EGPU useful?

A friend has a laptop, which is relatively bad (he won't get a new one either). So with an i7 2640 QM iGPU and an NVS Quadro 4200m. It reaches around 30-45 FPS on the lowest settings in Minecraft. What options are there to get the last bit of performance out of the system? Is it also possible to connect an external graphics card to the system, which costs a maximum of 250 euro, or does the bottleneck with the CPU come to light?

You can overclock the CPU and for 250 euro you can currently get the graphics performance of a refrigerator in used

Overclocking won't work and he can wait.

I7 2640 SQM

A laptop with this processor is around 8-10 years old.

It would also be possible to connect an external graphics card to the system

I hardly think that laptops were already equipped with Thunderbold ports at that time, although Thunderbold 1 should already have existed. Such a port is required for an external graphics card or a graphics card in an external housing. More precisely, a Thunderbold 3 port is required, or a Thunderbold 3 port via a USB Type-C port. You will also be desperately looking for this on the old device.

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So I strongly suspect that you can't connect an external graphics card or a graphics card in an external housing. Although external graphics cards are only suitable for gaming to a limited extent, since low latencies are required when gaming in order to avoid delays and the transmission path via Thunderbold can't be compared with a direct PCIe connection to the CPU.

What options are there to get the last bit of performance out of the system?

Actually, there's no way to turn the old laptop into a "game machine" or to get significantly more performance out of it.

PS: Your friend probably needs a new computer, whether he wants it or not, or he can't play properly, it's that simple.

Could this work?

In principle, that should work. For me this is something new, I didn't know it either. The part doesn't exactly make a stable impression on me, but it doesn't matter. In addition, the mini PCI Express adapter always hangs out of the laptop. And for this the mini PCIe WLAN card has to be removed and sacrificed to the mini PCIe adapter for the graphics card. In addition, only PCIe 2.0 is supported in the old laptop, which should be sufficient for a "smaller graphics card". And fun isn't cheap either. I can't tell you whether you should try it out or not. I would not use this adapter because the whole thing is not in a stable housing and the hardware would be too good for me. The whole thing reminds me more of a test setup in my workshop than a serious and productive laptop extension.

I used to always use the same strategy out of my laptop

Used Badlion and Optifine
No programs should run in the background e.g. (Spotify. Discord)
It is best to clean the laptop again

Did everything. But we would like to play other games.

It should just be the last chance to get performance. Would use the whole thing with a Gtx 690. Does the GTX 960 have PCie 2.0?

No, PCIe 3.0, but that shouldn't be a problem. At least the graphics card should work. However, this is then a maximum of only one PCIe 2.0 x8 connection. This bottleneck is not that bad, the processor is still the weakest link in this chain.

I once did a bottleneck test and it actually only came out 4%. Will you be able to play a few games (Gang Beasts, Bigfoot, COD) smoothly with the combination?

CoD MW could run at 30 to 40 FPS, at 900p to 1080p and low detail settings (8GB - 16GB RAM)
Bigfoot could run at 900p to 1080p and low to medium detail settings, 40 to 60+ FPS (2GB - 4GB RAM)
Gang Beasts could run at 50-60+ FPS at high and very high detail settings and up to 4K UHD (4GB - 8GB RAM)

Always provided that you get the whole thing to work and don't break anything while tinkering. In addition to the mini PCIE adapter, you also need a graphics card, an ATX power supply with sufficient PCIe connectors and an external monitor. It won't be cheap and if something goes wrong… Well, you have to know what you're doing.

I've already thought of the power supply. You can get Grakas relatively cheaply on E-Bay. The adapter, power supply, graphics card would cost ~ 200 euro together. But what do you need the external monitor for?

I've tinkered with hardware a number of times, so I know my way around relatively well.

Well, the external monitor is connected to the graphics card in order to be able to display the image what the graphics card is outputting. You can't use the internal monitor or the display of the laptop for this.

Can't you connect the graphics card to the laptop's display? Is a little awkward now…

Nah you, that won't work. But this can also be clearly seen in the YouTube video that a monitor is used on the graphics card.

No external monitor is connected here: /

At the end, a monitor has to be connected to the graphics card as well, this is just not shown in the video. Here it is only shown how everything is connected and how the software is set up for it under Windows. But the image on the laptop display comes from the graphics units built into the laptop.

Is there no way to use the laptop monitor?

This person also does not use a monitor or does it work there without: /

In an emergency, I have a couple of monitors left here.

I'm afraid not.

Where will the greatest loss of performance be?

What kind of loss of performance? If it works, then the computer has got a boost in 3D graphics. However, you will not come close to PCs that are equipped with comparable hardware. I don't know how big the difference will be either. But I still find the construction a bit strange or idiosyncratic. I wouldn't try that, but what you do is up to you. After the experiment you can report whether and how well it works.

He just doesn't get a new computer and that would be the only option. I will do!