Testing eGPU on FW12

[Rarelam]

I tried an eGPU on the fw12, I have an i3,32Gb Ram, 1Tb AddLink NVMe. I did not run any benchmarks, the results are mostly subjective.
For the eGPU I used an m.2 2230 to PCIe x16 slot(Chenyang Oculink SFF-8612 £35 ~$50), with an oculink cable inbetween
GPU: 1080ti
PSU: 350W BeQuiet!
Storage: 256Gb Expansion Card
OS: Bazzite
Monitor: 3440x1440 (21:9)

I tested 3 games:
Star Wars BattleFront 2 - Graphics were able to run much better, but the CPU just not seem to be able to handle the game, it suffers from cumulating input lag until it fully locks up
Just Cause 4 - Big improvement in graphics, 40-50fps 1920x800, however I would get random hangs where the game would just lock up.
Supreme Commander 2 - Runs well I at 1920x800 no issues with it

During the tests powerstat reported CPU power usage 50W

The nice thing was it just worked, albeit with the top cover off.

[Shunckry]

Hello, i’m interested in your test because apparently eGPU should not work on FW12.

But i’m curious about what you have to say more on it. Because i want to use it too and i don’t know if i should buy it for the fw12.

We have discuss it à bit on my post here

FW12 for designer

The reason it isn’t suitable for egpu has nothing to do with speed, 20gbit does work for egpus as generations of thinkpads with half bandwidth thunderbolt 3 showed (and is much more than some single lane egpu setups have) but usb3.x does not support pcie tunneling which is required for egpu.

[Adrian_Joachim]

That is using the ssd slot, not really practical for regular use.

[20dogs]

Do you have any photos you can share?

I do wonder if it’s possible to run a cable internally to the rear middle, cutting a hole between the fan openings to create a permanent Oculink port. Of course it would only work while the screen is folded back, but it could be a nice permanent solution.

[20dogs]

I can also confirm this works! Keyboard needs to stay off, need to find a way to route the cable where I can screw the keyboard back in.

I also noticed the internal screen doesn’t work when the eGPU is attached.

But still, good that it works!

[Shunckry]

Do you think an eGPU would work well on the FW12 without all the DIY setup? I’m not really a fan of opening up or modifying my computer XD

[Daniil]

No, it should not work well at all for a billion reasons. Single-channel RAM is one of them. I will be very surprised if it proves itself otherwise.

[Adrian_Joachim]

@Shunckry

Do you think an eGPU would work well on the FW12 without all the DIY setup? I’m not really a fan of opening up or modifying my computer XD

It’s not really possible to have a “non diy” setup without opening or modifying the computer as the 12 has no usb4 or any other form of externally exposed pcie.

You could stream games from a different computer if that counts as a workaround but that’s about it.

[20dogs]

I don’t see why single channel RAM would be a problem. As it’s DDR5 you should be reaching dual channel DDR4 speeds anyway.

As I noted above, I used it and it works brilliantly (except that you can’t re-attach the keyboard).

[Daniil]

I don’t know what you are going to use an eGPU for, but I assume it is either for content creation or playing video games. Both highly favor multi-channel memory, especially gaming.

@20dogs

DDR5 you should be reaching dual channel DDR4 speeds anyway

Yeah, but that is also not the same as two concurrent streams of data transfer.
That is important. Like for example, the secret sauce for the Steam Deck APU is 4x channel memory (for heavy iGPU usage, I know, but nevertheless).

@20dogs

As I noted above, I used it and it works brilliantly (except that you can’t re-attach the keyboard).

Whatever you do with an eGPU, I bet you would get significantly higher performance on the same device and same amount of RAM just switching to dual channel.

Also, as was noted, the Laptop 12 doesn’t have USB4 or Thunderbolt 4, so running an eGPU without opening it up and sacrificing an M.2 SSD slot is impossible, save for the lack of hot plugging.

All I am trying to do is to say that if any person chooses the Laptop 12, they would not get a pleasant experience using an eGPU and keep using it as a completely assembled portable device. Which is the direct answer to the question I tried to answer.

TL;DR
If you want to buy the Laptop 12 to actively use it with an eGPU, I would recommend literally anything else that has USB4 / Thunderbolt (with 4x PCIe lanes) instead, like the Laptop 13.

[Adrian_Joachim]

@Daniil

the secret sauce for the Steam Deck APU is 4x channel memory (for heavy iGPU usage, I know, but nevertheless).

That is just normal dual channel lpddr5 (with ddr5 they split each previously 64bit channel into 2 32bit ones) so with that way of counting the fw12 is already dual channel. But counting each dimm as 2 channels is kinda stupid so almost noone does it.

@Daniil

Also, as was noted, the Laptop 12 doesn’t have USB4 or Thunderbolt 4, so running an eGPU without opening it up and sacrificing an M.2 SSD slot is impossible, save for the lack of hot plugging.

Given the fw12 ended up being too expensive to really fit the cheap segment them not even putting one usb4 port on the thing seems like a sub-obtimal choice. But I suppose the 12 has plenty of those (unfortunate keyboard matrix, no backlight even as an option…). If they wanted the super entry level option they could allways have added it to the much more expensive i5 model and not to the i3 one so they could keep the price floor but well that ship has sailed.