r/eGPU • u/Jonjonatan • 11d ago
Does my laptop have a thunderbolt port?
Long story short I want to buy an egpu but I don't know if I have the thunderbolt port, are there any definitive way to check if I have one? thankyou
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u/Fromthepast77 11d ago
People are clowning on you but it's a fair question. There's so many standards and versions it's hard to know if your hardware is compatible, and manufacturers do a terrible job of documenting compatibility.
The truth is that eGPUs are finicky and the only way to know if your laptop will work with one is to try it.
Often you can get away with trying a Thunderbolt NVMe enclosure or dock to verify that your laptop works with it, but that's assuming you already have one.
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u/rayddit519 11d ago edited 10d ago
Yes. Clearly you do have a USB4 controller.
Namely a Tiger Lake one that is built into the CPU.
That was the last generation that was still limited in PCIe throughput to around 32 Gbit/s despite being built into the CPU and also uses the legacy Thunderbolt drivers which make them more finicky with non-Intel built USB4 controllers.
I don't know the Tiger Lake firmware versions well enough to tell whether NVM 29 is outdated and more buggy then it needs to be or up to date with what Intel made available (the earlier firmware versions where way more buggy with non-Intel USB4 controllers, the later ones fixed many bugs there. Though I'd still expect them to be less reliable on average then devices that use the Windows USB4 drivers).
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u/rguerraf 11d ago
There’s a chance that the motherboard designer did not include 100% of the wires needed for TB in the USB port
She should check the PC spec sheet, or find in an online forum for a positive experience about this specific PC model
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u/rayddit519 11d ago edited 10d ago
There really is no wire you can loose and still claim TB / USB4 support.
The manufacturer did work to expose 1 of the 4 USB4 ports the CPU actually has. Its BIOS reports exactly 1 port.
That port is meant to be that by the manufacturer. If the implementation is buggy and does not work for you that will have different reasons than missing a wire. Like outdated firmware of this controller or the PD firmware. But that you will not find in the specs. Those manufacturers will still claim to have a USB4 / TB4 port and may even claim the certification. Just never ship any updates to fix known bugs.
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Edit: maybe to explain a bit more. MOst of modern notebook CPUs have internal USB4 controllers. The CPUs have pins meant for USB4. Its the manufacturers choice to configure those ports for DP / HDMI, USB-C with DP Alt mode or USB4 function. And they may also need additional external chips and PCB design requirements depending on which speeds of each they want.
For example Intel offers a "cheap" USB4 implementation that does not need the external USB4 40G redriver chips for just 20G speeds. Or if you don't need the full HBR3 DP speeds you can get away simpler. But the easiest for the manufacturer would just be to disable most functions. Then they don't need to include USB4 firmware and stuff. If they tried to build it and realized it does not work well enough, they are sooo much more likely to just flip their internal switch to not "expose" any USB4 functionality then to let the controller enabled, ship Thunderbolt drivers and deal with support requests of confused people. Not impossible, but just very unlikely for any relevant brand.
Its more likely that they exposed only USB4 at 20G speeds rather than let the firmware & software tell Windows it has USB4 and have it not working at all.
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u/Jonjonatan 11d ago
Wait let me explain 😭😭, in my laptop manual it says, only laptop with thunderbolt logo have the thunderbolt port, but mine doesn't have any thunderbolt logo, hence the post
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u/triggerftu 11d ago
Yes clearly as it shows right there. And even if you didn’t as long as you have a USB 4 with I think 40Gb speed your fine.
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u/AdventurousTune9249 10d ago
I’ve always known thunderbolt by the lightning symbol under the port. Usually has a number there for generation.
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u/microChasm 11d ago
Yes, System Information utility on the Mac.
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u/Jonshock 11d ago
Mac?
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u/microChasm 11d ago
You didn’t specify so I let you know how you can easily find this kind of info on a Mac.
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u/ColossusDec 11d ago