Aorus Announces the GTX 1070 Gaming Box eGFX Adapter

To date, the designs we’ve seen for Thunderbolt 3 eGFX chassis have all been just that – an empty chassis. This lets the user install any GPU they want, but it also means the chassis needs to be sized to accept particularly large video cards. So for Computex Gigabyte’s Aorus division is turning the tables a bit by offering the GTX 1070 Gaming Box: an eGFX adapter that contains a built-in/preinstalled GeForce GTX 1070 video card, allowing them to cut down on the size and complexity of the adapter significantly.

While exact dimensions were not available at press time, the GTX 1070 Gaming Box appears to be about half the length and height of the Razer Core and the Alienware Graphics Amp, the current market leaders in this nascent space. Undoubtedly, the Gaming Box benefits from having its card built-in and, because Aorus makes video cards, the company has an edge up on the competition.

The back of the Aorus GTX 1070 Gaming Box is filled with ports you can use to connect to monitors and other peripherals, including four USB 3.0 ports, two DVI-out connectors, one HDMI out and a single, full-size DisplayPort connection. There’s also a Thunderbolt 3 port that you use to connect to your laptop.

Notably, the smaller size of the Gaming Box means that unlike any other graphics amp we’ve seen, the Gaming Box is itself reasonably portable. In fact, it comes with an attractive padded case you can use to take it with you on trips.

The integrated nature of the Gaming Box also means that the eGFX adapter is also a bit more reasonably priced. Aorus will be selling the box for $599, a roughly $200 premium over a stand-alone GTX 1070 card. This works out to roughly $100 cheaper than even some of the cheapest eGFX chassis on the market, further bringing down the overall cost of going with an eGFX solution.

The Aorus GTX 1070 Gaming Box is due out this summer.

Avram Piltch contributed to this report

EVGA Unveils its GeForce GTX 1080 Ti K|NGP|N Edition

EVGA has once again collaborated with extreme overclocker Vince “K|NGP|N” Lucido to develop the new EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti K|NGP|N Edition. As EVGA’s ultra-high-end overclocking card, EVGA is guaranteeing each card can be overclocked to at least 2025MHz, which means we’re looking at a binned card with a whole heap of modifications and tweaks to allow for squeezing the last few MHz out of the card.

EVGA uses a fully custom PCB designed to withstand the rigors of overclocking. The card features a 15 phase digital VRM system with dual 8-pin power connectors on the right edge for better cable management. You will also find the EVGA Evbot connector next to the power connectors on the rear of the card, an interesting situation as this is a feature that doesn’t show up on too many EVGA products these days. The PCB features nine temperature sensors: three for memory, five for PWM, and one for the GPU. When it comes to display connectivity, there are three Mini DisplayPort 1.4 connectors, one DVI, and a single HDMI 2.0 port all in a row, making it possible to create a single-slot graphics card when used with a water block.

The heatsink shroud has a very similar look to EVGA’s FTW3 edition video card. Integrated into the black plastic shroud you’ll find three large dual-ball bearing fans pushing air through interlaced copper-plated fins bonded to six copper heatpipes (three 6mm and three 8mm) that are attached to the copper-plated baseplate. A large metal backplate spans the entire length of the graphics card, adding rigidity and structural strength to prevent it from bending under the weight of the heatsink. The card also has accommodations for LN2 overclocking.

EVGA’s Jacob Freeman tweeted a picture from Computex showing the GTX 1080 Ti K|NGP|N Edition running cool as a cucumber at 2404MHz. The company said the card will be available in July. No price has been announced yet.

Steven Lynch Contributed to this Report

NVIDIA Announces Rocket League Bundle for GeForce GTX 1060 & 1050 Cards

The Rocket League World Championship is just around the corner, running from June 2^nd through June 4^th in Los Angeles. In celebration NVIDIA has partnered with Psyonix for a new GeForce game bundle: the GeForce GTX Rocket League bundle. This latest bundle covers any GeForce GTX 1060, GTX 1050Ti or GTX 1050 card or OEM desktop PC, as well as notebooks sold with these parts.

For those living under an inflated ball, Rocket League is soccer with rocket powered cars. As shown by the upcoming world championship Rocket League has become a popular eSports title with a strong and passionate fanbase. I haven’t run Rocket League on the specific cards in this bundle, but the performance numbers quoted by NVIDIA do not surprise. In fact, this game runs so well on any moderately capable card that we turned it down while choosing games for GPU Bench 2016 last year, as even at 4K it didn’t bottleneck high-end video cards.

With that context, I can see the GTX 1060 being a good match for this card at 4K and the GTX 1050 and 1050Ti making good work of 1080p. Though, users running a GTX 1060 may not stretch for a 4K monitor and 4K gamers could make good use of more competent cards on games that are significantly more taxing.  Otherwise, if someone’s library is largely eSports titles, then these cards will serve well.

The Rocket League Bundle will run from May 30, 2017 through July 31, 2017 and codes must be redeemed through GeForce Experience. It is worth remembering to verify the participation of any vendors purchased from as NVIDIA likely will not give codes for purchases made from sellers that are not participating.