I hate to be that guy. But why do you want a laptop for that? While my above list of requirements is basically implying a MacBook, if I wanted a really performant computer with a good GPU either internal or external for a high end use case, I would get a non-Mac desktop.
When I go into either one of my corporate offices (rarely) or a client’s office, it’s nice to be able to just plug my laptop in the night before and not have to worry about a finding any place to plug it in during the day, going back and forth between conference rooms, etc.
I also go home to see my parents for a couple of weeks sometimes and work from there.
And I realize this is a very esoteric case. But I also do the whole “digital nomad” thing half the year.
I'm not sure what you're talking about. My external GPU enclosure is extremely portable. My everyday backpack fits a laptop with external GPU and a weekend's worth of luggage very comfortably.
Damn Apple. Macs have no single drawback except repairability, not even vendor lock-in (you can flash Asahi). That’s it. I’m going for a Mac except the Framework I previously planned for. Single digit battery life shouldn’t be thing in 2023.
Can I use CUDA without an Nvidia graphics card? That was my point, just like Apple they’ve locked this functionality to their hardware. Which is fine, they developed it, it’s their right to do so.
I’m well aware of the limitations of discrete graphics on Macs.
The nice thing about an eGPU is your portable becomes much more portable, since portables with reasonable GPUs are heavy, big, and hot. The bad thing about eGPUs is they're ~$250 on top of the GPU cost, which is a little to close to a second desktop PC.
