USB4 v2 shows clear gaming performance gains over 40 Gbps USB4 in OneXGPU Lite tests

While USB4 v2 was announced in 2022, products featuring it have just started to hit the market. The Minisforum MS-S1 Max is one of the first mini PCs that comes with the upgraded port, while the OneXPlayer OneXGPU Lite is among the first accessories that support it.

It's worth noting that USB4 v2 and Thunderbolt 5 are cross-compatible, which means this test is also showcasing the performance jump from Thunderbolt 4 to Thunderbolt 5. Nonetheless, ETA Prime first confirmed the TGP of the eGPU and found that the Radeon 7600M XT can run at 120 W.

To test out the bandwidth, the YouTuber ran the PCIe feature test on 3DMark, and this test shows that through USB4 v2, the bandwidth remains at around 5.4 GB/s, or around 43 Gbps. When switched to the USB4 v1 of the OneXGPU Lite, the bandwidth drops to 3.8 GB/s, or about 30.4 Gbps.

So, in neither of the cases is the full rated bandwidth being achieved, and this is something that Try Some Tech, another YouTuber, has recently looked into. The good part is that the gaming performance difference does make the USB4 v2 a much more worthy upgrade.

ETA Prime tested out Cyberpunk 2077 at 1080p with no FSR and Ultra visuals. With the USB4 v1 connection, the eGPU could run the game at an average of 59 FPS, and it achieved around 74 FPS average when connected to a USB4 v2 port. This translates to around a 25% performance difference in this specific eGPU test.

The YouTuber has also benchmarked other games with the OneXGPU Lite (available on Amazon), but didn't offer a comparison. So, it's likely that the latter tests were done with the eGPU connected to a USB4 v2 port. Among the others, Borderlands 4 was tested at the 1080p resolution and the visuals set to Medium, and the average stood at around 71 FPS.

Next, ETA Prime tested DOOM: The Dark Ages at 1440p, FSR set to balanced, and with Medium visual settings. The Thunderbolt 5 eGPU could run that game with an average of around 72 FPS. Check out the video below to see the external GPU in action.