Add external graphic card to ZBook 14u G6

[BengtR]

I want to add an external graphic card to my ZBook 14u G6 laptop. The bult in AMD is not performing well enough for me. I use it for not so advanced CAD. I of course do not expect performance for CAD can be fantastic on a laptop but if I have the option to get it better it would be great to use that option.

- What do I need in terms of adapters?

- I have an old docking station that blocks all ports except the USB on the right side. On the docking station there is access to a lot of USB ports but I don't know if any or which one is a thunderbolt 3 port. Should I get another docking station?

- What graphic card is reasonable? I expect that many high end cards would be pointless because of other bottlenecks in the computer. After all, the CPU can never run very fast because of limited power and cooling.

[Huffer]

See p. 7 item 7 in the Service Manual here. That is the Thunderbolt port. You can have an eGPU. To do so you need an external monitor, an eGPU Thunderbolt dock, a video card and an external desktop type power supply. In other words, it is a pretty sizeable setup and the cost is not a lot less than just building a desktop computer. 

Service Manual 

Since the eGPU dock sits outside the laptop and is externally powered, there is really no limit on the graphics card you can use as long as the power supply is enough to run it. The Thunderbolt bus provides plenty of bandwidth for a high end graphics card. I am not a big proponent of eGPUs just letting you know it is theoretically possible to do. 

[BengtR]

Yes, its costly and if I want one of the better cards like AMD radeon RS 7600 or 7700 XT there is none of the cheaper boxes that supports them. Often they say "750W power" but can only deliver half of it to the graphic card. Best deal I can find is a SONNET eGPU Breakaway Puck Radeon RX 5500XT. Cost a quarter of a combination of the above (about 500 €), is very small but is of course also about the quarter of the performance. Still way faster than the built in card.

The Thunderbolt port is covered by my docking station. Is there a way around that?

[Huffer · Accepted solution]

No. Likely the dock predates Tbolt and is used for various HP models. If you want a dock it is going to have to be a Thunderbolt dock with Thunderbolt passthrough to a part on the dock