Is there such thing as a Thunderbolt to PCI Express riser cable?
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I kind of want to play with an external GPU for my laptop. It spends most of its time plugged into a 40" 4K TV, and I'd like to know if there's a reasonable GPU upgrade path for when it's docked at home. (GPU performance doesn't really matter to me when I'm mobile and only using the built-in 1920x1080 screen.) But I really don't want to spend $300 for an enclosure that may or may not work with my laptop. It's my understanding that Thunderbolt is just PCI Express.
I already have spare old GPUs and ATX power supplies so it seems like all I'd need is a converter for Thunderbolt to PCI-E. Maybe there's a passive or cheap adapter of some kind? Sort of like this, but it's Thunderbolt at one end? I couldn't really find anything online but my search terms could be wrong, too.
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@mott555 said in Is there such thing as a Thunderbolt to PCI Express riser cable?:
It's my understanding that Thunderbolt is just PCI Express.
It's my understanding that your understanding is essentially wrong.
PCIe is already hot-pluggable, and if Thunderbolt was just PCIe with a different connector there would be Chinese knockoffs of the converter enclosure that takes advantage of such an obvious usage by now.
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This link suggests it will work with MacBook devices:
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@Tsaukpaetra But it does not work with graphic cards.
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According to this reddit thread you can't buy just the board, but you may be able to get a cheap enclosure:
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You can also check out https://egpu.io for some potential better answers
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@Tsaukpaetra said in Is there such thing as a Thunderbolt to PCI Express riser cable?:
This link suggests it will work with MacBook devices:
That'd be great if I had a MacBook.
My laptop is an MSI GS43VR. I forget which generation (their naming is confusing) but it's the one with the i7 7700HQ in it. I found a few open questions online about eGPU support but there's no clear answer. My guess is that it wasn't a very popular model of laptop.
The GTX 1060 in it does fine. I was more interested in seeing if it works, using up some spare parts, and maybe designing an enclosure just to do something with my 3D printer, then in a year or two I'd be able to upgrade my GPU without buying a new laptop.
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