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I have a Lenovo P51 laptop with the Quadro M2200 graphics card.

I'm wondering if this hardware supports VR gaming?

If not, would it be possible or sensible to use and external graphics box connected over Thunderbolt?

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Your Lenovo P51 Laptop may be able to run VR if you use an external GPU box (also called eGPU's) because you have a Thunderbolt 3 port, which is what that uses.

Here are some GPU boxes: Razer Core X (In RGB and Non-RGB 'flavors') and Gigabyte GPU Box with a Nvidia RTX 2080ti, Nvidia RTX 2070, Nvidia GTX 1080, Nvidia GTX 1070, or AMD RX 580 GPU's

If you wanted the Razer Core X, you would need to pair it with a minimum of a GTX 1060. I strongly recommend you getting a GTX 1660Ti over the GTX 1060 because new GTX 1060's are hard to find, and going to be expensive for an older piece of hardware. The GTX 1660TI is the best bang for the buck that would run VR.

If you wanted the Gigabyte's GPU box, I would purchase one with an Nvidia GTX 1080, Nvidia GTX 1070 or an AMD RX 580.

These are the GPUs that will work and I recommend, in order of most to least powerful:

  1. RTX 2060 Super
  2. GTX 1070ti
  3. RTX 2060
  4. GTX 1070
  5. GTX 1660Ti
  6. GTX 1660 Super
  7. GTX 1660
  8. GTX 1060

I wouldn't buy anything above an RTX 2060 Super without buying a laptop, where at that point, I'd find a laptop with an RTX 2060 or higher in it because you're going to be saving money at that point (and maybe even some bottlenecking from happening).

Here are some GPU links that I like (In order from least to most powerful):
Nvidia GTX 1060 (Minimum) $400
Nvidia GTX 1660Ti $300

(Thank you MechEng and K7AAY for adding the information about the Gigabyte eGPU and pricing of GPU's to put in the eGPU, I'm sure 'Barrymac' appreciated it as much as I do)

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  • 400$ for a GTX 1060 6GB seems excessive, even with the recent price increases. With the better alternatives that exist these days -you listed some of them- I would not recommend paying more than 200$ for one of these.
    – user13807
    Commented Apr 1, 2020 at 8:05
  • @MechEng, I completely agree. I was looking at NEW cards, but if you didn't care about it being new or used, you could probably find them for $100-$150 on the used market. I'm going to add that I strongly recommend the GTX 1660TI (Side note, congrats on top 2% this quarter on this forum)
    – Trevor Hummer
    Commented Apr 1, 2020 at 17:03
  • I didn't necessarily mean purchasing a used one instead. I rather meant that if a GTX 1060 6GB costs 400$, then skip that and buy almost any other graphics card, new or used. I picked up a new 1070 for around 300€ a few months ago.
    – user13807
    Commented Apr 1, 2020 at 18:20
  • That’s why I added the list of GPU’s that work and I’d recommend so if he doesn’t want to buy a GTX 1060 for $400, he could buy a something higher for cheaper
    – Trevor Hummer
    Commented Apr 1, 2020 at 18:22
  • You may also consider Gigabyte's Thunderbolt-attached external GPU boxen, such as the gigabyte.com/us/Graphics-Card/GV-N1070IXEB-8GD#kf
    – K7AAY
    Commented Apr 1, 2020 at 22:37

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