When Intel announced Thunderbolt 3 back in June 2015, they finally started talking about supporting external GPUs. Thunderbolt 1 and 2 (and both expresscard and miniPCIe before it) could be hacked to work with an eGPU, but while these solutions did work, they weren’t supported and the end result was clearly a hacked-together mess with substantial compromises.
The promise of a Thunderbolt 3 eGPU dock is huge. Imagine a small box that does all this:
[ul]
[li]One cable from the enclosure to your laptop[/li][li]That same cable powers and charges the laptop, too[/li][li]Uses a USB type-C plug[/li][li]The enclosure contains a double-width PCI-e X16 card and 350w PSU powerful enough for a Titan X[/li][li]That same enclosure has a slew of ports. A couple USB-C, legacy USB 3.1, one Thunderbolt-3 for daisy-chaining, gigabit ethernet, audio, etc.[/li][/ul]
When Intel announced TB3 back in June, they said eGPU solutions would start appearing in “Q4 2015, with wide availability in Q1 2016”. Well, that slipped and we’re just starting to see real product announcements at CES today. Enter the Razer Core eGPU Dock.
This isn’t like the Alienware solution. It isn’t Razer-specific. It will work with any laptop with a thunderbolt3 port, if the BIOS supports graphics switching. That means it will work with the late-2015 Dell XPS 13 and 15, and (assumedly) the early-2016 Macbook Pro Retinas.
No pricing yet on the Razer, but remember this isn’t proprietary technology. Even if Razer prices their box at something ridiculous like $700, the Chinese will get into the game soon enough. Prices will drop like a rock. The Alienware Amplifier is $199-- that’s about the right price.
Soon enough, you’ll be able to buy a thin, light, gorgeous ultrabook for mobility, then plug it into the eGPU dock when you get home and play enthusiast games at 4k. Nerdvana!
eGPU Links
[ul]
[li]Razer Core ($499)[/li]
[li]TechInferno eGPU Forums (the place on the internet for eGPU talk)[/li][li]Asus GX2 Video from CES[/li]
[li]Asus ROG XG Station 2 ($unknown)[/li]
[li]AKiTiO Node ($299)[/li]
[li]BizonTech BizonBox 3 ($649)[/li]
[li]PowerColor Devil Box ($299)[/li]
[li]Zotac eGPU ($unknown)[/li]
[/ul]