MSI working on external graphics solutions with Thunderbolt 3 interface

[ahhming]

With the recent announcement of Thunderbolt 3 which has 40Gb/s of bandwidth or about 5GB/s .

MicroStar International is working on two external graphics processing solutions for mobile and small form-factor personal computers with Thunderbolt 3 interface. Details about the products are little at the moment , but one of the device will be called “Thunderbolt Card Chassis” and another is “Thunderbolt Graphics Dock”. Both products will feature Intel “Alpine Ridge” controller. MSI does not reveal any launch dates at present.
 

The Thunderbolt card chassis is an external enclosure for desktop-class graphics boards that will likely have its own power supply unit and some other things. It remains to be seen whether MSI will offer such solution as a dwellings for a graphics adapter or as fully integrated external graphics processing device for laptops and SFF desktops.

The Thunderbolt graphics dock is, as the name implies, a docking station with a built-in laptop-class graphics processing unit along with multiple additional I/O ports and other possible extension capabilities (e.g., Gigabit Ethernet). Since such solution uses mobile graphics adapters, it will not provide levels of performance comparable to that of desktop computers. Exact configuration of MSI’s Thunderbolt graphics dock is unknown. A notebook dock designed for gamers could benefit from additional storage and an optical disc drive in addition to a powerful GPU.  (same concept as sony vaio  vpc-z2)

 
from the picture we can see the connector used is a usb type c / thunderbolt 3
Source:
http://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/anton-shilov/msi-preps-external-graphics-solutions-with-thunderbolt-3-interface/

[Duskie]

I'm more interested in what that GPU cooler is.  :blink:

[Curufinwe_wins]

There is a way to jerry rig a desktop gpu into a laptop, but it's cool to see them add official support.

[AlexGoesHigh]

It would be stupid to use a propietary connector when it use the tb3 standard, this product has to use a tb3 certified usb c connection

[Uwillparish]

if it will work with thunderbolt 1 and 2, a shit ton of people will buy it

[bcredeur97]

This may actually make me move to a mobile workstation if I ever need to. With something like this and a laptop with a really good CPU, I could have a dock at home ready for me to bring my laptop home for doing hardcore stuff.

 

 

just imagine a laptop with nothing but the highest end mobile i7 and like 4 completely seperated thunderbolt ports. Plug in a couple GPU's at home and you'll be good to go. Not having a mobile GPU means a slimmer design as well as a ton of more battery life while your on the go, especially the way CPU's use so little power at idle these days.

 

Thunderbolt 3 is plenty of bandwidth for a GPU, its 40Gbit/5GByte. PCIe 3.0 x16 is 8GB/s, and no GPU comes close to using that.

[Decon]

This better damn well work on TB2...

[michaelk12]

This better damn well work on TB2...

It will, some guy on this site runs a 980 on his MB Pro. I don't remember who.

[Norman_the_Owl]

It will, some guy on this site runs a 980 on his MB Pro. I don't remember who.

@Firearm2112

[SirSquid]

But will it be able to loop back and display on the laptop's screen?

[Alurit]

I'm more interested in what that GPU cooler is.  :blink:

yeah like pop off the bottom cover, take out the wifi module from the pci-e slot and use a pci-e ribbon cable

[patrickjp93]

This better damn well work on TB2...

TB is always backwards-compatible. There'll be a dongle made. Keep your pants on.

[patrickjp93]

But will it be able to loop back and display on the laptop's screen?

facepalm* YES!

[mikeeginger]

Good finally 

[smoggeh]

Still 5GB/s which gimps alot of high end solutions. Should be decent for midrange desktop cards though.

[CarlHauschke]

I don't understand what inspired Intel tu feature eGPUs with TB3. All eGPU solutions were denied by Intel with TB1 and 2. Hopefully TB3 will be backwards compatible (with Adapter from USB-C to mDP).

[carolkarine]

Still 5GB/s which gimps alot of high end solutions. Should be decent for midrange desktop cards though.

 

5GB/s compared to 8GB/s of pcie 3.0 x16 isn't too shabby - especially when you consider 290x crossfire and sli functions fine on x8 slots, which would be limited to 4GB/s. in theory, 5GB/s is plenty, so long as you're not trying to run more than one eGPU.

[random_australian]

Why not integrate the gpu dock into a monitor and just run one thunderbolt cable between the monitor and laptop. The power supply can power the gpu and lcd panel. Less cables boxes and clutter

[smoggeh]

5GB/s compared to 8GB/s of pcie 3.0 x16 isn't too shabby - especially when you consider 290x crossfire and sli functions fine on x8 slots, which would be limited to 4GB/s. in theory, 5GB/s is plenty, so long as you're not trying to run more than one eGPU.

PCIE 3 is 1GBs per lane. This would be running at x5 in theory. It's going to limit higher end cards.

[MrRavens]

Cool stuff.

[carolkarine]

PCIE 3 is 1GBs per lane. This would be running at x5 in theory. It's going to limit higher end cards.

 

you're confusing gigabits (Gb/s) and gigabytes (GB/s) a pcie 3.0 lane is 1Gb/s, and even then you need to consider that it's bidirectional, halving the measurable bandwidth in either direction.

[flibberdipper]

This is pretty neat.

[smoggeh]

you're confusing gigabits (Gb/s) and gigabytes (GB/s) a pcie 3.0 lane is 1Gb/s, and even then you need to consider that it's bidirectional, halving the measurable bandwidth in either direction.

• v3.0 (8 GT/s):
  • 985 MB/s (×1)
  • 15.75 GB/s (×16)

  5x985MB = 4925MB = 4.925GB/s = X5

   

  TB3 is capable of 5GB/s which is a touch higher than x5 PCI-E (x5 is the theory limit but will probably be subject to x4)

   

  "Intel will offer two versions of the controller: one that uses a PCI Express 4x lane to provide two Thunderbolt 3 ports"

   

  Its using the Apline Ridge controller as stated in the original post, "With PCIe 3.0 x4 or PCIe 3.0 x2 links at its disposal" http://www.techpowerup.com/200064/next-gen-intel-alpine-ridge-thunderbolt-controller-detailed.html

   

[Commander Llama]

Yeah, I can see this being an attractive option for many.  Maybe not for folks that already have a good desktop setup running, but this is a dream come true for something like a hypothetical Surface Pro 4.  Really great ultrabook/tablet with a good CPU and battery life but that'll just never have the room for graphics.  Bring it home and pop it into the dock connected to a dGPU and multi-monitor setup.  For some, this could replace having a desktop machine at all.  It just needs to be as convenient as they're marketing, which... wait and see.

[LukaP]

 

• v3.0 (8 GT/s):
  • 985 MB/s (×1)
  • 15.75 GB/s (×16)

  5x985MB = 4925MB = 4.925GB/s = X5

   

  TB3 is capable of 5GB/s which is a touch higher than x5 PCI-E (x5 is the theory limit but will probably be subject to x4)

   

  "Intel will offer two versions of the controller: one that uses a PCI Express 4x lane to provide two Thunderbolt 3 ports"

   

  Its using the Apline Ridge controller as stated in the original post, "With PCIe 3.0 x4 or PCIe 3.0 x2 links at its disposal" http://www.techpowerup.com/200064/next-gen-intel-alpine-ridge-thunderbolt-controller-detailed.html

   

 

Its true. but it still wont starve the cards. I have seen 780 SLI run on PCIe2 x8 and it was fine (3 FPS difference). Also, amd allows x4 for crossfire, and ive never seen any problems there.