AM4/ThreadRipper Thunderbolt EGPU

[AttonRisk]

I'll be really blunt and just get to it, I am well aware thunderbolt is not as fast as a genuine pcie connection. So I'll boil my questions down to bullet points.

1. Can an amd system successfully use thunderbolt to link to a gpu could you also use more than one?

2. Would it function with gpu passthrough without having to write a new linux kernel and performing a billion dollars of research?

3. What is the price point for a decent budget egpu dock?

 

In any case thanks a lot and I appreciate any advise on this.

[Freakwise]

12 minutes ago, AttonRisk said:

Can an amd system successfully use thunderbolt to link to a gpu could you also use more than one?

Cannot really say about the other questions but this, 

I think it's really upto the thunderbolt instead of amd, i mean while thunderbolt is "daisy chain-able" i have yet to see the use of multi e-gpu outside this article 

 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/9to5mac.com/2018/08/14/back-to-the-mac-010-dual-egpus/amp/

 

Oh and there's also a several amd motherboard with thunderbolt port and some More to come

[jaslion]

1. Yes if the motherboard is certified compatible with thunderbolt. Multiple is possible but it entirely depends on the thunderbolt configuration and bandwith availability.

2. It would function just like a normal egpu for a laptop you will still need a gpu DIRECTLY in the system however for a egpu to work

3. The cheaper non bad ones start at around 200-300$ depends on if they come with a power supply or not too

 

 

Would I recommend it? No as well the point of a desktop is to have everything be in the desktop. I don't know what you are doing but pretty much you'll just have the option to use 1 gpu which might as well be in the system since:

 

You'll need a pcie gpu

You'll need a pcie thunderbolt card

 

So 2 pcie slots will be taken up at least and if this is to be a small portable system or something you already can't do it on a itx board.

[Freakwise]

3 minutes ago, jaslion said:

You'll need a pcie thunderbolt card

I just want to say though that you not necessarily always needs a pcie thunderbolt add in card like in the case of asus b550 proart creator or asrock phantom gaming itx/tb3

 

[jaslion]

6 minutes ago, Freakwise said:

I just want to say though that you not necessarily always needs a pcie thunderbolt add in card like in the case of asus b550 proart creator or asrock phantom gaming itx/tb3

 

Fair enough. One thing however is that I cannot find anything about windows allowing 2 egpu's. All I can find is people that failed.

[AttonRisk]

4 hours ago, jaslion said:

Fair enough. One thing however is that I cannot find anything about windows allowing 2 egpu's. All I can find is people that failed.

I use mostly linux and hand off the gpu to vm's mostly

[jaslion]

3 hours ago, AttonRisk said:

I use mostly linux and hand off the gpu to vm's mostly

Is there any reason to not have them internal? Since thunderbolt in linux is never a given that it will work especially on amd integrations.