External air-cooled graphics cards

[mof]

Has anyone ever designed a GPU to be in an external box or stand connected with a riser cable?
They wouldn't have to worry about the dimensions or weight of the cooler since it's not fitting
in a case.

E.g. They could have a CPU type cooler on the GPU and small heat sinks for rest of the card.
Or just a much bigger traditional card like a 6 slot equivalent.

The card would always get fresh cool air and exhaust outside the main case too.

I know they've made external water cooled cards for laptaps and people could mount their air
cooled cards externally already but I was thinking of card that wasn't designed to ever go in
a case or on a motherboard so they could make a cooler how they want without the usual restrictions.

 

[Captain_Bosh]

Not with a riser AFAIK, probably because its liable to cause damage if the external box is yanked for any reason. I'm sure there are usb ones.

 

[cjgardens]

Isn't there something like this for laptops? Or am I making it up

 

[dave28]

Isn't there something like this for laptops? Or am I making it up

yes i thought there definitely is for laptops, Alienware laptops have a port for the connection i think

 

[Grim5]

Yes external graphics cards exist, they connect to the computer with a thunderbolt connection but you will lose performance compared to a GPU that's plugged into a motherboard

 

[Grim5]

Gigabyte Aorus RTX 4090 Gaming Box review: Nvidia's fastest consumer graphics card is massively restrained by Thunderbolt

Notebookcheck tests the Gigabyte Aorus RTX 4090 Gaming Box eGPU in combination with a mini-PC based on the AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS with 32 GB of DDR5 RAM.

www.notebookcheck.net

 

[AMDPower]

Cant you buy one of the external GPU cases and then connected it to a motherboard via thunder port, Razer, asus and gigabyte all have one. You can decide what graphics card to put in there. Is this what you are suggesting?

Asus has a ROG XG mobile with a 4090 mobile.

 

[Grim5]

Cant you buy one of the external GPU cases and then connected it to a motherboard via thunder port, Razer, asus and gigabyte all have one. You can decide what graphics card to put in there. Is this what you are suggesting?

Asus has a ROG XG mobile with a 4090 mobile.

Yeah I posted one above, there are a few different ones

Thunderbolt 4 however sucks for GPUs unfortunately and a 4090 loses 50% of its potential performance due to a lack of bandwidth on TB4. This will continue until we get Thunderbolt 5

 

[varkanoid]

Been around for a while in one form or another.

ASUS use a proprietary PCIE connection

ROG XG Mobile (2023) | External Graphic Docks | ROG United Kingdom

The 2023 ROG XG Mobile features up to an RTX 4090 GPU, allowing you to transform your laptop from a mobile gaming device to a true battlestation.

rog.asus.com

Razer from 2019

Razer Gaming Desktops and Components | Best Gaming Desktops | Razer United Kingdom

Build your dream battlestation with our best gaming desktop solutions - meticulously crafted and assembled for high-performance play.

www.razer.com

To be honest all you had to do was to put "external GPU for laptop" into Google and it comes up with examples.
Quite a few on ***a competitor site***
some with AMD cards too. (OnexGPU)

@mof Try googling "JMT M.2 M Key NVMe External Graphics Card Stand Bracket 64Gbs Full Speed with PCIe 4.0 x4 Riser Cable R43SG" for another example.

 

[pastymuncher]

It shouldn't be particularly difficult to make something up really. A few bits of wood for the box, extension from the psu for power and a decent riser card with a long enough ribbon would perform the same as any gpu plugged directly into the motherboard would. Now that the subject has been mentioned I am surprised that nobody on here has already done this as we have quite a few enthusiasts (see nutters) who think outside the box. If I remember right a couple tried making hovercrafts using Delta fans some time ago.

 

[Tetras]

The card would always get fresh cool air and exhaust outside the main case too.

And get pushed off by your cat or toddler.

 

[Quartz]

Yes external graphics cards exist, they connect to the computer with a thunderbolt connection

Not Thunderbolt but Oculink.

 

[Rroff]

EDIT: Wrong thread.

 

[pastymuncher]

And get pushed off by your cat or toddler.

A decent sized enclosure wouldn't get pushed over. You then have the same problem as a computer case though, you need to get the hot air out which means fans plus more cables coming from the main pc.

 

[Blackjack Davy]

A decent sized enclosure wouldn't get pushed over. You then have the same problem as a computer case though, you need to get the hot air out which means fans plus more cables coming from the main pc.

I remember there was a thing for external cooling with a passive radiator that was a tower a reserator I think it was called the whole thing appears to have died a death though I once jokingly suggested you could mount it outside teh window

 

[pastymuncher]

I had my radiators in a box on a windowsill drawing outside air in which made for stupidly low temps.

I think you may be thinking of the Zalman reserator?

 

[K1LaW8tt5]

For desktop use there's probably not much to be gained vs a large case with good airflow.

 

[D1craig]

So much easier to do it with water though. Stick a block on the card and have some tubes running outside the case to a radiator and pump.