Thunderbolt articles

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Thunderbolt alternative OCuLink tested for eGPUs, Nvidia's RTX 4090 benchmarked

In context: For those unfamiliar with OCuLink, it is an optical interface developed over a decade ago, primarily for servers. However, it has recently gained attention for consumer uses, such as external GPUs. OCuLink offers higher bandwidth compared to Thunderbolt 4 – up to 64 Gbps versus 40 Gbps. This increased bandwidth opens up the possibility better eGPU performance compared to Thunderbolt.

External GPU Testing: GTX 1080 in a Box + Core i7-8550U Ultraportable

Last year, we briefly looked at external GPUs when we reviewed the Aorus GTX 1070 Gaming Box attached to a Kaby Lake-powered ultraportable. Now that Intel's 8th gen CPUs are widely available in a range of ultrabooks, with significant performance gains in hand, it's the perfect time to revisit eGPUs and determine whether the hard CPU bottleneck still exists in most games.