Gigabyte launches the Aorus RTX 2080 Ti Gaming Box

by Mark Tyson on 4 November 2019, 14:51

Tags: Gigabyte (TPE:2376), AORUS, NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA)

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HEXUS has had a number of external Thunderbolt 3 graphics enclosures in the lab. The most recent review of such a device was back in March, when we checked out the Sapphire GearBox with a Sapphire Radeon RX 580 Nitro+ installed. Though it was natural for Sapphire to promote one of its own GPUs with the box, and we reviewed it this way, there was nothing stopping buyers of the barebones device wedging something from the green team in the chassis - it has enough room for the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Founders Edition, for example.

Moving on to the present day and Gigabyte is seeking to push the boundaries of the Thunderbolt 3 eGPU box with its new Aorus RTX 2080 Ti Gaming Box. Yes, the RTX 2080 Ti is the pinnacle of consumer gaming graphics cards, where money is no concern, and this example is particularly premium as it uses a water-cooled card. This makes the Aorus RTX 2080 Ti Gaming Box "the world's first liquid cooled external graphics," device.

This product relies upon Gigabyte's WaterForce cooling tech which comprises of a 240mm aluminium radiator with twin 120mm fans, a large copper base plate, composite heatpipes, plus sturdy FEB (Fluorinated Ethylene Propylene) tubing.

Basically this is the WaterForce GeForce RTX 2080 Ti 11G in a tin, and has the key GPU specs you would expect;

  • CUDA Cores: 4352
  • GPU clock: 1,545MHz
  • Memory clock: 14,000MHz
  • Memory Bandwidth: 616GB/s
  • Memory type: GDDR6
  • Memory size: 11GB

This is powered via 2x 8-pin connectors by a built-in 450W PSU. The box offers Thunderbolt 3 type-C x1, Ethernet port x1, USB 3.0 x3, and Video output (HDMI x1, DPx3, USB- C (VirtualLink) x1). Gigabyte's Aorus RTX 2080 Ti Gaming Box measures 300 x 140 x 173mm (smaller than the Sapphire GearBox which is 300 x 138 x 204mm) and weighs in at about 3.8kg. There are some RGB LED lights installed.

Buyers will get a carry case to lug the Gigabyte Aorus RTX 2080 Ti Gaming Box around in but if that is something you might do regularly, alongside your laptop and accessories, it might be worth re-thinking your kit choices. The other questions are; what kind of performance you will get from this TB3-linked GPU in practice, and is it worth using such a high-end GPU in an external configuration? The answer will lie in your own particular use cases (gaming, content creation, and AI tasks are strengths, according to Gigabyte) - but unfortunately, at the time of writing, we can't help with pricing and availability info. As an indication, a graphics card like the one installed in this product costs £1,499 alone in the UK, so this product could easily be £1,800.



HEXUS Forums :: 8 Comments

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Got to get those buzzwords in there 'ey Gigabyte.

More seriously, I wish them luck with the product. We need proper Windows HDR support for the next big spending spree.
Looking at the rear of the device it doesn't seem to be upgradeable in the future.

At the kind of money they would be asking for it that's a massive deal breaker.
Kanoe
Looking at the rear of the device it doesn't seem to be upgradeable in the future.

At the kind of money they would be asking for it that's a massive deal breaker.

I'm curious what the market is supposed to be for this…

Also, who in their right mind would want to carry this thing around? This can't be light weight.
Sorry, but this is a bit late as it has been done before.
A few years back I set up an R9 390X with water cooling in an Akito Node for a friend to plug into his laptop.
globalwarning
I'm curious what the market is supposed to be for this…

Also, who in their right mind would want to carry this thing around? This can't be light weight.
Comes across as very niche but I can't say that I can't think of a use. I haven't used a desktop since 2011. Every year, I move between multiple work/residential/holiday base, spending from anywhere between days to months in a location (could moving within a country or between continents). Sometime I would be in a proper apartment, and sometime I will be staying in travel accommodations, and depending on where I am, and the activity I engage in at that point (and just to make it clear, I am neither a fugitive nor a drug dealer, as my friends sometime like to joke about), I may have more or less time for gaming. On top of that, every couple of years, I may end up relocating places where I spend a few months a year, meaning that I may need to ship my stuff.

Under those circumstances, I can see something like this being handy. It could be left in a place where I spend a few months per year, while my main PC would be a lightweight laptop. It would still be less of a pain to pack up when the time comes, and it would leave me with a lightweight laptop when I am on the road. I've recently gone for a gaming laptop, and while I went for one that is not a massive desktop replacement monstrosity, it's still a bit overkill and heavier than ideal when I am moving about.

At 3.8kg, it's not exactly something you'll carry with you on your daily commutes, but if you have a car and LAN party is still a thing, but that and a mid-weight laptop still beats carrying a large tower case if that is what you use at home.