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EVGA’s 5.7-inch GTX 1050 Ti fit the bill, and even features a little bit of room to spare once installed. Instead, I opted for a graphics card that was small enough to fit comfortably inside the Thunder3. I love the design of the Thunder3, so I couldn’t bring myself to make any type of major physical modification to the case.
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In other words, it won’t come close to accommodating full sized GPUs without making physical modifications to the case itself. You’ll need a small GPUĪt 9-inches long, 3-inches wide, and a little over 5.5-inches tall, the Thunder3 is a tiny specimen when compared to the Akitio Node. The Akitio Thunder3 also has the advantage of having a second Thunderbolt 3 port, so you can use it in a daisy chain if you so desire. In the end, it allows for an eGPU solution that’s significantly smaller and more portable than other graphics enclosures.
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Working around this limitation was part of the fun of engaging in this project. True, it’s a PCIe enclosure, but its small size and lack of power severely limits the type of cards that can be used inside it without making major physical hardware modifications. The Akitio Thunder3 really wasn’t designed to house graphics cards. Those enclosures are specifically designed with graphics cards in mind. Let me preface this by saying that if you wish to run the biggest and baddest Pascal graphics cards in an eGPU setup (GTX 1070, GTX 1080, etc.) you should look at other solutions like the Akitio Node, the Razer Core, etc. Subscribe to 9to5Mac on YouTube for more videos About the Akitio Thunder3
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