPU, so there shouldn’t be any delay. The only time there would be a delay would be when there needs to be data transfer between devices, like from the eGPU to the internal GPU, which is the case if you play on the handheld screen but use the eGPU for acceleration. However, this would be on the scale of nanoseconds and would not present itself as a percievable ‘delay’, it would instead present itself as stuttering whenever the transfer rate can’t handle the requested transfer. Basically lower FPS in intense moments.
i know this video is 5 months old at this point but it wasnt mentioned in the video and i cant seem to find it anywhere. does the legion booststation provide enough power through the usb c to keep the legion go charged? im looking at getting the booststation very soon and i was really curious if its simply a 1 cable does all kinda thing. thanks!
@@MashITTech ohh thank you for that. i read something that it was only designed for a specific laptop that was released around the same time as it and people have had issues trying to power other devices with it so im glad it works alright with the legion go. thank you for clarifying!
Habe mein Legion Go gestern mit einem Thunderbolt 5 Kabel in 1m und passiv getestet und der USB Port wurde nicht mehr heiß. Ich habe bisher immer aktive Kabel in 2m verwendet und weiß nun nicht ob es daran lag das es ein aktives Kabel war. Aber wer auch das Problem hat das sich der USB Port am Legion Go extrem aufheizt sollte mal ein passives Kabel verwenden oder wie ich das neue Thunderbolt 5 Kabel von Cable Matters.
I have a legion go just wanted to get your opinion what route is better to take a Razer core enclosure and What GPU would you recommend or the other route onex egpu?
the onex is great if you plan on moving a lot with the GO. Personally because I use the GO on its own when mobile and have the EGPU at the desk setup it makes sense to get a full sized EGPU and card of my choice. I would recommend the 4070 super or similar card, it gave me incredible performance for a reasonable cost, the 3060ti didn't perform well at all
To be vérified, but it seems that option lower a lot the graphic card performance of egpu, because it is combined to inner graphics. Best is with output graphics from egpu. I'm asking for myself for PCVR, should it work good? Graphics returning to légion go to VR headset?
its ok, better than the Logitech low profile but not as good as the nuphy air75 v2. I do love the having the volume wheel. Oh and BTW, my username is SBS_ninja :)
Anyone tried the go with the Aorus gaming boxes? Works fine but the USB ports are unusable .. constant disconnects / power cycling etc... goes away when I use the bottom usb c port for peripherals but it's kind of a pain - seems the legion / razer boxes dont have this issue
You loose a little performance if playing on GO screen as it has to send the data to egpu and back to the screen. But still hell of a lot better than using 780m
Hai Sir. Thanks for the review. Btw are you sure that legion egpu enclosure can support rtx 4070 ? How about the psu ? Is it strong enough for supply power for rtx 4070 ? And how about 3 fan gpu ? Can it compatible with the legion egpu? Thank you in advance sir.😁
Hey mate can you give me any advice? I ran safe mode I uninstalled the AMD drivers. I installed the Nvidia drivers. I reloaded back into windows and every time I go to play overwatch or counterstrike two it just crashes after a minute.
@ yes and I believe I fixed it! Going into legion go bios and selected auto vram and then there was an option which said external usb or something like that and I enabled it and it’s working flawlessly so far!
sounds interesting as i am loking for an affordable option to operate my own ai 'gpt' on my pc which i have developed, and i need more cores, rams, and large gpu power
I've been looking to get an EGPU for my legion go but having some difficulty finding any GPU enclosures in stock.. Both the Razer ones and the Lenovo ones seem to be unavailable everywhere. Anyone get any recommendations of similar ones that work well? thanks to all for any suggestions!
@@MashITTech I did look on eBay but the prices were almost the same as MSRP for preowned or they wanted collection only which I couldn't do. The Lenovo one seems unavailable everywhere as well which is weird :/
Try the Aorus gaming box? There are a couple on ebay without the GPU. I picked up one for only €100 last year and plan to get a 4060 ti mini once my Legion Go arrives.
I have a similar issue using the sonnet ex750. Device manager sees it but I can't use it. I installed NVidia first and then amd after just like u did but I cannot use it. Any ideas?
Hey dude great video as always love your egpu concept with the legion go could you possibly review the Acer Predator Helios 18’ (2024) Model that was announced at ces this year and one of the best 18’ inch laptops this year probably better than the razer blade 18 from last year.
As a super nerd of computer hardware who typically has a high tolerance for “jank” , I tried this exact scenario with the ally running XGMobile and the Legion Go with a eGPU 3070, and it was just not it. The amount of unstableness and buggy jank you have to fight with in order to get a system like this running smooth is unbearable, and just when you think you’ve got the hardware and software ducktaped together & working, it will just fall back apart next time you have to boot or “Dock / Un Dock”. I really was trying to commit to a handheld being my on the go and “Desktop” machine and it’s just not worth the fuss. Returned all of it, got a Steam Deck OLED and building a regular desktop to have at the desk. I believe that’s universally the best way to go.
Lol I had the opposite experience, the jank with the 64gb steam deck was too much with the shader cache stuff and having no offical way to manage it, I ended up getting a rog ally and gave away my steam deck to my brother. Not to mention stuff just not workibg properly and crashes.
I’ve had two ally’s and returned both after having issues with them. Each time I took them back to Best Buy every cashier I spoke to said they’re being returned a lot (Not sure why that’s not being talked about).. I took my shot at the Go and I’ve been LOVING it!! It feels like an upgrade all around. I’m heading to Mexico this week and looking forward to seeing how well it does while I’m traveling. The fact that you can use it as a desktop replacement is just icing on the cake. I would recommend this PC to anyone in the market for one.
I've been wanting this legion go or steamdeck oled but can't decide which one to get. Ally used got my attention but the fact that you need to get the dock to connect it to a monitor is a fatal flaw for me. i know legion go is more powerful than the steamdeck oled, but I'm still hesitant about the handheld experience since it's massive and the battery life is not as long as steamdeck. can you tell me how's the experience of this device? TIA
Sucks for you, cause my Ally has no issues and the employees from my bestbuy said it's sold out.
It’s actually being returned a lot at most Best Buy’s and a great indicator for this is open boxes.
@@DamnitMan88 my first time returning my ally was because the software kept crashing even after multiple updates. Second time I returned it was because it wouldn’t turn on after being on the charger. Both times I went to return it (two separate Best Buy’s) the cashier said “here for a return aren’t you” and the other one said “these things are getting returned more than anything else in the store”. … which shocked the hell out of me because I’ve never heard of it having a return reputation on UA-cam or any other forums.
Side note: Just because something is “sold out” doesn’t necessarily means it’s good. They don’t keep a lot of these handheld PC’s on hand in stores anyway so for It to be “sold out” probably means they just sold the hand full that they might have had in the store.
@@hafidhadhiet like I stated before, you can’t go wrong with the Go. After having the ally for a few weeks and then switching to the Go. It felt like a upgrade because of the screen alone. You have legitimate concerns that you’re going to have to determine how much they matter for you and how you intend to use it. However, this PC is hands down the best one out of my experience having owned the Ally, the original deck, and now the Go. Give it a shot and take it back within the return period at Best Buy if you don’t like it.
It replaced my desktop and laptop, I sold them both and put a nice sum into savings. Happened to have a Razer Core X Chroma eGpu enclosure I had not used in a long time and tucked in a 4070 inside. Hums like a charm. 1440p and 2160p are my preferred resolutions.
Legion FTW.
Asus, Valve, Aya are all good options.
I prefer Lenovo and they have great warranty plans if one is willing to pay. You can get up to 48 months of premium depot support and also 48 months of Accidental Damage Protection (ADP).
No BS, I have had Lenovos warranties in the past and I am satisfied with their products.
hey im planning on getting a 4070 as well and a egpu enclosure any problems so far? and do i need anything else besides a razer core x chroma egpu and the gpu??
I'm kind of thinking about doing this. The cpu in the legion is a decent amount more powerful than my current main Rig. If I buy a gpu and a enclosure it should be a pretty decent upgrade. Although I don't know what the bandwidth limitations are because I would like to put something like a 4080 in there.
For real this thing is just in whole other realm! I have had mine for month it just blows me away.
Sir does games stutter with this setup?
I created a custom power plan in Windows when I use my LLG as desktop. In the new power plan, I disable PCI-E power management and putting hard drive to sleep, and select maximum performance in switchable graphics. I also created a very large fixed size page file for memory demanding game. Apparently it helps cutting down some types of stuttering I experienced on this little device.
I'm sure handhelds will be big in the future, imagine you can take them anywhere, to accompany you when playing, even when you work.
and when you get home, you just pair it with an eGPU and you get performance on par with a regular PC.
However, this will be a big homework for manufacturers, they really have to look at the market for this eGPU module, because until now just for an eGPU module, the price is very expensive.
The reason I’m fascinated by handheld rn is because I only use controllers for pc gaming anyways so I figured it’d be more convenient/comfortable then carrying around a laptop with a seperate controller. Issue I’m facing is the purchase itself is risky considering the mixed reviews on performance, durability, and the fact that for the same price can get a more powerful budget gaming pc and still be able to use as regular pc
Thing is, it's not even very expensive in the scheme of things. The eGPU is about £300, but if you were building a PC, that would be largely eaten up by the cost of a PC Case & the PSU & fans.
I have this setup too. I agree, it's incredible to be able to play on the Legion Go, dock it to my RTX 3080 + Razer Core X egpu, and play the same games in 4k high settings on my tv.
An equivalent pc would probably be around the same cost of the Legion Go + egpu. Maybe trading some frames for portability. But I'm still able to hit 60 fps at 4k high settings on every game I throw at it. That's worth it to me!
I was kinda hoping the Switch OLED would have had a USB4 slot for an eGPU.
@@Patrick-y4d1z I'm hoping the Switch successor will have something of the sorts. Maybe it'll be like a Wii U where there's a handheld and console...but instead of a console it's an egpu to upscale the graphics when docked...maybe that's how Nintendo is able to have the Switch successor run that Matrix demo 🤔
Are u only interesting so a 40 series card can work with a razor egpu and legion go.
Any issues with ports with the core x? Do you use a hub for port 2?
@@davecurry5604 I have a 3080 and am using afterburner to limit my gpu usage to 67%. I'm getting the exact same performance, maybe even a little better performance, than if I use my gpu at 100%, which is interesting. Until these handhelds and egpus' usb ports support 80 gbps (usb 4 version 2 🤔), it's not really worth using a 4090 as an egpu. Maybe a 4070 at best, but you'd still be missing out on a lot of performance that you had paid for with a 40 series cards.
Awesome video dude. I love how it’s natural. Not trying to be someone or a specific way. Kinda reminds me of the old top gear. Super cool vibe
thank you mate, kind of you to say :)
@@MashITTechhey! Can you post a link for the legion egpu? Thank you 😊
I really hope the 2nd gen handheld
S offer an occulink port. That should be the standard for external PCI’s devices as it has been in server IT for a long time.
yes, that would be amazing! fingers crossed
2nd gen !!!
ua-cam.com/video/GsKzDa7rVRc/v-deo.htmlsi=IMAsTznBQ_8JBxif
I believe there is one but it’s not a great implementation. Forgot the name xplayerone or something.
Love my Legion go, be interesting to see results when combined with a pocket Gpu
It plays well with the GPD G1. And I saw a video for the SGWzone using the LeGo. They used a 6600M in that video but they also have a 3070 and 4060. And theirs is upgradeable for future GPUs and TB5
Thank you for this video, I have now committed to buying a legion go.
I cant find the legion egpu enclosure anywhere, anyone have a link?
Search for lenono market on Google and you can see every thing they sell
Looked everywhere. Can't find it. Anyone else?
@@ApplySkillsthere’s no legion egpu. Just get anything with thunderbolt 3. I believe the guy in the video used the razer core x but you don’t have to.
Legion Go (& their gaming laptops too) should start supporting Oculink for external GPU solutions. The Legion eGPU should come up with an Oculink version too. Then that would be a perfect upgrade option or combination to buy for on-the-go AND home gaming.
Perfect I have a 3060ti and a razor core x and have been waiting for a video like this
How have you got on with the Razer Core X and your 3060ti ?
@@Ducky-DuxfordTHATS WHAT IM WONDERING WE NEED TO KNOW ! Ordered my legion go yesterday and it should be here by Wednesday, By chance do you know if it’s capable of running a 4070 in the grazer core x with the legion go? I’ve heard the type c bottlenecks it and doesn’t allow for full use of a 4070 :(
@@BigPositivity A 4070 will run very well with eGPU and the Legion Go.
My 4060 runs well with very little bottleneck issues, you should be good for 1440P I am on 1080P here.
@@Ducky-Duxford thanks for the breakdown brotha ! My legion should be here Wednesday and I’m so friggin excited !!
@@BigPositivity Your welcome, and have fun the LeGo is a gaming beast !
Where is the link to buy the Egpu from Lenovo legion ?
Maybe a mod, a mod of the razer core x
It’s called the legion booststation.
After watching this video it is definitely worth it. Instead of building a gaming PC for way cheaper I just started using my Legion Go.
I have both graphics drivers installed. When I want to switch to the Legion goes graphics all I have to do is go into device manager. And update the display driver select the package
This is certainly expensive but if you bought and enjoy the legion go it is a great way to have a desk setup without building a second PC. Glad you are enjoying yours
This video is starting to convince me that this is a decent option to pursue. I'm holding out for the ROG Ally X. If the ergonomics are improved, I'm on board with this type of setup since it'll now have USB 4 connectivity.
I'd be curious to see more benchmarks from a wide suite of games with fps measured at native resolution in handheld mode vs the fps at 1440p in desktop mode on the 3060ti.
Good afternoon. Great vid, where can i buy the eGPU from Lenovo?
Amazon or Alliexpress
Where did you get the legon egpu?
I use this setup and it really can replace my desktop
What GFX card are you using please ?
@@Ducky-Duxford rtx 3090 man
@@ALEFA-ID That's impressive :)
Hey did you get any stuttering?
If legion go 2 ever comes out with good battery life and oled. Would buy these than any other handheld devices.
Does playing in docked mode for large amounts of time affect the battery retention on the legion go during handheld mode? I wonder if the legion go is smart enough to disable the built-in battery completely during docked mode and use the power from egpu/cable instead. Otherwise I would assume battery would be damaged over time?
In the latest BIOS update for LeGo there is a battery saver option (limits charging to 80%) to prolong battery life so Lenovo say's.
Hi did you ever get G sync to work?
Great video and information, I just found a BoostStation at a good price and have a 4060 card here to use, you mentioned the driver installs were a bit tricky do you have any advice about driver installs for the new Nvidia card alongside the existing AMD Z1 Extreme drivers please ?
my guide still holds true. Just make sure you clean the AMD drivers in safe mode before you install Nvidia drivers. Once Nvidia drivers are installed and you reboot install the AMD drivers again (windows update will put on the official drivers or you can download newer AMD drivers direct) and you are Golden!
@@MashITTech Thanks for getting back to me appreciate it !
I will go into "safe mode" and follow your advice, I have DDU installed so will erase the AMD drivers first.
Regarding the LeGo AMD drivers did you install the 780M drivers direct from AMD website after installing Nvidia drivers ?
Regards Neil (Norfolk UK)
Hi Neil, I spent so much time testing and playing with the EGPU in preparation for the video that I tried both AMD drivers directly from them and also the windows update/legion versions. I had no problems with any version I tested so far :)
@@MashITTech Thanks, that is very good to know.
What im personally excited and waiting for is when thunderbolt 5 and NPUs have been better optimised for playing these games in the second gen models of these hand helds. im hoping that by then these handhelds should be able to play all modern titles at full 1080p with maybe improved battery life
won't be in the second gen. Thats approaching next year (2025). The optimized pc handhelds will have to move on from lithium ion batteries, into the graphene market once they are able to be mass produced. (reason why we have not moved forward yet). You can only make a chip so efficient before having to address the battery problem.
@Awaken122112 fair enough and I acknowledge the major hurdles that lie ahead but if I could play modern titles (even futute ones ) at full 1080p on a handheld with high quality settings and maybe stretch the handheld battery to about 4 hours while playing less demanding titles....I'd be happy. I am actually looking at about five or so years from now in this regards tbh. I never dive deep into first interations of tech products as I know they are still working out the kinks. All in all the future is promising. For now we will settle with power banks and turning down settings.
@@russelc30The games become more heavy to run each year. So keep waiting 😂
I just could not handle the fan noise even when just watching UA-cam.. Is this normal for UMPC of this size you reckon?
How hot is it blowing out of the legion go? More than before the egpu or about the same ?
Nice! I do have one question though, what monitor are you using mate?? Looks awesome
It is crazy to buy this. Laptop Gaming HP Omen is about 1000 USD. Its NVidia Graphic Card RAM is 8 Gb. This EGPU value should be under 100 USD.
EGPU are never good value, a gaming laptop or desktop is always cheaper but if you have a legion go then picking something like this up can make sense. I got the EGPU for $100 on ebay and I also picked up the 3060ti cheap second hand too
egpu enclosures are disappearing and hard to come across. Its a shame that Razer nor Lenovo are restocking them.
It would be nice if a program like geforce experience would re-optimize my game settings when i switch between docked and undocked
I saw a different review saying that having to install different drivers in the legion go for an E-GPU completely screwed up the portability of the device and they had to revert the drivers again if they wanted to go back to handheld mode.
Have you experienced any issues like this?
Also you mention dollars, is there a UK equivalent for sourcing an e-gpu?
I've now got a Razer Core X Chroma and a RTX 4070 Super which I've tried on my Dell 17 9700. Unfortunately I'm getting poor performance with stuttering. I did try DDU but I didn't do it in safe mode as per your video - so I will give that a try. Great to see Legion Go and other devices can make use of an eGPU. I might pick up the next generation of these devices.
I used a similar combo years ago except with a xps 15 9500 & 3050ti and also had terrible performance, in the end I gave up with it
Sir please let us know if it works great or not because I also want to go for this setup.
Great video, thanks! Which egpu are you using in this video? It looks like it has the Legion logo, is it the Razor X Chroma? Seems like the link you provided to Amazon they no longer sell it?
He said legion egpu
Legion BoostStation it is.
I don’t know if it’s because of Legion Go updates, but I use the Aiko Node Titan egpu enclosure, and I did not have to uninstall the Ryzen egpu.
I just downloaded the RTX3060 drivers from Nvidia and installed them.
USB 4 is hot swappable. So I don’t need to restart to switch from the internal Ryzen gpu or the external RTX gpu.
It worked with my Lenovo Legion go and with my AOKZOE A1 Pro. Yes, I like large screen in my portables….
I was going to go the egpu route but I don't want that big box taking up space so im going to wait for videos of the onexgpu paired with the legion go since the onexgpu is the size of a 20k mah powerbank .
yeah that did look amazing, you may also be able to pick up a second hand aorus egpu as they are tiny
Awesome video, thanks :) Does this still work without an external monitor? Egpu + LegionGo as the display. Thanks!
Absolutely it does ! Recommend getting a bigger monitor for docked mode tho !
how does it do with rendering vids and other demanding tasks other than gaming?
Hi, thanks for the great video. I have the Legion Go, Razer Core and RTX 3060, could you please share the link to how you set up the drivers with DDU. I can't seem to see it in the video description @2.22.
I have the same enclosure with a 3050 and I'm thinking about getting the Legion Go. Let me know how it works for you!
sorry mate, adding them now
It sounds nice, but it's not that easy to just plug & play.. Seeing usb4 is great for this, Windows only support Multi-GPU in DirectX mode, and OpenGL, Vulkan might not be able to change to the EGPU.. And if you use Linux based OS, I've not been able to really find a workable GPU switching functionality, always had to turn of the iGPU to get any other GPU working properly.. It can quite as easily become a nightmare to setup.. Don't know about MacOS seeing I don't own any Apple devices..
What is bottle neck for using graphic card with Logion tablet CPU??
finally some wonderful step in the right direction of gaming market
Thank you so much for doing this. I am between the Rog Ally and The Legion Go but I feel like the Go is more of what I need, based on the same idea of adding an eGPU. Just a quick question, when you unplug, do you have to revert the driver to AMD? How seamless is it?
punplugging is completely seamless, it instantly reverts to the AMD driver (Just like an Optimus laptop)
Sir have you noticed any stutters or hikes. Is it smooth gameplay?
If I use an amd gpu would I still need to boot in safe mode and uninstall the drivers and all that
Do you need to install amd graphics drivers again when unplugging?
I currently have a gaming rig 4070 ti and with the up coming msi claw, I'm hoping I can transition into that. I have high hopes for the claw but if it doesn't pan out well maybe the legion go or the steam deck Oled will be my next choice. Nice vid as always mate! Keep it up!
Yeah I am looking forward to testing the claw and will also compare the egpu with the intel against the ryzen in the go! Can’t wait 😀
@@MashITTech Im looking forward to your video mate! You have saved me a lot of money because of al the reviews you've made. I had to let go of the M16 I previously owned for a desktop and have been happier. I still watch your alienware area 51 vids from time to time because it somehow pops on the local marketplace haha. The Claw has alot of hurdles atm and I really really hope intel made good on their claims of it being efficient. I want to keep my current msi ecosystem hehe
From the initial impressions I have watched it does seem to need more power to reach the same performance as the Ryzen z1, but hope that improves as it gets closer to release. My only other worry is driver support as that has always been really lacking from intel
@@MashITTech I hope msi fixes their device. The thunderbolt 4 is kinda what made me want it too. Having that plus the chonky battery plus the cooling seems a perfect recipe. I do find that some of the vids they showed with it playing ac mirrage kinda stuttery or is it just me? I mainly want a handheld so I can play some of my mobile games on the go better. Seeing how fast gaming phones become obsolete made me go to the handheld route.
Yeah it did but I am hoping drivers will also improve for launch! I am always impressed with how well games play on the z1 extreme and now it’s got usb4 and we can get egpu working going the intel route may not be the best option but obviously I will put them head to head when it releases
Let me get this right….
You got the Lenovo case PLUS a RTX 4070 for
$500 ?
no, I tested 2 gfx cards. The first I tested was the 3060ti which is the card I got with the EGPU for under $500 on eBay
HI, thanks for the great Video
Could you please share the link to how you set up the drivers with DDU. can't seem to see it in the video description as you said.
I added it to the description. Sorry, I meant to add that when I released the video!
Heya does heat become an issue with egpu? I hope it doesnt fry my ssd on the legion go
What would be the best egpu for 4k gaming triple a titles on the legion go?
How about the storage? Where should it go?
So all you have is to uninstall amd via ddu then install nvidia driver then reinstall amd driver and this is good?
sorry I meant to write this in description but... Download DDU and latest Nvidia drivers, plug EGPU in to go and reboot to safe mode. Uninstall AMD drivers via DDU but choose do not reboot on completion. Once drivers are uninstalled install the Nvidia drivers and reboot the go. Once back in windows the EGPU will be working and the AMD drivers will auto install from windows update. That's it :)
But when you removed the drivers from the Lenovo go, I’m assuming it wasn’t working well portable mode?
You only remove the drivers initially to get the nvidia drivers installed, then the amd drivers install fine again and it works both in portable mode or desktop egpu mode 👍
@@MashITTech Does it need a restart for the toggling between gpus to work when you disconnect the usb c?
no not at all, it is just like an Optimus laptop
Terrific video thank you! One question: so you had to uninstall the AMD graphics drivers for this to work, what happens when you disconnect the egpu? Doesn't the 780M need those drivers to operate properly? Do you need to reinstall AMD drivers anytime you want to go mobile? Thanks!!
Hi there, you only uninstall the AMD drivers once to install the Nvidia drivers. Once the Nvidia drivers are installed and you reboot back into windows windows update automatically installs the AMD drivers again and you are good to go :)
@@MashITTech Ah of course. Thank you!!
@@MashITTechshould you unplug your egpu before reinstalling the amd drivers?
donde se compran estos productos? nunca hay disponibilidad. fck
Where did you find the legion egpu can you add a link I can't find one for sale anywhere
So every time you dock you have to wipe the amd drivers? There has to be a better way.
No, it’s just the first time you install the drivers, after that it’s perfect
Mine must be faulty then. I've followed the instructions you put in the description and will have every game I run crash after less than 5 minutes, lose output to the external monitor and reverts back to Legion Go display.
Can it play vintage story?
So saf there is no way to get a Legion Booststation 😢
There were loads on eBay when I bought mine, I guess the stock dried up. What a shame Lenovo stopped making them 😢
Can i use ot for 3ds max blender 3d High end rendering
So, if I use aN AMD graphics card, will I still have those driver issues?
How would a razer core x chroma perform with a 4070 super & ayaneo kun?
if i have that legion egpu will it fix the delay and slow motion issues on game play when legion go connected to 4k tv?
Doesn’t the cpu bottleneck the egpu?
Can you use the egpu while displaying on the legion and not an external monitor?
You can but you loose some performance as it has to send the signal both directions
Potentially stupid question: How you deal with game settings? Wouldnt you want to change them depending whether you are on the go or connected to the GPU? How do you do that fast?
You have to keep changing them all the time. It's annoying. 😩
With egpu could it run VR?
what game is that at 4:37?
that is "the finals" its free to play and on steam, its great fun
thank you@@MashITTech
The core x is TB3 isn't it? Is it worth waiting for a TB4 core x variant or does it not impact framerate that much? Ta.
No, t3 snd t4 both max at 40gb
Hey David! Did you attend CES
Hey mate, unfortunately not this year, I had family commitments I couldn’t shift. Fingers crossed for next year!
@@MashITTech let's go! 🤞
Why can't I find the Legion eGPU online? I only see the Razer X
sorry, Lenovo dont seem to be selling it at the moment. I found mine on eBay
can i plug the egpu into a docking station and use it that way? or does the egpu have to be plugged directly into the legion go when in desktop mode?
Any reason why you would want to use a dock? The egpu usually has ports so acts as a dock to plug your monitor, keyboard and mouse into 👍
This may be a daft question, but does the cable provide power//charge to the handheld?
Yes it sure does 👍
Thanks for amazing video. Question: Can 4070 fit in lenovo egpu case or razer case? Thank you :)
yes depending on the model 4070ti you buy. There are a fair few compact models that will fit
@@MashITTech I am thinking about 4070 super. I hope can fit in Razer egpu or Lenovo.
the 4070 super is a really efficient card and the majority are a normal size so you will have no problem fitting it. I use a 4070 and the performance is great so the super will be even better
@@MashITTech thank you so much for explaning :)
My lenovo booststation psu has two cables, one 8 pin and second 6 pin. How can I connect gpu like 4070 in this situation?
I just got this. Not thrilled so far. I worried that I had to change my graphics every time I switched from portable to egpu and that is the case. Every time I change I also have to cache shaders for 100 years. Mortal Kombat runs slower with the egpu than without, Halo Infinite selected the integrated graphics so I had to manually choose the egpu as well as change the graphics. When I play most games they work well but not every game. It feels like an overpriced novelty so far. 😩
Looking great! Have you tested that does the USB4 based eGPU present input lag or stability issues? If there is input lag, is ot on the level of milliseconds or tens of milloseconds?
I have had no stability issues at all, it is the first time I have used an egpu and not faced issues other than the faff of initial setup. I haven’t perceived any input lag but also haven’t scientifically tested it. If I get time I will put a high speed camera on it and test
The thunderbolt link is a raw PCIe link. It’s practically directly connected just like any other GPU, so there shouldn’t be any delay. The only time there would be a delay would be when there needs to be data transfer between devices, like from the eGPU to the internal GPU, which is the case if you play on the handheld screen but use the eGPU for acceleration. However, this would be on the scale of nanoseconds and would not present itself as a percievable ‘delay’, it would instead present itself as stuttering whenever the transfer rate can’t handle the requested transfer. Basically lower FPS in intense moments.
i know this video is 5 months old at this point but it wasnt mentioned in the video and i cant seem to find it anywhere. does the legion booststation provide enough power through the usb c to keep the legion go charged? im looking at getting the booststation very soon and i was really curious if its simply a 1 cable does all kinda thing. thanks!
sorry, I didn't even think to mention it but yes! it was designed to power laptops and has no problem with the legion
@@MashITTech ohh thank you for that. i read something that it was only designed for a specific laptop that was released around the same time as it and people have had issues trying to power other devices with it so im glad it works alright with the legion go. thank you for clarifying!
can u also put a CPU in an egpu case?
Sadly not. By that point you have essentially built an itx pc
Habe mein Legion Go gestern mit einem Thunderbolt 5 Kabel in 1m und passiv getestet und der USB Port wurde nicht mehr heiß. Ich habe bisher immer aktive Kabel in 2m verwendet und weiß nun nicht ob es daran lag das es ein aktives Kabel war. Aber wer auch das Problem hat das sich der USB Port am Legion Go extrem aufheizt sollte mal ein passives Kabel verwenden oder wie ich das neue Thunderbolt 5 Kabel von Cable Matters.
I have a legion go just wanted to get your opinion what route is better to take a Razer core enclosure and What GPU would you recommend or the other route onex egpu?
the onex is great if you plan on moving a lot with the GO. Personally because I use the GO on its own when mobile and have the EGPU at the desk setup it makes sense to get a full sized EGPU and card of my choice. I would recommend the 4070 super or similar card, it gave me incredible performance for a reasonable cost, the 3060ti didn't perform well at all
I am confused. If you had to uninstall the onboard graphics drivers, does it still work in handheld mode?
He said he reinstalled the amd drivers afterwards.
Aren’t you going to have driver conflict issues if you use an Nvidia card? This seems like a bad idea.
nope, it actually works better than using an external AMD card! the Nvidia just uses Optimus like all the Ryzen + Nvidia laptops that we review :)
Please what games are you playing in this video u just did?
War thunder and street fighter at the beginning. Then BF2042, APEX, Finals and cyberpunk at the end
Wait? Where did you find that Lenovo legion egpu?
I picked it up on eBay new for £100! I couldn’t believe my luck
Can I use the legion go screen while it's running on the egpu
To be vérified, but it seems that option lower a lot the graphic card performance of egpu, because it is combined to inner graphics. Best is with output graphics from egpu. I'm asking for myself for PCVR, should it work good? Graphics returning to légion go to VR headset?
What is this keyboard like?
I am thinking about getting the clicky one.
It looks very pretty!
its ok, better than the Logitech low profile but not as good as the nuphy air75 v2. I do love the having the volume wheel. Oh and BTW, my username is SBS_ninja :)
@@MashITTech I cannot find you. 😭
Anyone else having performance issues due to the lack of ram? Ive got 12.7gb usable and 3.3 in hardware reserve. Any suggestions?
Anyone tried the go with the Aorus gaming boxes? Works fine but the USB ports are unusable .. constant disconnects / power cycling etc... goes away when I use the bottom usb c port for peripherals but it's kind of a pain - seems the legion / razer boxes dont have this issue
both the Razer and legion box has worked flawlessly, sadly I sold my aorus gaming box a few years ago and regret it massively, it was so compact.
Does this make the legion go run better if used without an external monitor?
You loose a little performance if playing on GO screen as it has to send the data to egpu and back to the screen. But still hell of a lot better than using 780m
Hai Sir. Thanks for the review. Btw are you sure that legion egpu enclosure can support rtx 4070 ? How about the psu ? Is it strong enough for supply power for rtx 4070 ? And how about 3 fan gpu ? Can it compatible with the legion egpu? Thank you in advance sir.😁
when im using my eGPU (with RTX 3070)... it keeps on going to BSOD.... :-( any tips on the software side?
did you use DDU to remove amd drivers in safe mode before installing the Nvidia drivers? before I did that I got constant blue screens
Would using an AMD gpu as an Egpu negate the whole graphics driver issue?
no, I actually found it more buggy trying to use an AMD card. At lease once you have the Nvidia drivers installed its plain sailing :)
Hey mate can you give me any advice? I ran safe mode I uninstalled the AMD drivers. I installed the Nvidia drivers. I reloaded back into windows and every time I go to play overwatch or counterstrike two it just crashes after a minute.
once you unindtalled drivers and installed nvidia drivers did you boot back into windows and run windows update to get the AMD drivers back on?
@ yes and I believe I fixed it! Going into legion go bios and selected auto vram and then there was an option which said external usb or something like that and I enabled it and it’s working flawlessly so far!
@ thanks for getting back to me too. Appreciate you.
sounds interesting as i am loking for an affordable option to operate my own ai 'gpt' on my pc which i have developed, and i need more cores, rams, and large gpu power
I've been looking to get an EGPU for my legion go but having some difficulty finding any GPU enclosures in stock.. Both the Razer ones and the Lenovo ones seem to be unavailable everywhere. Anyone get any recommendations of similar ones that work well? thanks to all for any suggestions!
Have you tried to pick one up on eBay? That’s were I got my legion from. I thought razer were still selling the core x chroma on their site 😢
@@MashITTech I did look on eBay but the prices were almost the same as MSRP for preowned or they wanted collection only which I couldn't do. The Lenovo one seems unavailable everywhere as well which is weird :/
Try the Aorus gaming box? There are a couple on ebay without the GPU. I picked up one for only €100 last year and plan to get a 4060 ti mini once my Legion Go arrives.
@@rossdev I just checked eBay and found one in stock! I’ll give that a try thanks for the recommendation 👍
I have a similar issue using the sonnet ex750. Device manager sees it but I can't use it. I installed NVidia first and then amd after just like u did but I cannot use it. Any ideas?
Is it a thunderbolt 3 enclosure or a USB4 enclosure?
I like how Asus does it with XG Mobile
Does lenovo legion go have thunderbolt?
it has USB4 which retains thunderbolt 3 compatibility
Hey dude great video as always love your egpu concept with the legion go could you possibly review the Acer Predator Helios 18’ (2024) Model that was announced at ces this year and one of the best 18’ inch laptops this year probably better than the razer blade 18 from last year.
Will try, razer and Alienware are very basic refreshes this year so I won’t get those in so should have more time 👍
As a super nerd of computer hardware who typically has a high tolerance for “jank” , I tried this exact scenario with the ally running XGMobile and the Legion Go with a eGPU 3070, and it was just not it. The amount of unstableness and buggy jank you have to fight with in order to get a system like this running smooth is unbearable, and just when you think you’ve got the hardware and software ducktaped together & working, it will just fall back apart next time you have to boot or “Dock / Un Dock”. I really was trying to commit to a handheld being my on the go and “Desktop” machine and it’s just not worth the fuss. Returned all of it, got a Steam Deck OLED and building a regular desktop to have at the desk. I believe that’s universally the best way to go.
Lol I had the opposite experience, the jank with the 64gb steam deck was too much with the shader cache stuff and having no offical way to manage it, I ended up getting a rog ally and gave away my steam deck to my brother.
Not to mention stuff just not workibg properly and crashes.