Gigabyte AORUS GTX 1070 Gaming Box next to 4 Mac laptops
Introduction
Conflict makes life interesting. For eGPU enthusiasts, this could not be more true. We want thin and light ultrabooks to fit our mobile lifestyle and at the same time demand capable gaming laptops or workstations wherever we want. This wish is slowly coming to fruition, but the cost is high. The average price of an eGPU enclosure is $300, and the majority of enclosures currently available are rather bulky, negating the portability of an ultrabook. Naysayers would deem such a setup a waste and claim the money could be better spent on a proper gaming desktop.
Enter the AORUS GTX 1070 Gaming Box, the newcomer to a growing list of external graphics options. Gigabyte’s goal with its external GPU solution is to lower the eGPU entry price and minimize its physique. It accomplishes this by building a Thunderbolt 3 eGPU enclosure around a Mini ITX-sized GTX 1070 graphics card. Gigabyte manufactures both the enclosure and GPU so it can afford to undercut the competition. Priced at $599, it’s about $100 less than building a comparable eGPU with a GTX 1070 ($400) and Thunderbolt 3 enclosure ($300). The GTX 1070 Gaming Box is featured through AORUS, Gigabyte’s premium brand that caters to gamers.
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Hardware Specifics
| Specifications compare | |
| Price US$ |
$599 |
| PSU location-type |
internal-fATX |
| PSU max power | 450W |
| GPU max power |
225W |
| Power delivery (PD) |
100W |
| USB-C controller |
TI83 |
| TB3 USB-C ports | 1 |
| Ports max bandwidth | 5Gbps |
| USB3.0 ports (+C type) |
3+0 |
| Ethernet & SATA port | ✖ |
| Other ports | QC,HDMI,DP,2xDVI-D |
| Size (in/mm, LxWxH) |
8..35 x 3.78 x 6.38 212 x 96 x 162 |
| Max GPU len (in/cm) |
6.65 / 16.9 |
| Weight (kg/lb) | 2.35/5.19 |
| Updated firmware | F1.0 |
| Vendor page | link |
| Implementations |
link |
Having been accustomed to handling regular size external GPU enclosures, my first reaction upon seeing the AORUS GTX 1070 Gaming Box was to wonder where the rest of the components went. It’s significantly smaller than the other enclosures on the market. For example, the AKiTiO Node is more than four times the metric volume of the GTX 1070 Gaming Box. The second smallest eGPU enclosure, Razer Core, is more than twice the size. Gigabyte AORUS GTX 1070 is by far the lightest eGPU as well.
How did Gigabyte manage this? It starts with the light and rather flimsy construction of the inner metal frame. This component serves as the base that wraps around the front and back and is secured at the top by a 6mm wide metal retaining bar. It takes a steady hand with a light touch not to break things when handling the internal components of this box. The enclosure was clearly not meant to be user-serviceable. The outer case reinforces the whole unit, and the enclosure feels much sturdier with it on. The sides are 90% mesh to allow sufficient airflow. This is essential to prevent thermal buildup and overheating given the tight space inside.
The graphics card is an off-the-shelf Mini ITX variant of Gigabyte GTX 1070 GPU offerings. The exact part number is GV-N1070IXOC-8GD. Due to current high mining demand, this graphics card alone commands at least $500. I commend Gigabyte for committing a good quantity of these GPUs for the AORUS Gaming Box launch. Miners, you are more than welcome to buy these boxes. Make good use of the GTX 1070 GPU then sell the Thunderbolt 3 enclosures to us for $100 a piece. Everybody wins!
Gigabyte’s PCB expertise shows in the arrangement of the Thunderbolt 3 board. It was able to fit not only the crucial components for a Thunderbolt 3 eGPU main board but also additional rear I/Os and a strip of LEDs. On the top side I spotted the usual suspects, a TI83 USB-C controller and DSL6450 Intel Thunderbolt 3 controller. Flipped to the bottom I found another old friend, the Winbond EEPROM. Nando suggested this EEPROM stores the enclosure’s firmware that dictates Thunderbolt eGPU functionality and USB-C power delivery. Further study of this component would help us understand more about Thunderbolt 3 devices in general and eGPU use in specific.
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An eGPU enclosure this size necessitates a tiny power supply and little fans. This is the weak point of the AORUS GTX 1070 Gaming Box in terms of noise level. The 40mm fans inside this enclosure are not excessively loud, but they run at higher speeds and therefore have a high-pitched buzzing noise. The power supply is an Enhance Flex ATX 450W unit that features a single rail 12V. Its custom wiring harness provides one 24-pin power cable for the Thunderbolt 3 board and one 6 + 2-pin PCIe power cable for the graphics card. There’s no power switch on the PSU. The AORUS GTX 1070 Gaming Box turns on when there’s communication with a Thunderbolt 3 host.
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The RGB LEDs are on-board and placed in a rather unfortunate location. They’re at the outside edge of the Thunderbolt 3 PCB, in direct view when you look at this enclosure from the side. The default settings are very bright. In order to change the brightness or completely turn them off, you’ll need AORUS Gaming Engine software in Windows. I set the LEDs to Monitoring mode which changes colors based on the GPU temperature. In this RGB mode, Green means “Go” and Red means “Stop.” It confirms my distaste for RGB in computer peripherals especially when they remind me of traffic laws and cops.
Testings & Benchmarks
Shortly after the news broke on this Gigabyte AORUS GTX 1070 Gaming Box, many eGPU.io members expressed interest in using it with Macs. I obliged and paired this 1070 Gaming Box with four Mac laptops that span across three Thunderbolt generations. The featured B&W photo you see starts with the Gigabyte AORUS GTX 1070 Gaming Box on the far left, mid 2015 11″ MacBook Air, mid 2017 13″ MacBook Pro, late 2016 15″ MacBook Pro, and late 2011 17″ MacBook Pro. The good news is they all work with this gaming box in macOS Sierra 10.12 using goalque’s automate-eGPU script. In fact it was a very easy process, and I was up and running with this eGPU within 10 minutes (YMMV; I’ve only done this hundreds of time in the past year).
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Power delivery and additional USB ports are nice features for Thunderbolt 3 MacBook Pros. There are four standard USB ports in the rear of the box, one of which is orange and serves as a charging port for mobile phones. It has Quick Charge support (QC 3.0) but does not transmit data. The other three USB 3.0 ports can be used with peripheral devices. Power delivery (PD 3.0) is as promised at 100W when connecting with the supplied half-meter long Thunderbolt 3 cable. I tried a 2m Thunderbolt 3 cable, and PD drops to 60W.
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Regarding the next macOS release High Sierra 10.13, the verdict is still out whether Nvidia GPUs will receive external graphics support from Apple. Recent news of Nvidia officially joining the eGPU market suggests the company does not want to miss out on the action. I will be trying this AORUS Gaming Box Thunderbolt 3 board with an RX 470 to confirm whether it works in 10.13 beta. We’ve also made suggestions to Gigabyte US and AMD to join forces and introduce a Radeon option. We got confirmation RX Vega cards have native eGPU support in High Sierra. My wishful thinking is that we’ll see an AORUS RX Vega Nano Gaming Box by the end of the year.
On the Windows side of things, I’d say this enclosure is my go-to recommendation for most eGPU gamers. It’s a ready-to-go solution right out of the box and feels complete with extras such as the carrying bag and AORUS Gaming Engine software (read my unboxing post for more details and photos). I’ve tried this GTX 1070 Gaming Box with my Z170 Thunderbolt 3 Test Bench, XPS 9550, and XPS 9250 2-in-1 alongside the Mac laptops in Bootcamp.
It’s essentially plug-and-play for the PC Thunderbolt 3 hosts. The Mac laptops are more challenging, and the degree of difficulty varies depending on whether there’s a discrete graphics card. The 13″ Thunderbolt 3 Macbook Pro was fairly simple because it only has an iGPU, Intel Iris Plus Graphics 640. The 15″ Thunderbolt 3 MacBook Pro presents multiple challenges for an eGPU implementation in Windows via Bootcamp. I won’t go into details in this review because we’re working on a comprehensive Bootcamp eGPU setup guide for Thunderbolt 3 MacBook Pro.
One performance flaw we observed with this Gigabyte AORUS GTX 1070 Gaming Box is the Host-to-Device speed. This is a well-documented issue we found with other Thunderbolt 3 eGPU enclosures. Intel has approved newer firmware to remedy this issue. It’s disappointing to see Gigabyte has not implemented the newest Thunderbolt firmware prior to launch. We contacted Gigabyte about this, and it’s working on releasing the Thunderbolt firmware update soon. The launch units have firmware version 25.25 as shown in macOS System Information under Thunderbolt tree.
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To present a consistent set of performance data, I decided to run all benchmarks through the Z170 Thunderbolt 3 Test Bench. It was paired with a 4K external display so that we can see the GTX 1070 eGPU performance at 1080, 1440, and 4K. I tried to emulate internal display acceleration mode by feeding output to the 4K display through the Test Bench’s on-board HDMI rather than display ports on the eGPU. Unfortunately Nvidia Optimus doesn’t work very reliably for this mode. I’ve had better success using AMD XConnect on this Test Bench.
I also ran this GTX 1070 as a discrete GPU on this Test Bench. Keep in mind the current Thunderbolt firmware of this 1070 Gaming Box suffers from the half Host-to-Device bandwidth issue. Once Gigabyte releases a firmware update to remedy this, we expect eGPU performance to improve. Here are the numbers.
| Gigabyte GTX 1070 | FHD dGPU | FHD eGPU | QHD dGPU | QHD eGPU | UHD dGPU | UHD eGPU |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unigine Valley | 91.6 FPS | 78.7 FPS | 55.9 FPS | 50.9 FPS | 25.6 FPS | 24.3 FPS |
| Unigine Heaven | 91.1 FPS | 76.1 FPS | 54.1 FPS | 48.1 FPS | 23.5 FPS | 22.2 FPS |
| Unigine Superposition | 93.4 FPS | 85.0 FPS | 60.3 FPS | 56.6 FPS | 30.6 FPS | 29.7 FPS |
| 3DMark Time Spy | 60.9 FPS | 35.3 FPS | 37.6 FPS | 34.5 FPS | 17.9 FPS | 17.0 FPS |
| 3DMark Fire Strike | 84.1 FPS | 70.6 FPS | 49.2 FPS | 42.7 FPS | 26.6 FPS | 24.8 FPS |
| Rise of the Tomb Raider | 60.0 FPS | 55.8 FPS | 60.0 FPS | 57.1 FPS | 44.5 FPS | 43.7 FPS |
| Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon | 91.3 FPS | 48.6 FPS | 66.0 FPS | 40.3 FPS | 36.2 FPS | 27.1 FPS |
| Shadow of Mordor | 119.9 FPS | 79.9 FPS | 78.0 FPS | 66.4 FPS | 43.1 FPS | 38.6 FPS |
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Conclusion
Conflicts can be good. It motivates us to consider alternatives and find workarounds. The Gigabyte AORUS GTX 1070 Gaming Box is a mighty example of solving eGPU gaming conflicts. It provides the best price to performance ratio and is the most portable external graphics solution available. This tiny external graphics box will be spending countless hours in all corners of the world improving frame rates. It raises the bar for the competition to lower Thunderbolt 3 enclosure pricing.
See also
- Unboxing: Gigabyte AORUS GTX 1070 Gaming Box
- Implementation: late-2016 15″ MacBook Pro in Windows
- Implementation: mid-2017 13″ MacBook Pro in Windows
- Implementation: 2015 Dell XPS 15 9550
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Comments 244
Great write up as ever, more small enclosures please. Fingers and toes crossed for giveaway…
Oh best sub too…
Awesome review, thank you. I’m considering to buy this to game on my 2016 MBP 15″ with boot camp Win10 – in the review you mention that it works but with some struggles but can you confirm that it ultimately works reliably?
Also, when you say “I won’t go into details in this review because we’re working on a comprehensive Bootcamp eGPU setup guide for Thunderbolt 3 MacBook Pro.” do you mean that an implementation guide for Aorus + MBP 15″ 2016/7 + Win10 will be posted soon?
PS: entering the giveaway 😀
Yes, I can confirm it works flawlessly on your setup. Both on internal and external display. Particularly I recommend using a external display to limit the performance drop to around 10 – 14%
So glad to see a smaller eGPU box out here! Will it run a GTX 980 Ti I wonder…? 😛
I think I’m in love with the Sonnet Breakaway Box myself, but I’d be lying if I said this eGPU enclosure wasn’t impressive. I’ve owned quite a number of Gigabyte products over the years & they always impressed me.
Hello! thanks for this review. I just bought one for my macbook pro 15″ 2015. Could someone reply a link how to make it work?
(Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015)
2,8 GHz Intel Core i7
16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
AMD Radeon R9 M370X 2048 MB
Intel Iris Pro 1536 MB
EDIT: @nando4 I dont see any aorus in the [implementations] table. sorry but this isn’t something I do all the time so my knowledge is minimal. Thanks for the help!
Excellent review @itsage, this little box is really amazing for it size, I hope it Gn be compatible with other mini GPU cards. Please count me in for the giveaway.
@JPBOSS97, please review other implementations on your system using a TB3 enclosure via a TB3->TB2 adapter at the following URL to get yours going:
https://egpu.io/external-gpu-implementations-table/?table_filter=%22Macbook%20M370X%20%3ETB3%20%22
The same installation procedures used to install other TB3 enclosures on your system will equally apply. Just ignore any mention of firmware updates since they are enclosure specific and need not apply here since the Aorus has a firmware allowing eGPU detection on non-certified hosts.
If you require further assistance, please open a new topic in the Thunderbolt Mac (macOS) or PC (Windows) forum area.
Best review I’ve seen so far. Do you have any VR devices such as Oculus Rift or HTC Vive to test and see how well it runs with 90FPS in VR environment?
Definitely the best implementation of eGPU. Extremely small, capable power supply, 100W power delivery, plug and play, all for a very low price. This is what I have always wanted for an eGPU since I got into it 7 years ago and it is great to finally see something like this implemented. Getting this is a no brainier if you are planning on buying a new card along with your eGPU enclosure. I look forward to more people getting this and testing it out with other cards so we can expand on our options for this beauty.
Author
The late-2016 15″ MacBook Pro has been unreliable in Windows 10 via Bootcamp with this AORUS Gaming Box. I’m trying different methods to find one that works best before publishing the setup guide.
I have the Oculus Rift and will test it soon. I have no doubt it will pass 90 FPS because I’ve tried a similar eGPU setup before with a GTX 980 Ti.
Thanks, waiting anxiously. I will receive a AORUS soon and I have exactly that setup. Let me know if I can help.
Hi
I just got one of these and im trying to get it work on bootcamp windows 10 after succeeding in mac os, My laptop is the late 2016 Macbook Pro 13″ with touchbar and only the cpu integrated graphics, i7 and 16 rams. Everytime I plug it in the bootcamp system(either plug and reboot or hot plug), it either freaks out with blue screen and crash, restarts, or it does nothing and doesnt recognize it at all. Can you give me a guide on how to fix that?
awesome review btw, thx a lot, I’ve been looking foward to this for a long time
P.S: I do not have a external display, if there is a need for it, I can use my tv
I really like this eGPU. I’m hoping to pair it with a Zenbook Deluxe or Pro for a nice professional laptop for school and gaming when I’m not studying.
Anxiously waiting fir firmware update to enable full host-to-device speed to purchase…
Been following the release of the gaming box since its announcement. Hoping for one with an radeon card as I have a monitor with freesync. Please count me in for the draw!
Love these sff eGPUs. I hope more competitors would go this way (I don’t even mind an external power brick, if that’s what it takes to go really small). Breaking a leg for the giveaway … 😉
I’ve been entertaining the idea of an eGPU to go with the XPS 13. This is probably enough to convince me to pull the trigger. It’s so small! Giveaway would be unreal!
I am currently working with the akitio node. It’s good but its big and sometimes noisy. Giveaway Yeeesss! The portability is incredible…
Great review with a lot of helpful information.
I’m from Denmark and studying to become a sustainable energy engineer. I have been looking into eGPU’s for quite some time now because this would boost my CAD, CFD and overall work efficiency, as well as my gaming experiences, while still maintaining mobility. So count me in on the competition😊 (I will gladly pay the shipping expenses to Europe if I’m the lucky winner).
Hopefully Gigabytes firmware update will give further improvements but other than that the AORUS GTX 1070 Gaming Box seems like the best eGPU solution currently available.
Keep up the good work, I love this site!
Best regards
I was on the fence of buying one of these, but I’d like to see indeed some firmware fixes first to know that it will work properly. But, a giveaway gift is always welcome. 😉
Love the development of eGPU. Looking forward to use this enclosure soon as I travel a lot for work, but need strong GPU for 3D rendering. 17inch gaming laptop =heavy back ache. Have to find laptop that has good CPU but is light and has TB3.
Great review. Was the 45.7 C temp readings under heavy load? If so that’s pretty great. Also with the new firmware update expected from Gigabyte, what is the expected gain on bandwidth?
Author
I was monitoring the area above the 13″ MacBook Pro keyboard actually. It felt hot so I checked the surface temperature. The single fan inside this MBP when running full speed was louder than the AORUS Gaming Box. I will be doing more extensive thermal and noise testing in the coming months on all enclosures I have. They will run WITH and WITHOUT the outter enclosure.
great stuff!! now i want one
I wonder how noisy the box really is. Any chance to measure in dbs? Or compare it to,say, a macbook under idle/load? Alternatively, is it realistic to replace the fan to a quieter one?
Used to have a Razer Core, returned it because stupid idle noise was bothersome to me. I secretly hoped the Gaming Box could produce less fan noise on idle, I guess my expectations were too high.
If I ever get one, I think I might want to replace those little fans with silent ones, or if possible, add speed controller switch PWM style, I guess, unless that can be controlled via software somehow?
Thanks for the giveaway, if I win it tho, I will stop complaining about noise I promise 🙂
Great review! Fingers crossed for the giveaway!
Wow, pretty surprised with how GB went about making this eGPU. All in all I would call it a winner despite it’s lower quality parts compared to other eGPUs. Really I think this is the smartest way about going for an eGPU box. It’s well known that there will be a performance hit using an eGPU so I always found it kinda crazy other companies made such huge eGPU enclosures with top of the line components. I’m sure all that eeks another few FPS out of the eGPU but to me an extra $100 to $200 is not worth an extra 1 to 10 FPS.
Excellent review @itsage, I’m considering buying one this month, I have Intel NUC Skull Canyon, do you think the AORUS GTX 1070 Gaming Box will be better choice than Akitio Node + GTX 1070 in performance ?!
Another question, could I change the small fans with this noctua model NF-A4x10 FLX ?!
Thanks in advance for your response.
This box is pretty great; my brother bought one for use with his Thinkpad X1 Carbon. Setup was as painless as your experience, though the internal screen is doing some strange things a 2017 MacBook Pro. After installing Windows and the Nvidia drivers, it boots up and is happily usable — except the internal screen just displays the Windows bootup logo, overlaid with some glitchy static. The framebuffer for the intel integrated chipset appears to be fubar. It doesn’t impact use of the external monitor, and it feels stable despite this.
Author
Which model of the mid-2017 MacBook Pro? I’d recommend booting up without an external monitor and see if that resolves the stuck Windows logo.
I run a Vive with a Supermicro box roughly equivalent to Mac Pro 5,1 + GTX 1070 FE. Runs everything on high settings so far. I’ve spent a bit checking out all the games and experiences – it crushes them all smoothly at high settings.
Will be testing on 6,1 and High Sierra beta once I get it installed.
Fantastic review, the future of egpus is looking bright, hopefully this provides much needed competition in the space!
Best review I’ve seen for this egpu! A giveaway sounds awesome!
Great review. I hope we’ll eventually see better Nvidia support in macOS 10.13, but sadly not yet. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Awesome in-depth review, really leaves not much to be wondered. I’d love to be counted in for the giveaway seeing as where I’m from the price of everything is jacked up + international shipping
Great review, especially looking forward to more details in the boot camp guide. I’d love to win this in the giveaway to pair with my 15″ MBP
Great review!
Would love to win this and make it work with my late 2016 15″ MacBook Pro.
This is a pretty interesting looking device. I’d love to give it a try!
Thanks for the review and the giveaway!
Do the LED settings stick on a reboot to, say, macOS?
Author
The RBG settings for the LEDs stay when boot into macOS. It will only be reset when paired with a new host.
Thanks!
I have the finger on the buy button, but am still feeling extremely uneasy about its compatibility with my 2016 MacBook 15”. I don’t mind tinkering at all, but I guess I’ll be waiting for a comprehensive guide first.
Thank you for the review. I’ve been lurking for a while now and waiting for egpu.io review of this box. I’m hoping it’ll drive some more competition into the ultra small and portable range.
Are there any further rumours of higher spec cards such as 1080ti coming as mini tax varients yet? (Can only find 1080 mini tax at present.
Author
No news on higher performing card to be made available in this chassis. IMO the GTX 1070 for external graphics is the sweet spot at the moment.
A competing option such as the RX Vega Nano would be nice for macOS High Sierra.
Exactly the thing I was looking for for my Macbook!
This really seems like a good contender in the generally expensive eGPU market, at least when the H2D issue gets fixed.
Hi, dear author one question:
I just got one 1070 gaming box last week and the loud high pitched buzzing under load is nearly unbearable.
Is it just my card or is it, as you mentioned a bad solution of the fans?
Is my card broke or is this a general issue? Thinking about giving it back and ordering a different one?
Author
Hi Patrick,
The high-pitched buzzing noise is the nature of these 40mm fans. There are reports of coil whine on this GTX 1070 ITX under load. I’d recommend contacting Gigabyte Support.
Awesome review. Count me in for the giveaway!
Please enter me in the giveaway!
As a periodic traveller the small size and weight is very interesting.
Is replacing the buzzing 40mm fans (with better ones) a reasonable idea? Assuming there are better fans out there…
I am guessing a person could simply disconnect the LED jumper?
Thank you so much for the review.
Thanks very much for this review @itsage – please count me in for the giveaway!
Hoping to pair this with a Zenbook Pro as a portable VR rig for the university I’ll be working at – looking forward to hearing about the results of your test with the Oculus!
looks awesome!
Thanks for the great review!
I am really excited for the future of eGPUs. It is nice to finally see officially supported eGPU solutions coming onto the market. Software support is also coming along nicely, with Apple even releasing an external graphics development kit.
For me personally, this Aorus gaming box seems to be the best solution. It is much cheaper and more portable than a Razer Core or Akito Node. The portability is also a great advantage. You could easily take it to the office for example, if you want to do some VR development.
It’s also nice to see that this Pascal based eGPU works well with MacOS. Let’s hope that MacOS High Sierra will still support Nvidia eGPUs. I am thinking of replacing my five-year-old Dell with a Mac, but would really like a laptop that I can also game on.
I’m surprised to hear that it was easier to get the eGPU working on macOS than Windows (for the 15″).
Hopefully the dGPU being an issue is a short lived problem!
PS: Enter me in the giveaway please!
Just starting to read into the whole eGPU thing (considering one for my 2017 15″ MBP). So, if Gigabyte sends out the new firmware, is there any idea how much the gap between the dGPU and eGPU benchmarks would be? I’m debating if I should get the AORUS with the 1070 or if I should just keep the 970 I have around and buy a Breakaway 350/550…
Please let me in for the giveaway I need it
I’ve wanted the nVidia because of the ease of recording gameplays if I ever want to upload those videos into a youtube channel.
I can’t get Akitio thunder 2 in my country. Even if I can, it is too much hassle for me because I might have a hard time finding the right parts. Maybe if you guys can link me all parts I need from amazon I can see how much it would cost me to import those. (with an AMD card in this situation of course, if it is plug in play like that with external monitor)
Auorus seemed cool with price and it includes GPU. That GPU in my country nearly costs same as Auorus box itself.
I can get Auorus shipped from amazon and it costs me 2600 cash including import fee. For 2600 here, I can build a ryzen 3 1200 + GTX 1050 ti (I will probably ship it from amazon for 150$) gaming desktop for about 2000 (monitor not included). For the remaining 500-600 cash, I can get a 25 inch ULTRA WIDE LG monitor. Meaning for the same price of Auorus, I can get a gaming desktop with gtx 1050 ti.
What do you guys think I should do ?
I like its dimensions. Would be awesome gift for my girlfriend. 🙂
I want to participate in this giveaway.
Can I enter giveaway? 🙂
I like this enclosure so much – small and powerful.
I read that this works with XPS15, 9550.
Can anyone confirm? I read that there were a lot of issues regarding bottlenecks and other issues with the other brand eGPU and Aikitio is one of the best at the moment.
I understand that the XPS15 9550 has a bottleneck with the TB3 as well but if this is as simple as or almost as simple as Plug&Play then I’m gna get it.
Author
One of the Thunderbolt 3 hosts I used for this review was the XPS 15 9550. It worked plug-and-play but due to x2 PCIe lanes over Thunderbolt 3 connection, eGPU performance is lower than hosts with x4 PCIe lanes.
Good review. I’ve been holding off on getting an eGPU, because some of the options out there don’t seem as… portable. But this might actually be perfect for what I have in mind – LAN parties. All I need to carry around is my laptop, this box, and maybe a monitor (and mouse and keyboard).
I’m interested to see what the other companies will release as well though.
This is a great writeup, thank you. I would like to enter the giveaway.
This is the first eGPU, aside from the Acer Graphics Dock, that approaches what I’ve been looking for for almost two decades. It’s probably the eGPU I’ll end up getting, whether through the giveaway or otherwise.
My first attempt at using a powerful video card with a laptop was around year 2000. I used a 15″ laptop with a gigantic docking station that could take small-ish vanilla PCI cards. The best video card that would fit was a Geforce2 MX, and the whole setup worked surprisingly well.
Ultimately it was a slow video card on a dead-end bus, so we switched to a self-contained laptop when the first discrete mobile GPU models started to come out. We weren’t too happy with their portability though, and eventually switched to ultraportables. We had Vidock’s ExpressCard-to-PCIe enclosures but, sadly, the convertible HP tabletPCs we settled on — this was the pre-iPad era — never worked particularly well with them.
Eventually Thunderbolt 3 happened. I briefly tried the Powercolor Devil Box, but it was too big and too loud. I wish the Aorus box was even smaller and had an Ethernet port but, given that it holds a fully-fledged desktop video card, it otherwise ticks all the checkboxes.
It’s taken until 2017, but I think that the convenient ultraportable desktop replacement may finally be reality.
Nice review! I’m going to be keeping my eyes open for new “all-in-one” boxes like this.
Very attractive little box!
kaeliri, the Gaming Box has been sized to pack a PSU, GTX1070, power delivery & USB 3.0 ports in an enclosure sized just large enough to house the components. A smaller enclosure would mean giving up either the PSU or going less powerful GPUs, or even a MXM GPU.
An alternative could be something like an AKiTiO Node Lite + GTX1080Ti mini + Meanwell 252w external PSU + custom wiring + chassis mods as discussed at https://egpu.io/forums/thunderbolt-enclosures/akitio-thunder2-and-thunder3-gpu-size-to-close-the-akitio/ . There you’d gain an even more powerful GPU as a custom similar sized solution. Though you wouldn’t get power delivery or multiple USB 3.0 ports going down that route.
Great review, very thorough!
It looks very promising. I’m a VR dev and hoping to find something I can use to bump up the performance of a more portable laptop. Any idea if there are much compatability issues? Or will anything with Thunderbolt 3 basically work? Good to hear it works with a Thinkpad X1 as I’m looking at a T470, so hopefully that would be fine too.
(Also, yes this is a shameless giveaway entry :-/ )
Great article on the aorus, just found out about egpu’s a while ago and would to win the giveaway to test it out with my 5K Retina Late 2015 Mac, thanks for the article.
While it has always been possible to switch the power supply for PCI-powerd GPU or even alter AKiTiO’s Thunder Boxes’ boards, to get up and running with a rather affordable setup having a small all-in-one solution is a pleasant evolution in the eGPU world. I agree with @itsage that having an AMD-powerd setup would be very convenient, too – especially in the Macintosh and FCPX world. That said ones I’m up and running again this setup would be a welcome upgrade to my AKiTiO Thunder 2 – NVIDIA GTX 750 Ti implementation.
I agree, I’ve tested a friend’s Gaming Box and it really is as small as you can make it without going the mobile route. I do like what you can do with mobile components, but it’d mean trading serviceability past the warranty period for compactness. Much as I like portability, I’m not sure I’d take that trade off.
I’m also not sure whether a GTX1080 would be worth it: while a Skull Canyon NUC seems to able to keep a 1070 fed over TB3, Y- and U-class CPU ultraportables were starting to struggle.
Awesome product! They need to release that firmware update though.
Count me in for the giveaway. Cheers!
Do you think you have the time to run a benchmark with the XPS 15 9550. I would like to compare benchmarks with the Alienware 17 R4 with the GTX1080 as I have the XPS15 9550. I know that they are totally different beasts with eGPU portability and AW17R4 portability. I also understand that there’s that issue with the TB3 port but I would like to compare the benchmarks anyway.But if the difference in the benchmarks are not too big. I can save $5000 on a new AW17R4 and just spend $1000 on the Aorus GB1070. As I’m looking at either a new laptop or the eGPU.If you could do a benchmark with the XPS15 9550, that would be great.Scrap that. I just found your thread.
https://egpu.io/forums/ builds/2015-15-dell-xps-9550-gtx960m-gtx107016gbps-tb3-aorus-gaming-box-win10-theitsage/
I would like to sign in the give away event 😀
This is nice egpu box, for it price and size.
Awesome review.. Cant wait for the guide to mac write up!!
Can’t wait to see if they update the firmware in a timely manner. That would make the choice pretty clear for me.
I enjoyed the review, and this seems to be a compelling egpu solution: good price/performance and decent PD power to charge my laptop. I was only toying with the idea of an egpu, but man am I tempted now.
Looking forward to the Bootcamp eGPU guide! Also, wouldn’t mind winning that gaming box :).
Great article!
I am looking to get one as well for my business laptop – Lenovo P50 – I am really hoping they get the firmware issues squared away soon. Is there a way to get on notification list from Gigabyte ?
Asus take note….THIS is how you make (and price) an eGPU!
Asus and Razer were the first to the market I think, hence their pricing. This is also why Mantiz is overpriced today, with the HP Omen undercutting it by quite a margin – as the eGPU market is expanding, so are the offerings. And prices go down. I guess we’ll either see them providing a new eGPU chassis using newer controllers / components / features or kill the line altogether.
It is worth mentioning the included custom carrying bag, which – alongside the minute size – makes it a truly portable enclosure out of the box.
A nice plus, looks adequately padded to bear the brunt of travel.
Thank you for the review. I’ve been looking around for almost a year for the right eGPU system and I feel like there’s finally a worthy candidate. I’m a long time fan of Gigabyte stuff and I’m excited that they’re entering this market with what seems like a kick ass entry.
Thank you for that! I liked reading this. Hopefully I can experience this eGPU soon myself ^^
I would’ve signed up for the giveaway but I’ve already got my own box 🙂
This is the first time an egpu solution has felt affordable to me! I’d love to hear how it handles VR games…
Looking to move away from old tower pc and this seem to be by far the best egpu available, at least in the UK. This paired with a Blade Stealth should be pretty awesome.
@t34n Sonnet Breakaway boxes pop up on Amazon UK quite often – for around £255.
I hope that these eGPU for Mac will help me solve the problem about GPU performance in Macbook.
– Cross the finger and hope I can win the giveaway for the first time :)).
Thanks for the great review! Seems like one of the best options out there, though part of me wonders about the enclosure’s potential for future upgrades. Still, a giveaway’s always nice, count me in!
One of the strongest candidates for my next egpu case, once the H2D problem is solved 🙂
Crossing fingers for the giveaway!
I miss a little interpretation for the performance numbers, your FPS comparison table does a good job of showing the increasing efficiency gap the higher the FPS go, but no paragraph which tries to explain those numbers.
Hi everyone,
I just wanted to give an update regarding the H2D Firmware Update, we are on track for a 1-2 week release. It is looking on the earlier side of 1 week. I will update as soon as it is ready and stable.
Thank you everyone for supporting us and we hope to support the community just as equally. We have heard your voices and concerns regarding the update and hope to have it out soon. I will relay any new details and information as soon as I have any updates.
Awesome! Will have to bite the bullet soon!
Just wondering if anyone could list a few AMD cards that could fit into this box as I would like to make full use of my freesync monitor
looks like performance is the only problem left, could be better if gigabyte sells this box without cards.
Just getting into eGPU setups since I need to buy a new laptop for programming. This enclosure looks awesome, let’s hope I win the giveaway 🙂
Author
Thank you very much for the update!
This thing looks great! Any update as to the half Host to Device bandwidth firmware availability? I’ve been following this for over a month and haven’t seen any comment besides “we’re looking into it.” That said, still beat iGPUs by a mile.
Also, any frametime metrics? Interested to see the penalty of TB3 overhead.
Thank you very much for this review. It would be awesome to have a comparison of the noise between enclosure. That is quite important for me. It is just a suggestion, not a criticism, I think your tests get better and better overtime.
Good luck to everyone for the giveaway (and slightly more luck for me ! 😉 )
I’m hyped, the eGPU dream is finally becoming a reality! This enclosure seems to be crossing the line, with all that compact size, connections, proper power and, most importantly, the price! If they could only release that H2D update already… When they do I have to get it (with your help or without it >;) )!
Author
@Feadurn I plan on doing stress-tests to measure noise and thermal on 5 eGPU enclosures.
Very nice addition to your already very professional reviews.
Seeing how this card was reviewed as a pretty noisy card in the past I’m concerned it will be even worse in such a small package. The difference in decibels may be enough to choose sacrificing some place for a more quiet enclosure with an quieter card.
But this tiny enclose still looks amazing, noise is the only concern that kept me from buying it. Maybe I can test that with the giveaway. 😀
This looks really good, and currently very good value when compared to other solutions. Fingers crossed for the give way
Great write-up! How would the AORUS paired with a 2015 Macbook Pro do as a VR setup? Would it be enough to carry me through a year or two of VR development?
Author
A few AMD cards I could think of are: R9 285 Compact, R9 Nano, RX 570 ITX.
Thanks for the suggestions! Will look into them!
Kudos for this in-depth and thorough review – many thanks. I first thought about getting a eGPU for my (then) MacBook Air in 2013 or 2014, but there was no feasible solution. Happy to see that now after a few years actually viable products are hitting the market.
Might get this one so I can finally join my friends playing PUBG & co 😉
That’s a great option for Macbooks if it comes to work plug-and-play on High Sierra. I have a Razer Core setup and been looking for something similar for my wife’s mid-2017 MBPro, but every third-party enclosure either isn’t Mac-compatible (Core) or is massive (Node, Venuz, Sonnet etc). This is quite compact, is priced almost as a standalone 1070 (though we have miners to “thank” for that…) and could be used with a 2m cable, since the 13″ MBPro only requires around 60W either way. I’d happily put it to good use if I manage to win the giveaway! *wink*
Do you think that a 7th Gen U CPU would be enough for the GTX-1070 of this enclosure? I don’t want to “overbuy”, so to speak, investing in a GPU that my system can’t make total use of. That’s the only reason stopping me from buying this eGPU.
You would only see a small performance hit on games that recommended a quad core CPU. Still definitely worth it. A 1080 would cause too much bottleneck, however.
I had a RX480 and it paired perfectly with both Skylake-U and Kaby Lake-U Razer Blade Stealth using an external display. I believe the 1070 to be the sweet spot of eGPUs for Intel U ultrabooks, but not at this inflated mining prices. I’ve sinced sold my one year old 480 for more than I paid and moved up to a 1080Ti I found at MSRP for futureproofing and you can definitely feel it’s taking a hit from the weaker CPU. If this is too much of a concern to you, I’d wait for the quad-core Kaby Lake-U refresh which should bring a nice bump in performance for the same power comsuption.
Are you going to retest after the H2D issue is fixed? As well, I thought I saw in a forum thread that they might have a new firmware to unlock the extra 10Gbps PCI-E bandwidth? Or am I thinking of the HP Omen or just some wishful thinking.
It depends what games you want to play. I’m finding that some are far more CPU-bound than others. I have an i5-6300HQ, which is a quad-core but significantly slower than a desktop processor. Battlefield 1 pegs the CPU at 100% and Mass Effect Andromeda actually runs better on this setup. On the other hand, I get near-desktop performance from The Witcher 3.
I have to show so many mates this! Mostly just to prove a point….but to make them buy it as well.
Thanks for the writeup! Hope to win!
I think eGPU enclosures for very specific GPU sizes are a viable solution as long as the form factor is continuously supported in following generations.
Thanks for the responses!
Hi everyone, I am proud to announce our firmware update is up and available earlier on our website under support and firmware. Let me know how it works for you guys and any feedback is appreciated.
https://www.gigabyte.com/Graphics-Card/GV-N1070IXEB-8GD#support-dl
EDIT: Appears that the America link is broken at the moment ,but any other region download will work and download same zip files. Thanks!
EDIT 2: China links only working at the moment. Also it seems that their may be a TB3 firmware issue when trying to update, I am requesting more information from our engineers finding the compatible versions. Sorry for these issues everyone.
Hi Brian,
I tried following the instructions however it gives me the error “Error while getting the PD firmware version”. Any clues on solving this?
Author
@gbt_brian Thank you very much for sharing this news! Good to have both the original firmware alongside the new one.
Author
@kleveland which Thunderbolt 3 laptop are you using with the AORUS GTX 1070 Gaming Box?
I am using the Asus Zenbook Pro UX501VW. Just to clarify, it detects the 1070 and everything.
Author
What version of Intel Thunderbolt Software is running your Zenbook Pro? I encountered issues with Thunderbolt firmware updates when the Intel Thunderbolt Software wasn’t the compatible version.
I have a 2016 15″ Macbook Pro. Would I be able to update the firmware with it?
Here is a screenshot, I am pretty sure I have the latest however just to be sure:
Author
@kleveland Try running 16.2 version of Intel Thunderbolt Software. I was able to update the firmware successfully just now with 16.2.55.275. Here are some pictures of the Thunderbolt firmware flashing process.
WIll this work with my 2015 macbook pro 13inch /w bootcamp (windows10) and a tb3 > tb2 adapter and a thunderbolt 2 cable?
Great review by the way 🙂
Niklas, there are two working examples of using a TB3 enclosure on your 2015 13″ MBP here. This TB3 enclosure will work in the same way.
so in other words yes it will work? how about the software on windows 10 that concerns me the most.
Thanks
Edit, and also it seems that I would have to buy an adapter from apple and a cable, put the cost of cables together is 100 USD is there any cheaper way?
Thanks for the review ! Any games benchmarks since the H2D update with an xps 9550 ?
I try the giveaway too…who knows?
@itsage
Having some issues updating the firmware of the Gaming Box. Currently using a Windows 10 Bootcamp on a 2017 13″ Macbook pro (4 ports).
After installing the 16.2.55.275 version of Intel Thunderbolt software (the software won’t run because it is in Bootcamp), I can open the FWUpdateTool from Aorus. However, this is the device that is being seen. Contrary to what is shown in your pictures, I don’t see the GIGABYTE device under it.
When I select the bin file to be uploaded, it gives me this Error 0x102 ReadFirmware function failed error. If I tried to do it again, it gives me the WMI error: Not found.
Author
You can try an older version of Intel Thunderbolt Software. I recall this version worked on my Late-2016 13″ MacBook Pro. The Thunderbolt firmware update tool needs a functional Intel Thunderbolt Software in order to execute the firmware flash.
@itsage
Hmm, I installed the older version of the Thunderbolt software, and now it can be opened. However, when I run the FWUpdateTool, I get an error message saying that the Thunderbolt(TM) software is not installed.
Moreover, if I run the Thunderbolt software, it doesn’t show me any Thunderbolt devices connected to my system, even though I am already on the extended monitor with the GPU being used. And if I check Device Manager, it doesn’t show any Thunderbolt devices on the System devices, instead I see Other devices, which is probably my GPU, SSD, Keyboard, and Mouse, respectively.
I browsed the forums and found this: https://egpu.io/forums/thunderbolt-enclosures/akitio-node-thunderbolt-3-egpu-enclosure/paged/6/#post-6718 Maybe I should remove the GPU as well? But then I read that you have done it even with the GPU installed. Although of course this is for Akitio Node, not the Aorus…
A more cost effective mini eGPU for your Thunderbolt 2 Macbook may be built using an AKiTiO Thunder2 native Thunderbolt 2 enclosure. See instructions on how to do this by @enjoy at: https://egpu.io/forums/thunderbolt-enclosures/akitio-thunder2-and-thunder3-gpu-size-to-close-the-akitio/
Awesome dimensions, and thanks for the review!
X for the Giveaway!
I’d love to join the giveaway! I’ve been amazed by egpu tech for a while now.
Please consider me for the giveaway. Please do post the setup instructions for hooking up this with Macbook Pro 15. Thank you.
This box looks fantastic; given the state of how very expensive it is to put together a proper eGPU setup, this is a very compelling option! Great job Gigabyte!
Weird question: Does anyone know if the branding / badge on the front is removable?
Also, please consider me for the giveaway!
Author
@pinchycm The AORUS badge in the front fascia is stamped and not easily removable.
P.S. I added the correct email to your original account and merged them together.
Thank you, @itsage !
Has anyone paired this with a 2012 Quad-core Mac Mini? Would the older gen hardware + TB1 really hold this guy back?
Excellent review!
Fingers crossed for the giveaway. Would be amazing to win this eGPU! 🤞
I had an another chance to test the Aorus 1070 box. Sadly that was two weekends ago, so I didn’t get the chance to try out the new firmware 🙁
In any case, I can report that…
Dell XPS 13 9350 Just Worked™;
HP Elite X2 1012
G2G1 mostly worked but power delivery was a little unpredictable;Lenovo X1 Yoga Gen2 works, though initially power delivery would only keep the battery topped up. Flashing the PD firmware on the laptop seemed to fix it;
Intel Skull Canyon NUC Just Worked™ (or at least the owner didn’t own up to any shenanigans).
The Dell’s TB3 bandwidth is a known story. The HP’s root link is 4-lane PCIe 2.0, so halved bandwidth potential. The Lenovo has full 4-lane PCIe 3.0 bandwidth to TB3 controller.
I was able to run Steam VR performance test on the HP Elite X2 and the Aorus box, and it seemed to be a-ok for VR! Sadly I didn’t have enough time with the Aorus box to test the other devices 🙁
—
Edit, a day later: I listed HP Elite X2 1012 G2, when in reality I had tested the HP Elite X2 1012 G1. Sorry for the confusion! Also: here’s hwinfo from the Lenovo and the HP, SteamVR performance test results for the HP, and CUDA-Z for the HP.
For those interested in GPGPU, I managed to set up and train a convolutional neural network on the Aorus box with a 13inch macbook pro 2016 (touchbar). Results are (original firmware) below; these seem comparable to an AWS P2 instance.
GPU usage seems to bounce around a fair bit (from 100% to 0% rather than holding steady at 100%) – not sure if this is because of a CPU/Thunderbolt bottleneck (would be keen to hear if anyone has insights into this)
Found 21000 images belonging to 2 classes.
Found 4000 images belonging to 2 classes.
Epoch 1/2
21000/21000 [==============================] – 335s – loss: 0.4518 – acc: 0.8660 – val_loss: 0.2671 – val_acc: 0.9045
Epoch 2/2
21000/21000 [==============================] – 302s – loss: 0.3452 – acc: 0.8931 – val_loss: 0.2267 – val_acc: 0.9127
One of the first mini boxes that I would be interested in. I’m running an IMac 2011 27 inch I5 with 16gb ram and 1.2 Fusion Drive, What would be my best option knowing that I have only Thunderbolt 1 speeds? Just a casual gamer. Some photo processing.
@John Nauel, a native Thunderbolt2 enclosure is more cost effective and compatible with your 2011 iMac. See build guides:
Thanks for that information!
I am really interested in the option of pairing this egpu with a HP Elite X2 G2, would you mind making a guide with the setup and results obtained with it (along with Power delivery problems)? I’m quite concerned about the PCIe 2.0 problem now that you mention it(couldn’t find that info anywhere) and its implication in gaming (I guess that won’t be able to be fixed by a BIOS update) 🙁
Agh! Sorry, sadly that was a typo on my part: I’ve only tested the G1 version, not G2 — my humble apologies for the confusion 🙁 My post has been edited to reflect this, and to upload a few promised screen caps.
I also don’t have ready access to any of the devices listed above anymore, except for the Lenovo. We’re in the process of selling the Dell and the Elite X2 1012 G1, having replaced them with a pair of Yogas, and the NUC and the Aorus box belong to a friend.
As to whether the Elite X2 1012 G2’s TB3 is limited to PCIe 2.0 speeds, I don’t actually know. I don’t think I can use the G1 as an indicator: it makes sense that the G1’s Y-series CPUs would be optimized for low power consumption, but G2’s U-series CPUs could go either way. Regardless of the TB3 bandwidth, though, an eGPU is a noticeable upgrade in graphics performance.
Oh well, thanks for clarification anyway :), I’ll continue looking for a proper G2 review to check whether it uses PCIe 3 lanes 🙂
So here is an update.
I got used to the coil whine, but something that starts to turn out is, that the Gaming Boxes performance seems to decrease over running time ( As noticed on Quake Champions Ultra Settings).
While the first hour I can play on Ultra, the second hour it starts lagging more and more, so I got to turn on to high, to then end up on medium in the end.
A blind guess: I assume this is due to the Thunderbold Cable getting hot after 3+ hours of gaming on Ultra settings and as of now I am looking for other cables.
See here : http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/thunderbolt-performance-z77a-gd80,3205-6.html
Edit: Setup Skull Canyon NUC + I am tried the latest firmware and it didnt change anything in that regard
Edit2: I am currently running Benchmarks over and over again, and notice a constant decrease in points/performance , meaning this seems to be a general heat related issue?
Edit3: Ordered a “premium” cable to see if the fps drops are indeed a cable issue, I noticed the back of the unit get extremely hot after some hours so this might really be the case.
Out of curiosity, does CUDA-Z report lower bandwidth numbers when the performance starts lagging?
Some updates on updating the Gaming Box firmware on Windows 10 Bootcamp in 13″ Mac 2017:
I found a Thunderbolt software from Lenovo: http://support.lenovo.com/jp/en/downloads/DS121130
The Thunderbolt software can be installed and (contrary to the version 16.2.55.275) can be run on the machine. However, when I open the Thunderbolt software, it only shows the ports, but no GIGABYTE device that can be seen. The error on the FWUpdateTool still remains…
This is a promising start for the eGPU market – I love the DIY spirit of this community, but seeing Gigabyte step up with a high-powered piece of kit like this even better. Seeing this is validation.
If you are still around @gbt_brian, could you provide some help with updating the firmware from a Windows 10 Bootcamp install. I continue to run into an error when using the update software.
As requested here are some screenshots of FPS Drops while playing.
————————————————————————————
Skull Canyon NUC
All Screenshots taken on Borderless Windowed Mode
Quake Champions 1920 x 1080 – Ultra settings
Prey 1920 x 1080 – Very High Settings
4 out of 7 Screenshots are on OC Template , one is on Gaming Template (Today I wanted to try OC, to check if it would combat FPS drops / Lag Spikes , but it is exaxtly same as on Gaming Template)
I kept swapping between H2D and nonH2d to combat FPS Drops and there is 0 Difference, as in, If I hadn’t flashed before I wouldnt be able to tell.
Lag Spikes appear in all Cases after some time played, and for some reason NonH2D feels better subjectively.
————————————————————————————
– As you can see GPU Temp isn’t high at all yet there are extreme Lag Spikes after some time played.
When Spikes appear(usually after 1-2 hours played) (not fixable by restart, but requires everything to cool down for some hours):
What I notice on HWMonitor is that “GPU Utilization” keeps jumping inconsistently (even though nothing other than Physics Effects Change)
“GPU Utilization” jumps between 50 up to 96% and then I hit a FPS Drop. It does that unpredicatbly, but most often when I “jump” or “get hit” in Quake and Prey(?).
Question1: Why does it only show 4GB Ram?
Question2: I doubt my CPU is throttleing at those temperatures? Also you can see how little CPU performance those Games take, but how GPU heavy they are.Assumption: I guess it is really the Cable, as the Back of the Unit gets extremely hot and I think this impacts cable signal quality.
Notice : As of now I am clueless what causes those lag spikes. Again this only happens after 1-2 hours of Gaming, while the games run perfecly for the first hours .
Essentially there must be some kind of heat/performance related throttle.
Screenshot order left to right, top to bottom:
OC Template – H2D – Quake Champions
OC Template – H2D – Prey
Gaming Template – Non H2D – Prey
OC Template – Non H2D – Prey
OC Template – Non H2D – Quake Champions
Desktop Idle – Non H2d
Desktop Idle – H2d
Update: I set Skull Canyon BIOS FAN mode to cooling and to motherboard TEMP instead balanced and plain CPU and notice sigificantly less FPS Drops/Lag. There is a possibility the NUC had been throtteling the GPU when reaching over 90 Degrees. I’ll keep on testing to confirm.
Would absolutely love one of these to accompany my 2017 tbMBP 15″
Thanks for the review THEITSAGE
Hey guys! If possible, I’d like to sign up for the giveaway. Would really love to pair this with my new HP laptop. Work folk didn’t give me one with a dGPU and I can’t game for nothin using Intel HD 🙁
@Patrick Dee:
Leave the NUC case open and add a fan on top of the MB and check your T° and FPS drop again.
You should keep the cpu at 80° and avoid the MB to heat up on long runs. Another advice is to repaste the cpu with fresh thermal paste.
Run the NUC fan 100% when gaming.
Anyone have try to put another gpu in this?
I really like it, but i would like to know the “upgradability” it have
Author
Everyone who commented on this thread has been entered for the Gigabyte AORUS GTX 1070 Gaming Box giveaway. We’ll pick the winner by 6pm CDT which is 11PM GMT tonight.
I’ve tried fitting a R9 285 Compact ITX card and it works great.
I like the portability and price is really cheap for encosure and gtx 1070
Would love to see if they have radeon version in the future
What I like most on this great eGPU solution from Gigabyte is that is seems future proof. Imagine replacing the included Gigabyte Geforce GTX 1070 mini for a possible Gigabyte Geforce GTX 2070 mini next year? I would be awesome!
I’m really tempted to try this out with my Lenovo Miix 720. Hoping I didn’t comment too late to be considered for the giveaway! Great review! The future is now! 😉
I am running my on Lenovo P50 and it’s a kickass setup!
Great review! Look forward to seeing more…
Thanks for the review – interested in this on a 15″ MBP 2017, anyone with experience?
And any recommendations with regards to a 4K or 5K screen that will work with this? As far as I can tell the Ultrafine 4K is not a great option?
Crossing my fingers for the give-away 🙂
Thanks for the review…Pretty impressed by thi
s little device.Just realized the giveaway is here, not the reddit thread. Bit last minute, but I’ll toss my hat into the ring. Looks like an awesome piece of tech!!!
Author
The AORUS GTX 1070 Gaming Box has concluded. @Rastafabi is the winner. We’d like to thank the Gigabyte US team for offering this great product to our community.
Congrats to @Rastafabi!
It will be helpful to him to continue to develop the script that is used on this forum at least.
Couldn’t have gone to a more deserved winner… congrats Rastafabi!
So here’s an update.
FPS Drops(after 1-2 hours) were really caused by the overheating NUC CPU Unit. I advise everyone to get cooling pads for your laptops and switching to special cooling cases for your NUCS (Akasa has some good solutions). Otherwise gaming performance will significantly suffer in the long run.
I also noticed about 50% – 100% FPS performance increase by plugging the Gaming Monitor-HDMI cable directly into the gaming box other than the PC. Interestingly enough, when doing so, other programs such as browsers, System/PC utilities and such ran on the GPU instead of the CPU. This makes the NUC appear a total monster, twice as strong as usual, allowing to watch additional streams and such while playing. This is not the case when plugging the Gaming Monitor-HDMI directly into the PC.
I stayed with the H2D Firmware for those measuers.
Done so far with the testing and really recommend the purchase.
Its will work with razer blade stealth or not?? anyone have tried?
oooh that seems excellent hope i win
Anyone seen this ?
https://www.gigabyte.com/Graphics-Card/GV-N1080IX-8GD#kf
INFO: Just announced Gigabyte GTX1080 mini is a drop in replacement for the Aorus Gaming Box‘s GTX1070 mini
That *new* Gigabyte GTX1080 mini is a drop in replacement for the Gigabyte GTX1070 mini in the Aorus Gaming Box. They both have these same specifications to make that possible: same card size, power requirement and 8pin*1 power connector.
No RRP has been released for this Gigabyte GTX1080 mini but can use the $540 Zotac GTX1080 Mini and US$450 Zotac GTX1070 Mini for comparison. There the GTX1080 has a 20% (US$90) premium over the GTX1070. That matching the 20% FPS improvement on a desktop system a GTX1080 has over a GTX1070.
Is it worth it?
https://egpu.io/wp-content/uploads/wpforo/attachments/3/3279- GTX1080-vs-GTX1070.png
I wonder if Gigabyte will silently update the gaming box to reflect this new card. Perhaps the will release a “Pro” version of the box at $699.
Knowing I’m in the minority, but I really enjoy and notice the difference in my 1080ti eGPU. Bandwidth limits aside, there is still a huge difference when playing games at 1440p or 4k.
This little Gigabyte eGPU with a 1080 will be sick if you value portability.
Until graphics cards become smaller, or someone figures out how to package laptop series GPU’s in a tiny package that could fit in a bag or pocket with a direct thunderbolt plug (Aside from a needed power supply), this is about as good as it gets.
@Maven the GTX1080Ti is a beastly further 40% CUDA core jump over a GTX1080. It’s more of a boost than a GTX1070->GTX1080:
There is talk in the AKITiO mini eGPU thread of just shoehorning a Zotac GTX1080 mini in the chassis. Turns out Zotac released a GTX1080Ti mini with the same dimensions so could use it instead:
https://egpu.io/forums/thunderbolt-enclosures/akitio-thunder2-and-thunder3-gpu-size-to-close-the-akitio/
Thanks for the review 🙂
Would be nice!
Unfortunately, the Zotac and Gigabyte cards are too tall to be used in the Akitio without modding the top of the case. I have been down that road with the Zotac 1080 and it was next to impossible to cleanly use in the Akitio chassis. (Not to mention power / DA02 is not an option.
Nando, call Akitio and set them straight on the chassis we need to make this happen. I can think of no better authority in the eGPU space than you. 🙂
Are you referring to using the Zotac 1080ti in the Gigabyte case?
That would be a MUCH easier solution. The only snag is the single 8 pin @450 watt PSU.
I think 450W will suffice, but would we just use a single 8pin to dual 8 pin adapter to power the card?
Just thought I’d pop back and let others know my experience – I bought the Aorus box along with a new Thinkpad T470. I found it was pretty painless to set up and running a quick benchmark the card does indeed boost the performance way above the integrated graphics. I bought the pair specifically to do VR dev on though, currently with an Oculus Rift. That’s unfortunately where I have to report some bad news. Whilst the Oculus setup and demos seemed to run fine, with maybe some very minor FPS drops, when I was using it with Unity and a development build of our app (which is right now very simple – mostly cubes and other primitives with no fancy shaders or anything) I got significant frame skips. The FPS remained high, but I think there is a communication bottleneck and the setup, I found unusable for VR development sadly. I’ve borrowed a laptop with a built-in 1070 and the performance is fine, no such frame skipping.
It may be that this problem will be fixed if Gigabyte release new drivers with the H2D speed improvement. And I think the box is still quite handy, for regular gaming and probably for consumer VR stuff too. But I’m currently figuring out if I can return mine and get an ugly gaming laptop instead 🙁
@Maven, the Zotac GTX1080Ti will not fit into the Aorus Gaming Box. As for a callout, Zotac showed some eGPU enclosure pre-production units at some shows this year. It would be in there best interest to create an eGPU enclosure to host their dual-fan mini GTX1080Ti card.
@joebain, please re-test and advise VR performance after applying the H2D fixed Aorus Gaming Box firmware that was recently released, available for download at:
https://www.gigabyte.com/Graphics-Card/GV-N1070IXEB-8GD#support-dl
Thanks – I did try with the new drivers. I had a bit of a delay because the next day the box simply refused to turn on. No lights, nothing. I was about to send it back but gave it one last try today and it came back to life. Anyway, I tried the new drivers and the difference is not perceptible. I did try a few demos and games from the Oculus store and the performance is ok, but something different with the dev work I’m doing really doesn’t suit it. I was getting around 10-20 fps in our current demo – I tried on a friends laptop with a built-in 1060 and got a solid 90fps for the same demo.
EDIT:
I did a bit more research and it seems part of the issue might be a problem with Unity. They have released a patch for Macs suffering similar problems with the Apple egpu dev kit: https://forum.unity3d.com/threads/vr-on-macos-preview-build.474381/ Apparently these fixes are also in the new general beta, so I might try that tomorrow and see if there are any improvements.
Hey guys!
I’ve been waiting to buy an external GPU for my 2015 Retina Macbook Pro for a HUGE time.
Is the Aorus it? Does it tick all the boxes?
And also, is anything better coming to the market that you guys are aware?
Please please, I need some advice.
I’m using 15inch MacBook Pro touch bar.
first of week, it worked, however after I boot up with Mac OS, and then tried to use it on windows,
gaming box is no longer detected as video card or extra monitor adapter.
It used to be turned on with RGB lights when windows up, however now it is no RGB lights on when windows up.
it only does charge my MacBook, thats all.
when I turn on Mac OS with attached EGPU, I didn’t try to set up , but I seems working in Mac OS.(I can see RGB lights on, and port recognized.)
why only in windows, it is not detected. I have tried everything I could, fresh reinstalling windows ( 5 times), reconnecting all the cables, or installing thunderbolt driver, disable PCIE slots etc
every ports, (4 ports) can’t recognized my EGPU.
please help me how to figure this out.
Author
@hun Try a power reset. With the AORUS attached to your MBP via the Thunderbolt 3 cable, disconnect the power cable to AORUS Gaming Box from the outlet. Leave it disconnected for at least 10 minutes. Reconnect the power cable then boot into Windows.
@itsage
Thanks for your reply,
I did exactly what you said, but still pretty much same things going on here. I only use external monitor.
I will up load picture that I can see device manager
##update
I don’t know what else I should try more.
please help me.
Hey itsage, could you give me some advice too?
I have had that issue in the past. If disconnecting the thunderbolt cable and power cycling the eGPU box does not work, try booting back into OSX, hot plugging the eGPU and running the eGPU script again.
Those tips should do the trick.
Remember to disconnect the eGPU when the computer shuts down, then plug it in when Windows is selected to boot and right after the wheel start to spin.
Good luck!
@itsage
thank you for your advice. basically what you are asking is
attach thunderbolt Cable to MBP and disconnect power cord from gaming box, and wait for 10 mins.
after that, reboot and press option key to choose os that I want to boot up with,
and connect the power of gaming box, then when gaming box spins, I select to boot up with windows?
As I said before, gaming box seems working in Mac OS, so I won’t need to do any EGPU scripts, right?
and I actually tried and it is working perfectly fine with Mac OS.
however, windows doesn’t even detect my gaming box. I can’t find an display adapter or graphics card with no RGB light on.
For more information about what I tried, I have a friends who has laptop 2016 MBP touch bar, and exactly same model as me.
I tried with his laptop right after I check mine isn’t working, and it was working. his laptop detected my gaming box as an another display adapter, which just requires installing drives. So what I’m thinking is it is not about battery. As you said, if it is not charged enough or whatever, It shouldn’t work fine (friends laptop MBP) right after trying mine. But it is also not about hardware problems, because it is working just fine in Mac OS.
So I will try again, reinstalling windows via bootcamp, and installing drives only from apple, and I will try power reset.
and then will see whether it detects or not.
If I can’t find any solution, should I go to apple store and ask them?
please let me know any ideas,
thank you for your help!
About unplugging the power: if doing it to power cycle an unresponsive Aorus, make sure to leave it unplugged for a new good minutes. Doing it only for a few seconds IS NOT ENOUGH to reset the box. Damn big capacitors aka good PSU 🙂
Author
I totally agree. While I have had success with 15 seconds unplugged before on this enclosure, I always recommend letting it sit for at least 10 minutes to make absolutely sure those big capacitors are fully discharged.
Author
@hun The recognition issue then is with the Windows installation on your MacBook Pro. If you have a restore point, you can revert it back. Otherwise, do a clean install of Windows and see if that helps.
Can you explain me how to do a clean install of windows? Do you mean reinstalling windows via bootcamp?
Author
Use Windows Recovery to reset your PC. Choose to remove everything to have a clean Windows install.
Okay will do later on today.
But just wondering that, will reset help to solve the problem, even though fresh reinstalling windows didn’t help ?
GTX1080 version in the works
At AORUS Gaming Box: The Portable Gaming Dream! (massdrop), GBT.BRIAN writes:
This will be easy to accomodate given Aorus just released GTX1080 mini is a drop-in replacement for the current GTX1070 mini card.
Hey nando, do you think it is worth waiting for the 1080 instead of picking up the Aorus 1070 now? I really need an eGPU for 3d modeling on a MBP but I can wait. If the jump is not by much I’d be better off picking up one now though.
I am sorry to say I have had a hard time with this eGPU. I really liked this review, and I was already leaning toward the Gigabyte box to begin with, but your review confirmed my opinion.
I think I got unlucky, so I am in the process of exchanging the box. I have a 2017 Razer Blade Stealth 13.3″ laptop, and the box worked great for the first week, but after I unplugged it one day to go to a meeting it never worked right again. The connection to the eGPU “flickered” on and off every few seconds after that and after uninstalling and reinstalling the thunderbolt 3 software, firmware, and Aorus software ten or fifteen times, I have just given up. You can see a video of the problem in an Amazon comment I left. Please wish me luck with the replacement eGPU!
Hey Edward, I replied to your Amazon review. Basically, I had a similar issue with a Nvidia card (mine is a 1080Ti on the Razer Core) and rolling back the OS to a previous restore point where it worked fine (1 week ago) did the trick. From now on, I try to avoid hot-plugging it as much as I can.
@dream3, the Gigabyte GTX1080 mini was just announced without pricing or availability. It stands to reason if you need a mini eGPU now then grab the Aorus Gaming Box with a GTX1070. When the GTX1080 mini is released can weight up your options, eg: swap out the cards or swap the whole enclosure.
If can sit it out them the guestimate is the GTX1080 Aorus Gaming Box will be ~$100 more than the GTX1070 version.
Thanks, that makes sense! Buying the 1070 + Box now and then later replace it for the 1080 mini only sounds good.
However I was under the impression the price would remain unchanged between the two versions. Do you think the extra $100 are worth the upgrade for the performance boost?
@dream3, please see my previous comment evaluating the extra price & performance a Gigabyte GTX1080 mini has over the GTX1070 mini. It may help you decide if that solution is one to aim for. One thing is for sure, the Gigabyte GTX1080 is the fastest Nvidia card that fits perfectly in the tiny Aorus Gaming Box.
Nice, that is helpful indeed. Seems to be worth the price then. Now I just need to figure out if I personally need the extra power or not 😛
Another thing I’ve realized though is that I will be using it with a 2015 rMBP, that is TB2. Would TB2 limit the performance boost of the 1080 compared to the 1070, in real world usage? If so, then case closed for me 😀
TB1/TB2 users via the TB3->TB2 adapter – no automatic fan control under Windows?
The offline TB1 user is now concerned about overheating due to no fan rampup with temperature. This will require a temperature sensor controlled fan circuit or hardwired fan solution as a workaround.
Can any other TB2/TB1 verify if this occurs on their systems as well?
I have been using the AORUS for a few days now in W10 on an iMac 5k late 2015/TB2->TB3 adapter/external monitor and haven’t encountered a situation yet where the fan didn’t ramp up under higher loads. Especially while benchmarking the increase in fan speed was noticeable. I can confirm that the RGB lights don’t work (neither in Windows or macOS). Haven’t tested the USB ports.
@moonbuilt, can you confirm it’s the Aorus gaming box‘s 2 x 40mm internal fans as opposed to the GPX1070 fan that ramps up in speed as the internal chassis temps increase due to GPU load?
There are 4 fans inside the Aorus gaming box noted below that can be seen in itsage‘s teardown pic below:
It’s the topmost 2 x 40mm fans that the offline user is saying are not ramping up with increased GPU load when using this enclosure on a TB1 15″ MBP under Windows. MSI Afterburner’s GPU fan control allows quietening the large GPU fan to help identify if the others are ramping up.
Hi, I am the “offline user”. I can add a bit more to this.
I have a MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012). 2,3 Ghz Intel Core i7, 8 GB, Intel HD 4000, GT 650M.
I’m running macOS Sierra 10.12.6 and Windows 10 Pro (latest version installed with Boot Camp).
I am using the Gigabyte Aorus Gaming Box GTX 1070 8GB as my eGPU.
During boot (after I’ve pressed “alt” and selected macOS) the LED-lights turn on, and the PSU fan + the 2 x 40 mm fans starts ramping up. The GPU fan isn’t ramping up at all this time, only spins occasionally. During heavy load like benchmarking and gaming the GPU fan spins as expected. All ports on the back of the gaming box works.
But,
during boot (after I’ve pressed “alt” and selected Windows + engaged Nando‘s eGPU setup 1.35) theres no LED-lights. I can hear the PSU fan + the 2 x 40 mm fans run, but it’s very subtle. The GPU fan spins occasionally just like in macOS. During heavy load like benchmarking and gaming the GPU fan spins as expected, but the other fans stays the same. The USB ports do not work, but if I connect a iPhone charging cable etc. the LED-lights flashes for a second or two and then dies. The iPhone doesn’t charge and windows does not recognize it.
Remi
Edit: I am not 100% sure about the PSU fan. That fan may be running identically in both macOS and Windows (It’s hard to hear because the 2 x 40 mm fans are quite noisy).
Thanks for the clarification Nando. You are correct, the topmost 2x40mm fans do not ramp up with increased load under Windows.
I just ran some tests and it seems like the best way to keep the card/chassis relatively cool would be by manually adjusting the fan speed (of the GPX1070) to a higher speed in Afterburner. E.g. fan speed set to 80% results in a 58C max temp while running Superposition (1080p, high), whereas ‘automatic mode’ results in a 75C max temp and a much hotter chassis. Not sure if this is a reasonable workaround/compromise in the long term. Any thoughts on this?
Author
The two 40mm fans are pulling hot air from inside the enclosure out. If you put your hand near where they at, you can probably feel whether the speed increases.
@Remi, your other course of action to get those 2 x 40mm fans ramping up is to log a support call with Aorus/Gigabyte.
It is conceivable that the firmware was not tested in a TB2/TB1 Windows test case and may have a fan control algorithm that is buggy as a result. eg of such an algorithm: 1. initialize fan 2. seek USB-HID connection to allow future/hidden software fan control 3. then do fan ramp up taking internal temp sensor input. The firmware may have had a problem at (2).
I suggest vendor involvment because @Mantiz_John shared firmware tweaks for his Mantiz Venus enclosure’s fan control.
Without a fix or workaround here, TB2/TB1 users will need to be warned about GPU thermal throttling from unvented chassis high temperatures under load.
@Nando, I’ll contact them about the issue later today.
Thanks again fot the great support.
After some more testing I figured out how to get those 2 x 40 mm fans to run at full speed in Windows 10.
I ran heaven benchmark in macOS until the temp peaked at 68 c. Then when I restarted, the fans immediality went from around 70-80% to 100%. I am now running heaven benchmark in Windows 10. The temp peaks at around 70c and the fans are still going at 100%. This is not optimal of course, but now it wont overheat at least.
Edit: after I turned off heaven benchmark, the GPU temp went down to 48c and the GPU fan stopped. Those 2 x 40 mm fans where still running at 100%. I ran heaven benchmark again and the temp peak at around 70c. The GPU fan work as expected.
So does it work 100% fine with TB3>TB2 under macOS?
Yes, it works great under macOS. You can’t update firmware or change LED-lights though.
can’t update firmware? that sounds like an issue. I’ll need to hook it up to a windows machine for sure as soon as I set it up right?
I think you need a TB 3 port to be able to update the firmware (I’m not sure). I have tried to update it under windows 10 with adapter and all, but the enclosure isn’t recognized and the update tool shows a thunderbolt error. As stated in a earlier post, the GPU works great under Windows with Nando‘s eGPU setup. The only issue for me now is those two fans. The increase in performance is overwhelming right now under windows. My MacBook now performs better than most of my friends gaming PC’s. I’ve read somewhere that the firmware will make the gaming box even better, but for now I’m very satisfied with what I got. I guess I have to find someone with a TB 3 connection so I can update it.
I have contacted Gigabyte about the issues. No reply yet.
Here is the reply from Gigabyte:
Dear Remi,
Sorry for the problem you encountered. Because the problem may cause by system environment or hardware issue, if possible, please test Gaming Box with other laptop or computer which supports Thunderbolt 3 port and install Windows 10 only to rule out compatibility issue. Please also make sure you have installed all Windows 10 drivers properly for your computer.
Meanwhile, because we cannot guarantee the Thunderbolt adapter quality and performance, we suggest you to connect the Thunderbolt 3 cable to Gaming Box and your laptop directly (if your laptop supports Thunderbolt 3 port).
Regards,
GIGABYTE
I thought I would post an update with my VR experiments. I ended up getting hold of an MSI Stealth Pro, a laptop with a 1060 in it and ran some comparisons. I used the Ungine Heaven demo to benchmark performance and also Nvidia’s FCat VR Benchmark program. In summary: on the regular graphics benchmark the Aorus eGPU beats the 1060 laptop, but in the VR benchmark it falls down. Although the average framerates are not too bad and it did get around 90 for both apps I tested. The killer is though – the eGPU has way more missed frames than the laptop, and I think this must be down to data transfer rates over the thunderbolt connection. The dropped frames in Robo Recall were about 1 per second on the laptop, but about 5 per second with the eGPU! The headset can cope with a small number of missed frames and synthesize in-betweens, but with a high number like this you get stutters which are extremely off-putting.
There is a graph of the results here for those who are interested: https://imgur.com/a/x0DkC
EDIT: forgot to post the Ungine results. The eGPU got 2501, and before the new firmware update it was 1922, the laptop got 2273.
Author
@joebain Thank you for your tests and reports. I recall you said the AORUS Gaming Box is paired with a Thinkpad T470. Can you share an implementation with us? Have you checked the Thunderbolt 3 connection attaches to 4 lanes?
I’m not sure what you mean by “implementation” but I used the standard drivers. I believe the Lenovo software did perform an update on the thunderbolt firmware in the laptop at some point after I got it. I also updated the gaming box using the firmware provided by Aorus. I didn’t notice much difference between the H2D version and the standard, although I believe both are better than the stock firmware. It could be that the improvement I saw on the Ungine benchmark was not down to the firmware too.
According to this post ( https://www.reddit.com/r/thinkpad/comments/5ykwge/to_all_owners_of_thinkpads_with_thunderbolt_3/ ) it uses 4 lanes.
Author
I read the link and I’m not convinced the T470 has 4 lanes for Thunderbolt 3. Can you install HWiNFO64 to check?
Please expand the PCI Express Root Port fully under which the eGPU is connected. Here’s an example of the HP Spectre 13 X360 which has 4 lanes.
P.S. Laptop with Skylake and Kaby Lake U/Y CPUs may also be limited by low-power GT2 mode.
It seems to be 4 lanes. I don’t know about the low power limiting, but it could be happening.
Author
@joebain. Thank you for posting the screen capture. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but your T470 has a x2 PCIe lane Thunderbolt 3 connection. Look right under PCI Express Root Port #9 [A1/C1] to locate PCI Express x2 Bus #5.
Ah, that might explain it then! I might try with the MSI I have now, as that has a thunderbolt 3 port also. Thanks for the info though.
First I want to apologize for the double-post in the Gaming Box Enclosure forum, but I’ve had the gaming box for a week now and I just can’t get the RGB light controls to work in the gigabyte “Game Engine” software. The software seems to change the GPU fan speed and Clock speeds just fine, but there is no LED option like there is on other people’s screenshots. It’s a small bug but rather annoying. My computer is a XPS 9550 running windows 10. Has anyone else encountered this issue?
Got the box today to connect with XPS 9550, also no LED options in the Aorus software.
Hello everybody :
Just got the aorus plugged in my xps 9550 .Well, it was not so plug and play and i still have a few issues ( can’t control the ridiculous RGB leds ) but the first question i wouls ask is about the TB3 port . I know it s two lanes on the XPS 15 . After the H2D update i get these numbers on cuda z:
CUDA-Z Report
=============
Version: 0.10.251 32 bit http://cuda-z.sf.net/
OS Version: Windows AMD64 6.2.9200
Driver Version: 385.41
Driver Dll Version: 9.0 (6.14.13.8541)
Runtime Dll Version: 6.50
Core Information
—————-
Name: GeForce GTX 1070
Compute Capability: 6.1
Clock Rate: 1721 MHz
PCI Location: 0:11:0
Multiprocessors: 15
Threads Per Multiproc.: 2048
Warp Size: 32
Regs Per Block: 65536
Threads Per Block: 1024
Threads Dimensions: 1024 x 1024 x 64
Grid Dimensions: 2147483647 x 65535 x 65535
Watchdog Enabled: Yes
Integrated GPU: No
Concurrent Kernels: Yes
Compute Mode: Default
Stream Priorities: Yes
Memory Information
——————
Total Global: 4096 MiB
Bus Width: 256 bits
Clock Rate: 4004 MHz
Error Correction: No
L2 Cache Size: 48 KiB
Shared Per Block: 48 KiB
Pitch: 2048 MiB
Total Constant: 64 KiB
Texture Alignment: 512 B
Texture 1D Size: 131072
Texture 2D Size: 131072 x 65536
Texture 3D Size: 16384 x 16384 x 16384
GPU Overlap: Yes
Map Host Memory: Yes
Unified Addressing: No
Async Engine: Yes, Bidirectional
Performance Information
———————–
Memory Copy
Host Pinned to Device: 1388.83 MiB/s
Host Pageable to Device: 1208.29 MiB/s
Device to Host Pinned: 1315.75 MiB/s
Device to Host Pageable: 1175.92 MiB/s
Device to Device: 86.5133 GiB/s
GPU Core Performance
Single-precision Float: 6971.91 Gflop/s
Double-precision Float: 229.04 Gflop/s
64-bit Integer: 517.713 Giop/s
32-bit Integer: 2391.82 Giop/s
24-bit Integer: 1789.18 Giop/s
Generated: Mon Sep 18 22:50:56 2017
Does it seems what i should expect ? Thanks for your answers .
Hello.
well everything is turning crazy now… got the box working perfectly yesterday … today i connected it and i m unable to get it to work.
when i plug the tb in , the utility keeps saying that this device may not work on this computer. Well , it always shown that, nothing New.
the box lightens, it’s detected by the nvidia driver , the utility management , ok… cuda-z sees it …alright.
But : aorus utility isn’t able to control the fans anymore , and even when i disable the 960m , games are working on the intelHD integrated chip!
tried to re-update the TB3 firmware and get error 0x10A 266 -error while getting the PD firmware version”.
I’m looking into this but i’m really lost here..
any help ?
Now trying this: https://communities.intel.com/thread/115900
Ok well i don’t know exactly what worked but following the Steps above did it .
It’s working again.
Hope it won’t do it next Time i Turn it on.
Probably due to à Bug in aorus engine , i saw briefly a window about the leds . I will continue to look after it anyway.
Gigabyte now have a new Aorus 1080 Gaming Box with Embedded Geforce GTX 1080! https://www.gigabyte.com/Graphics-Card/GV-N1080IXEB-8GD#kf — so excited with these eGPU updates. 🙂
Is there a fix to the missing LED settings in the Aorus Software? I’m in contact with Gigabyte support, but it’s taking really long for them to reply so trying out here in case someone has a solution.
Thank you.
Nice review, itsage. I really wish Gigabyte would sell that thunderbolt3 to pci-e board as standalone by itself. They’d make a killing on that thing even at $75, especially considering there are full sized motherboards for $75, this board is small and has far fewer components making it very low cost to produce. It is not like Gigabyte is making money on the sheet metal and PSU. I can understand Gigabyte wanting to sell GPUs, but this way they can sell a bundle which allows them the flexibility to sell it with say a GTX1080ti for even more money, just like mobo+gpu combo bundles like on Newegg.
Could someone explain these crazy stats? Looks like the Gaming Box is using too much power and is underclocking itself? This is on an XPS 15 9560. I’m pretty sure it started after updating to the latest Gaming Box firmware.
Power Delivery was or wasn’t working??? I’m tryin to solve that mistery. I’m setting up HP elite x2 1012 G1 with Aorus 1080 GB. Egpu works but No power Delievery. Any suggestion????
Hi,
I recently got a Gaming Box with 1070, I have tried coupling it with a rMBP 2013 13″ that has TB2, and I’m using the TB3->TB2 adapter and a 2M Apple Thunderbolt 2 Cable. I have managed to get it working and actually I can play games without problem with an external monitor and the internal monitor.
My only worry is that the side fans doesn’t turn on when it’s connected to my MBP. When I connect to an newer TB3 Macbook Pro 15″ 2016 with AMD Pro 455 the LED and fan turns on.
I’ve been monitoring the temperatures with MSI Afterburner and it doesn’t go over 70°C when playing but I’m more worried about the PSU actually.
tl;dr
Does anyone know why the led and psu doesn’t turn on when it is connected to a TB2 Host? Is there any risk running it this way?
Thanks!
@ceve, If using TB3 enclosures with I/O ports on a TB2/1 system via a US$49 Apple TB3-TB2 adapter, USB ports are not visible in Windows (inc Aorus’ fan control). They do appear in macOS. Ref: theitsage.
Please see Aorus’ fan control to see how others have worked around this limitation.
most of the people who bought AORUS/Gigabyte Gaming Box are suffering from either connecting it to laptops or not working after 4 months . What is the reliability of this product ? I have a Razer Stealth 2017
Hi,
Someone with the aorus game box has tried the Host-to-Device bandwidth fix? ( https://www.gigabyte.com/Graphics-Card/GV-N1070IXEB-8GD#support-dl )
I did a while ago. It worked as advertised.
hello,
I am thinking about buying Auorus GTX 1070 gaming box, I have 15″ RMBP with 750m. There seems to be to much hassle just to get it work with W10. Can I get it work without installing rEFInd ? I have W10 installed, can’t I just plug and play with few modifications ?
And would it only run external monitor with W10 ? Is it possible to run only with external without doing modifications or fewer modifications ?
And If I do use external display only, would the graphics performance be equal to other gaming laptops equipped with the GTX 1070 ?
Be careful with the 750m dGPU version of this MBP model. Nobody was able to get an NVIDIA eGPU (9** and 10** series) to work with a thunderbolt 3 enclosure. However, using an AMD card is relatively straightforward…
https://egpu.io/forums/ builds/mid-2014-macbook-pro-w-750m-rx-480-akitio-node-on-macos-win-10/
If you absolutely want an NVIDIA card, I would advise to use a thunderbolt 2 enclosure such as the Akitio Thunder2. If your wish is to use an external monitor, you will be happy to hear that it is really easy to set it up (no rEFInd needed, almost plug and play, works with all versions of Windows 10). However, it’s another story concerning the internal display…
Regarding the performance now, enjoy did some testing using the external display.
https://egpu.io/forums/ builds/2013-15-mbpr-iris-only-gtx106016gbps-tb2-akitio-thunder2-win10-internal-display-optimus-enjoy/#post-4345
Results are ~16% performance loss compared to a desktop (could be more for bad-optimised games, less for well-optimised games). I don’t know how they compare to gaming laptops however…
I’ve wanted the nVidia because of the ease of recording gameplays if I ever want to upload those videos into a youtube channel.
I can’t get Akitio thunder 2 in my country. Even if I can, it is too much hassle for me because I might have a hard time finding the right parts. Maybe if you guys can link me all parts I need from amazon I can see how much it would cost me to import those. (with an AMD card in this situation of course, if it is plug in play like that with external monitor)
Auorus seemed cool with price and it includes GPU. That GPU in my country nearly costs same as Auorus box itself.
I can get Auorus shipped from amazon and it costs me 2600 cash including import fee. For 2600 here, I can build a ryzen 3 1200 + GTX 1050 ti (I will probably ship it from amazon for 150$) gaming desktop for about 2000 (monitor not included). For the remaining 500-600 cash, I can get a 25 inch ULTRA WIDE LG monitor. Meaning for the same price of Auorus, I can get a gaming desktop with gtx 1050 ti.
What do you guys think I should do ?
Hi! Please include me in the giveaway please! Looks like a nice piece of kit! Looking forward to putting it through its paces