This is pretty great, would love to get my hands on one for my mini PC, but 740 dollars is a bit much for me atm. If this thing was like 300-400 dollars, it would be a hell of an upgrade.
Heck, $500 and I’d bite. That’s double MSRP of a desktop 7600, but the unique formfactor and extra docking ports adds enough value back. But over $700 is an easy “No”.
you can diy yourself, oculink/m.2 docks ($30-$70) are a lot cheaper than thunderbolt/usb4 docks ($150-$300) buy a $50 psu, then a used/new gpu and ur good to go
It would be great to see a larger market of more affordable egpu docks. With stuff like portable PCs getting bigger this seems like a must in docked mode. I wish this was in the $300 range, hopefully companies realize the potential here.
Like it but considering it's on par with a $230 6650XT the max I would be willing to pay for this would be $500. Which I think it's fair since you're paying 2x premium. At $740 we're at 3x and that's just kinda too high to me.
I feel like this is a fantastic setup, something like a steam deck to use around or out of the house, then if you need to get some work done or wanna play something with higher fidelity or more demanding, you can dock into this and go to town. I find this extremely compelling.
I think it is more cost-effective to build a gaming pc with a decent GPU and stream your more demanding games to the steam deck oled with moonlight/steamlink rather than buying a Legion Go with a overpriced eGPU which has a pretty big bandwidth bottleneck for the GPU.
@@franzpleurmann2585 In terms of FPS-per-dollar, that set up might be a better "value." But then you have to throw in the cost of a decent wifi router for another 200 USD or so depending on your house/apartment. At that point, you have 2 devices that need to be coordinated and updated. There is a population that would take the 5 to 10% "loss" in theoretical FPS in order to have a single compute device and not have to worry about network quality and not having to worry about remembering to sync cloud saves before leaving the house.
@stevenolson3977 oh I know lol, thats why I'm not jumping out my chair to go buy one of these right away. that and the lack of ethernet on this are deal breakers for the moment
@@franzpleurmann2585The thing is the legion go is already so powerful, that it doesn’t even really need an EGPU to run any game. But if EGPUs ever become affordable then it could easily use it.
Great review. The only thing missing is testing performance on the integrated screen using Oculink vs usb4. The extra bandwidth that Oculink provides is very noticeable in that scenario.
Another great video Russ! PSA for anyone interested, the chroma X has come down to $300 at times (including last year's BF sale) so there's that choice if you see yourself actually changing GPUs over time.
TH3P4G3 also has a very cheap eGPU for anyone under a strict budget. It isn't for everyone but you'd get a far greater bang for your buck than the GPD G1.
Would love to see an external GPU for handhelds market review video like your retro handhelds starter/best of 2023 so far video. This sounds like it would be incredible with the Steam Deck, but with so many different options and so many different handhelds to connect along, I would like to see a comparison across the market
Most of these things are ment for people that travel and need the power. The vast majority of subscribers to the channel are not it's market use case. If you have to spend this money for graphics, you are a hardcore gamer and have zero social life.
sadly no thunderbolt/usb4 is compatible for it, due to it using old cpu (zen2) that doesn't support that I/O. only oculink/m.2 egpu is available for steam deck but you'll have to frankenstein the heck out of it to make it work.
This is pretty sweet! But damn expensive. It's slim but you can't change the GPU, I see other Thunderbolt 4 enclosures for $300-600, I mean we could get pretty cheap used gpu's on the market and slap it in, and if you wanna upgrade, you can! But this is the price to pay for portability which this thing cannot be beat.
I don’t agree with you, there is no point in updating over time!!! You can't get more speed!!! USB 4.0 has maximum bandwidth! And no matter what powerful video card you install, it won’t change anything
@@viacheslavkirii901 There's Nvidia GPU's? With good ray tracing? But if you wanna put limits on yourself, have at it. You also realize that the GPU's can be taken out and used in other pc's, right? Modularity is a good thing. It's ok to disagree.
Cool device. PC gamers often spend that much on a graphics card(guilty as c harged) and this is a stand alone with it's own power supply. That's some exciting tech.
@theitguy6092 it might be worth it for some. For me it wasn't. I usually played my Go while charging and thought "I can use this while playing on my Go since I'm plugged in anyways". The problem was that the Go requires 65w and the G1 only provides 60w. There's a workaround but after 45 mins or so it stops charging. Another thing is that I like frames over resolution. The G1 was great at giving more performance, but only at full native 1600p. When I dropped the res to 1200p or 800p, my framerate wouldn't change much. The last thing is that some games just don't work well with this setup. Assassins Creed for example gave me worse performance than just playing on the internal 780M. As for the Ally, it doesn't support Thunderbolt, so it would just be a very expensive charger.
I love it, compact, docking station integrated and lower power consumption vs desktop GPU. I was planning to buy a GPD Win mini + G1, BUT: Oculink SFF-8612 does not inherently support Power Delivery neither hot swappable usage, that's why you have to connect Oculink first and then turn on the G1, so while you're using 63Gbps data speed from it, you have to use also the USB4 exclusively for PD (without its data transfer) vs using only the hot swappable USB4 port for 40Gbps + its 100W PD, as @RetroGameCorps show here. Considering TB5 will be released next year, and it will support symmetrical 80Gbps or 120Gbps/40Gbps data speeds + 140W PD and hot swappable usage, I'm confident that it will replace both Oculink and TB4, so I'll wait until GPD release a "G2" and new versions of their handhelds with TB5. But for now, the G1 IS a great alternative above the average options on the market, even for the next years coming. Thanks for the review, great content as always.
Holy numbers, good stuff, maybe a bit heavy on the numbers but I get it.. Maybe break up the performance differences and pricing to other sides of the video, as a small suggestion to break it up a bit from overload. Also would be interested to know how this performs with more mobile solutions. Specifically this might be a good choice for those with handhelds who want to use them as home PC's but then be able to take them on the go when they're not docked. One last thing, while I know this is a review for a specific device and you compared to the Razer, I would love if the video had included maybe other solutions that do the same thing and the general pricing. Rather then having to google after the video to find if this is really the only solution for these devices or if there might be better ones, cheaper ones ect. For instance, are options limited in this medium and were stuck with this for now, or is there an overabundance of choices for these and this is just one of them? ect.
I’m excited to see what valve has up its sleeve. The steam deck is just such a great device. They could potentially enter the field of taking on the big consoles if they offered a more powerful egpu dock option. Similar to what the ally is doing but with steams incredible software would be amazing.
Ahh, thanks for the testings. Much appreciated. I wasn't sure Thunderbolt 3/4 would compatible with USB 4.0; because i found some 2nd hand thunderbolt 3 based egpu dockings with pretty good price and i planned to pair that thing with OneXPlayer Mini Pro Ryzen 6800U.
Hey Russ, would you consider doing an overview on the brands themselves for the devices you cover? I’d be interested in hearing your perspective and insight on how these brands stack up to each other in terms of customer support after you buy a device, relative device reliability, potential expected lifespan, etc. Your experience may be a bit skewed because you are a reviewer but it still could be worthwhile because of involved you are in this community. I have heard rumors that GPD support is not great and to stay away, and things like that so I think it could be an interesting topic. Thanks!
That's a great idea. Maybe a tier list including the criteria you mentioned and maybe price trends quality of user experience of the physical devices and software.
Why? Caveat Emptor. People b*tch about Lenovo CS being shh*y what difference does it make it these external GPU manufacturers have shoddy customer service. That is the price you pay for capitalism.
Don’t have time to watch the whole video before I go to work: but if you boot your mini PC to Windows safe mode, you’ll be able to download Nvidia drivers. This is what I needed to do to get my 5700 XT (in a Razer Chroma X enclosure) working on my 7940-based Beelink. Worked fine, from then on.
Good deep review. About the noise levels, I found that if I put my dock standing vertically , it's significantly quieter. The performance is decent over USB4 on my Ayaneo 2 (6800u) handheld but I get some kind of compatibility or driver issues every so often that's hard to track down the cause of.
The only reason I’d consider this or the onexplayer eGPU that is coming out and is pretty much the same thing (just with the ability to add storage to it) is when the 780M mobile graphics aren’t cutting it anymore on the current handhelds that are out.
If you have an intel NUC the Razer enclosure you wouldn't run into the driver issues but that's a very specific set up and they've killed off the nuc line. There's also m.2 eGPU adaptors for full size cards but they look super janky and looks like it's extremely tricky to set up and also you'd always have a wide cable always stick out your laptop from a hole you'd have to find yourself.
Two comments…one for the other commenters and one for Russ: 1) For commenters saying it’s too expensive, agreed with you but you are paying for the portability and form factor. Price to performance, desktop setup will win every single time. But at some point, the intersection between price, portability and performance (on games you specifically want to play) will hit a sweet spot for you. I think we’re seeing that now in Steam Deck and various portable handheld PCs and those integrated APUs. 2) For Russ: Suggestion that if these eGPUs become commonplace as I think they will, might be worth doing a video roundup of which handheld PCs/small form factor PCs have which eGPU port capabilities. I think this is going to be huge. Also for Russ…. After watching your subscriber milestone video, I’d love to see about us working together and potentially collaborating in the future if you are open to the idea. We share a lot of similarities in our personalities and obviously love of gaming and getting people into the right hardware for their use case. And I’m always looking for a good investment and good use of my funds. If you have any interest, let me know how we can get in touch. Looking forward to talking to you!
GPD G1 only costs ~615 USD with free shipping here in the Philippines from their official retailer here. Would assembling a G1 plus monitor connected to my Aokzoe A1 (6800u) be a better setup rather than buying a mini-PC or a new laptop?
Correction: The gpd g1 is not "thunderbolt 4" but backwards compatible with "thunderbolt 3" and fully supports "thunderbolt 3". Numerous times you've incorrectly stated that the gpd g1 is thunderbolt 4 and that is not true, the gpd g1 is USB4 and "thunderbolt 3" is supported and backwards compatible with "thunderbolt 3" (meaning it is not mandatory). Windows 11 made it mandatory for any usb4 device to automatically be backwards compatible with "thunderbolt 3".
Well, it's neat, but this seems like the sort of thing to think about at an unspecified time in the future, when the games I wanna play won't even run at the lowest tolerable framerate on lowest settings and there isn't a downloadable hack that lowers them further. By that time, there might even be a "G2" or competing product that's a better option or at least brings the cost of a G1 down. I'm not picky enough to need this right now, nor wealthy enough to indulge. Hell, I wouldn't even feel a strong need to switch from the Win 3 to the Win Mini if it weren't for the fact that the lack of hinge on the Win 3 forces me to hold it at what for me is an uncomfortable angle. The graphics capabilities of the computer itself are good enough for its size, for me. But to each their own. Some people don't wanna game on low settings, and some people might intend to use their handheld as their only PC, instead of rather than in addition to a desktop PC, and I get that. It all comes down to usage.
Looks great and I think it would make a great living room dock for a handheld. It would be cool to see you try to pair it with some other handhelds for some mini testing. (A GPD handheld+GPD gpu doesn’t exactly give the gpu a fair shakedown)
Despite the lack of a dedicated ethernet port, can you still connect to ethernet via an ethernet-to-USB adapter, using one of the USB-A ports at the back? Has anyone tried, does it work well / affect the bandwidth when the G1 is connected to the computer via a thunderbolt cable?
It is also a great device for ultra portable or 2-in-1 laptops like the Surface Pro 9 or the HP Spectre 360. Turns them into very decent and portable gaming PCs. Both can be powered by the G1.
This is the first time ive watched anything regarding an external gpu in a while i remember watching videos when thunderbolt first started releasing and maybe some with thunderbolt 2. What impresses me most is how much the bandwidth increases have improved performance as you used to get so throttled down that it didnt make a lot of sense back in the day but with thunderbolt 4 and oculink it is really impressive how much its improved. The future is exciting for this kind of tech but i do worry about adoption and therefor pricing as it will remain pretty niche. What I wonder is if something like Microsoft in years down the road if they leave the console space but have a streaming box for gamepass if they support something like this
Looks like an awesome addition to a mini PC. Have you tried running this with Batocera? Would love to add this to my dedicated emulation box for harder to run games but it's unclear to me whether there's compatibility.
There is no difference between Thunderbolt 3 and Thunderbolt 4 when it comes to eGPU bandwidth. That's why there are ZERO TB4 eGPU docks. Even USB4 is basically TB3.
I might be incorrect, but USB4 doesn't explicitly require Tunneled PCIe support for external GPUs, does it? Some people have USB4 but can't use these external GPUs. TB4 and USB4v2 both require Tunneled PCIe as part of the spec, so that messiness will eventually go away.
I’m not sure if anyone can help but I recently unboxed my gpd g1. I’ve paired it with my legion go and it’s running horribly. For example, hogwarts legacy is unplayable even at low settings. Im not sure what to do. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
What’s the experience of docking and undocking it to a mobile gaming PC like the Steam Deck or Legion Go or ROG Ally like? Do you have to shut the whole computer down and unplug it and restart it, or can you just make sure you’re not in a game-or potentially when you are in a game- and disconnect it, and it switches over to internal graphics?
I have the g1 so I can answer some of those. Over usb4, the experience is great. You plug the dock in, windows makes its device connected sound, and then it's connected. In my experience, connecting it while a game is running causes the game to either continue running on integrated graphics, or crash, depending on the game. As a note, not every pcs implementation of usb4 is equal. My GPD win 4 has been rock-solid, but I experienced a number of random disconnects on my other handheld (OneXPlayer mini pro). Might be software, might be hardware, not sure. Over oculink, the experience is less fluid. You can only connect and disconnect the GPU when your devices power is off, so it feels more like a "I'm gonna be playing for a while" choice. You do get a small performance bump in exchange. For example, when I'm working (don't tell my boss) I switch between docked and undocked regularly (docked = playing a game, undocked = listening to music), but when it's Friday night and time for games with the boys, I'll reboot with oculink connected for the extra performance since I'll be playing for a while.
@@OwenOrsetti Thanks! That was what I was looking for. The devices I’m interested in docking with don’t have oculink anyway, which in this case I suppose is a blessing and a curse.
This is gonna be great for the future and when the costs comes down. If it hits 300-400 i would def get for my Steamdeck if it ever supports it in the future
This is exactly what the Switch 2 needs to do. 1080p handheld gaming .... 4k docked gaming with a GPU in the dock. And make 2 docks: one with GPU and one without.
Just ordered a Miyoo Mini Plus from DroiX yesterday, supposed to be delivered to my mailbox by Monday. This is going to be my first retro gaming handheld but can't wait to play some slightly older titles that I might've missed out on considering I'm only 20 and grew up playing PS2, Wii and Nintendo DS games for the most part. Will probably be playing mostly older zelda and pokemon games but still, very exciting.
Honestly the value proposition is not as bad as what ppl here might think. Just the tb4 dock part alone can easily cost upto 300-400 USD. SO it's more like 400 usd for gpu and 300 usd for the dock features ig. Inbuilt power supply is a big W imo. It could be cheaper if power supply was seperate and has less ports.
Can you do a black Friday video. I would like to get my friend a handheld for Christmas but don't know which ones would be worth buying or which ones will be on sale for this weekend
Fyi, there is a m.2 to oculink adapter, which is quite inexpensive (around 50 eagle dollan). You can plug it into ssd slot and it is up to pcie 4.0. There is also an oculink dock included in that adapter. However, you gotta put a psu into that. Another youtuber has already made a video about that.
This got me thinking... if I had this external GPU connected to a Docked Loki, would I be able to push out better graphics for VR games played wirerlessly, to Meta quest 3?
would love to see a video of the mini+g1 as a full desktop replacement. does it feel super smooth to use windows, watch videos, do your work, premiere pro etc.?
you should check the 1% lows in my testing with egpu tb3 dock(jhl7440) vs usb4 dock(asm2464) tb3 tends to suffer in 1% lows, but usb4 dock doesn't in high graphics demanding games
What I find odd is that going after AMD the desktop 6650 XT offers only slightly over 10 TFLOPS of single precision compute performance but the mobile 7600M XT more 21 TFLOPS. This doesn't make sense as the specs are very similar and the generational gains shouldn't be +100% performance while also featuring lower power draw. Interesting to see the performance differences when compared to a Mini PC with 6600M (even if it's not an XT). I read the 7600M XT can reach around 10400 points in Time Spy under more optimal conditions (integrated instead of Oculink and maybe faster CPU). Future revisions of the G1 should aim for lower noise levels though. Would be nice if it would be as quiet at a Minisforum HX99G or HX77G.
About the noise levels, I've found noise to be significantly lower just setting the G1 to stand vertically. I tested several games when I got mine including Cyberpunk with Ray Tracing turned on and the noise was not as loud as when it lays flat. I use this dock at my very quiet workplace during the slow nightshifts so noise levels are important to me.
@@alphacompton Interesting. Also got a HX99G yesterday that is far louder than what he showcased in an older video when running something like Cinebench. I'm using it vertically and haven't tried horizontal yet.
Darn that the 3070 ti test didnt run.. also good to know that the amd 7840 mobile dont run well with the nvidia cards in an egpu. I wanted to then run 3d mark on my current setup egpu setup which is an gpd win max 2021 with an intel cpu and the 3070 ti in a razor egpu with thunderbolt 3. But the benchmark software costs 30 bucks normally!!
I just came from yours ONEXGPU review, so with GPD G1 USB bandwidth with games like CP2077 also will be limited? Means GPU will be using 50-60W instead of full 120W via USB4?
I wish the Rog Ally would support 3rd party eGPU, the only one that you can currently find is the 4090 variant. Even though that eGPU is a beast I cannot justify spending $3,000 canadian for something that is exclusively for the Ally or a select few Asus laptops. I think that's where Asus expected to make there money back with how affordable the Ally is compared to other handhelds but the price they sell the eGPU at is insane. Unless they start making more of the lower end egpu and making them affordable I don't think people will be buying the Rog Ally 2, they will simply switch to the Legion, Gpd and other handhelds that don't use proprietary hardware.
Okay, I’ve now seen the whole video… … this is a premium product for the less price-sensitive consumer. Yes, it’s expensive - but if the product is for you, you’ll know it already, and you’ll buy it. It’s not trying to compete on price. The only things stopping me are that I currently have a Razer enclosure with a top-end previous-gen graphics card, and also my GTR7 Pro doesn’t have an OCuLink connector. I’m not convinced this new device would improve upon my current setup. But in a year or two, when I’ve replaced my mini PC, this sort of device could be the way ahead for me. I could certainly reclaim a lot of desk space by retiring the Razer X Chroma…
Thank you much for detailed review. Can you please clarify if you had any stutter problems with USB4 G1 connection? As I remember Phawx and ETA PRIME mentioned that, like even if it's USB4 full 40Gbps speed it can have some issues comparing to Oculink connection there these problems doesn't occur. And it's not just a difference 40Gbps VS 63Gps, sometimes it's something not well with USB4 connecton (they said).
I didn't have any issues with stuttering when using USB4, the gameplay was excellent! The only difference I saw with Oculink was that the performance was a little better, and it was a little bit better in making that initial connection from the get-go (provided I was on the latest AMD drivers).
I use the G1 with a WinMax2 7840u over Occulink as my main PC. I love the small size and the flexibility of the setup. Performance is plenty for my needs, as I mostly game at 1080p. Wish they had installed a larger heatsink and fan to reduce the noise. Maybe the next version. =)
![External GPU for your Handheld PC [ONEXGPU]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/I_eA_IbB-mo/mqdefault.jpg)
![External GPU for your Handheld PC [ONEXGPU]](/img/tr.png)
![I never thought this would ACTUALLY WORK!!! [GPD G1 eGPU dock review]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/hQTneYMygxI/mqdefault.jpg)
Today I learned about the "it's over 9000!" meme, definitely a wasted opportunity on my part.
insane lol
Thats OG youtube right there Russ😂
Your video was over 9000!
You don't watch anime?
You are forgiven.
$739.50 USD!!! Wow. That is too costly.
Damn 💀
You could buy the minisforum Neptune 99g which is a whole mini pc with a 6600m for that price lol
😂😂😂 i literally looked and first thing out my mouth was "oh wow thats expensive"
I think this would be reasonable for a thin ad light with a decent cpu like my acer swift 3 so you have an option for not on the go
It’s a matter of preference. Do you want portable all in one that will basically plug and play or do you want to tinker?
This is pretty great, would love to get my hands on one for my mini PC, but 740 dollars is a bit much for me atm. If this thing was like 300-400 dollars, it would be a hell of an upgrade.
Heck, $500 and I’d bite. That’s double MSRP of a desktop 7600, but the unique formfactor and extra docking ports adds enough value back. But over $700 is an easy “No”.
its expensive
you can diy yourself, oculink/m.2 docks ($30-$70) are a lot cheaper than thunderbolt/usb4 docks ($150-$300)
buy a $50 psu, then a used/new gpu and ur good to go
@@johnpp21 then you lose the small form factor. So every option has its trade-offs
@@iancharles9222 yup, either diy or this portability/sff price premium
both have pros and cons
You're the best reviewer I've ever watched! So detailed and professional. Good job
It would be great to see a larger market of more affordable egpu docks. With stuff like portable PCs getting bigger this seems like a must in docked mode. I wish this was in the $300 range, hopefully companies realize the potential here.
Like it but considering it's on par with a $230 6650XT the max I would be willing to pay for this would be $500. Which I think it's fair since you're paying 2x premium. At $740 we're at 3x and that's just kinda too high to me.
I feel like this is a fantastic setup, something like a steam deck to use around or out of the house, then if you need to get some work done or wanna play something with higher fidelity or more demanding, you can dock into this and go to town.
I find this extremely compelling.
SteamDeck does not have USB4, though :P
Something to consider when considering the broader value proposition of a handheld.
I think it is more cost-effective to build a gaming pc with a decent GPU and stream your more demanding games to the steam deck oled with moonlight/steamlink rather than buying a Legion Go with a overpriced eGPU which has a pretty big bandwidth bottleneck for the GPU.
@@franzpleurmann2585
In terms of FPS-per-dollar, that set up might be a better "value." But then you have to throw in the cost of a decent wifi router for another 200 USD or so depending on your house/apartment.
At that point, you have 2 devices that need to be coordinated and updated.
There is a population that would take the 5 to 10% "loss" in theoretical FPS in order to have a single compute device and not have to worry about network quality and not having to worry about remembering to sync cloud saves before leaving the house.
@stevenolson3977 oh I know lol, thats why I'm not jumping out my chair to go buy one of these right away. that and the lack of ethernet on this are deal breakers for the moment
@@franzpleurmann2585The thing is the legion go is already so powerful, that it doesn’t even really need an EGPU to run any game. But if EGPUs ever become affordable then it could easily use it.
OneXGPU is announced which will be a similar egpu as the G1. I would love to see a comparison between them.
Never heard of this site, but as someone who lives in the UK I appreciate the tip very much!
Great review. The only thing missing is testing performance on the integrated screen using Oculink vs usb4. The extra bandwidth that Oculink provides is very noticeable in that scenario.
Another great video Russ! PSA for anyone interested, the chroma X has come down to $300 at times (including last year's BF sale) so there's that choice if you see yourself actually changing GPUs over time.
Thank you! The one on the video is too expensive for me
TH3P4G3 also has a very cheap eGPU for anyone under a strict budget. It isn't for everyone but you'd get a far greater bang for your buck than the GPD G1.
@@ramy8700Too expensive for you, don't you mean? I will assume you can't afford a brand new Audi S8 sedan either?
@@dj4monie Yes, that's what I said. You're having imaginary arguments 😂
Would love to see an external GPU for handhelds market review video like your retro handhelds starter/best of 2023 so far video. This sounds like it would be incredible with the Steam Deck, but with so many different options and so many different handhelds to connect along, I would like to see a comparison across the market
Most of these things are ment for people that travel and need the power. The vast majority of subscribers to the channel are not it's market use case. If you have to spend this money for graphics, you are a hardcore gamer and have zero social life.
sadly no thunderbolt/usb4 is compatible for it, due to it using old cpu (zen2) that doesn't support that I/O.
only oculink/m.2 egpu is available for steam deck but you'll have to frankenstein the heck out of it to make it work.
Russ can you try the g1 with the legion go pls? With and without an external monitor. Great video do more like this.
This is pretty sweet! But damn expensive. It's slim but you can't change the GPU, I see other Thunderbolt 4 enclosures for $300-600, I mean we could get pretty cheap used gpu's on the market and slap it in, and if you wanna upgrade, you can!
But this is the price to pay for portability which this thing cannot be beat.
I don’t agree with you, there is no point in updating over time!!! You can't get more speed!!! USB 4.0 has maximum bandwidth! And no matter what powerful video card you install, it won’t change anything
@@viacheslavkirii901 There's Nvidia GPU's? With good ray tracing? But if you wanna put limits on yourself, have at it. You also realize that the GPU's can be taken out and used in other pc's, right? Modularity is a good thing.
It's ok to disagree.
Cool device. PC gamers often spend that much on a graphics card(guilty as c harged) and this is a stand alone with it's own power supply. That's some exciting tech.
Purchased this for $595 after taxes on black Friday. Hopefully this works well with my Legion Go!
Great deal! Enjoy
Any updates? Does it work well with lego and ally?
@theitguy6092 it might be worth it for some. For me it wasn't. I usually played my Go while charging and thought "I can use this while playing on my Go since I'm plugged in anyways". The problem was that the Go requires 65w and the G1 only provides 60w. There's a workaround but after 45 mins or so it stops charging. Another thing is that I like frames over resolution. The G1 was great at giving more performance, but only at full native 1600p. When I dropped the res to 1200p or 800p, my framerate wouldn't change much. The last thing is that some games just don't work well with this setup. Assassins Creed for example gave me worse performance than just playing on the internal 780M. As for the Ally, it doesn't support Thunderbolt, so it would just be a very expensive charger.
How did it work I just bought my first Lenovo yoga 7
Man that intro is always fucking fire. 🔥
I appreciate showing the different connection types with benchmarks.
I love it, compact, docking station integrated and lower power consumption vs desktop GPU.
I was planning to buy a GPD Win mini + G1, BUT:
Oculink SFF-8612 does not inherently support Power Delivery neither hot swappable usage, that's why you have to connect Oculink first and then turn on the G1, so while you're using 63Gbps data speed from it, you have to use also the USB4 exclusively for PD (without its data transfer) vs using only the hot swappable USB4 port for 40Gbps + its 100W PD, as @RetroGameCorps show here.
Considering TB5 will be released next year, and it will support symmetrical 80Gbps or 120Gbps/40Gbps data speeds + 140W PD and hot swappable usage, I'm confident that it will replace both Oculink and TB4, so I'll wait until GPD release a "G2" and new versions of their handhelds with TB5.
But for now, the G1 IS a great alternative above the average options on the market, even for the next years coming. Thanks for the review, great content as always.
I'd like to see a VS with the OneXGpu, also I'd like to see how they both work with Handhelds like the ROG Ally & the Legion Go
Holy numbers, good stuff, maybe a bit heavy on the numbers but I get it.. Maybe break up the performance differences and pricing to other sides of the video, as a small suggestion to break it up a bit from overload. Also would be interested to know how this performs with more mobile solutions. Specifically this might be a good choice for those with handhelds who want to use them as home PC's but then be able to take them on the go when they're not docked. One last thing, while I know this is a review for a specific device and you compared to the Razer, I would love if the video had included maybe other solutions that do the same thing and the general pricing. Rather then having to google after the video to find if this is really the only solution for these devices or if there might be better ones, cheaper ones ect. For instance, are options limited in this medium and were stuck with this for now, or is there an overabundance of choices for these and this is just one of them? ect.
Exactly what I was looking for. Thanks for doing this!
I’m excited to see what valve has up its sleeve. The steam deck is just such a great device. They could potentially enter the field of taking on the big consoles if they offered a more powerful egpu dock option. Similar to what the ally is doing but with steams incredible software would be amazing.
Ahh, thanks for the testings. Much appreciated.
I wasn't sure Thunderbolt 3/4 would compatible with USB 4.0; because i found some 2nd hand thunderbolt 3 based egpu dockings with pretty good price and i planned to pair that thing with OneXPlayer Mini Pro Ryzen 6800U.
yup, tb3 egpu docks is compatible with oxp mini pro,
i have oxp mini pro and th3p4g3 dock which is a tb3 dock and works fine with it
Egpu is the main thing I want for Steam deck 2 it would easily satisfy all of my gaming needs
Hey Russ, would you consider doing an overview on the brands themselves for the devices you cover? I’d be interested in hearing your perspective and insight on how these brands stack up to each other in terms of customer support after you buy a device, relative device reliability, potential expected lifespan, etc. Your experience may be a bit skewed because you are a reviewer but it still could be worthwhile because of involved you are in this community. I have heard rumors that GPD support is not great and to stay away, and things like that so I think it could be an interesting topic. Thanks!
That’s a really good idea!
That's a great idea. Maybe a tier list including the criteria you mentioned and maybe price trends quality of user experience of the physical devices and software.
Why? Caveat Emptor. People b*tch about Lenovo CS being shh*y what difference does it make it these external GPU manufacturers have shoddy customer service. That is the price you pay for capitalism.
Don’t have time to watch the whole video before I go to work: but if you boot your mini PC to Windows safe mode, you’ll be able to download Nvidia drivers. This is what I needed to do to get my 5700 XT (in a Razer Chroma X enclosure) working on my 7940-based Beelink. Worked fine, from then on.
Correction: 3080 Ti. The 5700 XT worked immediately, of course.
Good deep review. About the noise levels, I found that if I put my dock standing vertically , it's significantly quieter. The performance is decent over USB4 on my Ayaneo 2 (6800u) handheld but I get some kind of compatibility or driver issues every so often that's hard to track down the cause of.
The only reason I’d consider this or the onexplayer eGPU that is coming out and is pretty much the same thing (just with the ability to add storage to it) is when the 780M mobile graphics aren’t cutting it anymore on the current handhelds that are out.
Thanks for the informative video! Can you please also add noise level from GPD G1 to the tests?
These G1's were only $500 on aliexpress during 11.11 and $600 or less during Black Friday.
If you have an intel NUC the Razer enclosure you wouldn't run into the driver issues but that's a very specific set up and they've killed off the nuc line. There's also m.2 eGPU adaptors for full size cards but they look super janky and looks like it's extremely tricky to set up and also you'd always have a wide cable always stick out your laptop from a hole you'd have to find yourself.
great video as always
Two comments…one for the other commenters and one for Russ:
1) For commenters saying it’s too expensive, agreed with you but you are paying for the portability and form factor. Price to performance, desktop setup will win every single time. But at some point, the intersection between price, portability and performance (on games you specifically want to play) will hit a sweet spot for you. I think we’re seeing that now in Steam Deck and various portable handheld PCs and those integrated APUs.
2) For Russ: Suggestion that if these eGPUs become commonplace as I think they will, might be worth doing a video roundup of which handheld PCs/small form factor PCs have which eGPU port capabilities. I think this is going to be huge.
Also for Russ…. After watching your subscriber milestone video, I’d love to see about us working together and potentially collaborating in the future if you are open to the idea. We share a lot of similarities in our personalities and obviously love of gaming and getting people into the right hardware for their use case. And I’m always looking for a good investment and good use of my funds. If you have any interest, let me know how we can get in touch. Looking forward to talking to you!
Thanks for reviewing these products.
GPD G1 only costs ~615 USD with free shipping here in the Philippines from their official retailer here. Would assembling a G1 plus monitor connected to my Aokzoe A1 (6800u) be a better setup rather than buying a mini-PC or a new laptop?
Wow u r amazing ❤❤❤❤❤
Very thirll testing by thunderbolt 4 and oculink , no one compares like you do.
Thanks so much.
Correction: The gpd g1 is not "thunderbolt 4" but backwards compatible with "thunderbolt 3" and fully supports "thunderbolt 3". Numerous times you've incorrectly stated that the gpd g1 is thunderbolt 4 and that is not true, the gpd g1 is USB4 and "thunderbolt 3" is supported and backwards compatible with "thunderbolt 3" (meaning it is not mandatory). Windows 11 made it mandatory for any usb4 device to automatically be backwards compatible with "thunderbolt 3".
Well, it's neat, but this seems like the sort of thing to think about at an unspecified time in the future, when the games I wanna play won't even run at the lowest tolerable framerate on lowest settings and there isn't a downloadable hack that lowers them further. By that time, there might even be a "G2" or competing product that's a better option or at least brings the cost of a G1 down. I'm not picky enough to need this right now, nor wealthy enough to indulge. Hell, I wouldn't even feel a strong need to switch from the Win 3 to the Win Mini if it weren't for the fact that the lack of hinge on the Win 3 forces me to hold it at what for me is an uncomfortable angle. The graphics capabilities of the computer itself are good enough for its size, for me. But to each their own. Some people don't wanna game on low settings, and some people might intend to use their handheld as their only PC, instead of rather than in addition to a desktop PC, and I get that. It all comes down to usage.
I'd love for a test with like the Lenovo or the Asus. I know Asus has been iffy with external GPUs for [REASONS]
It's over 9000! What? It's coming in 3 times faster than the others. And it's not even painted red!
Looks great and I think it would make a great living room dock for a handheld. It would be cool to see you try to pair it with some other handhelds for some mini testing. (A GPD handheld+GPD gpu doesn’t exactly give the gpu a fair shakedown)
I'm using my GPD G1 with my Ayaneo 2 (6800u) handheld over USB4. It's pretty cool, I get some issues every so often but I like the versatility.
@@alphacomptonhave you heard anyone using them with the legion go?
@@hlebron982There are some people in the Legion go subreddit
You know what’s crazy? One day that’ll fit in a tiny handheld
Thanks for sharing a 3rd Win Mini video it seems no one wants to share anything more about the device.
Has your opinion or should I say views, of the GPD WIN Mini changed over time since you've had it?
Despite the lack of a dedicated ethernet port, can you still connect to ethernet via an ethernet-to-USB adapter, using one of the USB-A ports at the back? Has anyone tried, does it work well / affect the bandwidth when the G1 is connected to the computer via a thunderbolt cable?
It is also a great device for ultra portable or 2-in-1 laptops like the Surface Pro 9 or the HP Spectre 360. Turns them into very decent and portable gaming PCs. Both can be powered by the G1.
Great review ill be buy this 🤙🤙😄
28:02 Baldur's Gate 3 doesn't have ray tracing though?
This is the first time ive watched anything regarding an external gpu in a while i remember watching videos when thunderbolt first started releasing and maybe some with thunderbolt 2.
What impresses me most is how much the bandwidth increases have improved performance as you used to get so throttled down that it didnt make a lot of sense back in the day but with thunderbolt 4 and oculink it is really impressive how much its improved.
The future is exciting for this kind of tech but i do worry about adoption and therefor pricing as it will remain pretty niche.
What I wonder is if something like Microsoft in years down the road if they leave the console space but have a streaming box for gamepass if they support something like this
Looks like an awesome addition to a mini PC. Have you tried running this with Batocera? Would love to add this to my dedicated emulation box for harder to run games but it's unclear to me whether there's compatibility.
There is no difference between Thunderbolt 3 and Thunderbolt 4 when it comes to eGPU bandwidth. That's why there are ZERO TB4 eGPU docks. Even USB4 is basically TB3.
I might be incorrect, but USB4 doesn't explicitly require Tunneled PCIe support for external GPUs, does it? Some people have USB4 but can't use these external GPUs. TB4 and USB4v2 both require Tunneled PCIe as part of the spec, so that messiness will eventually go away.
Hi Russ! Do you mind testing undervolting on the GPD G1?
The fact that we can actually buy one, as opposed to the ROG XG Mobile, makes it the best product in this category.
Seriously Asus wtf
I’m not sure if anyone can help but I recently unboxed my gpd g1. I’ve paired it with my legion go and it’s running horribly.
For example, hogwarts legacy is unplayable even at low settings. Im not sure what to do. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
What’s the experience of docking and undocking it to a mobile gaming PC like the Steam Deck or Legion Go or ROG Ally like? Do you have to shut the whole computer down and unplug it and restart it, or can you just make sure you’re not in a game-or potentially when you are in a game- and disconnect it, and it switches over to internal graphics?
This wouldn't work with steam deck
I have the g1 so I can answer some of those.
Over usb4, the experience is great. You plug the dock in, windows makes its device connected sound, and then it's connected. In my experience, connecting it while a game is running causes the game to either continue running on integrated graphics, or crash, depending on the game.
As a note, not every pcs implementation of usb4 is equal. My GPD win 4 has been rock-solid, but I experienced a number of random disconnects on my other handheld (OneXPlayer mini pro). Might be software, might be hardware, not sure.
Over oculink, the experience is less fluid. You can only connect and disconnect the GPU when your devices power is off, so it feels more like a "I'm gonna be playing for a while" choice.
You do get a small performance bump in exchange.
For example, when I'm working (don't tell my boss) I switch between docked and undocked regularly (docked = playing a game, undocked = listening to music), but when it's Friday night and time for games with the boys, I'll reboot with oculink connected for the extra performance since I'll be playing for a while.
@@OwenOrsetti Thanks! That was what I was looking for. The devices I’m interested in docking with don’t have oculink anyway, which in this case I suppose is a blessing and a curse.
@OwenOrsetti I posted a few min ago asking for help but is it pretty plug and play? I wanna use with legion go. And have no idea what I'm doing.
This is gonna be great for the future and when the costs comes down. If it hits 300-400 i would def get for my Steamdeck if it ever supports it in the future
You can mod you Steam Deck to have OcCulink
This is exactly what the Switch 2 needs to do. 1080p handheld gaming .... 4k docked gaming with a GPU in the dock. And make 2 docks: one with GPU and one without.
Can’t wait to pair this with the minisforum UM780 XTX!
If it wasn't for the price this would be great
I have one. Its cool but i can only hope they make a 7900m xt version.
Just ordered a Miyoo Mini Plus from DroiX yesterday, supposed to be delivered to my mailbox by Monday. This is going to be my first retro gaming handheld but can't wait to play some slightly older titles that I might've missed out on considering I'm only 20 and grew up playing PS2, Wii and Nintendo DS games for the most part. Will probably be playing mostly older zelda and pokemon games but still, very exciting.
Will this work with the steam deck in Linux?
Honestly the value proposition is not as bad as what ppl here might think. Just the tb4 dock part alone can easily cost upto 300-400 USD. SO it's more like 400 usd for gpu and 300 usd for the dock features ig. Inbuilt power supply is a big W imo. It could be cheaper if power supply was seperate and has less ports.
Can you do a black Friday video. I would like to get my friend a handheld for Christmas but don't know which ones would be worth buying or which ones will be on sale for this weekend
Fyi, there is a m.2 to oculink adapter, which is quite inexpensive (around 50 eagle dollan). You can plug it into ssd slot and it is up to pcie 4.0.
There is also an oculink dock included in that adapter. However, you gotta put a psu into that. Another youtuber has already made a video about that.
It's an NVMe to oculink adapter. It won't work with M.2 sata ports.
Does the retail come with an Oculink cable? If it doesnt thats crazy.
Brilliant Video!!! ❤
This got me thinking... if I had this external GPU connected to a Docked Loki, would I be able to push out better graphics for VR games played wirerlessly, to Meta quest 3?
Would this work for the Legion go?
Yes with some necessary driver fixes
Gonna get one because of this review to revive my Surface Laptop 5
would love to see a video of the mini+g1 as a full desktop replacement. does it feel super smooth to use windows, watch videos, do your work, premiere pro etc.?
you should check the 1% lows
in my testing with egpu tb3 dock(jhl7440) vs usb4 dock(asm2464)
tb3 tends to suffer in 1% lows, but usb4 dock doesn't in high graphics demanding games
I just bough an RG35XX from Droix, extremely happy with em! I'm from DK 🙏
What I find odd is that going after AMD the desktop 6650 XT offers only slightly over 10 TFLOPS of single precision compute performance but the mobile 7600M XT more 21 TFLOPS. This doesn't make sense as the specs are very similar and the generational gains shouldn't be +100% performance while also featuring lower power draw.
Interesting to see the performance differences when compared to a Mini PC with 6600M (even if it's not an XT). I read the 7600M XT can reach around 10400 points in Time Spy under more optimal conditions (integrated instead of Oculink and maybe faster CPU).
Future revisions of the G1 should aim for lower noise levels though. Would be nice if it would be as quiet at a Minisforum HX99G or HX77G.
About the noise levels, I've found noise to be significantly lower just setting the G1 to stand vertically. I tested several games when I got mine including Cyberpunk with Ray Tracing turned on and the noise was not as loud as when it lays flat. I use this dock at my very quiet workplace during the slow nightshifts so noise levels are important to me.
@@alphacompton Interesting. Also got a HX99G yesterday that is far louder than what he showcased in an older video when running something like Cinebench. I'm using it vertically and haven't tried horizontal yet.
Cheers Russ, pretty cool.
can you use the screen on the device or do you need to connect to a external monitor?
You can use it just with the screen on the device if you’d like. I show it off during my audio testing later in the video.
Yes, but the performance is lower because it has to travel back to the same port.
14:15 Did this problem happen only with the Razer Chroma or should we worry about using any Nvidia card with the 7840u?
Have you reviews the retroid pocket flip? if not I would love to see you review it! i love your videos they're super informative and I learn a lot!
Darn that the 3070 ti test didnt run.. also good to know that the amd 7840 mobile dont run well with the nvidia cards in an egpu.
I wanted to then run 3d mark on my current setup egpu setup which is an gpd win max 2021 with an intel cpu and the 3070 ti in a razor egpu with thunderbolt 3. But the benchmark software costs 30 bucks normally!!
I just came from yours ONEXGPU review, so with GPD G1 USB bandwidth with games like CP2077 also will be limited? Means GPU will be using 50-60W instead of full 120W via USB4?
20:50 i thought final fantasy was turn based like pokemon?
But the bottleneck is still data throughput, right? I mean xg mobile will still perform better with same gpu inside?
When are you reviewing the R36S?? The best ever.
It's over 90000000! 17:54
When are we going to get more gpd win4 content?
Russ! What controller were you using? It looks sick
I wish the Rog Ally would support 3rd party eGPU, the only one that you can currently find is the 4090 variant. Even though that eGPU is a beast I cannot justify spending $3,000 canadian for something that is exclusively for the Ally or a select few Asus laptops. I think that's where Asus expected to make there money back with how affordable the Ally is compared to other handhelds but the price they sell the eGPU at is insane. Unless they start making more of the lower end egpu and making them affordable I don't think people will be buying the Rog Ally 2, they will simply switch to the Legion, Gpd and other handhelds that don't use proprietary hardware.
Okay, I’ve now seen the whole video…
… this is a premium product for the less price-sensitive consumer. Yes, it’s expensive - but if the product is for you, you’ll know it already, and you’ll buy it. It’s not trying to compete on price.
The only things stopping me are that I currently have a Razer enclosure with a top-end previous-gen graphics card, and also my GTR7 Pro doesn’t have an OCuLink connector. I’m not convinced this new device would improve upon my current setup.
But in a year or two, when I’ve replaced my mini PC, this sort of device could be the way ahead for me. I could certainly reclaim a lot of desk space by retiring the Razer X Chroma…
What is the use case of this vs paying the same or less for a laptop with the same specs and performance?
Can it be connected to a PC and do audiovisual editing work?
I dig this - just wonder if they could release something with a bit more oomph. Maybe x7 or x8 series?
Any chance you can test helldivers 2 on this eGPU?
I'd be really interested to see your opinion on the AD Link Pocket AI. An egpu that is super compact (not really designed for gaming but still can)
So it won't pair with a laptop with nvidia dGPU due to driver issues?
Thank you much for detailed review. Can you please clarify if you had any stutter problems with USB4 G1 connection? As I remember Phawx and ETA PRIME mentioned that, like even if it's USB4 full 40Gbps speed it can have some issues comparing to Oculink connection there these problems doesn't occur. And it's not just a difference 40Gbps VS 63Gps, sometimes it's something not well with USB4 connecton (they said).
I didn't have any issues with stuttering when using USB4, the gameplay was excellent! The only difference I saw with Oculink was that the performance was a little better, and it was a little bit better in making that initial connection from the get-go (provided I was on the latest AMD drivers).
@@RetroGameCorps Thank you. I think you sold it me for my UM790 Pro.
Any thoughts on... 7800XT eGPUs coming out now?
(Only for 4k emulation, 8945hs or i9 ultra, really)
I use the G1 with a WinMax2 7840u over Occulink as my main PC. I love the small size and the flexibility of the setup. Performance is plenty for my needs, as I mostly game at 1080p. Wish they had installed a larger heatsink and fan to reduce the noise. Maybe the next version. =)
dosnt it come with a oculink cable?