External graphics enclosures can give your laptop a major bump in graphics performance, but most of them are bulky. That is not the case with Sonnet's new eGFX Breakaway Puck. It's a small box that is roughly the size the of a mini PC (like the NUC) so you can game on the road.
That is a major advantage over most existing external enclosures. With solutions like Gigabyte's Gaming Box, the idea is that you buy an ultrabook and play games at home, while still having the portability of a thin and light laptop when work takes you on the road. But with the Breakaway Puck, you can take the added graphics performance with you. In some cases, you can even leave your power brick at home.
"When GPU acceleration is needed on the road, users can conveniently pack an eGFX Breakaway Puck along with a notebook in a backpack or computer bag. The Puck connects to a computer with a single Thunderbolt 3 cable and, for added convenience, also provides 45W of Power Delivery to power and charge the computer, enabling many users to leave their computer’s power brick behind," Sonnet explains.
The Breakaway Puck measures 6 inches wide by 5.1 inches deep, and is just 2 inches tall. It has a Thunderbolt 3 port, three DisplayPort connectors, and a single HDMI port, with support for up to four 4K displays in multimonitor mode.
There are two versions. One is equipped with a Radeon RX 560 GPU (GPU-RX560-TB3) and costs $449, and other has a Radeon RX 570 GPU (GPU-RX570-TB3), priced at $599. An optional VESA mounting bracket runs $59.
Both models are available now.
