GIGABYTE Aorus RTX 2080 Ti Gaming Box: Liquid-Cooled TB3 eGFX Box
by Anton Shilov on November 22, 2019 10:00 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
- Gigabyte
- NVIDIA
- AORUS
- Thunderbolt 3
- eGFX
- GeForce RTX
GIGABYTE has introduced a new Thunderbolt 3 eGFX box that promises to be one of the most powerful eGPUs on the market. The Aorus RTX 2080 Ti Gaming Box packs NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 2080 Ti graphics card equipped with a closed-loop WaterForce liquid cooling system that is designed to maximize its overclocking potential.
GIGABYTE’s Aorus RTX 2080 Ti Gaming Box carries fairly typical GeForce RTX 2080 Ti video card, with the clocks running at NVIDIA's reference speeds. Instead, focusing on end-user overclocking, the Aorus RTX 2080 Ti Gaming Box uses a custom closed-loop WaterForce liquid cooling system that the graphics processor, VRM, and RAM. I will not hazard a guess about overclocking potential of a graphics board in a small box with a liquid cooler, but it's certainly a dense cooling operation.
Just like regular GeForce RTX 2080 Ti cards, the Gaming Box has three DisplayPort 1.4 outputs, one HDMI 2.0b port, and one VirtualLink (USB-C) output that provide compatibility with all modern desktops and the latest VR headsets. Further, the Gaming Box has a triple-port USB 3.0 hub and an GbE port. As an added bonus, the eGFX solution has, as does practically everything else these days, addressable RGB lighting.
Measuring 300×173×140 mm, the Aorus RTX 2080 Ti Gaming Box resembles a Mini-ITX PC, though very few of the latter can pack so much graphics and compute performance into this small of a space. Taking full advantage of the size and intending for their Gaming Box to be more than just a home docking solution, GIGABYTE ships the 3.8-kilogram eGPU with a special carry on bag.
For a unique graphics solution that will highly likely be a low volume product, the Aorus RTX 2080 Ti Gaming Box seems to be priced rather reasonably. GIGABYTE’s MSRP of the device is $1,499, which is consistent or slightly better than BYO eGFX solutions after factoring in the 2080 Ti and the liquid cooling system.
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- ZOTAC Unveils AMP Box and AMP Box Mini eGFX TB3 Chassis
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Source: GIGABYTE
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firewrath9 - Friday, November 22, 2019 - link
Not that bad, considering a 2080 Ti with a waterblock can cost around 1300-1400$firewrath9 - Friday, November 22, 2019 - link
then again, it's going to be severely bottlenecked by the TB3 connection. Perhaps people will "shuck" this for the GPUjordanclock - Friday, November 22, 2019 - link
I don't think the TB3 bottleneck will be as severe as you think. TB3 is PCIe 3.0 4x and scaling benchmarks for the 2080ti shows rather small performance loss at 4K and depending on the game, a bit more at 1440p.https://www.techpowerup.com/review/nvidia-geforce-...
imaheadcase - Friday, November 22, 2019 - link
Well "not that bad" doesn't really cut it when you are putting out a expensive GPU. At a certain point you go "Maybe i should of just upgraded to a PC".nathanddrews - Friday, November 22, 2019 - link
When talking about a product that will sell to 1% of 1% of a 1% niche, I'm surprised it's even priced reasonably. I would think anyone buying this is probably a highly mobile professional with almost no time to game, so they would never consider a desktop or DTR.lazarpandar - Friday, November 22, 2019 - link
I don't really know what to say other than "I disagree".The bandwidth of 4 lane TB3 is enough to support any graphics card with extremely minor hits to overall performance if you're using an external monitor hooked up to the card itself. It's sending the video back that's actually the biggest data hog.
PeachNCream - Friday, November 22, 2019 - link
Upgrade to a PC? Do you mean upgrade to a desktop? Laptops and desktops are both considered personal computers.Spunjji - Monday, November 25, 2019 - link
PCI Express scaling alone doesn't reflect the full deficit. The performance loss from running a TB3 GPU is between 10% and 30%, variable from game to game - more than enough to wipe out the performance difference between a 2080Ti and a 2080.dafel - Monday, November 25, 2019 - link
If this were as you say this product should never have passed the stage of the idea.darckhart - Friday, November 22, 2019 - link
is the TB3 Titan Ridge?