Notebook: External graphics card - is it worth the investment?

A good way to upgrade your notebook is to invest in an external graphics card. However, you may want to ask yourself whether you will benefit from improved graphics enough to make the extra cost worthwhile. We give you helpful hints.

When is an external graphics card worthwhile?

Generally, external graphics cards were developed to help notebooks with weak graphics performance gain more 3D performance without having to make any changes to the device itself.

1. If you only use your notebook for classic office work or studying, then you usually do not need high-quality graphics, which hardly makes the investment worthwhile.
2. For elaborate gaming or graphics programs, the performance of the installed graphics card is often not enough. However, Thunderbolt 3 is not able to guarantee sufficient data bandwidth.
3. At the moment, the interface is still a problem, since you always have to expect higher latencies, which can be very annoying for gaming or even with elaborate software.
4. It often makes more sense to have a graphics card installed internally or to install it yourself, since an external graphics card can only work with 70 to 80 percent of the speed, at least at the moment.
5. Due to technical difficulties, the entire performance of a graphics card cannot currently be accessed.

When is an external graphics card an option?

Of course, there are situations where you can benefit from an external graphics card for your notebook. The rule here is that the speed of the application is marginal. The less speed is assumed, the more potential can be exploited.