Suddenly, PowerColor's 'Devil Box' External GPU With AMD XConnect Is Available

By Seth Colaner
published

And just like that, PowerColor is one of the precious few companies at the fore of the promising external graphics card enclosure wave. The Chinese company announced that its Devil Box is now available.

We’re a little surprised, given that our first (and last) sighting of the Devil Box was at Computex this summer, and at the time PowerColor had not decided on a release date or price. Maybe the company just saw the opportunity and pushed to insert itself into a market that has received less attention than perhaps it should.

Under The Radar, For Some Reason

To understand why graphics card docks could be important, you need not look any further, actually, than PowerColor’s Devil Box demo at Computex: It was paired with an Intel Skull Canyon NUC, powering an HTC Vive.

To be clear, that’s a NUC running a high-end VR HMD. Granted, we weren’t privy to some key details such as the framerate it was running, but the point is, the thing that makes that setup work is the external GPU.

Razer’s version of the external GPU paradigm, the Razer Core, is designed to pair with the company’s slim gaming notebooks. Initially, the Core was locked down to just its own Blade notebooks, but because of open standards like USB Type-C, Thunderbolt 3, and AMD’s XConnect, there’s no reason you couldn’t pair a Core (or any other external GPU) with any USB Type-C-equipped notebook.

This all effectively means that instead of having a laptop and a desktop, you could have a laptop and an external GPU dock and still have yourself a burly gaming setup.

In addition to PowerColor and Razer, GPU docks are here or are forthcoming from Alienware, Asus, MSI, and Gigabyte.

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The Devil (Box) Is In The Details

The sticking point with all of these GPU docks, including the Devil Box, is the price. It comes in at $379, with no graphics card.

The Devil Box supports graphics cards from AMD (it supports AMD XConnect) or Nvidia up to 310mm in length that demand up to 375W. The interface is Thunderbolt 3 over USB Type-C, and the port features Power Delivery, so it will charge a connected laptop. There’s an internal 500W PSU, and other ports include gigabit Ethernet and four USB 3.0 ports (one of which is on the front of the chassis).

The $379 price tag may be a bit much to swallow, but it’s worth noting that the Razer Core lands at $500. On the other hand, the Alienware Graphics Amplifier costs just $200 (opens in new tab).

PowerColor said that the Devil Box is available from Newegg today, but at press time there is no listing. It should also be available in Germany (MindFactory (opens in new tab)), the UK (Overclockers (opens in new tab)), and China (JD (opens in new tab)). Shortly thereafter, it’s coming to Japan (Amazon) and Singapore (Banleong).

Swipe to scroll horizontally
Header Cell - Column 0 PowerColor Devil Box External GPU Dock
Max. Graphics Card Size310 x 140 x 50mm
Mac. Graphics Card Power 375W
ConnectionThunderbolt 3 (40Gbps)
Ports-USB 3.0 x4 (one in front)-Gigabit Ethernet
Power DeliveryYes, v.2.0, max 60W
Chassis Size400 x 172 x 242mm
Internal PSU500W
Price$379

Update, 10/21/16, 11:15am PT: We originally misstated the status of the MSI dock. The error has been corrected.

Seth Colaner
6 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Khimera2000
    Would love to see compatibility comparisons with the razor core. I've seen videos where the core will not work certain notebooks. I am wondering if this will work on the razor blade notebook, the intel NUC, and the branched out to see if it will or will not work on other products.
    Reply
  • alextheblue
    Still too much money, even if they did undercut Razer. The Alienware unit is a lot more reasonable, but I think there's a market for a more entry-level unit to pair with a less-expensive laptop. Something around $100 that "only" supports up to 150W graphics cards and doesn't power the laptop itself (I would use an extension cord or a spare supply cable so the laptop's external PSU is easily detached without fishing). Even a $100-150 latest-gen graphics card would add a lot of ooomph to a $500-ish laptop. For a little headroom and the extras like additional ports you could equip it with a 200-250W PSU.

    Then you just need more manufacturers to build devices that support it over Type C, without needing to get into the higher-end.
    Reply
  • k1114
    The msi gaming dock and gaming dock mini has been out for many months now so it's not a maybe. It's just not sold separately and only sold with the gs30 and gs32 respectively. But like dell, it's proprietary. Amazon says May but that article is June.
    Reply
  • redgarl
    With Nintendo providing Switch, gaming laptop will have a huge drop in popularity.
    Reply
  • scolaner
    18755862 said:
    Would love to see compatibility comparisons with the razor core. I've seen videos where the core will not work certain notebooks. I am wondering if this will work on the razor blade notebook, the intel NUC, and the branched out to see if it will or will not work on other products.

    I think we'll see more of that very soon, from multiple dock vendors. We've been pressing Razer, Asus, etc. on that for over a year. The answer is, essentially: Any laptop with a USB Type-C (w/ Thunderbolt over Type-C) that has the proper firmware/software should be able to support the USB Type-C docks.

    Those OEMs have been working directly with Nvidia/AMD to make it work. XConnect is one of the results of those efforts, as I understand it.

    Basically, it's not a complex solution, but it's one that needs to be implemented. Because the docks themselves are generally pretty new, and so are the Nvidia/AMD solutions, you have to figure that step 1 is convincing laptop makers to enable the functionality at all, and step 2 is waiting for product refresh cycles.
    Reply
  • scolaner
    18757615 said:
    The msi gaming dock and gaming dock mini has been out for many months now so it's not a maybe. It's just not sold separately and only sold with the gs30 and gs32 respectively. But like dell, it's proprietary. Amazon says May but that article is June.

    Good catch, thanks--
    Reply