The eGFX Breakaway Puck Turns Your Ordinary Laptop Into a High-End Gaming PC

[Chino]

Sonnet Technologies today introduced an all-new paradigm in Thunderbolt connected external GPU (eGPU) devices with the eGFX Breakaway Puck, an extremely portable, high-performance, all-in-one eGPU for Thunderbolt 3 computers that delivers accelerated graphics, and provides multidisplay connectivity leveraging AMD's Eyefinity technology. With a Puck connected, a user's computer can deliver dramatically accelerated frame rates in popular graphics-intensive games, and boosted GPU acceleration for pro video applications anytime and anywhere it is needed.

Sonnet will offer two Puck models, the eGFX Breakaway Puck Radeon RX 560 and eGFX Breakaway Puck Radeon RX 570, enabling users to select the device best suited to their needs. Each Puck model measures a mere 6 inches wide by 5.1 inches deep by 2 inches tall; features one Thunderbolt 3 port, three DisplayPort ports and one HDMI port; and supports up to four 4K displays in multimonitor mode.


When GPU acceleration is needed on the road, users can conveniently pack an eGFX Breakaway Puck along with a notebook in a backpack or computer bag. The Puck connects to a computer with a single Thunderbolt 3 cable and, for added convenience, also provides 45W of Power Delivery to power and charge the computer, enabling many users to leave their computer's power brick behind. On the desktop, the Puck has a minimal footprint. With an optional VESA mounting bracket kit, the Puck can be attached to the back of a display or the arm of a multimonitor stand, leaving a zero footprint on the desktop. The kit also includes a 0.5-meter DisplayPort cable to help reduce cable clutter.

The eGFX Breakaway Puck Radeon RX 560 (part number GPU-RX560-TB3) has an MSRP of $449 USD; the eGFX Breakaway Puck Radeon RX 570 (part number GPU-RX570-TB3) has an MSRP of $599; and the optional PuckCuff VESA Mounting Bracket Kit (part number CUFF-PUCK) has an MSRP of $59. All models are immediately available. More information on the products is available at www.sonnettech.com/product/egfx-breakaway-puck.html.

More information on Sonnet and its other products is available at www.sonnettech.com.

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[eidairaman1]

How about a universal chassis that will fit full gpus inside?

 

[Basard]

That's cool that it charges too.... seems too expensive though.

 

[eidairaman1]

That's cool that it charges too.... seems too expensive though.

Just like MCM gpus, anything for a laptop is expensive...

 

[Yukikaze]

How about a universal chassis that will fit full gpus inside?

There's a lot of these already, including a few by Sonnet themselves.

 

[bhappy]

This title is a joke! Who in their right mind would consider a PC running a RX 560 or RX 570 videocard a "High-End Gaming PC"? LOL

 

[EarthDog]

Since when is a 570 a high-end gaming machine??

 

[R0H1T]

This title is a joke! Who in their right mind would consider a PC running a RX 560 or RX 570 videocard a "High-End Gaming PC"? LOL

Well you're not running a PC, portable PC at best with some black box beside it. The form factor & inadequate cooling will dictate how good of an eGPU you can run via TB3, btw with royalties ending next year something like this would be much cheaper in the coming months.

 

[GoldenX]

Too expensive to be useful.
Those generic mini pci-e or ngff egpu cases are a lot cheaper for the same result, I can carry a psu in my backpack.

 

[Yukikaze]

Too expensive to be useful.
Those generic mini pci-e or ngff egpu cases are a lot cheaper for the same result, I can carry a psu in my backpack.

It is (way) too expensive, yes, but it actually has some uses for people where money is less of an object and/or space is at a premium. It works like a charger and a docking station that allows you to connect 4 high-resolution displays to a lightweight laptop, plus giving it some graphical capability. It also charges the system. I can see enough of these being sold, just not to the typical TPU crowd.

The mPCIe/m.2 adapters, however, are anything but easily attachable and usable on the go: It is not nearly the same result.

 

[P4-630]

Can I connect this to my laptop "Type-C, G1, 5Gb/s" port?

 

[Yukikaze]

Can I connect this to my laptop "Type-C, G1, 5Gb/s" port?

No, you cannot.

 

[eidairaman1]

This title is a joke! Who in their right mind would consider a PC running a RX 560 or RX 570 videocard a "High-End Gaming PC"? LOL

Far better than the igp on an intel cpu or amd apu.

 

[EarthDog]

Yeah, that is USB, not Thunderbolt.

Far better than the igp on an intel cpu or amd apu.

And still not a high-end gamer.

 

[eidairaman1]

Are there laptops with 4k monitors?

 

[Yukikaze]

Are there laptops with 4k monitors?

Yup, quite a few, even as small as 13" (HP Spectre x360, for example).

 

[eidairaman1]

Yup, quite a few, even as small as 13" (HP Spectre x360, for example).

Who would game on anything less than 15" lol. 4K on 13" is micro display lol.

 

[silentbogo]

How about a universal chassis that will fit full gpus inside?

That's how you get those humongous eGPU chassis' the size of an ITX mini-tower. One size to fit them all.

This title is a joke! Who in their right mind would consider a PC running a RX 560 or RX 570 videocard a "High-End Gaming PC"? LOL

Someone who needs a whoomp, but has no option to install a new GPU into MXM slot. BTW, looking at the power adapter I think it's a full desktop RX570, which is probably much faster than a downclocked mobile RX580.
For example a monstrous HP Omen 17 w/ RX580 comes with a 230W adapter, while an RX570 eGPU has a 220W PSU.

 

[Yukikaze]

Who would game on anything less than 15" lol. 4K on 13" is micro display lol.

To be honest, eGPUs work best on an external display, not the internal one, due to the lack of need to loop the frames back to the laptop (which also incurs an additional performance hit, and the higher the resolution, the worse it is). Most people who use eGPUs use them as docks to which monitors are connected, not as a single box to get an eGPU to work on the internal monitor. Not saying that isn't a use-case for some, but there's far less than external monitor users. This little box is in a somewhat weird spot as a result: If you do not move it, you do not need the form factor. If you do move it, then you are taking a performance hit on the internal monitor.

That said, having a 4K display does not mean you need to game at 4K. 1080p is a perfect 1:4 scaling on a 4K display, and 1080p is a good res for a laptop screen.

 

[Yukikaze]

BTW, looking at the power adapter I think it's a full desktop RX570, which is probably much faster than a downclocked mobile RX580.
For example a monstrous HP Omen 17 w/ RX580 comes with a 230W adapter, while an RX570 eGPU has a 220W PSU.

It uses an MXM RX570, so that is likely an existing mobile module re-purposed as an eGPU, not a desktop card. Here is a picture of a teardown of the RX 560 version.

Also keep in mind that this provides charging to the laptop, so the power brick is more powerful than what is needed by just the card.

EDIT: Apologies for the double post. Was replying to different messages at different times.

 

[eidairaman1]

To be honest, eGPUs work best on an external display, not the internal one, due to the lack of need to loop the frames back to the laptop (which also incurs an additional performance hit, and the higher the resolution, the worse it is). Most people who use eGPUs use them as docks to which monitors are connected, not as a single box to get an eGPU to work on the internal monitor. Not saying that isn't a use-case for some, but there's far less than external monitor users. This little box is in a somewhat weird spot as a result: If you do not move it, you do not need the form factor. If you do move it, then you are taking a performance hit on the internal monitor.

That said, having a 4K display does not mean you need to game at 4K. 1080p is a perfect 1:4 scaling on a 4K display, and 1080p is a good res for a laptop screen.

Oh I know about the 1080P, it was on my XPS Gen 2 laptop in 2004, good for movies, dropped it down slightly for games

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

That's cool that it charges too.... seems too expensive though.

It is but playing fair an external enclosure alone is quite close ,,most i have seen are above 300£ without a gpu or battery backup

 

[Toothless]

High-end gaming for those playing Solitaire..

 

[GoldenX]

Unless you brought a $1000 notebook with Intel "U"HD graphics, there is no way to justify this on a 1366x768 one, where a 570 or 560 is enough.

 

[Valantar]

Oh I know about the 1080P, it was on my XPS Gen 2 laptop in 2004, good for movies, dropped it down slightly for games

Yeah, screen resolutions tend to stick around for a while. And your point is? 1080p is still the most common resolution for desktop gaming PCs today (by an enormous margin). Not to mention that 1080p on a 13-14" display looks very nice. Rendered on a native 4k display it'll look a little fuzzy, but perfectly good still.

Unless you brought a $1000 notebook with Intel "U"HD graphics, there is no way to justify this on a 1366x768 one, where a 570 or 560 is enough.

Thankfully you don't have to come near $1000 to find a notebook with a screen resolution above 1366x768 these days. But then again, an RX 570 can game far beyond that (the 570 is an excellent 1080p card, and its desktop form is a good entry-level 1440p card). These days, TB3 is more of a premium feature than a 1080p display. Also, what exactly is the relation between the iGPU and the screen resolution?


Except for the price, this is exactly what I've been waiting for someone to launch - an eGPU chassis that doesn't take as much space as a mini-ITX PC. I'd say the price would be fair if they cut $100-150 off it.