Which EGPU for a 3080

I’m currently living in a work supplied hotel room for at least the next year where I am unable to port forward no matter what flavour of self-hosted vpns I tried. I decided to order a 12th gen framework as soon as preorders opened for australia with the plan to turn my desktop into a server that I can put at a family members house, just taking my 3080 out and slapping it into an egpu enclosure. Does anyone have any experience with this? The rated power on all of the egpu enclosures that I see seem like they might be a bit low for a 3080 and I’m unsure which one to choose

I have the Razer Core X Chroma with a 3090 in it. Works great in Windows. With Linux (Manjaro specifically) I’m trying to work through getting it working which I’m trying to document here: [GUIDE] [WIP] Manjaro, Kernel 5.18+, eGPU, Nvidia - #3 by nomb85

I really like this enclosure. Has built-in RJ45 connection and 4 USB ports so it can function like a dock.

For the 3090 though, I was worried about power consumption. I also bought a GPU that needed 3 8-pin connectors to power it (EVGA FTW3). The PSU that came with the enclosure only had 2 8-pins.

I bought a bracket from German off Etsy and used it to replace the PSU with a 750 watt and since I was in there change the fan to a Noctua for noise. As stated everything is solid in Windows 11. Manjaro I’m struggling.

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Perfect, thank you. I didn’t think of the PSU replacement idea for some reason

If you already have the 3080 then the point is moot I guess but you wouldn’t see any performance difference between a 3070 and a 3080 in an eGPU setup. I personally have a cooler master eg200 but haven’t a framework to power it yet :confused:. It features a standardized SFX PSU that you can replace if that is something you desire and unlike other enclosures, the USB ports on it run off their own dedicated connection so they don’t steal bandwidth from your GPU. The 3.5/2.5in drive bay is a nice bonus too. Fairly compact as well.

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I really like the eg200, thanks! the only thing it’s missing is ethernet, but that’s no biggie I guess. Thanks!

I just use a USB to Ethernet adapter! There are enough USB ports for me that I can plug that and wireless keyboard/mouse! Just my solution tho. You’re welcome!

Edit: I just bought a cheap 1Gbps USB adapter from best buy for $20 but if you want 2.5Gbps then this Startech product is for you!

I did find some cheaper USB 2.5Gbps adapters as well so you might want to consider the following as well:

https://www.amazon.com/Plugable-Ethernet-Adapter-Compatible-Thunderbolt/dp/B084L4JL9K/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=2.5gbps+usb+ethernet+adapter&qid=1662417264&sprefix=2.5gbps+usb+%2Caps%2C101&sr=8-3

https://www.amazon.com/Ethernet-Adapter-ULT-WIIQ-Thinkpad-Synology/dp/B09CP93V3G/ref=sr_1_16?keywords=2.5gbps+usb+ethernet+adapter&qid=1662417264&sprefix=2.5gbps+usb+%2Caps%2C101&sr=8-16

https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-Gigabit-Ethernet-Adapter-NT-S25G/dp/B08979LXJK/ref=sr_1_18?keywords=2.5gbps+usb+ethernet+adapter&qid=1662417264&sprefix=2.5gbps+usb+%2Caps%2C101&sr=8-18

The Sabrent above might actually be the best one with its aluminum construction, brand name and support for type-A and type-C ports

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I really like the EG200 also. Only reason I went with the Razer is it had a bit more clearance for longer cards and had a much beefier PSU. The one the EG200 comes with is kinda weak.

Be aware that a lot of the 2.5Gbps adapters can’t actually reach that speed due to limitations of their chip set. And of course a lot use the same chip set… There were a bunch of videos about this awhile ago.

The adapter that I’m currently using and really really like is this guy: https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-5-Gigabit-Ethernet-Adapter-NT-SS5G/dp/B08977K9D2/ref=sr_1_3?crid=3K6VZPZ12LLPL&keywords=sabrent+5gbe&qid=1662433144&sprefix=sabrent+5gbe%2Caps%2C80&sr=8-3

I feel like it has good performance and is priced reasonably. I sometimes work on higher speeds network and get good results with it.

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I have a Razer Core X Chroma that I moved a ROG Strix 3080 from my Desktop PC into. The power supply was more than adequate (700W, 500W usable). The card did need 3 x PCIe connections when only 2 were available in the enclosure. A splitter on one of them works perfectly fine. Cyberpunk 2077 runs at 45-55fps with everything cranked up to Ultra, and the video looped back to the laptop display via Thunderbolt at it’s native resolution. I’d expect using an external display would be better, but haven’t tried it yet.

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@Darrel_Hunt Forgive my ignorance here, I haven’t done this before:

and the video looped back to the laptop display via Thunderbolt at it’s native resolution

Would you mind sharing how this works? Any particular / specific cables needed, and how to connect them? Software config or fiddling with the drivers or settings?

Thank you!

Sure, no special cables needed actually. I just plugged the gpu into the laptop as you would normally, with no monitor attached. It just kind of knew to use the gpu and redirect the output back to the laptop.

I understand that there’s quite a performance drop doing this due to the bandwidth of the cable/thunderbolt3 being a limiting factor.

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Any chance you have the ability to bench mark the kinds of frame rate differences you can expect from doing this? If not I can do it next month when my framework arrives.
I probably won’t end up doing this ever because I have some fairly high quality monitors - I just think having benchmarks for this might be useful to other people

I don’t have experience in EGPUs, but can I ask what type of port forward did you do?

I use a Razer Core X Chroma that holds a 5700XT with my 12th gen i7 Framework. Long story short, CPU is the bottleneck. Manufacturer recommends no more than 500W GPU with its 700W power supply, so it should still work with the 3080.
Even though it has ethernet, it is very unreliable. Even if it was reliable, I wouldn’t recommend using it as it would be fighting the GPU for bandwidth. I have devices that don’t require much data connected to my GPU such as a keyboard and mouse.
If ethernet is important, consider a dedicated USB/thunderbolt adapter or a separate hub.

I’m also developing an expansion card that is mag safe quick disconnect for my eGPU enclosure, so stay tuned :slight_smile:

This is why I bought the eg200, it doesn’t have this issue

With my framework shipping probably this week according to the emails, I ended up deciding to go with the eg200. The 60w charging plus the seperate controller for usb dock functionality is what sold me on it.

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