Anything new on Thunderbolt 3 External GPU?

D

dexvx

[H]ard|Gawd
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Aug 14, 2002
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Saw a thread on this forum when it was announced in June/July timeframe. Haven't heard a peep since then. Now that mainstream Skylake laptops are shipping with Thunderbolt 3 connectors (like the Dell XPS 13), you'd think there should be some news?
 
CES is this week -- I'd expect some news about Thunderbolt 3 GPU options very soon.
 
All I want is for ASUS to announce a 4K display with a built in double-height PCIe x16 slot that connects over TB3.
 
I'm actually more impressed with the Razer Blade Stealth being $999 base than the Razer Core.

Also, sad to say that the Razer and the Asus equivalent are all vendor locked. Their explanation is that it requires BIOS specific settings. /shrug.
 
The Razer Blade Stealth + Core is something that seems SO close to what I've been seeking for a long time.. but there are a couple of things that worry me.

First, the Blade Stealth itself looks good overall. 4K IGZO display, metal chassis, good ports, hell..even a good price. However... they note it has an i7 6500U GPU. Oh come on guys. Seriously. A DUAL CORE? Likewise, only 8GB of RAM (and LPDDR3 at that)...though perhaps this is upgradable lest they were foolish enough to solder it. They're selling this as the companion to the Core which is a device that may finally break the gaming laptop "Hardware goes out of date, can't upgrade its performance" issue at the first element that can't keep up, the GPU. So why are you giving it such a sub-par CPU if it is going to be expected to last? Yes, I know the TDP is lower on this model.. but considering that the 14" Razer Blade can handle a pretty fast-spec'ed i7 quad for its time plus an Nvidia GTX 970, it seems a 12.5" Blade Stealth could handle a quad without the additional heat to dissipate of a higher-end discrete GPU. If not, I'd consider waiting for them to refresh the Blade 14" with Thunderbolt 3 and consider a Core alongside it ; I don't mind a bit of extra size/weight for what seems to be a luxury/thin/power laptop all ready

That said, the Core is perhaps the real star of the show provided the proper answers to a handful of questions. Having a Thunderbolt 3 external GPU holding "dock", fully upgradable in terms of hardware for pretty much any single GPU card sounds great However one thing I haven't seen detailed as of yet - does the Thunderbolt 3 connection allow you to use the benefit of the GPU in the Core on your laptop's display? This is the major crux of the issue. Sure, its nice to have the few other GPU outputs to external displays if you want them, but that basically means in order to use the Core's GPU at all you have to have an external display and to me anyway, that nearly defeats the purpose. I love the idea of having a lighter laptop and using integrated graphics when I am not gaming, but when I am in my home, hotel room etc... all I have to do is plug in a Thunderbolt 3 connector to the Core and enjoy my high end GPU, that's great. All out the window if it only works on an external GPU!

Besides that primary concern, I'm also interested in both the Core and Stealth functioning on a Linux system. In theory, as soon as Linux has support for Thunderbolt 3, USB-3.1 it shouldn't be an issue and for what its worth Intel does seem to do well by Linux compatibility.. Razer on the other hand... Likewise, if the Core works via typical Thunderbolt 3 support, its a pity if it was vendor locked; I'd wonder if there will be a similar "generic" solution that will work on any laptop that supports TB3?

So yes, big questions. Maybe progress in the right direction, but big questions...
 
Xaeos said:
The Razer Blade Stealth + Core is something that seems SO close to what I've been seeking for a long time.. but there are a couple of things that worry me.

First, the Blade Stealth itself looks good overall. 4K IGZO display, metal chassis, good ports, hell..even a good price. However... they note it has an i7 6500U GPU. Oh come on guys. Seriously. A DUAL CORE? Likewise, only 8GB of RAM (and LPDDR3 at that)...though perhaps this is upgradable lest they were foolish enough to solder it. They're selling this as the companion to the Core which is a device that may finally break the gaming laptop "Hardware goes out of date, can't upgrade its performance" issue at the first element that can't keep up, the GPU. So why are you giving it such a sub-par CPU if it is going to be expected to last? Yes, I know the TDP is lower on this model.. but considering that the 14" Razer Blade can handle a pretty fast-spec'ed i7 quad for its time plus an Nvidia GTX 970, it seems a 12.5" Blade Stealth could handle a quad without the additional heat to dissipate of a higher-end discrete GPU. If not, I'd consider waiting for them to refresh the Blade 14" with Thunderbolt 3 and consider a Core alongside it ; I don't mind a bit of extra size/weight for what seems to be a luxury/thin/power laptop all ready
Click to expand...

It's a thin Ultrabook -- I just don't think they have the heat and battery tolerances needed to cram in a quad-core processor. The 14-inch Blade can do it because it's much thicker and has room for both a larger battery and more aggressive cooling. As it stands, this is still the closet you'll get to a best-of-both-worlds laptop that's both extremely portable and capable of playing recent games.

That said, the Core is perhaps the real star of the show provided the proper answers to a handful of questions. Having a Thunderbolt 3 external GPU holding "dock", fully upgradable in terms of hardware for pretty much any single GPU card sounds great However one thing I haven't seen detailed as of yet - does the Thunderbolt 3 connection allow you to use the benefit of the GPU in the Core on your laptop's display? This is the major crux of the issue. Sure, its nice to have the few other GPU outputs to external displays if you want them, but that basically means in order to use the Core's GPU at all you have to have an external display and to me anyway, that nearly defeats the purpose. I love the idea of having a lighter laptop and using integrated graphics when I am not gaming, but when I am in my home, hotel room etc... all I have to do is plug in a Thunderbolt 3 connector to the Core and enjoy my high end GPU, that's great. All out the window if it only works on an external GPU!

Besides that primary concern, I'm also interested in both the Core and Stealth functioning on a Linux system. In theory, as soon as Linux has support for Thunderbolt 3, USB-3.1 it shouldn't be an issue and for what its worth Intel does seem to do well by Linux compatibility.. Razer on the other hand... Likewise, if the Core works via typical Thunderbolt 3 support, its a pity if it was vendor locked; I'd wonder if there will be a similar "generic" solution that will work on any laptop that supports TB3?
Click to expand...

Yes, the Core can accelerate graphics on your main display. Imagine if you could have external PCIe connections on your desktop PC -- that's what this amounts to.

I wouldn't count on Linux support any time soon. It's theoretically possible, of course, but that's highly dependent on both Intel's Thunderbolt 3 drivers and (if necessary) Razer's own Core drivers. Don't worry about the hardware being locked to Razer PCs, by the way... I asked Razer myself, and they say that the Core should work on other computers. Once more of them get Thunderbolt 3, that is.
 
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