Gigabyte makes eGPU boxes compact and more affordable

[HEXUS]

The Aorus GTX 1070 Gaming Box with pre-installed video card has an RRP of $599.

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[Tunnah]

It still feels like a lot for what is basically a low end PSU and a thunderbolt chip. But it's a step in the right direction that's for sure.

[Kumagoro]

Other than it's a niche product I don't see why it's so much either. £50 would be more like it, excluding gpu.

[Tunnah]

Other than it's a niche product I don't see why it's so much either. £50 would be more like it, excluding gpu.

Nah I definitely disagree with that. £125-150 sounds reasonable. £50 sounds like cheap tat, it wouldn't be worth starting the production or getting into the development

[DDY]

That, plus the laptop's fan keeping the CPU cool when it's running at full pelt?

Dis gunna be loud.

[FRISH]

Considering you can't upgrade the card for a longer one it seems particularly ridiculous to me. It seems like just getting a full desktop is more cost effective for what you get even if you do pay more. I like the idea, but It seems silly to pay such a premium for a glorified case and power supply.

[Kumagoro]

For 30 quid your nearly there assuming it works.

http://m.dx.com/p/exp-gdc-laptop-ext...4635?stiff=803

[ET3D]

For 30 quid your nearly there assuming it works.

http://m.dx.com/p/exp-gdc-laptop-ext...4635?stiff=803

It's an ExpressCard expansion, which makes it pretty useless for current laptops. With Intel opening up Thunderbolt, hopefully we'll see such Thunderbolt products in the future.

[whatif]

For 30 quid your nearly there assuming it works.

http://m.dx.com/p/exp-gdc-laptop-ext...4635?stiff=803

A friend struggled and got one working via his M.2 slot.
And there are some to be found on youtube - example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdnafIWvuU4
The difference is that this does not have a Thunderbolt 3 port and you still need a PSU.
So the end product does not have a case (into which I have fitted my water cooled video card), the tech is several years old, and the data transfer rates are slower (so the video card cannot perform as well as with TB3). It has what looks like a HDMI port for data transfer and the fastest rate I know of for HDMI 2.0 is 18Gb/s and I don't think it is using that protocol - more like HDMI 1.4 which is even slower at 10.2Gb/s.

To put that into perspective
Cheapest adapter after a quick look - about US$50 + US$20 postage = US$70 (A$105)
PSU reasonable brand 350W with 2x 8 pin connections (for AMD)......Australian Dollars $80
That leaves about $50 to $100 for a case.......................................Australian Dollars $50
For a total of ..............................................................................Australian Dollars $235
And it will not perform anywhere near as well as a Thunderbolt 3 eGPU

OK, I paid A$320 (including shipping) for one. So for an extra $85, I got a well sorted out eGPU that I could easily fit a radiator and it's 2x fans into as well. Once I had made sure the TB 3 was updated and I loaded the graphic drivers, it worked straight away.

Check out what you can do to a eGPU if you have a wild idea, plus too much time - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvHqpSwQBJQ

[ET3D]

I'm waiting for external graphics cards to be produced. You buy a card that looks like an external 3.5" drive box, connects to a standardised AC adapter and hook it via Thunderbolt. It will probably be a few years before those are available?