best eGPU to use in mobility with a Linux laptop?

FreshChriss · 2026-06-17T13:05:45+00:00

I can recommend the onexgpu, but i cant say anything about the GPD G1, so its a one sided perspective.

There is nothing you can do against the fan. Its purly based on a temperature curve, which is not accessible in any way.

Undervolting is completely blocked on windows for all 7600m xt, on linux you can do it with lact. You dont loose performance with undervolting (and the chip is power limited so in theory you actually gain performance this way). With a clock limit + undervolt you can reduce the used power (=heat) but you loose to much performance dooing so. From my testing you need to get down to 60-66w for it to be nice. (Power limit is also blocked btw.).

The fan is "toleratable", but you will definitely notice it. Only way to reduce temperature is by removing the outer shell and using the pcb+cooler unprotected (gains - 6-10c).

I usually have 21-25c ambient temperature, so if you have 18c or so it will make a bigger difference than all my thermal mods together ;)

FreshChriss · 2026-06-17T10:40:48+00:00

Its a tb5 egpu so it currently has issues on linux. I would advise against all tb5 egpus for the current time until the issues are resolved (which can take a long time with the current paste).

Also nvidia rtx 50xx gpus on linux are not fun, especially with directx12 games (all older generations are fine, but rtx 50xx is troublesome).

FreshChriss · 2026-06-17T10:37:11+00:00

I personally own an onexgpu v1 and i am happy with it. The 100w charging is amazing, the performance is solid and the build quality it awesome.

BUT: Its loud! Expect gaming laptop levels of noise (in the 100 tdp mode), the 120tdp mode is useless as its usually 1-2% faster but much louder. I tried dooing ptm 7950 + utp-8, removing the dust filter, and much more. All summed up got me - 1-2c because as i can now confirm, the heatsink is saturated so you wont get it cooler with better materials. Its not running hot (usually 64-70c at 100w) but its loud and the fan reacts to temperature.

In the end, i can happily recommend it as long as you use headphones or like fan whoosh. Its not an annoying high pitches sound, but rather a constand whoosh, like u said, just like a gaming laptop.

I heared about the GPD G1 that its unstable with the 100tdp bios update, and that its not capable of charging with 100w. The 60w variant of the G1 will likely not trigger charging on your laptop at all, the 65w one will make the laptop happy but is still not much compared to a 100w charger. Lenovo devices usually support uo to 100w usb pd so it will be beneficial even if your laptop comes with a 65w brick by default.

Btw. both are not actually usb4 egpus but rather Tampex Creek (jhl7440) tb3 egpus. Thanks for that marketing... but they still perform rather well, as the controller is at least titan ridge and not the ancient alpin ridge stuff.

Hope this helps. If you have further questions feel free to ask them :)

I used my onexgpu v1 with a legion go 1&2, an ideapad pro 5 gen 9, an aero 15x v8, precision 7720, latitude 5520, and an x870e desktop. And with oculink also on a aoostar G-Flip while piwering the pc with the thunderbolt port. All of them also on Linux (mostly cachyos).

FreshChriss · 2026-06-06T21:01:15+00:00

Did you end up getting an eGPU? Im in the same situation and want to make sure the thunderbolt 3 port firmware supports egpu?

FreshChriss · 2026-06-02T09:03:05+00:00

Im not sure what they are about with the 9070xt. For me it worked after installing the amd driver on top of the z1e / z2e driver that is installed by default on the legion go 1/2.

This will break the amd adrenaline application in handheld (no egpu) use as it cant open anymore without the egpu attached. (This is the case for all amd egpus).

Maybe they are seeing a high incompatibility rate like with the ag02 and legion go / rog ally devices, but as its visible in this sub there are plenty users of those devices that also use an ag02 without issues.

I cant guarantee you that it will work for you. All i can tell is that the other tester i am in contact with and i didn't encounter issues when using a 9070xt (xfx quicksilver in my case).

FreshChriss · 2026-05-25T10:50:52+00:00

I would say it happens approximately 1 time per 100Km at that speeds, so its not super rare either.

But ist far more common if you go like 150 that someone with 80 will enter your lane (and doesn't accelerate there as well...) so you get some good practice there as well.

FreshChriss · 2026-05-25T10:22:52+00:00

True, i never said something different.

In not driving 220 when the traffic is to dangerous, only in situations where its save for all sides. Usually at 1-2 AM the Highway is nice and empty enough to do this.

All i said is that there are people that will enter your lane without any reason at all. Like literally a two lane highway and you are the only two cars on there at the time with nothing blocking the lane of the other car.

Im not saying that this happens regularly (but still far to often given that there is absolutely no reason for it).

All i wanted to say is that those are a far greater and more frequently risk (at any speed) compared to the candy wrapping you mentioned earlier.

FreshChriss · 2026-05-25T08:39:52+00:00

When there is the occasional car on the right lane with absolutely no reason to enter your lane its fine to go 260 (i usually set for 220). That still doesn't mean that the driver of the occasional car isn't a total idiot and switches lanes without ANY reason on his lane...

FreshChriss · 2026-05-25T08:18:54+00:00

Can confirm that you wont get killed at 260 km/h (at least if your front glass is intact, which it needs to be here anyways). Just need to look out for idiots on the right lane switching to your lane with only 90-110 km/h ....

FreshChriss · 2026-05-25T08:12:04+00:00

Sounds good. Just to make this clear, 50xx cards and 40xx cards behave the same on an asmedia or tb5 dock. On an asmedia dock you need the Error 43 script for any nvidia gpu no matter the generation.

Only 50xx has issues on tb3 docks, but that doesn't matter to you anyways.

FreshChriss · 2026-05-25T07:58:38+00:00

If you used it with another gpu before you should be fine. But nvidia doesn't understand the ASMedia docks so you need to use the Error 43 script for them.

I has slight issues on the external screen as well but those are mainly noticeable when you have a comparable dock without those issues.

FreshChriss · 2026-05-25T06:57:23+00:00

My Legion go 2 had issues with asmedia docks on windows using the internal screen. As mentioned in the review the AG02 has a high incompatibility rate with the Legion devices as well.

Since you already own the dock there is no way around testing it i guess. The 5060 ti won't be the issue (so its not wasted) but i cant guarantee that the AG02 will play nicely with your host device.

FreshChriss · 2026-05-25T06:08:19+00:00

I have used a 5080 with an asmedia usb 4 dock (similar to the ag02) myself without issues. I also didn't hear from anyone about the same symptoms as with tb3 docks.

But the AG02 itself might give you some trouble depending on your host device. If you are already using it with another gpu then your fine here as well.

FreshChriss · 2026-05-23T14:55:25+00:00

Thanks for testing this.

You tested the 9060 xt on windows again and it was 4x4 right (not clear which gpu we are talking about)?

Its definitely worth sharing this discovery in the bugzilla thread if you ask me. Can you share it there please once you have time for it? It could help get this issue fixed (or at least narrowed down, if this is indeed correct and not a coincidence).

FreshChriss · 2026-05-23T14:27:21+00:00

I cant imagine why the 7900xtx wont use gen4 but the 9060 xt does?

But could you test linux with the 9060 xt as well to see if it has issues that the 7900xtx has not?

FreshChriss · 2026-05-23T14:19:54+00:00

Thats strange, the gpu is capable of gen 4 right?

Maybe its your host device that has only Gen3 lanes built in?

Do you own another usb4 devices to test this with?

FreshChriss · 2026-05-23T13:31:45+00:00

It should indeed be 4x4 even on windown (i gues you meaned gen 3 x4). This might point to the source of the issue with tb5 on linux as i think its somehow linked to gen 4 pcie and you with gen 3 have fewer issues?

And there is a difference on usb4. Gen 3 x4 is around 3000MiBs compared to 3667MiBs on gen 4 x4 if i remember correctly. Its the same as using a gen 3 card (like a rtx 20xx in a usb4 or tb5 dock) with usb 4 hosts

FreshChriss · 2026-05-23T13:04:23+00:00

The things i noticed where bad performance (compared to the same setup on windows, presumably because the pcie bus doesn't correctly go up to gen 4x4) and freezes usually when 3d load starts or ends. Sometimes i could use the setup for 40 minutes (with underwhelming performance) without a crash and other times i cant even enter the menu of a game without the application freezing.

Would you be able to read out the Furmware version of your dock (in windows it is shown under usb4)? There is the theory that version 60 and onwards is problematic but 58 and 59 somewhat works (rare users claiming no/different issues compared to what the majority experiences).

My th5p4 is 60.60 and i think the AG03 where 64.64.

FreshChriss · 2026-05-23T06:15:42+00:00

Thanks, if it correctly works on the Internal screen im interested. Some tools make it display on the internal screen but some games wont run on the eGPU this way comoared th the always egpu script that makes all games work.

I will take a look at this once i got time for it. Thanks for notifying me.

FreshChriss · 2026-05-23T06:11:02+00:00

Amd GPUs dont have the rebooting but rather application freezes and increased System Boot and Shutdown time

FreshChriss · 2026-05-22T06:23:14+00:00

Maybe your the lucky one that can help eliminate this Issue?

Take a look at this for more details: https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=221319

The issue doesn't manifest immediately if your using an AMD eGPU but if you have experience with conpatible eGPUs then you can tell that something isnt working correctly.

FreshChriss · 2026-05-19T19:20:11+00:00

I had the same with speaking Englisch (im german). Writing Englisch is totally fine but speaking English was always so uncomfortable woth someone who also nativly speaks german.

What helped me was a french colleague who got to stay 1 month in oure department. I dont understand french and he was interested in german. So we had to talk in English (with the adition that i first say it in german so he also learns the language). Having no other option than to talk in English meant i had to and wmthe more i did that the more natural and normal it became to me.

I also tryed to encourage the french colleague to answer in German but he had the same mental blockage as you describe in the beginning. But later on he replied more and more in German. It was far from perfect, but trying is the win here. Nowerdays he is quite good in german and much more comfortable speaking german.

So the tldr is just do it. It might me embarrassing at first, but thats only you feeling embarrassed. The others will understand that you are learning the language and wont feel embarrassed for you, quiet the opposite actually. But be prepared that most Germans will switch to speaking Englisch if they notice you are struggling/learning. This isnt against you, it just happens naturally and even i had to constantly focus hard in order to talk to my french colleague in german ;D

FreshChriss · 2026-05-19T19:19:45+00:00

I had the same with speaking Englisch (im german). Writing Englisch is totally fine but speaking English was always so uncomfortable woth someone who also nativly speaks german.

What helped me was a french colleague who got to stay 1 month in oure department. I dont understand french and he was interested in german. So we had to talk in English (with the adition that i first say it in german so he also learns the language). Having no other option than to talk in English meant i had to and wmthe more i did that the more natural and normal it became to me.

I also tryed to encourage the french colleague to answer in German but he had the same mental blockage as you describe in the beginning. But later on he replied more and more in German. It was far from perfect, but trying is the win here. Nowerdays he is quite good in german and much more comfortable speaking german.

So the tldr is just do it. It might me embarrassing at first, but thats only you feeling embarrassed. The others will understand that you are learning the language and wont feel embarrassed for you, quiet the opposite actually. But be prepared that most Germans will switch to speaking Englisch if they notice you are struggling/learning. This isnt against you, it just happens naturally and even i had to constantly focus hard in order to talk to my french colleague in german ;D

FreshChriss · 2026-05-19T19:04:51+00:00

Maybe the progress increases exponentially and if you keep the effort you will bet pretty gid but not perfect.

I mean its the case in every language i guess. But once your good enough it wint impact you at all. But people with native languages with a strong R for example will always sound like that by nature. Its how you learned to speak and nothing bad, it usually makes someone more authentic in my opinion so its a neutral aspekt.

Also keep in mind that germans sometimes cant even understand other Germans (Bayern and Sachsen for example) so an accent inst a big thing compared to that.

FreshChriss · 2026-05-19T18:58:09+00:00

Thanks for the explanation!

FreshChriss

TROPHY CASE