Having a slim and lightweight laptop usually comes with the compromise of graphics performance, but this may soon no longer be an issue thanks to AMD’s XConnect technology which promises desktop performance thanks to external graphics cards.
Available today in Radeon Software 16.2.2 (or later), AMD XConnect claims to have solved the issues holding back external graphics solutions.
AMD XConnect is compatible with simple/reversible Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) cables and connectors, and conforms to eGFX requirements of the Thunderbolt 3 specification. Four PCI Express lanes are provided by Thunderbolt 3, which gives the external solution up to 40Gbps of bandwidth (equivalent to a PCI Express 3.0 x4 slot).
Validated Thunderbolt 3 eGFX solutions can seamlessly switch between discrete and integrated graphics with no interruption to the host system.
Compatible Radeon graphics cards:
- AMD Radeon R9 Fury
- AMD Radeon R9 Nano
- AMD Radeon R9 300 Series
- AMD Radeon R9 290X
- AMD Radeon R9 290
- AMD Radeon R9 280
- Mobile derivatives of these ASICs
- PLANNED: Radeon dGPU products based on the Polaris architecture
System requirements:
- Radeon Software 16.2.2 (or later)
- 1x Thunderbolt 3 port
- 40Gbps Thunderbolt 3 cable
- Windows 10 build 10586 (or later)
- System BIOS ACPI extensions for Thunderbolt eGFX (check with vendor)
- Thunderbolt firmware (NVM) v.16 (or higher)
- Pass Thunderbolt certification
Look out for validated Thunderbolt 3 eGFX solutions to ship in a variety of form factors in the months ahead, including compact integrated devices or larger upgradeable enclosures suitable for user-upgradeable discrete graphics.
Source: AMD
