Sapphire launches their GearBox Thunderbolt 3 eGFX enclosure

Whether it is to enhance your MacBook Pro or to turn your Ultrabook into a fully fledged gaming system, external graphics cards enclosures have proven to be a great product for several niche use cases. 

Using the power of Thunderbolt 3.0, users of these enclosures can easily upgrade their systems with the might of an external GPU, with the only real requirement being Thunderbolt 3.0 connectivity at its full 40Gbps bandwidth.  

Sapphire’s GearBox Thunderbolt 3 eGFX enclosure is the company’s first entry into the eGPU market, offering their enclosure as a standalone product or with their RX 580 Pulse 8GB or their RX 580 NITRO+ 4/8GB graphics cards. 

The enclosure itself is compliant with systems from a range of manufacturers, shipping with Apple’s recommendation and support for Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, Intel, Lenovo, MSI and Razer systems, with an exact list of supported systems being available to read here. The enclosure has a 500W power supply and supports device charging through Thunderbolt and up to a 300W graphics card. The device also offers two USB 3.0 connections and an Ethernet port, providing connected notebooks with extra connectivity. 

Sapphire has noted that their GearBox enclosure supports GPUs that are up to two slots wide with maximum dimensions of 266mm x 125mm in length and height. This makes the GearBox ill-suited for longer, triple fan graphics cards.