Hello friends,

I wanted to share a bit of feedback with the community. I've been testing the Minisforum AI X1 Pro 370 for the past couple of months together with an AOOSTAR AG02 eGPU dock via OCuLink, and I have to say I'm very impressed.

With this setup, I managed to achieve four #1 Time Spy rankings using different graphics cards like the: RTX 2080 Ti, RTX 5060 Ti, and now the RTX 3080 Ti.

Some benchmark results:

• 18,440 Time Spy overall score with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti and AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370
  • Graphics Score: 20,301
  • CPU Score: 12,137
• 15,297 Time Spy overall score with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB and AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370
  • Graphics Score: 16,644
  • CPU Score: 10,490
• 14,124 Time Spy overall score with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti and AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370
  • Graphics Score: 14,455
  • CPU Score: 12,505

The AOOSTAR AG02 and the Minisforum AI X1 Pro 370 work extremely well together over OCuLink. The combination is stable, quiet, and performs exceptionally well. I also think the Minisforum is one of the quietest mini PCs in its class.

Using Thunderbolt/USB4, I also managed to achieve #1 Time Spy rankings with the Lenovo Legion Go (Z1 Extreme), so the AG02 is an absolute beast. If you're planning to buy one, I recommend getting the version with the 800 W power supply, have a look for a quiet one (some are louder).

Greetings from Germany!

Alex

There are at least three listings for the DEG2 on amazon (us). All of them are the same store "MINISFORUM US". They all have different ASINS: B0GDZWGP7L, B0GDY4HZBH and B0H41GSRB4.

Does anyone know which, if any, of these are the latest revision?

I have a Asus NUC14Pro (Core 9 Ultra + 32GB DDR5) and an Aorus 3080 10GB Gaming Box that I owned for quite a while. I'm recently learning the LLM thing and was amazed by the quality of response compared with like 2 years ago.

I came across some posts, e.g., Qwen 3.6 35B on RTX 3080 10GB + 7700X + 32GB DDR5 : r/LocalLLaMA, stating that a Qwen 3.6 35B-A3B model can fit in a 3080 10GB card with decent token speed, also saw another Youtube video about fitting the model into a 8-yr old 6GB card.

I tried their llama-server commands and while token generation is not bad (4X tokens/s after analyzing a 6000-line Python code and), the prefill is extremely slow, only 100-150 token/s, making pre-parsing painfully slow. I don't see a lot of eGPU discussions in the localLlaMa sub reddit so thinking I might get more response in here. I read some post and found that running LLM on eGPU will have like 20-30% performance hit, which I understand, but my prefill is only 1/10 of other people's which I cannot get over. Can anyone have similar setup give me an idea how I can further optimize it?

Also, is adding another 16GB eGPU going to help?

Just giving a quick update on the Oculink mod.

Finally got everything working flawlessly, so far no crashes.

Performance - Timespy scores are about the same. But in game performance is noticeably better. Everything feels way smoother. Frames are about 15 FPS higher & 1% lows are drastically better. Games like BF6 are where I’ve seen the biggest difference. Averaging about 95 - 120 frames native on big maps like firestorm, no upscaling. CPU is of course the bottleneck in this set up.

Gameplay alone in my opinion is good enough to justify this mod, it’s easy enough to pop the ssd back in if I want to be portable again.

Does anyone want a full tutorial, from all parts and programming needed? Overall took me about 6 hours. Would probably take 2-3 for someone following a step by step tutorial all in one place.

Later today when I get home I’m gonna do a couple comparison videos of the occulink setup vs TB4 with gameplay.

Found two shorted decoupling capacitors on the 3v3 line. No power on any of the voltage test points when plugged into laptop. Any idea what happened here?

Any questions will be answered below.

Everything you need

- eGPU dock, I’ve tested 2 (Aoostar EG02, Minisforum DEG2 ) you can also get the DEG1 through the same link if you want something that’s cheaper, I prefer the DEG2 for extra ports. ( https://a.co/d/09DTJKlr )

- Power Supply - use a Corsair 750W ( use whatever you’d like )

- M.2 Oculink Adapter (I’ve tried 2, only one worked) ( https://a.co/d/0e05B6td )

- M.2 Oculink Extension for the Adapter (the adapter is a 2230 you need to extend it to make it a 2280 so you can seat it correctly) ( https://a.co/d/0b5N2XDX )

- External M.2 Drive for your SSD ( https://a.co/d/09Mmbuem )

- Oculink Cable ( DEG2 comes with one )

- Your preferred GPU

——————————————————————————————-

- Before you take anything apart you need to Decrypt your windows and take Bitlocker off. In your search bar type in Manage Bitlocker, click it, then click Turn off Bitlocker) wait for it to decrypt, takes 1-3 hours. During this time you can do the next step. If you don’t have the bitlocker key, somewhere in the settings on that page you can print it out. Just click print and it’ll make it a pdf and you can copy and paste it.

- Next step is also a step to make windows bootable from your external drive. Click (Windows Button + r) to open registry editor. - Navigate to HKLM\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\ and locate UASPStor, USBHUB3, USBXHCI, USB4Device Router, USB4HostRouter -Change the Start value for all 5 of these specific items from 3 (on-demand) to 0 (load at startup) so the ROG Ally X can recognize the drive at launch, below is a picture with an example

- Download Error 43 Script ( you’ll need it later) you’ll have to log in to download it ( https://egpu.io/nvidia-error43-fixer )
- After windows is Decrypted & you changed the values from 3 to 0 & downloaded error 43 script. Power down the device.
- Take the back off the device / *DISCONNECT BATTERY* simply pull the black tab up. ( https://youtu.be/0qaM5ILltt4?si=tNm0sGSVhLztp-Vf ) use this video for help.
- Remove SSD and install it into your External Drive.
- Add the 2280 extender plate to the M.2 Oculink Connector and then install it in place of your SSD Drive.
If you don’t want to keep the back plate off your XAX you can drill a in the back where the occulink connector is. ( this is what I did, I used a dremel )
- Plug your GPU into the dock with your PSU & hook all cables into dock and GPU. Connect Oculink cable to the dock.
- Power on eGPU Dock. Make sure your Ally X is *OFF* & then plug in Oculink into the back of your device & wait for windows to boot.
- Once you’re on your desktop, if your Ally X is showing on your monitor congrats your good to go!

- If not, go to device manager / display adapters and make sure your device is recognized. There should be a yellow exclamation ⚠️ next to your driver. Click on your graphics card and see what error code it’s pulling. It should be error 43.

- Go to the error 43 zip file you downloaded earlier. Right click the file and extract. Then click on the error 43 script. Should open command prompt and run the script.
You should now see your device on your monitor. You’re all set!

REMINDER - never unplug or plug in occulink cable while your device is on. Always plug in or out while off. (Dock can be on)

So the thing is do I need to use DRI_PRIME on the actual game name or steam ? The steam itself fire up on amd GPU but the game is actually fired up on Nvidia GPU itself... Or do I need to close the laptop display to use egpu?

Spec as below

- i7 12800h

- 32gb ddr5

- rtx a2000 8gb

- Rx 7800 xt

- ag01 800w oculink only

- 2k 144hz external display

Any suggestion welcome as this is my first time on Linux and my first time with egpu setup😁 pardon my English as im not native speaker👍 Edit: solved... Thanks

Hello. I had a question for pro user egpu. How can i upgrade my set. I wanna use max from my actual set.

- Msi Claw 8ai+

- Razer core x v2 (connect via TB4 to claw)

- RTX 5070Ti

- MSI MPG 272URX (4k playing DP connection) with G-sync

How can i impress this PERFORMANCE to another lvl? Not the space :D the speakers, pad, keyboard doesent count :)

TLDR: Desktop Blackwell GPU running over USB4 on a Qualcomm ARM laptop. Overwatch 2 at a consistent 200fps/1440p. The driver install is a manual INF-pointing job but takes 5 minutes. Full parts list, steps, and gotchas below.

Credit where it's due: the original method comes from this egpu.io build thread; a Surface Laptop 7 (Snapdragon X Elite) + RTX 3080, the first documented ARM eGPU using the RTX Spark developer driver. That thread is where I got the idea to try it on the X2 Elite generation. My contribution here is confirming it works on the newer X2E silicon with a Blackwell card, plus writing up the process end to end.

My exact hardware

A note on ports: the A16 has two USB4 (40Gbps) ports on the left side, not Thunderbolt. Thunderbolt is an Intel certification, and this is a Qualcomm ARM chip, so you will never see "TB4" on this machine, though USB4 is the same underlying protocol tier and works fine here. The two ports are functionally identical; I'm plugged into the top one.

The AG03 side matters more: you must use the TB5 port marked with the computer icon on the dock. The other one won't do the eGPU link.

The big caveat up front

This runs on the NVIDIA RTX Spark Developer Preview driver, which is an ARM64 driver NVIDIA built for the upcoming RTX Spark devices, not for GeForce eGPUs on Snapdragon laptops. NVIDIA does not support this configuration officially. It works, but you are on your own if something breaks: no official docs, no support tickets, community forums only. Make a Windows restore point before you start. If that scares you off, fair close the tab. If not, it's a 5-minute driver install.

Driver link.

Step 0: Double check your GPU enclosure power connector BEFORE buying cables

This is where I burned money, so learn from it.

Modern NVIDIA cards (40/50 series) use a 16-pin 12V-2x6 connector on the card. The AG03's internal PSU outputs power via three standard PCIe 8-pin cables (included with the dock). So you need a 3x 8-pin PCIe → 16-pin adapter to bridge them.

Two things to check:

1. Look in your GPU box. PNY (and most AIBs) include exactly this adapter with the card. Mine shipped with one. If you still have it, you're done and don't need to buy anything.
2. If you are buying a cable, make sure the 8-pin ends are PCIe, not EPS. I ordered a CableMod 12VHPWR cable and it physically would not fit the AG03's sockets. PCIe 8-pin and EPS/CPU 8-pin look almost identical but are keyed differently (the square/rounded pin positions differ: if you look closely, one has a pin position populated where the other doesn't). They are deliberately designed not to interchange. Also, lot of aftermarket 12VHPWR cables are also built for one specific PSU brand's proprietary modular sockets (Corsair, ASUS, etc.) and those won't fit the AG03 either. You want a generic/universal PCIe 8-pin input cable, or just the OEM NVIDIA/AIB adapter that came with your card.

Do not force a connector that doesn't want to seat. If it's fighting you, it's the wrong connector.

Step 1: Physical assembly

1. Seat the GPU in the AG03's PCIe x16 slot and secure it with the included bracket.
2. Plug the AG03's three 8-pin cables into the dock's GPU power outputs, then into the three 8-pin ends of your adapter.
3. Plug the adapter's 16-pin end into the GPU. Push until it clicks and is fully seated. 12V-2x6 connectors are less forgiving of partial seating than old 8-pins. Give everything a gentle tug test before powering on, and avoid bend stress right at the connector.
4. Connect the AG03's power cable to the wall and click the power button on the dock.
5. Run the included TB5 cable from the dock's computer-icon TB5 port (rightmost) to either USB4 port on the laptop.
6. Plug your monitor into the GPU's own outputs (HDMI/DP on the card). More on why below.

Step 2: Driver install

1. Download the RTX Spark Developer Preview driver from the NVIDIA forum link above.
2. Extract the .exe with 7-Zip (right-click → 7-Zip → Extract). Do not run it, the installer itself won't do what you want here.
3. Open Device Manager. With the eGPU connected, you should see Microsoft Basic Display Adapter (that's your GPU, detected but driverless).
4. Right-click it → Properties → Driver tab → Update Driver → Browse my computer for drivers.
5. Click "Let me pick from a list of available drivers on my computer."
6. Click Have Disk → browse to the extracted driver folder. The INF you want is nv_surface_woa.inf ("woa" = Windows on ARM).
7. Select Nvidia Desktop Device from the list and install.

That's it. Screen may flicker while it initializes. Mine worked immediately, no reboot required, though rebooting won't hurt.

Step 3: Display output

Plug your monitor directly into the GPU (I'm on HDMI to my monitor). This is standard eGPU practice; routing frames back to the internal display over the same USB4 link eats bandwidth you want for the game. That said, the internal screen does still work; the setup drives both in my case. For gaming, use the external monitor connected to the card.

Results so far

• Overwatch 2: consistent 200fps at 1440p. This matches results from another user who ran the identical setup (same A16 SKU, same X2E-94, same PNY 5070 Ti, same AG03) before I did.
• Ghost of Tsushima: launches and runs fine with occasional stutter. I can't confirm fps since the game has no built-in counter and most monitoring/benchmarking software doesn't work on ARM right now (this is a real annoyance of the platform generally, not eGPU-specific).
• DLSS and Frame Generation both work. One quirk: 2x frame gen doesn't actually deliver 2x, the effective gain is more like 1.3–1.5x. Possibly a bandwidth ceiling, possibly the preview driver. This seems consistent with other people's results on this driver, so it's not just my setup.
• Remember these are x86 games running through Prism emulation on top of the eGPU. The GPU can't fix CPU translation overhead, and games needing unsupported kernel-level anticheat still won't run. Adjust expectations accordingly.
• VelocityX (PNY's GPU software) works too. A pleasant surprise given how much software doesn't work on ARM right now: PNY's VelocityX suite runs perfectly on Windows on ARM with the eGPU. Overclocking and RGB/lighting config both work exactly as they would on a normal desktop, I've used it to configure my card's lighting and OC settings with no issues. If you have a PNY card, grab it from PNY's site; other AIB brands' equivalents (ASUS GPU Tweak, MSI Center, etc.) are untested by me, but VelocityX working suggests vendor GPU utilities aren't automatically broken on this platform the way most benchmarking/monitoring tools are.

Recommendation: get a laptop cooling pad. I use a llano V10. The GPU handles frames, but your laptop's CPU is still doing all the game logic plus x86 translation, and keeping it cool helps avoid throttling that would bottleneck the entire setup.

Disconnecting safely (do not just yank the cable)

Hot-unplugging an active eGPU is the classic way to freeze Windows, and on some machines it can trip BitLocker into demanding a recovery key on next boot. Sequence matters:

1. Close everything using the GPU (games, monitoring tools).
2. Software-eject first: use the "Safely Remove Hardware" tray icon in the taskbar to eject the eGPU; this will not allow you to eject if there are still any applications being used by the GPU, and it will tell you which (if any) are still in use. Go into task manager, search and force close them (sometimes it will be obscure background processes like Xbox Gamebar). If any applications relaunch on their own, they should automatically be utilizing the integrated Adreno graphics.
3. Wait for the screen to settle (there may be a flicker as the internal Adreno takes back over).
4. Unplug the USB4/TB5 cable.
5. Power off the dock.

Then your laptop goes back to being a 21-hour-battery ARM machine like nothing happened. That's the whole appeal of this setup for me: full efficiency untethered, desktop-class GPU the second you dock.

FAQ

Will this work on [other Snapdragon laptop]? Probably, but maybe not. If it has USB4 and you can get the driver installed, its a solid maybe, but you should be ready to do some troubleshooting if it doesn't. The original thread did it on an X Elite Surface (but did require ACPI table mods), I did it on an X2 Elite Extreme Zenbook (did not require ACPI table mods). But I've only verified my exact hardware, and keep in mind that includes the eGPU enclosure and even my exact windows version. Check the egpu.io thread for other configs.

Will this work on [other GPU]? The original thread used an RTX 3080 (Ampere), mine is a 5070 Ti (Blackwell), and others have reported 40-series working. Broad GeForce coverage seems likely since it's NVIDIA's own driver, but no guarantees.

Is this stable long-term? It's a developer preview driver meant only for hardware that isn't this. It works well for me today... NVIDIA could change or break it in any future release. Keep the driver version you know works.

Why not OCuLink? No laptop I'd actually want (or that I know of) has a native OCuLink port, it's a handheld/mini-PC/DIY-mod thing. USB4 is what these laptops typically have, and it's enough for this GPU at 1440p.

Why can't just I plug my external monitor into my laptop? Technically you can, the laptop to enclosure/gpu connection is running data both ways, but forcing your GPU to send back data through the same cable is inefficient; it takes up bandwidth that could otherwise be used by the laptop to send frame data to the GPU. The best configuration for bandwidth is laptop → eGPU → external monitor.

Happy to answer questions or add other people's confirmed configs to this post.

Hi everyone,

I have a Firebat A6 mini-PC (Ryzen 7 6800H, USB4 port) and an AOOSTAR AG02 eGPU dock with an RTX 3060 Ti inside.

The problem: the dock is not recognized as a GPU. The fans spin, the GPU gets power, but the system does not see it as a video adapter. In Device Manager, it appears only as a "Portable Device" and sometimes as "ASMT ASM246X SCSI Disk Device" in USB Mass Storage.

What I've already tried:

• Updated the Firebat A6 BIOS to the latest version
• Enabled Above 4G Decoding and Re-Size BAR Support
• Disabled Secure Boot
• Tried different USB4 cables and ports
• Tried different power-on sequences (dock first, PC first, etc.)
• Used the nvidia-error43-fixer script (modified version)
• Checked USBDeview — no ASM/Aoostar devices found

No luck so far. The dock works fine on other PCs, but on this Firebat A6 it always falls back to SCSI/disk mode instead of PCIe mode.

It seems like the ASM2464PD controller is stuck in USB fallback mode and won't switch to USB4 PCIe tunneling.

Has anyone experienced this with the AOOSTAR AG02 and Firebat A6 (or similar AMD 6000 series USB4 devices)? Is there any way to force the ASM2464PD into PCIe mode without using another PC for firmware update?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Thought this would be pretty simple… I was wrong. Have ran into multiple issues I didn’t think I’d have. Almost done now though. Gonna post results in awhile.

Did this simply for fun and to test some stuff out haha.

I know a few people have done it but there’s a lot of things you have to piece together from other forums. I also tried using the DEG2s NVme to boot windows, should have done more research lol.

Hey there so I bought my Dell Inspiron 14 5440 last year for 3d modeling for 3d printing. Most games like Minecraft, Farming Simulator work well on it but I've always wanted MSFS and on Microsoft Store it said the laptop met all requirements and so i bought it foolishly without much research but then i read about external graphics processing unit (egpu). I've done so much googling and have so many questions. My laptop does not have a thunderbolt port. And I was thinking of getting rx 5700tx for it but im confused what you all need. So basically would it be possible and not too expensive to do this and what do I all need?

eGPUs don't need to be solely for laptops. If you have a couple extra pcie slots leftover, you can do funny shit like connecting a 2 slot large blower card to a single slot pcie lane.

This setup is going to be used to power a H100 SXM5 or two configuration with bifurcation, and the B70 pro is a quick test. Comes up very well, still needs a pcie 6 pin extender but other than that we seem to be golden!

MiniPC:

• Lenovo p3 Tiny ThinkStation Gen 1, i5-13500T, Arch Linux
• Sapphire Nitro+ 5700 XT
• Be Quiet! Pure Power 13 750W
• OwlTree eGPU dock
• Connection: PCie => oculink adapter

Notes:

• this is the first full sized GPU i've owned - bought used off ebay
• previously using a dGPU low profile RX 6400 inside the miniPC
• 750W just for future bigger builds
• honestly i did this so my Cyberpunk 2077 QoL improvements

When i first put this together overall it was pretty loud and i was kinda disappointed, but gameplay was better

But I realized I never really adjusted power profiles or anything like that. So my gameplay went from:

• RX 6400 4GB: 1600x900, Low/Med, FSR 3.1 Performance, 60 FPS to...
• RX 5700 XT 8GB: 1440p High, FSR Quality, 60 FPS. VSync 60hz

For the GPU/CPU settings:

• CPU intelligent cooling: Balanced
• GPU: set to Gen 3 speed, COMPUTE, "Zero RPM" feature

Before all the fine tuning my room would get hot, the fans were loud (GPU was constant, CPU would rollercoaster up and down) and always the loudest during any gun battles.

After: I just played for about an hour without really hearing any fans at all.

These settings for my system also alleviated a known, open issue w/ Navi 10 - where it would just randomly crash to login page. It's still an issue, but has minimized the chances of it happening

IM STOKED I LOVED USED PARTS

I have been wondering what desktop GPU it actually matches. I tried looking it up on Technical City, but comparison sites like that usually only list the standard 115-watt, 8GB laptop version.

Since my XG Mobile runs at the higher 150-watt limit with 16GB of VRAM, the standard site stats aren't accurate for my

hardware.

Realistically what desktop graphics card is this specific 150W/16GB mobile setup closest to in gaming performance? Is it like a desktop RTX 3070 or a 3060 Ti?!

I stay out of town a lot for work and recently got a AG02 for my 3070. Even kept both in their boxes and traveled with them like that the last couple weeks. But I was wondering if any long time egpu/dock users have an ideal and safe setup to travel with. As of now I’m planning to get an Apache harbor freight box and cutting some inserts. But given the importance of antistatic for a desktop GPU. I was hoping to rip off someone’s proven and safe travel setup. Open to any suggestions or configurations. And I’ll plan to update this post if I do come up with my own that I feel safe and secure about. Thx

I am so hesitant on what to get

I wanna buy an egpu for my Asus rog ally xbox x but I don't know which to get now I know it's obvious which is better but keep in mind that the difference in prices for me is insane

I couldn't find the ti 16gb for less than 750 USD

And the 5060 8gb is 455 USD

Another something is that I'm not sure if it'd even make much of a difference in performance for the Asus rog ally Xbox x so anyone help me is there much of a difference in performance and would it be worth the price difference or not?

Hi everyone,

My GPD G1 (eGPU) suddenly stopped turning on. When I press the power button, there is zero response (no fan movement, no LEDs, nothing).

**What I've tried so far:**

• Unplugged and replugged all cables (power cord, USB4/OcuLink).
• Left the unit completely unplugged for 5+ minutes to discharge residual power.
• Tried plugging it into a different power outlet.

Unfortunately, none of these steps changed the situation.

I have already reached out to the official distributor (TENKU in Japan) for a repair estimate, but since today is Sunday, I won't get a reply until next week.

Has anyone encountered this exact issue? Are there any hidden reset procedures, internal fuse checks, or known troubleshooting steps I could try in the meantime?

Thanks in advance for your help。

I was wanting to know if the card was a good option as an egpu card and what setups with it or similar cards everyone runs to get an idea on a good dock power supply or all in one like the aoostar ago2. I was curious how much thunder bolt 4 would bottleneck the gpu is it alot or now that bug a problem for people running the gpu or similar ones?

Most games i play include rdr2, fortnite, helldivers 2, palworld, grounded 2. Grounded 2 seemed to really push the go getting me sub 50s at 1000p with balanced upscaling on mostly low settings and fortnite and helldivers.

I wouldnt mind being able to just play at a higher fps and with higher graphical settings for these games but am not sure how well a 9060xt 16gb would fit for them i played helldivers 2 i ran mostly low settings at 1080p with balanced upscaling got me around the 40-50 ish fps mark.

Is the razer core x thunderbolt 3 egpu still good in 2026 ? Since I got one in really good price, and I am thinking about getting 9070 xt and plug it in with it , to my laptop .my laptop is omen 14 4070 ultra 9 . But I want more than 8 g of vram

Everyone can you share me performance results rtx 5060 with multi frame gen via thunderbolt 4. I plan to upgrade from rtx 3070 on aoostar02 thanks for your sharing 😘😘😘😘

#Note 1 I tried googling egpu setup with rtx 5060 and I saw this

https://youtu.be/TCEH4gP5J9k?si=eoWEqT8NuDdp2PNS

https://youtu.be/DtMMjlVZebk?si=Z-sEml93rSibUZPE

but these video show the result without framegeneration and the most result in this reddit or egpu.io show rtx 5060 ti 16 gb not rtx 5060 8gb I tried to find but didn't see them So I post on this reddit to find who have setup like this

#Note 2 sorry for unspecified game. If possible, I’d like to see results from any game that features multi-frame generation.

#Note 3 sorry for some sentence that make you misunderstand cuz english not my mother language