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While this may be a great engineering feat, I would rather see mass-market external GPU enclosures become the norm once/if Thunderbolt 3 becomes mainstream.

It would be really nice for instance dual-boot a Macbook Pro for work during the day, then come home and plug in an external GPU for gaming.

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Some of us have been waiting for external GPUs for nearly a decade. I'm not sure a critical mass of demand exists for this type of interface.

Value gamers stick to mainstream ATX PCs, and often do their own work, as components can be much cheaper and the labor is free (supplemented by a few internet build guides).

High-end gamers often do their own work so they can ensure quality throughout the build and verify every component. Those that don't usually only buy completed systems, and replace these very frequently.

Almost all use cases where an external card device would be useful are already served by having a desktop instead of a laptop, where the discrete GPU is almost external, an ever-increasing stack of chips, fans, and radiators sticking out of a motherboard slot.

Note that Intel is explicitly supporting external GPUs this time with Thunderbolt 3. I don't think that was the case in previous versions. It sounds more likely to happen this cycle, though as you point out it's a small market, so I don't expect it to be cheap.

http://liliputing.com/2015/08/intel-says-thunderbolt-3-will-...

http://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/anton-shilov...

There is a limitation on the width of the bus though. I recall reading this when it first was announced and it is referenced in the linked article that you reference [1]: 40Gb/s of bandwidth – or about 5GB/s – provided by Thunderbolt 3 is tremendously lower than 15.75GB/s offered by a fully-fledged PCI Express 3.0 x16 slot.

[1] http://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/anton-shilov...

Yes, but the bandwidth is not really needed. PCI-E data compression is a thing. You only lose like 10% performance when comparing ExpressCard (4Gbit) to native PCI-E

Sources:

http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/6578-impleme...

and specifically:

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/4476434

10% is kind of a lot.

Given that the alternative is an 100% of an integrated GPU, I'd still take 90% of a dedicated desktop GPU at my laptop dock.

Single GPU setups show no performance degradation at 2.0 x16 and some/slight degradation at 2.0 x8.,

5GB/s should do just fine.

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GTX_980_PCI-Expre...

Good to see

> where the discrete GPU is almost external, an ever-increasing stack of chips, fans, and radiators

The last 3 GPU's I've bought for my primary desktop over the last ~6 years have always been bigger than the last.

There are no mass market eGPU solutions yet but a handful of DIY solutions (based on ExpresssCard or Thunderbolt 1/2 interface) are available.

The eGPU experts are actually convinced that Intel was blocking the release of several mass market-compatible GPU compatible Thunderbolt cases in the past.

I still think there are a ton of people who want something that is small and portable but still has gaming power. I could see a ton of college students getting laptops for college and then buying an external GPU so they can game when they get back to their dorm. Anyone who travels or moves around a lot could have a powerful gaming laptop when they want it, and a light and usable laptop when they want that, without the terrible battery life, huge size, and obscene price that comes with a full fledged gaming-only laptop.

How is that superior to owning a laptop and a dedicated gaming desktop? The desktop will always be the option with the fewest tradeoffs.

To get the more powerful graphics card in the desktop you must also purchase a case, power supply, processor, RAM, motherboard, SDD/HDD, keyboard, and monitor. I can't see this not outpacing the cost of just the external graphics card.

I'm treating a mouse as a must purchase for either.

Without having done the pricing, I'm betting that the laptop plus external graphics card might not be much more expensive than a low-end laptop + "good enough" gaming system. Going super high-end is going to be expensive either way and it may not matter as much since you have the coin to go all out just for gaming.

What is needed is a small sized amplifier box using thunderbolt 3.

If something could be built around an AMD Radeon R9 Nano, then it would be a serious force to be reckoned with.

A desktop is a big item to lug back and forth between a dorm/apartment and home. I tried this last year with my desktop; this year I skipped the hassle and left it behind.

Most people move their desktop as often as they move the rest of their furniture. For college students who dorm, there are small form factor cases that can still support full size GPUs and CPUs.

Many students need to take flights at least once a year if they study out of state/country or if they have some kind of internship program (my school made us alternative between school and work every 4 months, for instance). Even the smallest of the SFF cases (that support discrete GPUs) cannot be practically packed into a luggage for flights.

I know this because I own a SilverStone FTZ01 [1] and have tried to take it with me on a flight back home in May, but ended up giving up on it because it was simply too difficult to adequately protect in a luggage without going over weight limits.

A much smaller chassis with just a discrete GPU + power supply probably won't have this problem, and as a result, for my use case at least, it would be a much more practical option.

[1] http://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=533

It could be very very nice 'intermediate' upgrade path for many users. Like CPU accelerators in the 80s. Your laptop is slow ? beef it up with that tiny box so you can enjoy your beloved machine a little longer. Something you can even use on a future laptop. How is my marketing-fu ?

> I would rather see mass-market external GPU enclosures become the norm once/if Thunderbolt 3 becomes mainstream.

Agreed, this would be more AWESOME, but there is a limitation on the width of the bus though. I recall reading this when it first was announced.

> dual-boot a Macbook Pro for work during the day, then come home and plug in an external GPU for gaming

Depending on what you play, with Unreal Engine 4, games can run native. Unreal Tournament runs fine on a OSX and on Linux.

external GPUs? YES, but definitely NOT proprietary thunderbolt

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