Should you run an eGPU with the Surface Laptop Studio? You can, but not without some headaches

Surface Laptop Studio with an eGPU seems like a good pairing ... Source: Daniel Rubino / Windows Fundamental

Ane of the absurd things about having a lot of technology lying effectually is trying new setups that push extremes. With Surface Laptop Studio and two Thunderbolt 4 ports, the question of using an external GPU (eGPU) now becomes relevant.

The good news is it technically works, but the bad news is you could too run into issues, especially if yous overcomplicate things. None of this applies to Surface Pro 8 (which I'll be doing a separate article on afterwards), but here is what y'all need to know for now.

Razer Cortex X plus RTX 3080 GPU is wild

The first matter I re-learned about an eGPU is that 40Gbps is a lot, but it does take a ceiling. The platonic setup, which as well makes the most sense, is to run an external brandish from the eGPU. Many people know that if you just run the eGPU without an external brandish, it needs to transport the data back and along to the Surface Laptop Studio, which reduces functioning even more.

Razer Core Ten eGPU. Source: Windows Fundamental

On the old Razer Core from 2022, you go four USB Type-A ports and an Ethernet. Its historic period still, the Razer Core is tiny, and I similar those ports. I tossed an RTX 2080Ti in it, and information technology worked. But the 500W power supply (375W GPU max ability) was non plenty to handle a wired mouse, keyboard, microphone, and webcam, some of which had RGB lighting. The effect was some stuttering and the Os dropping and reconnecting some of the accessories.

I and then swapped it out for the Razer Cadre Ten ($400). That has a 650W power supply (500W for GPU), and it could fit my RTX 3080, which was nice. It's also tremendously girthy at more than twice the width of Raze Cadre (232mm vs. 105mm) and weighs 14.2lbs (6.48kg) without the GPU installed. It's a chonky boi.

The downside with Razer Core 10 is it has no external ports, which I needed for my accessories.

Enter Kensington'south new SD5750T Thunderbolt 4 Surface dock, which is simply delightful — I'll be reviewing this soon as well. I plugged information technology into the second Thunderbolt four port on Surface Laptop Studio, and all of a sudden I could plug in all my accessories while the Razer Cadre X handled the GPU and brandish output.

(Razer also sells the Core X Blush ($500), which, yep, adds RGB lights, merely as well brings back those four Type-A ports, Ethernet, and bumps the PSU to 700W.)

Surface Laptop Studio + RTX 3080. Not bad! Source: Daniel Rubino / Windows Cardinal

This setup with an eGPU and TB4 dock worked well enough for our recent podcast. It's fast, too, equally even with a quad-cadre CPU, that 3080 makes information technology a powerful rig.

The issues I had were just modest bugs when I asunder and reconnected. I've had this problem before with laptops that already take an NVIDIA GPU on board, which is that sometimes the eGPU and the OS become a bit confused loading and unloading drivers.

The betoken is: For the most office, the setup was working, until my Laptop Studio's internal RTX A2000 GPU got the dreaded exclamation point (!) under Device Manager. I attempted to uninstall and reinstall those drivers, but that is where the real problem began.

Losing all graphics

Upon rebooting to install the NVIDIA display commuter, the Surface Laptop Studio finer blanked out later the Surface logo loaded. I tried a few recovery attempts only opted not to carp with control-line fixes because I had other things to do.

I concluded upward using a recovery USB and reinstalled Windows xi. Twice.

Yous come across, I tried to do this setup again this morning to see if it was a fluke, and it was not.

Now, is it because I was running a Thunderbolt 4 dock and an eGPU? I don't know. As I said, there were a lot of moving parts here. I'one thousand unsure why Surface Laptop Studio didn't default to the Intel Iris Xe GPU, either.

Of form, I could have micro-managed the GPUs through NVIDIA Control Panel, just to me, this defeats the purpose.

Is an eGPU and Surface Laptop Studio practical?

Surface Pro 8 and an eGPU seems more realistic for nearly users. Source: Daniel Rubino / Windows Central

The bigger question I have is: Who is even going to try this wild setup? If you bought the Surface Laptop Studio with an RTX 3050 Ti, do you lot demand an eGPU? I mean, certain, it's nice, simply information technology doesn't seem very practical.

Yous're going to driblet $400 on the Razor Core X and at to the lowest degree $one,000 (in today's prices) for an RTX 3070 just to make the upgrade worth information technology. And may your wallets exist deep if yous want an RTX 3080 or 3090, which push in the $two,000 to $3,000 ranges due to high demand.

Toss in some other $350 if yous want an excellent Thunderbolt 4 dock in the event you care nearly adding wired accessories, too.

Some advanced math likewise needs to be done as eGPUs can shave off around 20% of functioning on that GPU. So an RTX 3070 behaves more like a 3060. You also need to factor in the Surface Laptop Studio's quad-cadre chip versus a proper desktop one. While Surface Laptop Studio earned eleven,265 on 3DMark's Time Spy with an RTX 3080 eGPU, that same RTX 3080, when paired in the HP OMEN 30L and a Core i9-10900K, earned a whopping 16,470.

Source: Harish Jonnalagadda / Windows Central

I don't see this every bit a sensible use of resources, only that's me.

Now, Surface Pro 8 is dissimilar, and and then far, it's working quite well (but I need to do much more than testing). I remember an eGPU case for Surface Pro eight makes much more than sense since that device only has Intel Iris Xe. Even adding a 1080 Ti or something in the 20xx series would be a huge performance bump. I'll exist doing a split commodity on that, including my setup and experience.

I will say, the Kensington dock, so far, is the "keep it unproblematic, stupid" approach. One cable and everything has been working beautifully on Surface Pro 8 and Surface Laptop Studio. I call up for nigh people using this kind of dock, information technology's the setup most will become for, and for practiced reasons: It'southward much cheaper, easier, and works every time. I can run across myself using this as my daily desktop driver, and I plan to do simply that.

As far as an eGPU, for me, they still autumn into that category of it's so cool!, but very few people get ane. A stiff statement is made for just getting a darn gaming desktop for $1,400 to $3,500 (depending on the loftier-end GPU you get). You score more ports, a larger PSU, amend thermals, and it's only more straightforward.

What nearly you? Exercise you plan on going the route of eGPU, Thunderbolt dock, or run a risk everything and go for both?

Kensington SD5750T Thunderbolt Dock

Kensington'southward new Thunderbolt iv dock is certified for Surface Pro 8 and Laptop Studio. It brings 90W PD, four x Thunderbolt 4 ports, iv x USB-A ports, Ethernet, audio, and an SD card slot.

TABS

Microsoft looks to exist bringing tabs to File Explorer on Windows xi

It'south finally happening! Microsoft appears to exist adding a tabbed interface to the acme of File Explorer, as Insiders testing the latest preview build have discovered the feature in a hidden state. One time enabled, tabs will appear along the tiptop of the File Explorer app window, allowing users to have multiple folders open up in ane window.

Edit All The Things

Become a great eGPU for video editing on the go

Laptops accept come a long mode and many now come rocking defended GPUs, but this is still non quite plenty for powering through video editing at a decent footstep, but an external GPU can assistance.

Source: https://www.windowscentral.com/surface-laptop-studio-egpu

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