menpasav

On 05/12/2016 at 8:28 PM, menpasav said:

I received this answer from Akitio (I was asking about availability of the Node in France or Singapore).

They do not trust compatibility with Dell XPS 13 which is strange as this notebook is confirmed working with Razer Core (after driver update) and Acer Graphics Dock !

 

 

From: AKiTiO

Sent: Monday, December 5, 2016 6:11 PM

To: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Subject: [ALL-0XX9S1QEIB] Akitio Node

 

----------Please reply above this line and remove unnecessary text----------

Hello xxxxx.

You have a new message from .
Re: Akitio Node
Message: Hi xxxxxxxxx, The Node is compatible only with the systems listed at https://www.akitio.com/information-center/node-gpu-compatibility. The Dell XPS 13 does not support external GPUs, so the Node will not work with that laptop. Regards, Stefan

When you reply to this message, please send it using the same e-mail address as before. You can also view your ticket and reply online here:
XXXXXXXXX

As the Node is nowhere available I finally went to the much more modest Acer Graphics Dock that work flawlessly with my son's XPS 13 9350.

The fun part is : Akitio say the Node will not work with the XPS 13 because its Thunderbolt implementation does not support eGPU.

https://www.akitio.com/information-center/node-gpu-compatibility

Well if I believe the Thunderbolt Software in my son's XPS 13 there is NO eGPU support BUT the Acer Graphics Dock DOES work

In fact the XPS 13 battery is not supposed to be charged thru the TB3 socket but it works also if I plug the Acer Graphics Dock without the Dell power adapter.

I did not push my luck to play games without the Dell power adaptor though.
 

Already December and still available nowhere out of China

Will have to find other alternative for Xmas

Where did you buy the Node from ?

I am surprised by the benchmark. Maybe I do not read the values right but the Node seems to have a greater performance hit over TB3 than the PE4C ! I was expecting similar values.

What do you mean by eGPU and iGPU ?

10 hours ago, ruffruff said:

Akitio TB3 stuff doesn't seems to be available in Singapore yet.

Any folks around this region knows where to get one?

 

By the way, anyone tried it on a XPS13?

 

Thanks.

Hi, if you see it in Singapore I am interested as my son is in Singapore and would use it with his XPS13.

Hope Akitio will not postpone further the Node because of this choice from Apple.

I am a Windows laptop user planning to buy a eGPU solution for Xmas to my son.

It would really piss me off not to be able to buy it because every company freezes their new products release just because Apple decided to break compatibility

What is the real difference between the 2 versions of the TI chip ?

4 hours ago, bloodhawk said:

I have tested it. And the performance tanks instantly when you use the ports if a game is running. Or if the port goes active while a game is running. It picks back up in a bit though depending on the load. 

Extra ports over TB3 along with a GPU are a waste of money and resources.

Hello bloodhawk,

this is very interesting having someone able to actually test the performance hit

When you used the ports during game, what did you connect to ? Just simple USB keyboard and mice (what I wanted to do as my laptop lacks USB ports) or more demanding peripherals like HDD / Network ?

I fear that with the incompatibility of the new MBP, the node will delayed even if other would be customers are ready to buy it right now.

I hope to be wrong but I do not believe it will be available before Xmas

Seems dead for the new MB Pro

https://www.akitio.com/blog/articles/akitio-thunderbolt3-devices-macbook-pro

Would like to know the result with the Dell XPS13.

Hope it will be available soon in Europe as I plan it as a Xmas gift;

1 hour ago, biomangb said:

Actually if they removed ports for better speed connection and to cut costs, I'm happy with that

 

For the cable, I think it's relative to the speed of the TB3 connection once again, shorter the cable is, better the speed will be.

I understand for heavy bandwidth connection like HDD/SSD data transfer but mouse and keyboard over USB should not be to hard on performance (just a guess).

As for the length of the cable, up to 2 meters it is a matter of build quality --> correction by myself : true only if the cable is active so maybe they are using passive cables which I hope not as passive cables are certified only up to 20Gb/s not the full 40Gb/s.

A good active cable should be able to cope with the full perf. even if 1 or 1.5m

http://www.intelfreepress.com/news/thunderbolt-3-usb-type-c-40-gbps/9835/

Webpage updated, no USB for mouse / keyboard

Hopefully the Thunderbolt 3 USB-C cable will longer than 0.5m as I would prefer to put it under the desk to save space (1.5m please ?).

https://www.akitio.com/expansion/node

I do hope availability will the same as the last Apple (the very same day )

I really want to try it on my XPS13 with my "old" GTX770 but wonder what "soon" mean ...