Instead, they’re general purpose PCIe boxes. A key difference between most of Akitio’s products and the other graphics card enclosures we’ve seen is that, with the exception of the original Node, Akitio’s are not certified by Intel as external graphics (eGFX) peripherals. Be sure to check it out before you buy!Īkitio has gone all-in on external graphics card docks by offering not one but three models: the Node, Node Lite, and Node Pro. PowerColor maintains a list of supported graphics cards and host systems in the specifications section of its Gaming Station webpage. The newer box is rocking a 550 watt power supply, ethernet, and five USB 3.0 ports. PowerColor’s preferred enclosure is the simply named Gaming Station ( $300 on Newegg Remove non-product link). It’s still listed on PowerColor’s site, but it isn’t easy to find.
PowerColor’s Thunderbolt 3-based Devil Box was a similarly fancy box that sold for $450 in the early days of external graphics docks.
You’ll also need a relatively new notebook equipped with a Thunderbolt 3-compatible USB-C port. These days most Thunderbolt 3 laptops and graphics card enclosures play nicely together thanks to Intel’s Thunderbolt 3 external graphics compatibility technology, which PC makers must specifically enable. Enclosures are, for the most part, still a pricey proposition-much more so than the DIY method we’ll outline later. Thunderbolt 3 levels the playing field, and several companies now offer TB3-based graphics card docks, complete with dedicated power supplies, additional ports, and-of course-room to slot desktop graphics cards.Īll is not perfect in the world of Thunderbolt 3-powered graphics, however. For resource-intensive activities like gaming, a speedy connection between your laptop and an external graphics card provides a big boost for performance.Įarlier attempts at external graphics card docks existed, but they were usually overpriced and relied on proprietary connection technologies. Thunderbolt 3 (TB3) is Intel’s high-speed external input/output connection, capable of speeds up to a blistering 40 gigabytes per second (GBps) over a compatible USB-C port.
Thunderbolt 3 graphics card docks Adam Patrick Murray/IDGĪ Razer Core connected to a Razer Blade Stealth laptop via Thunderbolt 3/USB-C. First, let’s tackle the modern approach of using a graphics card dock via Thunderbolt 3. If you have a high-performance card, such as AMD Radeon™ RX Vega 64, Vega Frontier Edition, WX 9100 and overclocked NVIDIA cards), Sonnet offers the eGFX Breakaway Box 650 that provides additional power to drive these cards.We’ll walk you through the DIY process for configuring an external graphics card later in this article, along with the sudden rise of streaming PC games from the cloud. The eGFX Breakaway Box 550 has more than enough capability to support nearly every compatible GPU card. Card Power Support: Supports up to 375W Card.Power Connector: Two 8-pin (6+2 pin) Power Connectors.Power Supply: 550 Power Supply (equivalent to 600W recommended system power).The Breakaway Box was provided as an eGPU kit to developers to assist in the development of eGPU on Mac® computers. Apple demonstrated eGPU connectivity over Thunderbolt 3 with Sonnet's eGFX Breakaway Box at Apple's 2017 WWDC (World Wide Developers Conference). Sonnet maintains a working relationship with Thunderbolt and graphic cards partners, and is one of the first eGPU enclosures recommended by Apple®.
For the professional – accelerate special effects, animation, color grading, rendering, and editing. For gamers – enable graphic-intensive gaming on ultra-portable computers. Sonnet’s eGFX Breakaway™ Box is an award-winning family of Thunderbolt™ 3 external GPU enclosures that support any Thunderbolt compatible PCIe card, but are designed specifically for bandwidth-intensive AMD and NVIDIA® graphic cards. Break Into – Desktop Class Graphics Acceleration