Well, I would expect thunderbolt4 to be along sooner or later. But like I said, it’ll be backwards compatible. Your TB3 devices will continue to work.
Did you notice this?
Active Thunderbolt 3 cables support Thunderbolt at 40Gbps data transfer at lengths of up to 2m. Optical cables are targeted later, with lengths of up to 60m. Passive lower cost cables are only capable of 20Gbps data transfer at 1m or 2m lengths, but can achieve the full 40Gbps [only] at a shorter cable length of 0.5m.
(emphasis mine)
Sure. Did the core come with a longer cord or something?
Nope it comes with a tiny cord. And that’s why…
I switched over to the 1050 Ti temporarily (the 1070 gtx went back into my pincab as planned) and hilariously, the Razer Core assumes a dual slot video card. There is only one binding screw, so I had to literally scotch tape the card in LOL
Works fine with the 1050 Ti as well, though the economics of putting a $150 video card in a $500+ enclosure are highly suspect… runs exceptionally cool and quiet at 1080p though!
Once I obtain a 1080 Ti I can swap my current 1080 into the Razer Core, I am completely confident it will work, and then 4K gaming on the HTPC is definitely my huckleberry.
Why on earth would you use your gaming PC as an eGPU rather than an internal one?
So if you want to go on the road with the laptop and eGPU it’s easy?
I must be missing something, because I’m not seeing what the gaming PC’s motherboard is bringing to this scenario.
Edit: Oh, wait, you mean plugging the enclosure into the gaming PC. I was envisaging plugging the laptop into the gaming PC’s motherboard. Still seems a rare enough occasion that it’s unlikely to be done on anything but the most overengineered motherboards. Who takes a GPU enclosure with them on the road?
Ok I got the 1080 gtx put in there but at great cost to my soul. Will update in a bit, but for some reason the Nvidia driver installer freaks the hell out on the 1080 in the external TB3 enclosure, in a way that it totally does not for the 1070 and 1050 Ti and I can’t explain it. Makes Nvidia driver install a bit of a weird manual effort.
Literally the only thing changing was the video card… so frustrating.
Wonder if it’s related to all the social “features” that require registration and want to Terminate and Stay Resident.
To elaborate on my previous post. I was definitely able to use the stock nvidia drivers with the 1050 ti and the 1070 when they are mounted in the Razer Core. However, the 1080 behaves differently, and I tried two different 1080 cards just to be sure. Here’s the behavior you get with the 1080 gtx in the Razer Core:
- run nvidia driver setup downloaded from nvidia.com
- you will get a generic nvidia driver install failed error at the driver install step, every time
- selecting “clean install” makes no difference, selecting a custom install of only the video driver makes no difference.
Why this happens with the 1080, but does not happen with the 1070 and 1050 Ti I have no idea. I could swap back in the 1050 Ti at this point, re-run driver setup and it would work flawlessly. But the second I put the 1080 in, the above would happen again.
I finally figured out something that does work at this point (right after driver install failed), though:
- open device manager
- expand “display adapters”
- look for unknown adapter
- right click unknown adapter, “Update Driver Software…”
- select manual install via disk path, point it to the existing nvidia driver unzip path on the disk
c:\nvidia\displaydriver\{version}\Win10_64\International, make sure search subfolders is checked
This works. The driver will install properly for the 1080 in the Razer Core with this method, in fact it is the only method that worked for me.
You also need to do the same thing for the HDMI audio adapter in device manager (same disk path works), otherwise you won’t have sound if you deliver sound over HDMI as I do.
Weird! They’re literally the exact same drivers and the 1080 is the exact same chip as the 1070.
Their generic installer has been pretty terrible for a while now though. Think it took a nosedive round the time they started with GFE3.x stuff.
Available in December, does away with all the “extra” crap like USB3, ethernet, all that to keep the price down to $299. Fine by me! I think this “let it be a generic laptop expansion box for All The Things!” is a costly distraction.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/10828/akitio-introduces-node-thunderbolt-3-egfx-box-for-299
The 120mm fan is VERY VERY promising given the tiny fan noise issues (not terrible, but clearly could be better) with the Razer Core. It is also longer, and a tiny bit taller, but significantly less wide, than the Razer.
The whole point is that it’s an everything dock. You plug in one cable and get power, GPU, USB ports, ethernet, audio-out, etc. If it only does eGPU you’ll need a second cable and that sucks balls. How much could a USB3 hub and ethernet port actually cost? Ridiculous.
This “build a docking station” business is pointless. There’s no way in hell gigabit ethernet needs TB3, heck you can just daisy chain USB3 if you need more USB3.
Who said it did? That dock doesn’t have USB3.
I have that LG 5k monitor at work, my laptop plugs in via TB3 and it gets power, displays on the monitor, and 3 USB3 ports. Off those ports I have my mouse, keyboard, gigabit ethernet, and a couple other miscellaneous devices, my phone charger, etc. The whole point, the bit that makes it cool, is that it works with one cable.
(Actually I have a USBC->displayport cable plugged into the laptop for my second monitor. But lets not talk about that.)
Ehh, docking stations are just lame. I get the GPU part but the rest of it, I’d rather see costs come down than silly little docking station perks.
Dedicated gigabit ethernet cards are $11. USB 3.0 PCI cards are $20. Somehow I doubt that leaving those out are what lets it shave $300 off the price.
Docking stations are most certainly NOT lame for mobile devices. It’s such a pain in the ass to remove 3-4 cables each time you want to sit down and then leave.
Yes, convenience is totally the point for me. I want to plug in one cable and get everything.
I’m at 2 cables now, because the LG monitor doesn’t passthrough displayport. Possibly because it requires 2 displayport signals to show 5k. If I could bring myself to drop down to 1 monitor (plus the laptop’s screen) that would be much better.
What I want is:
- Looks more or less like the Razer Core. No RGB lightning or fancy aluminum necessary, thanks.
- 1 PCI-e 16x slot
- 350w or higher PSU
- Provide up to 100w of power to the laptop over TB3
- Ports:
1 Thunderbolt 3 daisychain
1 gigabit ethernet
1 3.5mm line audio out
1 3.5mm microphone in
1 SDcard slot
2 USB 3.1 type-C
2 USB 3.1 type-A - Cost: $299
I’d also like to see a more integrated laptop dock.
- Dimensioned more or less like the Henge Dock. No fancy aluminum necessary, metallized plastic is fine.
- GTX 1050ti integrated GPU or equivalent
- Provide up to 100w of power to the laptop over TB3
- Ports:
1 Thunderbolt 3 daisychain
2 Displayport 1.4
1 HDMI 2.0
1 gigabit ethernet
1 3.5mm line audio out
1 3.5mm microphone in
1 SDcard slot
2 USB 3.1 type-C
2 USB 3.1 type-A - Cost: $399