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Godot on laptop using external GPU? Good idea? Bad idea? (reddthat.com)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/gamedev

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So I'm looking for advice on external GPUs. I want to try out Godot, but I don't have a GPU. I don't think I've ever had a GPU in fact. I'm a software developer actually, python mostly, but I've never done GPU stuff in my work, and my PC gaming days were mostly prior to the existence of GPUs. So I'm way out of touch with them.

I do have a reasonable laptop that I've been using for dev stuff, a Dell XPS 9370 (build number from Dell is CNX37014), but it has no GPU, so I guess it won't be great for trying out 3D stuff in Godot. It does have thunderbolt ports though, so I think I can plug an external GPU into those? Anyone tried that kind of thing out? I'd rather fork out for an external GPU if that will work decently rather than try to build a whole new PC or something. I actually have no idea if there is a performance hit for the GPU being external, just heard they were a thing and trying to figure out if they are a viable option.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

A pretty weak one but it should be fine if you're just trying things out.

Yeah? I tried unreal engine 4 on this laptop a few years ago and even just doing very basic stuff with the demo templates in the 3D UI thing was pretty garbage. But maybe Godot is more efficient? Or maybe it's just because I was on Linux using Vulkan drivers which were pretty new and Unreal wasn't using them well or something?

That being said eGPU enclosures are pretty expensive and not worth imo if you just want to play around with graphics. You might be better off buying a newer laptop with a GPU or a desktop PC.

Yes, they did seem pricy. But still, I can't be bothered with a whole new machine. I'll have to do some more mental cost benefit analysis I guess. I guess now is a bad time to be trying to get a GPU in general...

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Godot is MUCH more lightweight than Unreal.

Unreal’s editor needs a beast of a dev PC, it’s basically like running a AAA game all the time, and it assumes by default that you’re making a top-end game with a top-spec PC.

Godot’s editor will run on pretty much anything. That’s not to say an external GPU won’t help, but if you keep the graphics simple you may not even need it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

If you're just trying out stuff in Godot your iGPU is totally fine (most likely). Try it first before looking for other solutions. Unreal Engine is a lot heavier (but of course with much better graphics). Though if you really just mess around with simple scenes and trying stuff out and you're not actually trying to render anything impressive graphics wise even a slow GPU can keep up with that.

When you actually want to do more with game development you might start to think about getting a better machine with a dedicated GPU and a better CPU, laptops overall are a bit iffy when it comes to that compared to a desktop (at least price and performance wise).