4 ms·

Is it possible to buy an PCIe to TB3 adapter cable and connect any modern graphics card to a laptop or mini atx board that has TB3?

opencl 6y ago
That's basically what all of those eGPU boxes are. You can buy just the enclosure and pop whatever GPU you want in, provided the enclosure has an adequate power supply.
nicolas_t 6y ago
Yes, it is. There's a few egpu enclosure. Take a look at egpu.info There's a small performance penalty and it's not always perfectly reliable but it works well enough and is very convenient.
komali2 6y ago
As other people mentioned, egpu container. For what it's worth, I didn't find this to be, well, worth it. I got a razer egpu enclosure and while it was certainly very well engineered, it was comically over-engineered. Weighed something crazy even without my gpu in it, I wanna say 10lbs, maybe even 15. Plus, it was huge, as big as an itx case. Then I had to drop 60$ on a long enough thunderbolt Cable to let me have the case under my desk. Then there was all the issues with plugging in a laptop. Windows on a lenovo x1 carbon worked fine, with plug in/out capabilities. Ubuntu 18.04 on same machine wasn't plug and play, but I got it working after about an hour of fiddling. Never got plug in/out working. Plug in worked, but unplug without shutting down lead to a crash. All this and the enclosure was like 300$, and I was bottlenecked by my laptop processor anyway. In the end I think it's just simpler to buy that expensive graphics card you're looking at, then build a simple pc around it, and then make use of some kind of network based workflow for data sharing (git server for your code, networked hard drives for video, photo, music editing etc. Much easier, much more flexible, and imo in the end cheaper.
- tutfbhuf 6y ago
  Yup, this is what I have heard from others as well, that's why I am specifically looking for an adapter/cable without enclosure.
  - izacus 6y ago
    It's not going to be just an adapter because you'll need a beefy power supply with PCIe power outlets as well (modern cards pull up to 400W of power). This is why mostly you get a box to house all that.
    - tutfbhuf 6y ago
      Yes, I know and I already have a beefy enough power supply. I just want that adapter. So is there any cable or not? If yes, where can I buy it?
      - komali2 6y ago
        No, there's hardware components involved, I guess to translate whatever comes out at PCI e to whatever usb c expects.

opencl 6y ago

That's basically what all of those eGPU boxes are. You can buy just the enclosure and pop whatever GPU you want in, provided the enclosure has an adequate power supply.

nicolas_t 6y ago

Yes, it is. There's a few egpu enclosure. Take a look at egpu.info There's a small performance penalty and it's not always perfectly reliable but it works well enough and is very convenient.

komali2 6y ago

As other people mentioned, egpu container. For what it's worth, I didn't find this to be, well, worth it. I got a razer egpu enclosure and while it was certainly very well engineered, it was comically over-engineered. Weighed something crazy even without my gpu in it, I wanna say 10lbs, maybe even 15. Plus, it was huge, as big as an itx case. Then I had to drop 60$ on a long enough thunderbolt Cable to let me have the case under my desk. Then there was all the issues with plugging in a laptop. Windows on a lenovo x1 carbon worked fine, with plug in/out capabilities. Ubuntu 18.04 on same machine wasn't plug and play, but I got it working after about an hour of fiddling. Never got plug in/out working. Plug in worked, but unplug without shutting down lead to a crash. All this and the enclosure was like 300$, and I was bottlenecked by my laptop processor anyway. In the end I think it's just simpler to buy that expensive graphics card you're looking at, then build a simple pc around it, and then make use of some kind of network based workflow for data sharing (git server for your code, networked hard drives for video, photo, music editing etc. Much easier, much more flexible, and imo in the end cheaper.

tutfbhuf 6y ago
Yup, this is what I have heard from others as well, that's why I am specifically looking for an adapter/cable without enclosure.
- izacus 6y ago
  It's not going to be just an adapter because you'll need a beefy power supply with PCIe power outlets as well (modern cards pull up to 400W of power). This is why mostly you get a box to house all that.
  - tutfbhuf 6y ago
    Yes, I know and I already have a beefy enough power supply. I just want that adapter. So is there any cable or not? If yes, where can I buy it?
    - komali2 6y ago
      No, there's hardware components involved, I guess to translate whatever comes out at PCI e to whatever usb c expects.