Galax may not be the first brand that comes to mind when you think of a Thunderbolt 3 GPU dock, but that’s precisely what the company had on display at its booth during Computex.
A Small GPU Dock For The Masses
Unlike others of its kind, the Galax SNPR External Graphics Card Enclosure doesn’t support full-sized GPUs; rather, it features a GeForce GTX 1060 on a custom PCB. This design allows for a small footprint--so small, in fact, that we initially mistook the SNPR for a mini PC as we browsed Galax’s new wares.
The Galax SNPR External Graphics Card Enclosure is powered by an external power supply and can support up to 45W of power delivery via the Thunderbolt 3 interface. For video output, there’s a DisplayPort, HDMI, and DVI-D interface on the rear panel. A power button on the front illuminates when it’s on, and the top and sides of the aluminum chassis are ventilated.
Full specifications (such as the clock rate and memory capacity) of the SNPR’s custom GTX 1060 graphics card weren’t revealed, and Galax wasn’t too keen on letting us open it up for a quick look at its cooling system and interior design intricacies. However, we can say that this is one of the smallest Thunderbolt 3 graphics amplifiers (if not the smallest) that we’ve seen to date.
Mac Support?
Galax also said that the new SNPR GPU dock would be compatible with Mac. This was a questionable statement, so we followed up. As of Saturday, we were told that it's unofficially supported, as Apple doesn't have the standard solidified yet. However, we now know that eGPU compatibility for Mac is nigh (at least for AMD graphics cards), and it's plausible to say that Nvidia GPU compatibility isn't far behind (if not already in the works, Apple wasn't specific in its announcement).
Pricing and availability of the Galax SNPR External Graphics Card Enclosure is not yet known, but considering there’s a GPU already loaded in it, we can expect it to range between $350-500 if we had to go by what the competition has brought to market.
