Based on you mentioning a 960M, it sounds like you have an XPS 15 9550. I believe there are confirmed reports of people running an eGPU with that model of XPS 15. Googling “XPS 15 9550 eGPU” might turn up some useful articles and owner experiences on other sites more focused specifically around eGPUs. But off the top of my head, be aware of the following:
- Since you have an XPS 15 spec with an NVIDIA GPU already built in, plan to use an NVIDIA GPU in your eGPU enclosure, not an AMD GPU. Apparently you can end up with driver issues if you try to mix those.
- Update your BIOS and Thunderbolt 3 controller firmware. The XPS 15 9550 for a long time only had old TB3 firmware available, which created problems for eGPUs especially, but Dell finally released newer firmware a while ago.
- The XPS 15 9550 only has a PCIe x2 interface wired to its TB3 port, not an x4 interface, so you’ll take a performance penalty there. You’ll take another performance penalty if you want to use the eGPU with your built-in display since that means the eGPU has to send data back down the TB3 link, so for best results connect external displays directly to the eGPU itself.
- The XPS 15 is designed for a 130W power source. That is more than most USB-C/TB3 power sources provide and actually more than the 100W max of the USB Power Delivery spec. Dell makes some docks that can provide 130W over that cable because they did something proprietary to stretch the spec, but if you don’t want to go that route you’ll definitely want to keep the power adapter directly connected to the system even if your eGPU offers power. If you DO want a dock, use either a Dell TB16 with a 240W power supply (required on that dock to pass 130W to the system) or the newer WD19TB. The latter is only available with a 180W power supply, but that’s enough on that dock to send 130W through to the system. Either way, you’d connect the system to the dock and then plug your eGPU into the dock’s “upstream” Thunderbolt port. I discussed this setup here with someone else a while ago and they confirmed it worked. But again, in this setup you’d want to connect your displays to the eGPU, NOT the dock’s display outputs.
The plan was to use a Nvidia GTX 1660 TI card as from google search and benchmarks its about 300% better.
Great feedback on that display use. Right now without docking I use an external 28" and my laptop display for dual screen work. But I want to change and get 2 identical monitors instead, running from the eGPU instead. So then its wont be that bad? But based on the x2 PCI how much penalty do I get, will a 1660 TI give me some performance increase at all? Is there a simple calculation rule to figure that out?
Also good to know that I can have a WD19TB and then add the eGPU to that, if I want a single cable solution. But then again 2 cables is even less than the 3 I use today (power, usb hub, hdmi display).
Happy to help! In terms of the performance penalty, I believe if you’re using a PCIe x2 interface but using displays directly connected to the eGPU, the performance penalty is about 10%. If you’re using the built-in panel, I believe it’s about 15%. But I’m working from memory here. Again, you’ll probably find more detailed information, possibly including benchmarks that compare an XPS 15 9550 eGPU setup to a similar desktop installation, by just Googling “XPS 15 9550 eGPU”.
One other thing I forgot to mention. Most systems if you go to Thunderbolt Control Panel and check the details area where hardware information is listed will say “External GPU Supported: No”. I don’t know what exactly is required for that to say Yes, but there are many confirmed cases of people using an eGPU on many systems like that.
jphughan
9 Legend
•
14K Posts
0
October 27th, 2019 14:00
Based on you mentioning a 960M, it sounds like you have an XPS 15 9550. I believe there are confirmed reports of people running an eGPU with that model of XPS 15. Googling “XPS 15 9550 eGPU” might turn up some useful articles and owner experiences on other sites more focused specifically around eGPUs. But off the top of my head, be aware of the following:
- Since you have an XPS 15 spec with an NVIDIA GPU already built in, plan to use an NVIDIA GPU in your eGPU enclosure, not an AMD GPU. Apparently you can end up with driver issues if you try to mix those.
- Update your BIOS and Thunderbolt 3 controller firmware. The XPS 15 9550 for a long time only had old TB3 firmware available, which created problems for eGPUs especially, but Dell finally released newer firmware a while ago.
- The XPS 15 9550 only has a PCIe x2 interface wired to its TB3 port, not an x4 interface, so you’ll take a performance penalty there. You’ll take another performance penalty if you want to use the eGPU with your built-in display since that means the eGPU has to send data back down the TB3 link, so for best results connect external displays directly to the eGPU itself.
- The XPS 15 is designed for a 130W power source. That is more than most USB-C/TB3 power sources provide and actually more than the 100W max of the USB Power Delivery spec. Dell makes some docks that can provide 130W over that cable because they did something proprietary to stretch the spec, but if you don’t want to go that route you’ll definitely want to keep the power adapter directly connected to the system even if your eGPU offers power. If you DO want a dock, use either a Dell TB16 with a 240W power supply (required on that dock to pass 130W to the system) or the newer WD19TB. The latter is only available with a 180W power supply, but that’s enough on that dock to send 130W through to the system. Either way, you’d connect the system to the dock and then plug your eGPU into the dock’s “upstream” Thunderbolt port. I discussed this setup here with someone else a while ago and they confirmed it worked. But again, in this setup you’d want to connect your displays to the eGPU, NOT the dock’s display outputs.
Hopefully this helps!
VKol
1 Rookie
•
2 Posts
0
October 28th, 2019 00:00
Thank you for detailed answer.
The plan was to use a Nvidia GTX 1660 TI card as from google search and benchmarks its about 300% better.
Great feedback on that display use. Right now without docking I use an external 28" and my laptop display for dual screen work. But I want to change and get 2 identical monitors instead, running from the eGPU instead. So then its wont be that bad? But based on the x2 PCI how much penalty do I get, will a 1660 TI give me some performance increase at all? Is there a simple calculation rule to figure that out?
Also good to know that I can have a WD19TB and then add the eGPU to that, if I want a single cable solution. But then again 2 cables is even less than the 3 I use today (power, usb hub, hdmi display).
jphughan
9 Legend
•
14K Posts
0
October 28th, 2019 05:00
Happy to help! In terms of the performance penalty, I believe if you’re using a PCIe x2 interface but using displays directly connected to the eGPU, the performance penalty is about 10%. If you’re using the built-in panel, I believe it’s about 15%. But I’m working from memory here. Again, you’ll probably find more detailed information, possibly including benchmarks that compare an XPS 15 9550 eGPU setup to a similar desktop installation, by just Googling “XPS 15 9550 eGPU”.
One other thing I forgot to mention. Most systems if you go to Thunderbolt Control Panel and check the details area where hardware information is listed will say “External GPU Supported: No”. I don’t know what exactly is required for that to say Yes, but there are many confirmed cases of people using an eGPU on many systems like that.