Surface Pro 8 i5 vs i7: eGPU Comparison

I've been comparing the Surface Pro 8 i5 and i7 with an external graphics card (eGPU) and RTX 3080. Here are my results after testing 5 games on the internal display and external displays at 1080p, 1440p and 4K.

Games tested include: Far Cry 6, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Apex Legends, Cyberpunk 2077 and Control.

💻 FEATURED TECH:

🎥 CAMERA GEAR:

When you buy through an affiliate link, I may receive a commission on the sale at no additional cost to you. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Timestamps:
Intro - 00:00
Setup - 00:16
Internal Display - 00:30
External Display - 01:21
Noise Levels and Heat - 01:51
Why use this setup? - 02:15
Thunderbolt 3 vs 4 - 03:02
Outro - 04:12

[devyn.johnston]

CORRECTION: I misspoke and meant to say gigabits per second, not gigabytes.

[imsofly]

Bro this was an amazing and thorough video! You have no freaking idea how badly I wanted to see this comparison. Now it's time to save up, and get that beautiful surface pro 8 and an EGPu to go along with it. Amazing video sir

[hksduhksdu]

Best review comparing i5 vs i7 gaming on eGPU so far. All key areas are clear in just about right video length. Many other reviews tried too hard to push their videos to over 10 mins and still didn’t get to the point sometimes.

[GooseDaPlaymaker]

Emulation tests (with eGPU as well), please!

And I appreciate the clarification on the Thunderbolt 3/Thunderbolt 4 eGPU enclosure situation. Keep up the great content, Devyn!

[themanunleashed]

I'm not going to lie. I didn't know eGPUs were a thing. so I am glad to have them exist lol. I bought the surface Pro i7 model for the purpose of running 3D designing, photography editing, and an overall in one PC. I do play some games like Rocket League and Roblox (Jail Break specifically) occasionally. It runs pretty decently on both. But I was curious to higher quality games like Forza and Flight simulator. Thank you for the review. eGPUs are a pretty penny, but not as much as a whole new Gaming PC which would only be for gaming.

[Toots_McPoopins]

Thank you for this video! I have been looking for a comparison between the two and this was very informative. I was hoping it would be more performant especially with a 3080. I’m getting twice that frame rate on most of these games with a desktop 10600 and 3070 so this just will not be the solution for me. I was hoping to ditch my SFF ITX build for a much more mobile solution for when I travel for work. I guess I need to look into actual gaming laptops.

[唐七於]

Thanks for your review! I'm a surface pro 8 user and before watching your video I was confused with the razer eGPU enclosure. Very good job!

[williamgorelander]

Thank you, this was helpful. I thought the i7 would have a bigger difference even on the eGPU but I was wrong.

[FusionSource]

Hey Devyn, subbed, great video, great presentation. My Surface 8 i7 is arriving this week, really excited to get it and I was thinking of getting an eGPU setup.

[ueberweiss]

Great content. One question that I’d be really interested in: what is the actual difference between i5 with 8GB of RAM vs i5 with 16GB? Taking the SSD size out of the equation, for whom would it make sense to pick 16GB over the Baseline model?

[alanmaique]

Thanks for your review, very helpful. I bought the i5/8 GB RAM, 128 gb of storage (the cheapest model). I'm not gonna use it for gaming however I think the base model gives me very low performance for what I do. So I wanted to return it and get another one more powerful. So I was wondering if should I get the i7 or the same i5 but with 16 GB RAM and 256 gb of sotrage. What would you recommend? (The better, the pricer, of course) thanks in advance.

[JDRumbleBee]

I would be really interested in a comparison with a GPU in a proper desktop.
Just a basic R5 5600X system with a RTX 3070 class GPU tested against the Surface with the eGPU setup and the same GPU.
And the same test with a RTX 2060 class GPU to maybe find out how fast a GPU can be, before the performance starts disappears in the thunderbolt pipeline.

[gonzoder]

THANK YOU SO MUCH i was looking for exactly this!

[falcodarkzz]

You're videos are superb. A lot of youtubers could learn from the clarity and efficiency!

[farishanafiah]

I was actually expecting more from the i7 since it was a higher-tier variant of the CPU lineup. But with the i7 showing higher temperature than the i5 on all occasion, this could be the first time where I choose the midrange i5 over the i7.

[Taeostine]

Just what i needed! the i7 is great for playing trading apps, news, and games while at home, easy to install at office, and light and small for remote work trips.

[tadehtarverdian]

Can you please make a comprison of the two without eGPU? Just strictly how they come

[ConceptualSketchingByMarten]

Thank you for the test. I would love if you could make a video export test with Adobe Premiere with and withou the EGPU. I love the Microsoft Surface and do video editing at my desk at home. I am choosing between the Surface Pro 8 + EGPU or a maxed out Surface Surface Studio.

[aarond]

Curious if you might see a larger performance difference using an external fan. These videos are very helpful, thank you!

[spinachpies]

I'm actually a little disappointed with the result from the i7. My ideal set up is an eGPU with a portable and lightweight laptop. I don't want a desktop and I don't want a chunky gaming laptop, so the eGPU seems a perfect fit. I really did think that the i7 in the Pro 8 would create much better results using the eGPU. Any idea how something like the MSI Z16 with i9, 16GB RAM would perform with eGPU?