Nerdvana: External GPU Docks

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]

stusser, when I saw that announcement earlier this morning, I immediately thought it would make your day.

That Razer ultrabook looks pretty amazing, too.

I’ve been waiting for this for years, dude!

The razer ultrabook looks like it has fine build quality, but the 45wh battery is a bit worrying. Also while it comes with an i7, it’s only a dual-core low-voltage i7. I’d probably pair the eGPU box with an XPS13 or (once Apple supports it) a Macbook Pro Retina 13".

That is badass. I’ve been pining for this sort of thing for years and years.

Definitely want.

Ouch. Isn’t it the case that some new titles go spazzy without 4 cores? I mean, I get it’s not a super dooper gaming box, but in the Thunderbolt3 eGPU enclosure scenario you lay out, it could have done pretty great things… .

This is the sort of technological abomination that happens when laptop owners throw a hissy fit and want to be gamers too.

I think it would be perfectly fine, frankly. CPU bottlenecks are few and far between, and the XPS13 comes with dualcore CPUs too. You need to go to the XPS15 (or Macbook Pro 15") to get quadcore.

I kinda prefer a laptop for the road / couch, and a desktop for everything else, but this is a neat product that’s been a long time coming.

This is really great. I haven’t had good luck with gaming laptops - the video cards usually fritz out and they are expensive and difficult to replace ($500+ and returning to manufacturer for a week, no thanks).

Once eGPU docks become mature/good/cheap, there won’t be any particular reason to buy a gaming desktop anymore, unless you’re not kidding around, son, and want to run SLI.

I suppose a gaming desktop will still be cheaper, but not by a lot, and you give up a ton of utility being stuck in one spot.

There also won’t be any compelling reason to buy a gaming laptop, unless you want to play games outside your house, if you travel often for your job, etc.

Since the only substantial difference between a typical “gaming” desktop and a regular desktop is a few easily-replaced components, you’re essentially saying there will be no reason buy a desktop anymore, which is of course insane and wrong.

Oh, wow, this looks really cool for folks who wanna game on laptops!

I am super excited. Have an ASUS ZenBook Pro UX501VW-DS71T coming with support. I will wait for the eGPU market to calm down before I get an enclosure.

I need the beefier system requirements for work in general and it’s exciting to be able to pair it up with an enclosure that can actually drive the UHD screen without having to have a have a giant monster system and being able to separate the play needs from the work needs.

I said no particular reason. Of course there will still be edge cases; content creation, video editing, compiling code, and very high-end gaming across multiple GPUs. Just not very common.

That is indeed a nice looking machine, but I am surprised that it tops out at only 512Gb SSD. Just to keep the cost a bit lower?

I think the dream would be to have a laptop for on the go, that could dock into my desk that would connect a big GPU, some media hard drives, monitors, and mouse and keyboard/flight sticks.

I’m not sure how hard to operate on the ultrabooks are, but by this point, anyone enthusiastic enough to want a 1TB+ SSD in their PC also probably recognizes the possibility to save a couple hundred bucks and buy it themselves.

Most ultrabooks aren’t upgradable at all. If you need more space, plug a USB3 drive into the eGPU dock.

@Jon: That… is what this is.

Awesome - As I’ve mentioned a lot on this forum, I always game on a laptop, so I can still be in the same room as my GF and family whenever I do so. This should be a nice way to actually do this, without having to sacrifice a lot of horsepower, or pay an extremely high price for a gaming laptop.