3 ms·

I think it's not the best deal, but it's so much better than other jokers in this space, because, the alternative I've found is Razor Core series (https://www.r

• cupofjoakim 8y ago
  The best resource for DIY projects in this space seems to be egpu.io. I found their guide kind of helpful: https://egpu.io/build-guides/ https://egpu.io/build-guides/
• jasonjs 8y ago
  Even before the more polished products existed, people have hacked together external GPU enclosures, often interfaced to the host's PCIe bus via ExpressCard slots or ribbon cables hanging off of Mini PCIe slots. And more recently, with the interest in cramming many dual-slot GPUs onto a single motherboard for cryptomining rigs, you can find cheap, "barebones stand-alone PCIe slots" (for lack of a better term) for hanging GPUs off of. A quick search turned up a couple of examples: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Mini-PCI-E-to-PCI-E-1X-Expansion-Riser-Card-for-Laptop-External-Graphics-Video-Card/32678046394.html https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Mini-PCI-E-to-PCI-E-1X-Expan... https://www.aliexpress.com/item/60CM-PCI-Express-1X-To-16X-PCIE-Riser-Card-For-BTC-Miner-Machine-Overcurrent-Protection-USB/32838193524.html https://www.aliexpress.com/item/60CM-PCI-Express-1X-To-16X-P... (Ingeniously, on this one, they've re-purposed USB 3.0 cables to carry the high-speed PCIe lanes).
  • dogma1138 8y ago
    These are for mining USB 3.0 cables are the standard they have the correct number of pins for a single lane and have decent shielding.
  • gambiting 8y ago
    The problem with all of those has always been that they only worked with an external display - there never was any way to send the image back to the laptop's own display.
    • washadjeffmad 8y ago
      LookingGlass on Linux allows displaying from other GPUs' framebuffers. We use Resolve in VM with hardware passthrough and can monitor its display output from within another VM this way. Apple nails the prosumer, but I really don't see many using their hardware in industry.
    • hddherman 8y ago
      It actually is possible with nVidia GPU-s, but you'll be taking a huge performance hit as some of the tiny bandwidth is now used to send the rendered image back to the laptop and then to the screen.
    • Zephyreks 8y ago
      No matter what, sending it back to the internal display is going to mean a significant performance hit. There's only so much bandwidth in a TB3 connection.
• garmaine 8y ago
  Razed has a $300 alternative that is explicitly supported by the Apple ecosystem.
• growt 8y ago
  Here is an overview I think is helpful [1]. The sonnet eGPU-case looks like its the best value for the price. And the gigabyte box on #1 maybe if you like to buy the GPU with the box. [1] https://egpu.io/external-gpu-buyers-guide-2018/ https://egpu.io/external-gpu-buyers-guide-2018/
• Shivetya 8y ago
  http://barefeats.com/ http://barefeats.com/ which in the Apple community is known for graphics testing of Apple products and other solutions has done a lot of work with external GPU enclosures. One vendor (Sonnet) [1] has a 580 solution at 499. B&H has the no GPU unit at 299. So there are options. [1]https://www.sonnetstore.com/collections/egpu-expansion-systems https://www.sonnetstore.com/collections/egpu-expansion-syste...
• dlevine 8y ago
  You can use this: (https://www.amazon.com/Akitio-Node-Thunderbolt3-Windows-Compatible/dp/B06XKKSNTS/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1531483558&sr=1-1&keywords=akitio+node&dpID=4127wMI73lL&preST=_SX300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch https://www.amazon.com/Akitio-Node-Thunderbolt3-Windows-Comp...) It costs $250 + GPU.
  • dharma1 8y ago
    awesome thanks! Does that work with 1080ti? I know Apple hasn't got official Nvidia drivers but Nvidia has provided their own for a while now
  • rsynnott 8y ago
    One thing to note about this; it only provides 15W USB-PD. This is grossly inadequate for pretty much any laptop you'd want to connect to it, so one-plug operation isn't practical.