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 graphics capabilities of powerful desktop graphics even while using a thin and light laptop.

Although it's pretty common to find Thunderbolt 3 and Thunderbolt 4 ports on the latest laptops, the same can't be said for eGPU docks. The eGPU industry is pretty much on its last legs, and most prominent GPU enclosure manufacturers haven't launched new models in years. Couple that with the fact that the old models have gone out of stock pretty much everywhere, there just aren't many eGPU enclosures out there to recommend. Nevertheless, we've compiled a list of the best eGPU enclosures that you can purchase to give your laptop some extra horsepower for gaming or professional workloads.

These are the best eGPU enclosures in 2023

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.

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.

Designed for creators who require an external GPU to power their video editing and other hardware-intensive workloads, 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. The Breakaway Box comes in two variants: the 750 and the 750ex. Both units have a 750W PSU, but we've highlighted the 750ex model as it comes with an Ethernet connector and four USB 3.2 ports for an extra $50.

The Breakaway Box has a very functional design, though it loses some points due to its large size that requires a lot more desk space than the other options on this list. With its metal cage frame and panels held together with thumbscrews, its design is a lot more reminiscent of a typical PC cabinet. Unlike the Razer Core X and Razer Core X Chrome, Sonnet's GPU enclosure doesn't include any RGB lighting, making it a solid pick if you want to use it in a professional environment.

PSU-wise, the 750 power supply on the Breakaway Box 750ex 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, so you should look elsewhere if you're looking for an enclosure that can support your RTX 4090.

Overall, the Sonnet Breakaway Box is worth considering if you're a creative professional who needs lots of eGPU horsepower, and you can even daisy-chain up to four Breakaway Boxes together, though you're likely to see diminishing returns. At $350, it's half the price of Razer's Core X and Core X Chroma, making it a great choice as long as you're okay with sacrificing support for larger GPUs.

If you want a minimalist GPU enclosure that's also light on the wallet, then you should consider buying the Akitio Node Titan. Unlike typical gamer-oriented GPU enclosures, it doesn't bear any flashy RGB lights, making it great for most professionals.

Akitio's offering supports full-length GPUs (320mm in length and 170mm in height) that are up to 2.5 slots in thickness, which is pretty decent. Thanks to its compact build, this professional-looking GPU enclosure can fit desk setups without occupying too much space.

Although its $280 price tag makes it a solid pick for anyone looking to add more horsepower to their laptops, the Akitio Node Titan has some glaring drawbacks. With a 650W PSU capable of delivering a maximum of 500W to your graphics card, it would be great for pretty much any GPU if not for its lack of official support for anything released after 2019. While it can "technically" fit and power the latest Nvidia and AMD GPUs, you might encounter some compatibility issues if you try to use it with the RTX 30 series, RTX 40 series, RX 6000 series, and RX 7000 series graphics cards.

Sadly it's also plagued by a noticeable lack of proper I/O ports. The GPU enclosure only comes with a Thunderbolt 3 port that's not going to be useful for any practical purpose besides connecting it to the laptop.

Overall, the Akitio Node Titan isn't the best eGPU enclosure out there, but it's easy to recommend it to those who have an older GPU lying around waiting to be used with an aging laptop, especially when you can buy it for $280. But if you have a larger workspace and are willing to spend $350, the Sonnet Breakaway Box 750ex is easily the better option.

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.

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 750ex is great for professionals who are more focused on content creation and are willing to pick up 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.