Not at all. Vast majority of games are GPU-limited.
CPU does have an impact too, no doubt, but a modern dual-core i7 will play most games beautifully at 4k with a single 980Ti.
Thinking about the Razer Stealth and an eGPU for my next laptop.
The Laptop does seem a bit underspecced though.
Mostly true to the first statement. But definitively not for the second. Not the ones in the ultrabooks. A top of the line i7-6500U (6550U gets you just another 100Mhz of boost woooo!) has comparable single core performance somewhere around an old Sandy Bridge i3-2100 and a modern Pentium G3258 depending on what its doing.
That is not good enough for: GTA5. Skyrim. FO4. RTSes. BF4 64 player maps.
Though my prior statement was misleading - you’ll be able to turn up everything to max with a 980Ti for those games. You’ll just be at the same 30-40 fps as you would on low, while a 750Ti would only let you turn up to medium at the same 30-40 fps =p
They aren’t directly comparable; they have a lot more cache, hyperthreading, etc. And yes, it will have an impact, certainly. But the games will still be playable at high quality/resolution.
The size of the enclosure is such that I’d rather have a SFF desktop and a laptop or tablet. I see no advantage of having a single Ultrabook that docks vs the +/- $375 to turn the enclosure/GPU/monitors/external data drives/M&K that are just gonna sit taking up space in your house/apartment anyway into a full-on Skylake computer. The cost difference is pretty negligible if you’ve properly outfitted the eGPU gaming station. In fact the likely cost of the eGPU enclosure vs a SFF case w/ mobo/RAM/CPU makes the $$$ difference even smaller.
That whole eGPU station IS anchored to a desk. The fact that you can take your ultrabook away and have the eGPU desktop setup sans computer uselessly sitting there unable to offer any services to the home network isn’t compelling to me.
Asus is also showing their GX2 at CES, which looks to be essentially the same thing in a weird looking chassis with no ethernet port on the back. I expect we’ll see many more in the coming months.
@mono: It’s fine if you don’t see the attraction of a laptop and dock vs. separate laptop and gaming computer. I personally do.
Aye, its of immense value to me actually, and I appreciate the write-ups about it. This is what Ive been waiting for , for quite a few years!
Super weird to leave off wired ethernet. I mean, it can’t cost much, and it’s of immense attraction to at least some part of the market. I wonder if there was an issue with the traffic on the TB3 with ethernet, graphics, and USB?
Nope, TB3 has a ridiculous amount of bandwidth. Asus just chose not to do it to save a couple bucks on the bill of lading, I guess.
Adding a USB3 ethernet adapter will add another $15 or so to the cost, and USB audio (both docks lack audio ports) another $10 on top of that. Small fry, but it would certainly be nice if they were included.
Again, these two happen to be the very first to be released. I fully expect TB3 eGPU docks to become an entire new category of computer accessory by the end of this year, with tons of competition.
Yeah, sorry for coming off as weirdly antagonistic. It’s a neat idea.
I’m odd in that I tend to only use a laptop if I have no other choice. I’d rather either a full-on desktop w/ huge screens or a tablet/phablet.
Most folks are the inverse, and vastly prefer laptops, so I grok the appeal.
I used to really hate laptops too, but after I got a tablet I learned the convenience of a laptop. It’s even better than a tablet, it’s a tablet with a stand!
This means you don’t need to hold it 2 hours to watch a movie. You can set it on a little chair and watch while you take a bath. It’s safer to cook with because a keyboard is less fragile than a touchscreen. etc.
The main thing about having one PC is you can be lazy - it has all your programs/extensions configured exactly as you like, all the saved passwords, etc etc.
It’d be cool if you could install a TB3 PCIe card into an existing desktop PC and turn it into an eGPU, though I’m sure there are technical reasons why that won’t be possible.
Laptops need to support intel video switching to work with TB3. No reason desktops couldn’t do the same thing-- question is if they will.
I would guess they will add it on some models, but it’s also Asus and assuming they are targeting their own machines, they are already including a USB 3.0 to rj45 cable with the laptop. I am pretty sure that most companies are going a similar route because I didn’t see a lot of built in rj45 when I was looking recently before I settled in on my Asus. Apple doesn’t have them, a lot of the Lenovos don’t, a lot of the Asus, etc.
I think the expectation is that people will have usb 3.0 to rj45 cables already if they need them. I am sure models will have them, but I don’t think they will be standard or necessarily appeal to the people who have the kinds of laptops that want to connect to them.
CPU still matters. Still not quite the comparison we want (which will never happen given how niche of an comparison it would be), but I stand by my 30-40 fps estimate of what you can get in an ultraportable paired with an external 980 is a fair estimate for the CPU demanding games (only really GTA5 and Witcher in this one). FPSs are all good to go at 60+ though I think.
Heh, that link finally convinced me to upgrade from my ancient i920 to a 6700k rig. Damn you fdsaion! I almost made it to a decade!
Go for the record! Do you have a 120hz monitor or something? That actually showed that there was no strong need to upgrade my 2500K at 60fps target (not that I could hit that with a GTX 760). Though I still probably will upgrade CPU whenever I do a refresh at Pascal or AMD’s equivalent.
You can already get a [email protected] in an ultrabook format and the upcoming i7-6920HQ has the same power 45W TDP.
The i7-6920HQ is a lot closer to the 6700k than the i5-2500K and even that chip is way above the 30-40 FPS range. The i7-6700HQ with a 960M is 30-40’s, I don’t know how you can declare that CPU limited.
No, but my Nehalem i920 is two generations earlier than even sandy bridge. It would have worked fine for several more years, most likely, but I’ve been itching to upgrade since like… 2012. I’ve never had the same computer for over 3 years before, and this one is coming up on 8!
When the Pascal “Ti” finally comes out, I’ll get one of those and a 4k g-sync monitor. Probably 9 months to go on that.
What’s up i920 buddy? Still rocking that on my LA computer, but it will be replaced with a Core and stealth once they announce core pricing. As an expat, I love the idea of the Core as my home town “desktop” that I can just change out the gpu in every few years. It’s a great way to avoid the cost of maintaining two gaming rigs. Just change the ultra book and graphics card every few years.