Best external GPU enclosures for your laptop in 2023

Buying the best external GPU enclosures for your laptop can be crucial to boosting the overall performance of the machine, be it for gaming or for improving the render speeds in Premiere Pro. The external GPU (or eGPU) enclosure, as the name suggests, holds a desktop graphics card and also provides power for it. These enclosures allow you to get all the horsepower and graphics capabilities of powerful desktop graphics even while using a thin and light laptop.

Although Thunderbolt 3, Thunderbolt 4, and USB4 have never been more easy to find on the latest laptops, today it’s becoming increasingly more difficult to find eGPU docks. New models aren’t coming out to replace old models, which are also going out of stock pretty much everywhere. Consequently, there just aren’t many eGPU enclosures out there to recommend, which can make finding one that’s right for you either very easy or very difficult.

These are the best eGPU enclosures in 2023

Razer Core X Chroma

Best overall eGPU enclosure

Ideal for gamers but also good for anyone with a high-end GPU

The Razer Core X Chroma is an external GPU enclosure with a 750W power supply, including 100W of power delivery to your laptop. Plus, it has RGB lighting for some extra flair.

Pros

• Large 750 watt PSU
• Plenty of space for even the biggest cards
• Good amount of I/O

Razer’s Core X Chroma is arguably the best external GPU enclosure you can buy for your laptop right now. It’s primarily made for gaming but can also appeal to anyone who needs a powerful GPU in general. At $500, the Core X Chroma is pretty expensive, but it offers a no-compromises solution to the eGPU experience. The Razer Core X Chroma isn’t officially compatible with current generation RTX 40 and RX 7000 series graphics, but it is compatible with previous-gen RTX 30 and RX 6000 GPUs, which are still among the best graphics cards available.

The Core X Chroma uses Razer’s classic black with green accents theme, and since it is a Chroma product, it also sports RGB. There’s a 15-zone RGB light strip on the front of the unit that can be customized using Razer’s Synapse software. You can also see the light through the side vents where the GPU itself is installed. The GPU lighting, if it has any, is also visible through this vent.

The Razer Core X Chroma comes with a handful of ports at the back. You get four USB 3.1 Type-A ports and a gigabit Ethernet jack. Other eGPU enclosure units have a better port selection, but this isn’t a bad selection either. These ports should be enough to connect an external monitor along with a bunch of peripherals like the keyboard, mouse, USB-driven headphones, and more. The Razer Core X Chroma also packs a 700W ATX PSU to power everything on its own.

If you’re after the best eGPU experience possible, the Core X Chroma is probably what you want. It’s fairly expensive at $500 but supports recent AMD and Nvidia GPUs, has plenty of room and power for even the largest cards, and has a good amount of I/O. Although it’s primarily made for gaming, there’s nothing stopping you from using this with any kind of powerful GPU for any sort of task you’d want to use an eGPU for.

Source: Razer

Razer Core X

Best eGPU enclosure for gaming

An eGPU enclosure for gaming without the frills

The Razer Core X features a sleek design with plenty of airflow, a 650W PSU, and clearance for even the largest gaming GPUs. If you don’t want RGB lighting, this is the option to get.

Pros

• Identical to the Core X Chroma in GPU compatibility
• 650 watt PSU
• Cheaper than the Core X Chroma

Cons

• No USB or Ethernet ports

If you’re on a budget and can’t afford Razer’s Core X Chroma enclosure, there’s actually a pretty obvious alternative: the regular Core X, non-Chroma. It’s a cheaper, less flashy, and cut-down version of the Core X Chroma that retails for $400 instead of $500. The Core X makes eGPU gaming significantly more affordable, but not without some compromises.

In theory, the Core X comes in either white or black, but it looks like only the white version is available at the time of writing. The Core X is almost identical to the Core X Chroma, except it doesn’t have any RGB, and in the case of the white model the chassis is just a standard aluminum color and finish.

The Core X is functionally identical to the Core X Chroma when it comes to GPU support; the corners have been cut in other areas. The Core X has a 650W PSU rather than the Core X Chroma’s 700W model, and literally, all the I/O that comes with the Core X Chroma is absent on the Core X. There are no USB ports or Ethernet, just the USB Type C port with Thunderbolt 3 that you need to use to connect the Core X to your laptop.

If you’re just interested in getting the best eGPU gaming experience for the minimum amount of money, Razer’s Core X is the way to go. It’s disappointing that it has no I/O (especially Ethernet, which tends to be important for gaming) but the Core X’s support for large GPUs that consume a lot of power sets it apart from other, cheaper eGPU enclosures that are really for midrange and lower-end cards or workstation GPUs that aren’t suitable for gaming.

Sonnet Breakaway Box 750

Best eGPU enclosure for creators

An all-around great enclosure, especially for professionals

If you want something a bit more subdued that still looks sleek, the Sonnet Breakaway Box 750 is also a great option. It has a more powerful 750 PSU, but oddly enough, it can only deliver 375W of continuous power to the GPU, with an additional 85W for peak loads. Plus, it charges your laptop at up to 85W.

Pros

• Supports high-end GPUs
• Great I/O with the 750ex model
• Relatively cheap

Cons

• GPU clearance isn’t great

The Sonnet Breakaway Box has been around for quite some time now, and it’s still one of the most reliable eGPU enclosures on the market. It’s aimed at creative professionals working with software like Da Vinci Resolve. The latest version of the Breakaway Box has two different versions: the 750 and the 750ex. Both units have a 750W PSU for high-end GPUs, and the 750ex model also comes with gigabit Ethernet and four USB 3.2 ports for an extra $50.

The Breakaway Box has a very functional design, and it demands a lot of space on your desk compared to other options. With its metal cage frame and panels held together with thumbscrews, it looks like a standard desktop. It also has no RGB, which might be an advantage to any of you that just don’t like the gamer aesthetic.

The 750W power supply is enough to power GPUs that consume up to 375 watts and have juice left over to charge your laptop too. However, because the Breakaway Box only supports cards that are two PCIe slots in thickness, you might have a hard time finding a graphics card that can actually use anywhere close to that amount of power. This is also why the Breakaway Box is better for creative users rather than gamers, as gaming GPUs are often more than two slots thick, while professional cards are almost exclusively two slots thick.

Overall, the Sonnet Breakaway Box is worth considering if you’re a creative professional who needs lots of eGPU horsepower; that you can daisy chain up to four Breakaway Boxes together could be very useful too for creative workloads. The base 750 model costs only $300, and the 750ex model with I/O is only $350. It’s also an inexpensive alternative to Razer’s Core X and Core X Chroma if you’re gaming, as long as you’re okay with sacrificing support for larger GPUs.

Source: Asus

ASUS XG Station Pro eGPU enclosure

Best minimalist eGPU enclosure

A minimalist enclosure that will cost you extra

The ASUS XG Station Pro is a minimal-looking eGPU enclosure that’s plenty to be paired with one of the older GPUs to accelerate the graphics performance of your system.

Pros

• Attractive minimalist design
• Decent amount of room for large GPUs

Cons

• Only a 330W PSU
• Expensive for what it offers
• Might not work with GPUs made after 2019

Asus’s XG Station Pro eGPU enclosure is a good alternative to Sonnet’s Breakway Box if you prefer a minimalist design. It doesn’t have any flashy RGB lights, and it provides a heavy-duty, professional appearance for your workspace. Its lack of support for modern GPUs prevents it from being an obvious choice, but it’s still recommendable especially if you have an older GPU.

Asus says the enclosure supports “full length” graphics cards (which probably means 300mm) that are up to 2.7 slots in thickness, which is decent enough. Additionally, the XG Station has two 120mm fans for cooling, which is more than most eGPU enclosures provide. This enclosure would be great for pretty much any GPU, but unfortunately, it doesn’t officially support anything made after 2019, which includes the RTX 30 series, RTX 40 series, RX 6000 series, and RX 7000 series. These cards might still work, but it’s hard to say if the experience would be up to par.

What we don’t necessarily like about this particular enclosure is the lack of I/O ports. Unlike some other GPU enclosures in this collection, the XG Station Pro only comes with a single USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C port. The Thunderbolt port will be used to connect the laptop itself, so that’s not going to be useful for any practical purpose. It also uses a proprietary power connector for the external 330W passive PSU, which is significantly less than other enclosures and will limit what GPUs you can use.

Overall, the XG Station Pro isn’t the best eGPU enclosure out there, but it’s good for those who have an older GPU lying around waiting to be used with an aging laptop or just want an enclosure that goes for the minimalist aesthetic. We’d still pick the Sonnet Breakaway Box over this one mainly due to better port selection, more compatibility with newer GPUs on the market, and a lower price, but the XG Station isn’t unusable by any means.

Source: Asus

ASUS ROG XG Mobile unit

Best proprietary eGPU

Specially made for select Asus laptops

The Asus ROG XG Mobile isn’t compatible with all laptops due to a proprietary connector, but it deserves a spot on this list due to its impressive performance and small form factor.

Pros

• Custom, compact design
• Tons of I/O
• Features modern GPUs

Cons

• Extremely expensive
• Only works with certain Asus laptops

While it’s not recommended to buy an eGPU enclosure with a proprietary connector, the Asus ROG XG Mobile unit is hard to ignore. This particular unit is different from every other enclosure on the list mainly because it doesn’t use Thunderbolt for connectivity, and it doesn’t come with a desktop-grade graphics card. That being said, it’s also meant to be used only one laptop in particular (at least for now) and it works as advertised.

The Asus ROG XG Mobile unit is an accessory that’s meant to be used with the company’s Flow X13, Flow Z13, and Flow X16 laptops. The eGPU unit is fairly small since it uses mobile GPUs. You can buy it with either an RX 6800M, RX 6850M XT, or an RTX 3080 mobile GPU (an RTX 4090 version is planned but not yet available) and it connects to the laptop via a proprietary connector. Having a proprietary connector means the XG Mobile unit can only be used with Flow-branded laptops that have explicit support for the XG Mobile.

That being said, there are advantages to having a proprietary connector like the one used in this case. The XG Mobile unit comes with a bunch of ports at the back including four USB Type-A ports, an SD card reader, a gigabit Ethernet jack, an HDMI 2.0a output, and a DisplayPort 1.4 jack. This means the XG mobile unit can also act as a hub to connect your laptop to external displays and other peripherals. With its 280W of power, the XG Mobile can even charge a Flow laptop and doesn’t have a brick of its own, so it further simplifies cable management.

It goes without saying the XG Mobile unit isn’t going to perform as well as some other eGPU units on the market with a full-sized desktop GPU, but it’s plenty to push a Flow laptop to its limits. However, its high price and relatively low performance make it a very, very poor value compared to other eGPU options. That just seems to be the price of an eGPU design to work the best with specific laptops though.

The best external GPU enclosures for laptops you can buy: Final thoughts

It wasn’t too long ago when it seemed like there were almost too many eGPU enclosure options. Nowadays, hardly any new models are coming out, and older ones are becoming increasingly harder to find. It’s a good thing Razer’s Core X Chroma is still available at its regular price because it’s still the best overall eGPU enclosure you can buy thanks to its support for large GPUs and good selection of I/O ports.

Razer Core X Chroma

Best overall eGPU enclosure

The Razer Core X Chroma is an external GPU enclosure with a 750W power supply, including 100W of power delivery to your laptop. Plus, it has RGB lighting for some extra flair.

There are alternatives to the Core X Chroma if you want to save some money. The regular Core X is $100 less and has basically the same GPU support, it just lacks RGB and I/O. Sonnet’s Breakway Box is great for people who are more focused on content creation and opt for workstation GPUs that use the standard two-slot form factor. It can also be used for gaming as long as you can accept not being able to use large triple slot cards.

Buying an eGPU enclosure is a great way to accelerate the graphics performance of your aging laptop. It’s also a good way to get more usage out of your machine before upgrading to an entirely new laptop or building a new computer, which can get more performance out of a desktop GPU than an eGPU enclosure can. If you opt for a desktop instead of a laptop-eGPU combo, take a look at our recommendations for the best CPUs and best GPUs.