External graphics card enclosures can be used to increase the power of your laptop by connecting
a desktop PC graphics card, but there are different types available. In this video we’ll
take a look at the differences between a standard Thunderbolt 3 enclosure and Alienware’s
graphics amplifier to find out which performs better in games.
For testing I’m going to be using the Alienware M15 gaming laptop with i7-8750H CPU, Nvidia
1070 Max-Q graphics, and 16GB of memory running in dual channel. As an Alienware laptop, it’s
got a dedicated port on the back for the Alienware graphics amplifier, however it’s also got
a Thunderbolt 3 port, meaning we’ve got two options here when it comes to external
graphics enclosures.
Aside from Alienware’s own graphics amplifier, for the Thunderbolt 3 enclosure I’m using
the Mantiz Venus which I’ve reviewed previously on the channel.
Let’s briefly go over the differences between how these two work. At the core they’re
both the same, in that you plug in a desktop PC graphics card into the enclosure and connect
a single cable from the enclosure to the laptop, but that’s basically where the similarities
end.
Alienware’s graphics amplifier uses a proprietary cable, so it can only be used with an Alienware
laptop. A Thunderbolt 3 enclosure on the other hand uses a standard USB Type-C Thunderbolt
port, so it’s compatible with a lot more laptops. As you may know though, Thunderbolt
3 is also used for a lot of other things, including data transfer, display signal, and
even as a power source, so it’s a lot more versatile.
As a result Thunderbolt 3 can be used for more than just graphics. Take the Mantiz Venus
enclosure I’ve got here for example, the enclosure itself has an ethernet port, USB
Type-A ports, and even space inside to mount a 2.5” sata SSD or hard drive for extra
storage, all of which becomes available by simply plugging your laptop in with a single
Thunderbolt cable. If your laptop charges over USB C too, like the Razer Blade Stealth
for instance, then you don’t even need to use the power brick, it will just get powered
by the enclosure. With the Thunderbolt 3 option you’ve also got the option of not using
an external monitor, and instead just using the laptops screen, but this comes at a performance
cost and is not recommended.
With the Alienware solution you’d still have to plug in your keyboard and mouse over
USB, ethernet, and power brick in addition to their custom cable, so overall Thunderbolt
gives you more option. Using an external monitor with the amplifier is also the only option
as far as I’m aware.
This flexibility comes at a cost though, the simplest way to think about it is that these
additional features use up more of the bandwidth between the laptop and enclosure, meaning
the Thunderbolt 3 enclosure won’t perform quite as well in graphical intensive tasks
such as gaming when compared to the graphics amplifier, which is dedicated purely to graphics.
Additionally some laptops only have 2 PCIe lanes of Thunderbolt available while others
have 4, so not only is the bandwidth shared with other things it can also vary between
laptop, whereas the graphics amplifier port has four dedicated lanes of PCIe 3 just for
graphics only.
Let’s take a look at some gaming benchmarks to get an idea of what this differences actually
looks like. I’ve tested a few games at all setting levels with different resolutions
using my Aorus 2080 Ti
Far Cry 5 was tested with the built in benchmark, and these are the results with a 1080p resolution.
I’ll explain the graph a bit as there’s quite a bit of data here. The four setting
levels tested are on the left, low, normal, high and ultra. At each setting level I’ve
tested the Alienware M15 gaming laptop either by itself, so with the 1070 Max-Q graphics
shown in red, with the Mantiz Venus Thunderbolt 3 enclosure and 2080 Ti shown in blue, or
with the Alienware Graphics Amplifier and 2080 Ti, shown in green.
In this game, we can see that the graphics amplifier, shown by the green bars, is ahead
of the thunderbolt 3 enclosure in the blue bars. At ultra settings, the graphics amplifier
is scoring 4.4% higher average frame rates, although both are a fair bit ahead of the
laptop’s 1070 Max-Q graphics, with the Mantiz Venus getting 24% higher average FPS and the
graphics amplifier being 29% ahead.
Unfortunately at 1440p I haven’t got results from the laptop’s 1070 Max-Q, so at this
resolution we’ll just be looking at the differences purely between thunderbolt 3 and
graphics amplifier. At ultra settings the amplifier is now getting 18% higher average
frame rates compared to the Thunderbolt 3 solution, and an 11% improvement to 1% low.
Next up I’ve tested Fortnite using the replay feature. At 1080p there was just a 2.7% improvement
to average FPS with epic settings in use, but we can see that at the lower setting levels
the Thunderbolt 3 option was actually ahead, and is ahead in all tests when it comes to
1% lows. In general we expect higher graphical settings to get better results with the graphics
amplifier, the more we can saturate that link and utilize the graphics the bigger difference
we should see. Fortnite seems to be an example where it doesn’t really help much, but again
both are performing a fair bit better compared to the laptop’s 1070 Max-Q graphics. Again
at ultra settings the Thunderbolt 3 enclosure is getting 85% higher average frame rate than
the laptop’s graphics, and a 90% higher average frame rate with the amplifier.
At 1440p again I don’t have 1070 Max-Q results, however at this higher resolution we’re
seeing a bigger difference between the two enclosures. At epic settings the amplifier
is now scoring 14% higher average FPS compared to the Thunderbolt 3 option but this gap narrows
at lower settings, again because lower setting levels tend to be more CPU bound so there’s
less difference.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider was tested using the built in benchmark. At 1080p we can see
a huge difference between our three options. At the lower setting levels the Thunderbolt
3 enclosure isn’t actually scoring much better compared to the laptop’s 1070 Max-Q
graphics, but then this grows further apart at the higher setting levels which start to
become more graphically intensive. With the highest settings the amplifier was scoring
23% higher average frame rates over the Thunderbolt 3 enclosure, while the Thunderbolt 3 enclosure
was still 28% ahead of the 1070 Max-Q.
Stepping up to 1440p the amplifier is still a fair bit ahead of the Thunderbolt 3 option.
At highest settings it’s now almost reaching 18% higher in terms of average FPS, and then
this is about the same with lowest settings in use as well.
PUBG was tested using the replay feature, and in most cases the Thunderbolt 3 option
was coming out ahead of the amplifier. In particular, at 1080p with ultra settings in
use the amplifier was 4% below the Thunderbolt3 enclosure but again like before both are a
fair bit above what the laptop’s 1070 Max-Q is providing. The amplifier was 24% ahead
at ultra settings of the 1070 Max-Q, while the Thunderbolt 3 enclosure was 30% ahead.
At 1440p the tables are turned, with the amplifier now ahead in all tests as the game is likely
becoming more graphically demanding with the higher resolution. At ultra settings the amplifier
is scoring 8% higher average frame rates compared to the Thunderbolt 3 enclosure, with a similar
7% improvement to 1% low.
CS:GO was tested with the Ulletical benchmark, and it’s a good example of a title that
doesn’t really make a difference which we pick, in fact with all settings maxed the
amplifier was actually around 4% slower than the thunderbolt 3 enclosure. Both external
graphics options are way ahead of the laptop’s 1070 Max-Q though, the Thunderbolt 3 enclosure
is getting 103% higher FPS with all settings maxed out, while the amplifier is 95% ahead
of the 1070 Max-Q.
At 1440p there’s a larger difference between the two, however interestingly the amplifier
is getting worse in this game at this resolution, perhaps as it seems to be a more CPU demanding
game. With the settings at maximum the thunderbolt 3 enclosure was getting 16% higher average
FPS compared to the amplifier.
This graph shows how much better on average the amplifier was performing compared to the
Thunderbolt 3 enclosure with the five games tested at maximum settings. It was a bit of
a mixed bag, with the Thunderbolt 3 option coming out ahead in CS:GO and PUBG, while
the amplifier was ahead in the rest, and way ahead in Shadow of the Tomb Raider.
At 1440p the differences are much larger, this time the amplifier was winning in 4 of
the 5 games tested, with double digit percentage differences being far more common, though
interestingly even worse performance in the CS:GO test. Unfortunately I didn’t have
time to test more games and looking back now I regret not testing 4K, but I ran out of
time before having to send the M15 back. Either way I think this selection is enough to show
that it really varies by game, setting, and resolution, but in general we can say that
the amplifier is performing better in more GPU demanding tasks as expected.
Whether or not that extra performance is worth it compared to the other benefits of Thunderbolt
3 is something for you to decide when picking an external graphics enclosure. Personally
I like the idea of a Thunderbolt enclosure as you’ve got the option of using it with
future non Alienware laptops, and can also use it for more than just graphics, but if
I actually had an Alienware laptop and only cared about boosting my game performance then
the amplifier would make more sense.
For up to date pricing check the links in the description, as prices will change over
time. At the time of recording, the Alienware Graphics Amplifier goes for around $189 USD,
while the Thunderbolt 3 enclosure I’m using, the Mantiz Venus is around $340, but there
are other cheaper Thunderbolt 3 enclosures available at different price points with different
features though. You’ve also got to take into account the price of the graphics card,
so the overall solution can get pretty expensive making this a fairly niche solution when compared
to just having a powerful PC and cheaper laptop for travel.
Let me know what you guys would pick if you had or have an Alienware laptop, the graphics
amplifier or some other Thunderbolt 3 enclosure and why, and if you’re new here don’t
forget to subscribe for future tech videos like this one.