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The Gigabyte AORUS GTX 1070 Gaming Box is the latest entry to a growing field of Thunderbolt 3 external GPU. Unlike other enclosures, this Gigabyte eGPU box includes a graphics card, GeForce GTX 1070. Priced at $599, it is one of the best value eGPU available. Gigabyte US team sent eGPU.io a media sample shortly after the AORUS GTX 1070 Gaming Box launch on July, 14th 2017 in the US. Here are some unboxing photos of this new Thunderbolt 3 enclosure and first impressions:

The retail package is surprising small and light. The back of the box highlights the main features such as Thunderbolt 3 high bandwidth, 100W power delivery, multiple display outputs, and four USB ports.

The right side lists the AORUS GTX 1070 Gaming box specifications, package content and system requirement while the left side shows the rear I/O layout and a brief overview of Thunderbolt 3.

The system requirement calls for Windows 10 but rest assured this eGPU works in macOS 10.12 after running Goalque’s excellent automate-eGPU script. Let’s take a look inside.

The AORUS GTX 1070 Gaming Box arrived safely inside the nicely padded travel bag. Bright orange is not my favorite color but it’s the color scheme of AORUS branding. The side pockets have plenty of room for power cable and Thunderbolt 3 cable.

That’s the AKiTiO Node outter case underneath the AORUS GTX 1070 Gaming Box for scale. This enclosure has a much smaller footprint than all Thunderbolt 3 eGPU enclosures on the market. Here’s another view.

I’ve tried this gaming box with several hosts both in macOS and Windows 10. First impression has been very positive and it works plug-and-play on PC Thunder 3 laptops. macOS 10.12 hosts require automate-eGPU script but it’s a simple process and takes no more than 15 minutes if you follow goalque’s step-by-step instructions.

Power delivery is as promised at 100W with the provided .5m Thunderbolt 3 cable. I tried using a longer, 2m Thunderbolt 3 cable and power delivery was 60W through this instance.

We’ve seen reports about half Host to Device speed due to the Thunderbolt firmware shipped with this gaming box. I checked System Information in macOS and it shows firmware version 25.25.

Gigabyte has been made aware of this issue and its engineers are working on a firmware update as soon as possible. A nice feature in Window is the Gigabyte Graphics Engine that allows users to change LED brightness and RGB modes [completely off is possible]. It also has other useful features such as performance monitoring and operating modes.

Testings and a full review with the AORUS GTX 1070 Gaming Box are under way. Please let me know if I left out any information you’d like to know. We’re discussing with Gigabyte US team for a AORUS GTX 1070 Gaming Box giveaway following eGPU.io review. Please stay tuned for further details.

Linus recently did a video on these, he found that thunderbolt 3 connections aren't great for this type of work, when compared to Alienware's PCI Express implementation. Thunderbolt 3 is a pretty big bottle neck due to it sharing it's bandwidth with other system devices. It should be mentioned that even if your laptop does have a beefier CPU, thunderbolt 3 will then be a bottle neck.

Last edited: Jul 3, 2017

Steve

• 3

  Linus recently did a video on these, he found that thunderbolt 3 connections aren't great for this type of work, when compared to Alienware's PCI Express implementation. Thunderbolt 3 is a pretty big bottle neck due to it sharing it's bandwidth with other system devices. It should be mentioned that even if your laptop does have a beefier CPU, thunderbolt 3 will then be a bottle neck.

True but even so this makes so much more sense financially, and yeah coming from an iGPU it works rather well Since there is absolutely no better alternative I'll take it!

• 4

Did you use an external display?

As Burty117 pointed out we know that thunderbolt 3 is the bottleneck of this feature and if you use an external display connected with the I/O ports of the external GPU you could save some bandwidth that will give you some benefits in terms of performances.

I think that a GTX 1070 is way too much for the 2c/4t that Intel provides right now inside our ultrabooks. Something like a GTX 1060/RX 570 is a wiser choice.

• 5

Hoping this will the start of low cost and more improvement with this technology. I really like this to take off.

• 6

Have to agree that gpu is way to fast for a dual core cpu with HT.

You need a quad core cpu at the minimum to push it.

I like the size of the box and it is better than nothing at the end of the day.

• 7

I think these are ao cool, A few years ago if someone was to tell you that you could have an external gpu I'm sure most people would have laughed at the idea, now look and it's so simple to just plug in an use. So awesome.

• 8

"Unfortunately there is a bit of coil whine from the power supply, noticeable when the GPU is fully utilized."

This may actually be the GPU, I have the mini 1070 from Gigabyte and it has a slight coil whine at about 60% RPM and higher, and it's regularly stated issue with the card. Not unbearable just, annoying.

ET3D

• 9

Looks like a good overall idea, but for an ultraportable I'd prefer a GeForce 1060, lower power PSU and even smaller box, all for $200 less. [I'm assuming a market where a 1070 goes for the $350 suggested price, and not a 1060.]

Really, I'd really rather have something as small and as cheap as possible, just to get something playable at low settings. A GeForce 1030 would be good enough for that.

Hopefully AMD's Raven Ridge will provide decent entry level gaming for ultraportables.

[Speaking of the 1030, has TechSpot managed to procure one for testing?]

• 10

My question is , what is using a more capable CPU like a i7-6700HQ would the performance be much better ?

Can it run using PCI express connection [I read that some article but disable the laptop wifi or something] considering the laptop using Thunderbolt is not widespred yet .

• 11

I bought a laptop from PCSpealist in the UK, with custom built hardware. Chassis & Display Octane Series: 15.6″ Matte Full HD IPS LED Widescreen [1920×1080] Processor [CPU] Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-6700k [4.0GHz] 8MB Cache Memory [RAM] 16GB HyperX IMPACT 2133MHz SODIMM DDR4 [2 x 8GB] Graphics Card NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1060 Power Supply 1 x 230W AC Adaptor USB 1 x USB 2.0 port 3 x USB 3.0 ports [USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-A] 1 x USB 3.1 Gen2 port [Type-C] 1 x USB 3.1 Gen2 port [Type-C] Thunderbolt Combo Port Thunderbolt Yes [via USB 3.1 Port] So is this laptop support this eGPU enclosure

• 12

Hi, Just wondering what is GTX 1070 gaming box benchmark score. I am using lenovo x1carbon 5th gen with i7-7600U 8G Ram

For 3Dmarks Firestrike I got 7,000pt for total. Graphic score is 13,000 but physics are low. Should I change physics in nVidia control panel?

+ also Unigine Valley, I got 1,200pt.

I am wondering my performance is lower than this review even if I have higher cpu option. Please let me know

• 13

I have a laptop with i7 12 GB RAM and 940mx graphic card but it doesnt have thunderbolt 3.0 or type c port can I still use this and if yes please let me know how and will it perform better on my laptop

thanks

• 14

I doubt anyone will see this but if you do; My pc has a gtx1050ti but I'd want to boost the performance. Will the 1070 work with or instead of the 1050??

• 15

  I bought a laptop from PCSpealist in the UK, with custom built hardware. Chassis & Display Octane Series: 15.6″ Matte Full HD IPS LED Widescreen [1920×1080] Processor [CPU] Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-6700k [4.0GHz] 8MB Cache Memory [RAM] 16GB HyperX IMPACT 2133MHz SODIMM DDR4 [2 x 8GB] Graphics Card NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1060 Power Supply 1 x 230W AC Adaptor USB 1 x USB 2.0 port 3 x USB 3.0 ports [USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-A] 1 x USB 3.1 Gen2 port [Type-C] 1 x USB 3.1 Gen2 port [Type-C] Thunderbolt Combo Port Thunderbolt Yes [via USB 3.1 Port] So is this laptop support this eGPU enclosure

This will work but you have a 1060 so it's fairly pointless

• 16

  I doubt anyone will see this but if you do; My pc has a gtx1050ti but I'd want to boost the performance. Will the 1070 work with or instead of the 1050??

It would use the 1070 as your main gfx and disable you 1050 until the box is removed then your 1050 will kick back in

Is GTX 1070 still a good card?

A GTX1070 might be older but it is still a solid card for gaming at 1080P. Even CyberPunk2077 will run at playable framerates on lower settings.

How good is a GTX 1070 for gaming?

With the Pascal architecture and the aforementioned features, the GeForce GTX 1070 delivers outstanding performance in the latest games, and up to 3X the performance of the GeForce GTX 970 in Virtual Reality titles that utilize VRWorks performance-boosting technologies.

Is Aorus good quality?

The Bottom Line. A premium design paired with the latest budget parts, Gigabyte's Aorus 15 BMF is an excellent gaming-laptop value and an Editors' Choice winner.

Is GTX 1070 a high end card?

GeForce GTX 1070 is a High-End Graphics Card based on the Pascal Architecture. It equips a GPU Codenamed P104-200-A1 which is a First Gen Pascal GPU and has 15 SM activated, offering 1920 Shader Processing Units, 120 TMUs and 64 ROPs. The central unit runs at 1506MHz and goes up to 1683MHz, in Turbo Mode.