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Yep, it is possible to use an external graphics card with your Intel-based Surface Laptop. You are right to be cautious, since a Thunderbolt 4 port alone does not guarantee a flawless setup. However, because your specific laptop uses an Intel processor and runs Windows, it meets all the requirements needed to handle an external graphics card. If you had the newer ARM-based Snapdragon version of this laptop, it might not work
Even though your laptop is fully compatible, you should be aware of a few technical limitations before spending money on new hardware. The biggest hurdle is a bottleneck known as the Thunderbolt tax, which means data cannot travel through a cable as fast as it does inside a traditional desktop computer. Because of this speed limit, the graphics card will likely lose about ten to twenty-five percent of its maximum gaming performance. Additionally, your laptop uses a mobile processor designed to save battery power, which means a top-tier desktop graphics card will likely be held back by your laptop's processor. To get the best performance out of this setup, you should plug a separate gaming monitor directly into the external graphics box instead of trying to play games on the built-in laptop screen.
To build this setup, you should purchase two separate pieces of hardware. First, you need an external graphics card enclosure, which is a metal box equipped with its own power supply and a dedicated Thunderbolt port. Second, you would need a standard desktop graphics card, such as an NVIDIA or AMD card, to slide inside that enclosure. For a slim laptop like yours, a mid-range card is usually the smartest choice because it offers gaming performance without wasting money on a high-end card that your laptop processor wouldn't fully utilize.
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hth
Marcin