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TH3P4G3 Thunderbolt eGPU Dock Review (2022)
11–20 of 43 posts
Re: TH3P4G3 Thunderbolt eGPU Dock Review (2022)
#12I was going to ask if this would be good to use with a Framework laptop... but it doesn't look like you can even get Thunderbolt for the Framework...
Update (I can't reply to the reply because of HN's "posting too fast" bullshit): Thanks for the reply. I thought a TB port would have to be one of the modules, and none is listed. But I guess TB ports are built-in, based on this: https://frame.work/blog/framework-laptops-are-now-thunderbol...
Re: TH3P4G3 Thunderbolt eGPU Dock Review (2022)
#13I was going to ask if this would be good to use with a Framework laptop... but it doesn't look like you can even get Thunderbolt for the Framework... Update (I can't reply to the reply because of HN's "posting too fast" bullshit): Thanks for the reply. I thought a TB port would have to be one of the modules, and none is listed. But I guess TB ports are built-in, based on this: https://frame.work/blog/framework-laptop…
No, they do (unless I'm misunderstanding what you're saying).
Framework laptops with 11th gen Intel boards seem to unofficially support it, and 12th-gen and beyond boards are officially thunderbolt certified. This applies to all four ports on the Framework 13.
Source: https://frame.work/blog/framework-laptops-are-now-thunderbol...
If you're seeing something otherwise let me know, though!
Re: TH3P4G3 Thunderbolt eGPU Dock Review (2022)
#14The link doesn’t load for me but in my experience eGPUs are buggy whether it’s a Mac, PC, Lenovo, Dell… in fact Thunderbolt in general is a buggy experience everywhere. It had so much promise.
> …in fact Thunderbolt in general is a buggy experience everywhere.
On Macs at least, Thunderbolt is extremely dependable. I don’t have as much experience with it on other platforms, but I’ve never personally experienced a problem using external SSDs on my Intel NUC with TB3 support.
Re: TH3P4G3 Thunderbolt eGPU Dock Review (2022)
#15This is quite cheap compared to name brand eGPU docks—is there any reason to buy a $400+ Razer dock or other similarly expensive ones over this?
Re: TH3P4G3 Thunderbolt eGPU Dock Review (2022)
#16Does anyone have any benchmarks of using this or similar eGPUs for ML workflows with Nvidia cards on Linux laptops?
Re: TH3P4G3 Thunderbolt eGPU Dock Review (2022)
#17Just as this technology is being commoditized in a high quality way, Apple decides to drop support :(
Did apple ever have eGPU support? and even if they did, they had a nasty fallout with nvidia some time ago.
Yes, when they first switched to Thunderbolt 3 they were promoting eGPUs and co-developed one with Blackmagic.
Re: TH3P4G3 Thunderbolt eGPU Dock Review (2022)
#18Does anyone have any benchmarks of using this or similar eGPUs for ML workflows with Nvidia cards on Linux laptops?
No, but, you should get excellent results. Once the model is loaded, it should be able to take full advantage of the GPU assuming you have a model that will fit within the VRAM of the GPU. Many higher end ML workstations that offer multiple GPU support on the motherboard, e.g. six and eight way GPUs at least, such as those from ASUS, use a PLX controller which is effectively splitting the bandwidth of one or two PCIe ports across multiple devices. And an eGPU dock is effectively a PLX for a single device talking to Thunderbolt. Device to device communication should still retain the full PCIe bandwidth capability, and you can see that reported in the screenshots of the article. The biggest issue is obviously going to, as always, be driver support. You could even consider an 8-way GPU "dock" such as the Cubix where you could plug your $1,500 laptop into 8x A100 80GB GPUs. 16 GPUs if you cascade them.
Re: TH3P4G3 Thunderbolt eGPU Dock Review (2022)
#19This is a badass barebones eGPU dock! Had no idea this kind of thing was available. So good, thats for sharing all!
There are many options for these eGPUs on the market. Have used a few different ones over the years for a variety of reasons. Let Aliexpress be your guide.
Re: TH3P4G3 Thunderbolt eGPU Dock Review (2022)
#20I really wish these would work with Apple Silicon.