New USB 4 laptops with EGPUs | Razer Insider

New USB 4 laptops with EGPUs

  • 16 February 2021
  • 5 replies
  • 223 views

Hey Guys,

Just an inquiry for a curious mind. Since usb 4 is basically the equivalent of thunderbolt 3, does that mean that the Razer core x should be able to plug and play with usb 4 laptops. If so, do they need to be certified thunderbolt ports or will any port that includes usb 4 standards work; also will thunderbolt 3 cables work for usb 4?

Thanks for your time and dialogue,

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5 Replies

The current Thunderbolt 3 Cores "should" work with the Thunderbolt 4 laptops. You will not get the benefits of Thunderbolt 4. As you have read, the difference between 3 and 4 is more lanes, and not more speed. I am betting that Razer will have a new Thunderbolt 4 Core coming out this year. Hopefully by the time the 15" and 17" laptops get updated with the 11gen Intel CPUs.
Thx so much for your response. Do you think it the current thunderbolt 3 core would work with a usb 4 laptop even if it’s not licensed thunderbolt 4?
I bought a 13 (late 2020 with Thunderbolt4) and I was trying to connect a Core X with Radeon R9 280x (I known an old GPU however the only one handy) and I had all kind of issues: BSOD, slow system. I hope that they will come with a Thundebolt4 version for better compatibility maybe. I do not want to believe (for now) that my laptop is the issue here 🙂.
Userlevel 7
tm34fun
I bought a 13 (late 2020 with Thunderbolt4) and I was trying to connect a Core X with Radeon R9 280x (I known an old GPU however the only one handy) and I had all kind of issues: BSOD, slow system. I hope that they will come with a Thundebolt4 version for better compatibility maybe. I do not want to believe (for now) that my laptop is the issue here 🙂.

That’s quite old gpu I think your 1650ti performs better than 280x even on desktop with PCIe 16 lanes setting, that explains the slow system issue since TB3 bandwidth limitation make it even worse, for BSOD it is usual on egpu setting on optimus laptop, could be drivers issue, optimus bugs etc, to avoid it maybe disabling dgpu before connection would help, I personally use Razer gpu switcher for both my stealth 13 2019 and blade 15 2018. The software is made for blade 14 switching dgpu and egpu on core setting but i don’t have any issue using it with both my blade laptops, I even heard it works on other brands. They should optimize it since windows gpu Auto switcher isn’t working always fine and manually switching through device manager is kind oldies for some.
Joikansai
That’s quite old gpu I think your 1650ti performs better than 280x even on desktop with PCIe 16 lanes setting, that explains the slow system issue since TB3 bandwidth limitation make it even worse, for BSOD it is usual on egpu setting on optimus laptop, could be drivers issue, optimus bugs etc, to avoid it maybe disabling dgpu before connection would help, I personally use Razer gpu switcher for both my stealth 13 2019 and blade 15 2018. The software is made for blade 14 switching dgpu and egpu on core setting but i don’t have any issue using it with both my blade laptops, I even heard it works on other brands. They should optimize it since windows gpu Auto switcher isn’t working always fine and manually switching through device manager is kind oldies for some.


Thanks. I decided to return the Core X for now since I cannot buy any video card better than my 1659 Ti Max-Q. Once I will have one I will re-buy the Core X.

Cheers,
Stefan