Summary
- The rising popularity of PC gaming handhelds is driving demand for eGPUs and eGPU enclosures.
- Thunderbolt 5 eGPUs and eGPU enclosures will bring higher bandwidth and better gaming performance than the current crop of eGPUs which are based on Thunderbolt 3 and OCuLink protocols.
- Limited availability of Thunderbolt 5 devices has hindered widespread adoption of new technology, but the good news is that these eGPUs and enclosures are already arriving and will be ready for use with a new generation of handhelds and laptops.
Thunderbolt 5 has been here for some time, but aside from being used as a high-bandwidth hub connector for docks, there hasn’t been a use case that can push the speedy protocol to its limits. This should change with the arrival of Thunderbolt 5 eGPUs and eGPU enclosures and docks.
eGPUs and eGPU Enclosures Are a Hot Topic Again
Now that PC gaming handhelds have slowly begun to penetrate the mainstream gaming market, the demand for external GPUs and eGPU enclosures and docks is rising with the release of each new handheld gaming PC.
Thin and light laptops that don’t have enough space for high-end mobile GPUs present another expanding market that can significantly benefit from eGPUs.
The kicker is that there’s only a handful of modern eGPU models, mainly from Chinese brands such as GPD and One-Netbook, to choose from. Many of these are relatively hard to come by.
The eGPU enclosure market is in an even worse state. We haven’t seen any development on this front ever since Thunderbolt 3 was considered a cutting-edge technology. Thunderbolt 4 and USB 4 didn’t bring any bandwidth improvements compared to Thunderbolt 3, so manufacturers didn’t have any reason to develop new models.
There are only a handful of eGPU enclosures and docks available for sale in a brand new condition. Most of those are relatively affordable models from China that don’t offer any extra features or only come with OCuLink support, like the MINISFORUM DEG1 (which is still a niche connection port found on a few devices).
eGPU enclosures from major brands, such as the Core X from Razer, have been discontinued. The only way to get hold of one is by diving into the used market.
Minisforum DEG1
The Minisforum DEG1 is an affordable OCuLink eGPU dock that offers a phenomenal price, is compatible with most graphics cards, and includes space for mounting an ATX or SFX PSU.
In other words, the eGPU enclosure market is in a coma of sorts, but this could change with the arrival of Thunderbolt 5 eGPU enclosures.
Higher Bandwidth Means Better Gaming Performance
The biggest improvement that Thunderbolt 5 brings over its predecessors is higher bandwidth. Instead of being limited to 40Gbps, Thunderbolt 5 tops out at 120Gbps of unidirectional bandwidth for use with monitors, and 80Gbps of bi-directional bandwidth for use with devices such as external SSDs and eGPUs.
Doubling the maximum bi-directional bandwidth compared to Thunderbolt 4 means that there’s a lot more performance available from external GPUs and, finally, a connection protocol that can rival OCuLink’s 64Gbps bandwidth.
In other words, eGPUs and eGPUs enclosures and docks utilizing the Thunderbolt 5 protocol should offer faster gaming performance than any Thunderbolt 3, 4, or USB4 port is capable of achieving.
Further, external GPUs and enclosures are the best possible applications for Thunderbolt 5. They’re low-latency, high-bandwidth devices used over short distances, which is the perfect Thunderbolt 5 use case.
The most interesting Thunderbolt 5 product I’ve seen to date is ASUS’s new XG Mobile 2025 eGPU lineup that features up to an RTX 5090 mobile GPU, up to 80Gbps of bi-directional bandwidth, and a selection of extra ports. This eGPU provides serious gaming performance but can also play the role of a Thunderbolt 5 dock since it comes with multiple high-speed USB-A ports, HDMI 2.1 and DisplayPort 2.1 connectivity, as well as 5Gb Ethernet and an SD card reader.
Best of all, the eGPU is fully compatible with devices rocking Thunderbolt 4, Thunderbolt 3, USB 4, or USB 4 v2 (an 80Gbps USB 4 variant). The only major ding here is the price, set at $2,199.99 for the RTX 5090 model and $1,199.99 for the RTX 5070 Ti variant.
If you don’t want to pay a fortune for a device you won’t be able to upgrade with a faster eGPU down the line, there’s the Studio-G 850 eGPU enclosure from Sparkle. The Studio-G 850 features Thunderbolt 5 connectivity, a built-in 850W PSU, and a 12VHPWR power connector used by high-end NVIDIA GPUs.
The enclosure also includes an Ethernet port and a couple of USB-A high-speed ports. While there isn’t any news yet about availability, the Studio-G 850 should provide a great alternative to ASUS’s pricey XG Mobile 2025 lineup, one that supports GPU upgrades.
The Winstars WS-GTD01 is another Thunderbolt 5 eGPU enclosure that should arrive soon. Compared to the Studio-G 850, the WS-GTD01 features an enhanced selection of extra ports (3x Thunderbolt 5 downstream ports, 3x USB-A 10Gbps ports, 5 Gigabit Ethernet), but it lacks a built-in power supply.
eGPUs and Enclosures Are Ready for Thunderbolt 5 Devices
While Thunderbolt 5 eGPUs and eGPU enclosures are heralding a new age of eGPUs, which will bring much higher bandwidth and thusly much higher gaming performance compared to the current crop of external GPUs and eGPU enclosures and docks, slow adoption of the Thunderbolt 5 and USB 4 v2 protocols is the biggest impediment preventing this new age from becoming a reality sooner.
At the moment of writing this, there are only a couple of laptops featuring Thunderbolt 5 ports and half of those are new M4 MacBooks that don’t support eGPUs. Worse still, there isn’t a single handheld gaming PC sporting Thunderbolt 5 or USB 4 v2 ports.
While this fact makes the aforementioned Thunderbolt 5 eGPUs and eGPU enclosures much less exciting, the two important things are: they are finally arriving and they are future-proof. Once Thunderbolt 5 and USB 4 v2 handhelds and laptops start to appear in larger numbers, their owners won’t have to wait for higher bandwidth eGPUs and eGPU enclosures to arrive. They will be able to benefit from higher bandwidth from the get-go.
Thunderbolt 5 is fully compatible with Thunderbolt 4, 3, and USB 4. Owners of PC gaming handhelds and thin and light laptops equipped with Thunderbolt 4 and USB 4 ports will be able to use a Thunderbolt 5 eGPU/eGPU enclosure with their current devices.
Once they upgrade to a Thunderbolt 5 or a USB 4 v2 device, they can utilize the full bandwidth of their Thunderbolt 5 external GPU and get even higher gaming performance.
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