Can thin and light laptops unlock a desktop-level high frame rate experience? Huawei Hi GT Cube Graphics Cube Unboxing

Preface

I mentioned earlier that the Jige 14x is really easy to use and even comes with a Thunderbolt interface, and now the Thunderbolt ecosystem has become much richer.

Even Huawei has started releasing cost-effective products. This eGPU dock (显卡坞), launched alongside the MateBook GT laptop, offers quite a good price-to-performance ratio.

PS: Though it seems that for some reason, this product is sold under the name of a foreign company (Wiko).

What is an eGPU Enclosure?

A Thunderbolt eGPU enclosure (eGPU, External GPU Enclosure) is an external hardware device that allows users to connect a desktop graphics card to a laptop or other devices with a Thunderbolt interface to significantly enhance graphics processing performance. This type of enclosure typically connects to the computer via a Thunderbolt (or USB4) interface, providing high-bandwidth and low-latency transfer speeds to ensure the graphics card can deliver maximum performance.

Recently, another type of eGPU enclosure has also gained popularity, represented by Oculink interface eGPU enclosures from brands like Open Universe (开源宇宙). This interface is essentially a PCIe interface, offering higher speeds and lower performance loss. It is said that when using an external graphics card with an external monitor, the performance loss can be controlled to under 5%.

On the other hand, with a Thunderbolt eGPU enclosure connected to an external monitor, the performance loss is typically over 15%. If using the laptop's built-in screen, the loss is even greater, usually reaching 30% or more.

However, Thunderbolt eGPU enclosures also have advantages. Many compact products are available, some with built-in power supplies that can also charge the laptop. They can also serve as a port expansion hub.

For example, the Huawei eGPU enclosure I unboxed this time has a built-in 240W power supply and supports charging the laptop at 100W (this specific parameter is not listed on the official website; the data comes from online sources). This is very convenient, as it means you don’t even need to bring the laptop’s charger when going out. Plus, the power supply uses a three-prong plug, which can solve the issue of leakage on many metal-body thin and light laptops (I’m looking at you, Brother Ji 14x—点名鸡哥14x).

Oh, by the way, I haven’t mentioned the most critical specs yet. The eGPU enclosure comes with an AMD 7600M XT graphics card, whose performance is theoretically similar to that of a 4060. However, for portability, the graphics card’s power limit in this enclosure has been reduced to only 80W, so its performance is naturally compromised…

Packaging

Very minimalist packaging, consistent with Huawei's usual design approach.

Back

Side

Unboxing

This design is simple and elegant.

Another Angle

Graphics Card Dock

Much smaller than I expected

Very portable

Standing Up

A Different Perspective

Accessories

The accessories are simple: power cable + Thunderbolt cable.

Driver

When I first set up my computer, it wasn't ready to use right out of the box.

I suspected it was a driver issue (since I reinstalled Windows 10 myself—the system originally came with Windows 11).

First, I went to the Mechrevo official website to download drivers: https://www.mechrevo.com/service/

I typed "14x" in the search box to find and download the corresponding graphics driver, but it turned out the motherboard chipset driver didn't support Windows 10—how ridiculous.

Later, it became clear that the graphics driver wasn't actually the problem.

It wasn't until I opened Device Manager that I discovered the driver for the Thunderbolt port (USB4) wasn't set up properly.

Since Mechrevo's official driver support wasn't reliable, I went directly to AMD's official website to download drivers.

https://www.amd.com/zh-cn/support/downloads/drivers.html/processors/ryzen/ryzen-8000-series/amd-ryzen-7-8845hs.html

AMD's official site has Windows 10 drivers. After downloading and installing them, the issue should normally be resolved.

If it's still not fixed, open Device Manager, identify which device has a problem, right-click to update the driver, and browse to the local directory C:\AMD (which the installation process automatically extracts to this location).

Once the driver issue is resolved, connecting the external graphics dock should trigger a notification in the lower-right corner indicating the dock is connected…

Actual Test

Let's run a benchmark first

Benchmarks

Integrated Graphics (核显)

First, here are the benchmarks for the integrated graphics (780M) running on the laptop's internal display. The scores are relatively low, which may be due to lower memory frequency.

Graphics Dock (显卡坞)

External Monitor

Benchmark results with an external 1080p monitor connected, immediately hitting 10,000 points.

Internal Display Native Resolution

It seems my laptop has a 2K screen.

Internal Display 1080p

After setting the resolution to 1080p, the benchmark scores increased significantly.

Master Lu Benchmark (娱乐大师跑分)

Finally, here is a round of Master Lu benchmarking.


Hands-on Tests

Cyberpunk2077

External 1080p monitor, graphics settings at maximum, close to 70 frames.

After enabling AMD FSR3, the frame rate doubles.

Horizon Zero Dawn

All tests were conducted on an external 1080p monitor.

Ultimate Quality preset, achieving 72 frames.

Quality-prioritized preset, 74 frames.

Black Myth: Wukong

High graphics preset, with an external 1080p setup, reached 90 frames.

Summary

Playing single-player AAA games is basically not a problem.

However, online games that are more CPU-intensive don't perform as well. For example, in games like Zenless Zone Zero, the average frame rate is only around 55.

Also, the common setup of having one screen for a strategy video and another for the game screen (like opening treasure chests) becomes very laggy.

I checked the Task Manager, and the browser, OBS, and the game were all running on the external graphics card. I suspect the bottleneck is the limited bandwidth of the Thunderbolt port, which is causing the stuttering.

Manually adjusting settings to make the laptop's internal display programs run on the integrated graphics, while only the external monitor's programs use the graphics dock, might improve things. But tinkering with all this is too much hassle, and honestly, it's not worth it.

Even connecting the monitor directly to the laptop's HDMI port, instead of the graphics dock, performs better. However, this means all graphics processing falls on the integrated graphics, which reduces performance.

In summary, the external graphics dock is still a niche product for enthusiasts. For true graphical performance, a desktop PC is still the way to go. Alternatively, investing a bit more in a versatile, thin-and-light laptop like the ASUS ZenBook Air would provide a much better experience than an external GPU setup. (That said, if the graphics dock becomes cheap enough, it might be worth considering—if Huawei's model drops below 1500 RMB, I'd say just go for it! 😄)