Thanks to the discussion on Titan Ridge and valuable input by @karatekid430 and @joevt3, I decided to try a Gigabyte GC-Titan-Ridge add-in card with my Threadripper desktop. Level1Techs recently showcased a similar setup in Linux. I'm beyond excited to share we can get them working in Windows too. The L1T video indicated there's reverse-engineering involved. Well, all I did was plug-and-pray. With some experience playing around eGPU and Thunderbolt 3 in the past few years, I went for it and hoped for the best.
System specs:
OMEN X399 Threadripper 1950x/Radeon Vega FE dGPU/32GB RAM/1TB SSD/GC-Titan-Ridge AIC
eGPU hardware:
Razer Core X + Nvidia RTX 2080 FE + 2m Thunderbolt 3 cable
Hardware pictures:
I believe the crucial component to make this work is the new GC-Titan-Ridge. My ASRock X399M Taichi board does not have a Thunderbolt header.
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Installation steps:
There's no hacking or modding BIOS settings at all. I simply connected 2x 6-pin PCIe power cables and the USB 2.0 header cable to the GC-Titan-Ridge AIC. I proceeded to attach the Thunderbolt 3 device then booted my system up. The only software I installed was Intel Thunderbolt Software version [17.4.77.400] from Gigabyte support website. I tested several TB3 devices and hot-plug seemed to work.
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Thunderbolt Software even showed this Threadripper system has support for External GPUs :D.
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Benchmarks:
I built this system with no intention of adding Thunderbolt 3. I guess this is now my test bench because the X399 platform is amazing. 66 PCI lanes afford me the ability to connect Thunderbolt 3 devices directly to the Threadripper CPU. Windows 10 currently boots off a RAID0 of 4x NVMe drives. Memory modules are overclocked to 3600 MHz in quad-channel arrangement. I have not found a good CPU cooling solution so I'm leaving the 1950x alone while running the stock OMEN X AIO cooler.
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Here are synthetic benchmark results in AIDA GPGPU and Unigine (ran through USB-C port from RTX 2080 to AOC portable monitor.
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Comments:
Titan Ridge is a pivotal controller that has provided features and functionalities not seen in older Thunderbolt controllers. I hope more devices and computers will use this new controller to bring cost down.
Firmware Downgrade:
Newer firmware version than FW 23 will not work. Thanks to @mindthreat for sharing this FW 23 with update utility package, those with a GC-TITAN-RIDGE AIC running FW 43 and newer can downgrade to FW 23.
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• external graphics card builds
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2021 Gigabyte Z590i Vision D [11th,6C] + RTX 3060 Ti @ 32Gbps-TB4 (Gigabyte Gaming Box) + Win11 [build link]
And now, for something truly crazy: Take an m.2 to PCIe x4 adapter. Grab a laptop of SFF desktop with an m.2 slot. Plug the GC-Titan-Ridge into it, and see if the TB3 controller works.
Want to output 4K@60Hz out of an old system on the cheap? Read here.
Give your Node Pro a second Thunderbolt3 controller for reliable peripherals by re-using a TB3 dock (~50$).
"Always listen to experts. They'll tell you what can't be done, and why. Then do it."- Robert A. Heinlein, "Time Enough for Love."
2012 Mac Mini [3rd,4C,Q] + RX 480 @ 10Gbps-TB1 (Atto Thunderlink) + macOS 10.15.7 [build link]
I will test this AIC with a few non-support systems next. I have a feeling the card has to connect to the CPU rather than the Chipset in order to work.
LinkedIn | Youtube | Instagram
• external graphics card builds
• best laptops for external GPU
• eGPU enclosure buyer's guide
2021 Gigabyte Z590i Vision D [11th,6C] + RTX 3060 Ti @ 32Gbps-TB4 (Gigabyte Gaming Box) + Win11 [build link]
Finally a working TB3 solution on AMD platform. Bravo!
To do: Create my signature with system and expected eGPU configuration information to give context to my posts. I have no builds.
.I will test this AIC with a few non-support systems next. I have a feeling the card has to connect to the CPU rather than the Chipset in order to work.
I have a crazy idea to get one of these and see if my old NUC with the fried TB1 controller will work with one of these. An academic question, at best, since I only have mPCIe as a possible connection, but the system supports TB of some sort, so I wonder if this would work with it.
Want to output 4K@60Hz out of an old system on the cheap? Read here.
Give your Node Pro a second Thunderbolt3 controller for reliable peripherals by re-using a TB3 dock (~50$).
"Always listen to experts. They'll tell you what can't be done, and why. Then do it."- Robert A. Heinlein, "Time Enough for Love."
2012 Mac Mini [3rd,4C,Q] + RX 480 @ 10Gbps-TB1 (Atto Thunderlink) + macOS 10.15.7 [build link]
That would be fun if your NUC works with this AIC. One of the systems I will test is the 2010 Mac Pro tower. 10.14 Mojave installer contains firmware update for this old Mac so my hope is that Thunderbolt 3 may work through the GC-TITAN-RIDGE.
LinkedIn | Youtube | Instagram
• external graphics card builds
• best laptops for external GPU
• eGPU enclosure buyer's guide
2021 Gigabyte Z590i Vision D [11th,6C] + RTX 3060 Ti @ 32Gbps-TB4 (Gigabyte Gaming Box) + Win11 [build link]
I tried pairing with an AMD eGPU. It worked the same way, no error 12.
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LinkedIn | Youtube | Instagram
• external graphics card builds
• best laptops for external GPU
• eGPU enclosure buyer's guide
2021 Gigabyte Z590i Vision D [11th,6C] + RTX 3060 Ti @ 32Gbps-TB4 (Gigabyte Gaming Box) + Win11 [build link]
Please get pciutils for Windows and as Administrator, post the output of "lspci" and "lspci -vt". Cheers!
@yukikaze from my testing so far, the indications are that it will work in M.2 - but the real question is can it work in VROC with bifurcation, or on PLX switches.
I guess I could open my Surface Pro 4 again and do it with that (although the pos only has PCIe x2 to the slot) but not until after university semester ends.
To do: Create my signature with system and expected eGPU configuration information to give context to my posts. I have no builds.
.I will test this AIC with a few non-support systems next. I have a feeling the card has to connect to the CPU rather than the Chipset in order to work.
I have a crazy idea to get one of these and see if my old NUC with the fried TB1 controller will work with one of these. An academic question, at best, since I only have mPCIe as a possible connection, but the system supports TB of some sort, so I wonder if this would work with it.
itsage just showed it working on a system with no support whatsoever and no awareness or concept of Thunderbolt whatsoever. It will likely work, but it will be ugly until PCIe 5.0 comes with optical cabling, or Gigabyte finally decide to release their TBT3-Bay that runs off U.2 port (product likely canned). But mPCIe is only PCIe x1 so I am not sure it is worth bothering. You can get one of the new 2018 NUCs and repurpose the RAM and SSDs from your old NUC, likely. And then put the old NUC in the oven if it is worth the risk to try to get the controller working again. Or give it to a computer illiterate person who could not comprehend the significance of Thunderbolt.
To do: Create my signature with system and expected eGPU configuration information to give context to my posts. I have no builds.
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