UPDATE LOG:
12/25/16: Update XPS 15 section with new info on TB3 speeds and x2 PCI-e lanes.
8/25: Add MSI GS73VR to the non-Razer Laptop section (it works great so far) –
check out our detailed review here.
7/4:
GTX 1080 benchmarks added, rewrote performance section, added noise
levels for 1080, added new findings for XPS 15 in the non-Razer laptop
section. This might be my last update for some time pending something
significant happening with XPS 15 compatibility.
6/23: Razer Core is now available to order, but it’ll take a few weeks for them to ship it.
6/21:
Updated benchmarks with the Blade and XPS 15 with a GTX 1070. Added
explanation of results in performance section. Added GS40 compatibility
and lack thereof of the AW 17 in the non-Razer laptop section.
6/7: Updated availability – Up for preorder and ships 6/13
6/3: added small section about XPS 15 specs, benchmarks and noise to the non-Razer laptop section.
6/2:
Fixed issues with XPS 15, updated non-Razer laptop section, updated
benchmarks in performance section, add Noise and Heat section.
5/31:
Added more gaming benchmarks and XPS 15+core comparisons. Added
section explaining the results in the non-Razer laptop section. Added
noise readings to the end of the Performance section.
5/30: Initial post
Over
the years, I’ve used my desktop less and less. In fact, the only reason
I even have one still is for multi-monitor support. Sure, I could hook
up external monitors to my laptop, but in my situation, it’s not really
ideal. Especially since my wife has a different laptop with different
connections – we’d be spending a lot of time switching out dongles and
wires. In short, it’s been easier just to keep the desktop around.
But now the
Razer Core
is here. You’re probably already familiar with the Core if you’re
reading this post, but just in case you’re not, the Razer Core is an
external graphics unit that hooks up to
compatible laptops via Thunderbolt 3.
It comes with its own power supply and can fit a multitude of modern
Nvidia or AMD desktop-grade graphics chips. It also provides a set of
extra ports (4 x USB 3.0, Gigabit Lan) besides the video outputs on the
graphics cards, so can act as a dock for your peripherals.
I don’t have the
Razer Blade Stealth around anymore, but I have the new
Razer Blade 14” (2016) in order to test how it works with the Core. My wife also has a
Dell XPS 15, which also has a Thunderbolt 3 port.
So
the big questions on my mind are how well does a Core+laptop bundle
perform compared to my desktop, how easy it is to hook up the Core and
go and whether or not the Core works with non-Razer laptops. I’ve been
working diligently to answer all these questions and here’s everything
I’ve learned so far.
Note that this article is going to be a work
in progress and I’ll be keeping it updated as I find things out. So keep
checking in now and then, if interested.
The Razer Core is Thunderbolt 3 external graphics units
Specs as reviewed
| Razer Core |
| GPU Support | Single, double-wide, full-length PCI-Express x16 |
| Max GPU dimensions | 12.20” x 5.98” x 1.73” (310 x 152 x 44 mm) |
| Max GPU power | 375 watts |
| Input | Thunderbolt 3 |
| Output | USB 3.0 X 4, Gigabit Ethernet 10/100/1000 |
| Lighting | Chrome – 2 zones |
| Size | 310mm or 12.2” (w) x 152mm or 5.98” (d) x 44mm or 1.73” (h) |
| Weight | Roughly 12.5 lbs with the GPU installed |
Design and exterior
The
overall design of the Razer Core is absolutely perfect. The look is
completely professional and could easily blend in with any desk setup.
The all aluminum construction really makes it look a high quality
product that will likely last a long time. Even with the lighting, I
would certainly feel comfortable having this on my desk.
What’s
most appealing is the size. Compared to my current desktop, this thing
is so tiny, but it’s still a little larger than I was expecting. Rest
assured though, all that space is necessary for the internal cooling
fans, power-source, IO output and wiring. It seems like Razer put an
excessive amount of fans in this thing, but I’d rather be safe than
sorry.
The
top of the unit has a large passive vent. On the underside is another
vent, with three cooling fans to circulate the air up to the card. The
front has what looks like a vent grate, but it’s actually just for
show. At the bottom portion of the front there’s a light which can
illuminate to any color of your choosing or can be switched off.
On
the right side of the unit there’s an embossed Razer logo, centered on
the face. On the left side there’s the main vent that the GPU fans will
blow through. When lit up, you can see your GPU with Razer’s chroma
lighting color of your choice. It actually looks pretty cool when lit
up. Of course yours would look differently than mine, depending on what
GPU you put inside. On the back, you’ll find 4 USB 3.0 ports, a
Thunderbolt 3 input, an Ethernet port and a power socket. There’s also
what appears to be the PSU vent.
A
single handle holds the internals in and if you lift it 90 degrees,
everything pulls right out. There are no screws at all, with the
exception of the single screw that will hold the GPU in place. I was a
little skeptical of the locking mechanism, but it’s actually pretty
solid.
I think many will probably want to put the Core on the
right side of their desk to enjoy the lighting. Stealth owners may not
have a choice though, since the Thunderbolt 3 cord provided with the
Core is extremely short, a mere 18 inches long. Apparently making the
cord longer would cause problems with performance and you would need a
more expensive “active” cable. Your options with a cord this short are
extremely limited.
So with the Razer Blade Stealth’s Thunderbolt 3
port being on the left side, you’d have to have the Core on your left,
which puts the lighting out of sight. The other option is to turn the
laptop to its side and put it on the right, but the screen would not be
facing you. For me it wouldn’t matter, because I don’t plan on ever
using the laptop’s screen with the Core. Plan accordingly.
Razer
Blade(14”) users will have their Thunderbolt connection on the right
side, so it will be a little easier. But keep in mind that the Core
does not charge the Razer Blade, only the Razer Blade Stealth. So
you’ll have to hook up your power adapter to the Razer Blade as well,
which is on the left side of the laptop. That means wires on both sides
– bummer. For me, it’s still kind of a mess because the laptop is now
where my mouse was. My quick fix is to put my mousepad on top of the
Blade.
These are small things to complain about, considering
what’s being done. In all retrospect, the setup is a lot cleaner than
the DIY external graphics enclosures I’ve seen in the past and overall,
I’m really pleased with the Core’s design and ergonomics, even with the
small sacrifices that had to be made to make it work.
Setup
Installing
the graphics card was just as easy, if not easier, than installing it
on a desktop. The card goes right into the slot and all it takes is one
screw to hold it in place. Then you attach your PCI-e power
connectors. Then you just slide the card into the enclosure and fold the
handle bar to lock it in. It’s as simple as that. For my testing, I
used a MSI GTX 970(and later the 1070) graphics card.
Things get a
little more complicated after that and I ran into some issues that I
can’t recreate, since I now have everything up and running. Being a
Core owner, Razer emailed me some directions on what to install. I
downloaded and installed the software required, but the instructions
weren’t very clear on the order I was supposed to install everything in.
So all I can do is tell you what I did, what problems I ran into and
how I fixed them. Hopefully it will go better for you.
The
first thing I was supposed to install was an updated version of Razer
Synapse, which is compatible with the Core. I already own a Razer Blade
though, so this was already installed.
The next thing to install
is the Razer GPU Switcher Beta Tool. This opens a little program that
switches the GPU either automatically or manually, depending on your
preference. The launcher icon is in your quick launch toolbar, but it
does nothing without the Core attached.
The last piece of software
to install is Nvidia’s desktop graphics drivers. The instructions
indicate that these should be installed with the Core plugged in, but
this is where I ran into problems. When I plugged the Core in, it would
lock up ALL my inputs, including the keyboard, mouse and touch. So
there was no way to install the drivers!
I did a hard reset and
installed the drivers without the Core attached. They installed fine
and I rebooted. I tried attaching the Core and this time the Razer GPU
switcher popped up with an option for me to switch to the GTX 970 I
installed. Yay!…wait. My inputs were all locked up again. So I
couldn’t even select the option to get it to work.
I tried it over
and over again with the same results. The ONLY thing that worked was
when I booted the laptop with the Core attached – then everything
mysteriously started working correctly. Synapse then prompted me for an
update and then the Core was recognized by Synapse. Somewhere in the
mess, Intel’s driver popped up and notified me that the Core was
attached to Thunderbolt 3 – I can’t remember when exactly that happened.
So
after it finally worked, I was able to set it up for multi-monitor
support. Instead of 3 screens, I chose to turn off the Razer Blade’s
display and operate with it closed. The short Thunderbolt cord really
makes your options limited on where to put your laptop, so again, be
prepared for that.
My GPU successfully outputted to my dual QNIX
2560 x 1440 px monitors, which are dual-link DVI only. Prior to this, I
have never been able to connect these displays to a laptop, so this was
kind of exciting for me. The default refresh rate was set to 60Hz
but I’m able to set custom resolutions with higher refresh rates.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t work some of the time though and it goes back
to 60Hz. I haven’t yet pinpointed why this happens, but rest assured I
plan to find out.
One other thing I’ll mention concerns those who
want to operate with the laptop’s lid closed, like me. There are only
two ways to do this so far. The first is to disable sleep mode when you
close your lid. Then you can turn it on and flip the lid closed. I
happen to rely on sleep mode when closing my lid, so I chose not to use
this option and leave this feature on.
However, if you choose to
leave sleep mode on when closing the lid, attaching the Core will not
wake the laptop from sleep. And closing the lid obviously puts the
laptop to sleep. Unfortunately, the Core is powered off while the
laptop is off or in sleep, so none of your attached devices will wake
the laptop. So the only other option I have gotten to work so far is to
use my USB mouse I have attached directly to the Razer Blade, to wake
the laptop from sleep. As soon as I find a way to wake the laptop from
sleep by attaching the Thunderbolt cable, I’ll be sure to update this as
well.
Performance and daily experience
For the
purpose of my testing, I compared the results of my current desktop with
the Razer Blade 2016 attached to the Core. Both used the same video
card, an Nvidia GTX 970. The desktop has a Core i5-3570K (with stock
clock speeds) processor and 16GB of RAM, while the Blade gets an Intel
Core i7-6700HQ processor with 16 GB of RAM as well. I also tested with
the XPS 15 which has an Nvidia GTX 960m paired with the i5-6300HQ.
Some
time after I initially wrote this article, I was able to repeat the
Razer Blade and XPS 15 testing using a reference GTX 1070 and then again
with the Asus Strix GTX 1080. My desktop is dismantled now so I
couldn’t repeat the tests for that one.
All benchmarks used a QNIX
2560 x 1440 px monitor, and the laptop’s display was disabled when
attached to the Core. I was able to overclock my monitor to 96Hz
pretty easily, so we could see actual framerates above 60(except for
Fallout below native resolution).
| Desktop w/970 | Blade + Core+970 | Blade + Core+1070 | Blade + Core+1080 | Blade | XPS 15 + Core+970 | XPS 15 + Core+1070 | XPS 15 + Core+1080 | XPS 15 |
| 3DMark – Fire Strike | 9168 | 8742 | 11554 | 12797 | 6513 | 7433* | 8266* | 11607 | 3561 |
| 3DMark – Sky Diver | 21371 | 22692 | 26401 | 27315 | 18741 | 17746* | 18599* | 22909 | 9949 |
| Fallout 4 – Outside the Corvega plant entrance with a battle |
| Desktop w/970 | Blade + Core+970 | Blade + Core+1070 | Blade + Core+1080 | Blade | XPS 15 + Core+970 | XPS 15 + Core+1070 | XPS 15 + Core+1080 | XPS 15 |
| Ultra, 2560 x 1440 px | 43-53 fps | 38-48 fps | 48-63 fps | 55-65 fps | N/A | 32-41 fps* | 44-60 fps* | 49-60 fps | N/A |
| Ultra, 1920 x 1080 px | 51-62 fps | 52-60 fps | 54-60+ fps | 54-60+ fps | 42-52 fps | 43-60 fps* | 48-60 fps* | 54-60 fps | 23-32 |
| Witcher 3 – Walking around the grounds on the first tutorial |
| Desktop w/970 | Blade + Core+970 | Blade + Core+1070 | Blade + Core+1080 | Blade | XPS 15 + Core+970 | XPS 15 + Core+1070 | XPS 15 + Core+1080 | XPS 15 |
| Ultra, 2560 x 1440 px | 34-38 fps | 24-26 fps | 34-38 fps | 40-48 fps | N/A | 20-22 fps* | 33-36 fps* | 40-48 fps | N/A |
| High, 2560 x 1440 px | 42-47 fps | 34-38 fps | 48-50 fps | 57-60 fps | N/A | 29-31 fps* | 48-50 fps* | 57-60 fps | N/A |
| Ultra, 1920 x 1080 px | 45-53 fps | 28-31 fps | 41-46 fps | 48-54 fps | 28-31 fps | 22-25 fps* | 42-46 fps* | 46-56 fps | 17-20 |
| High, 1920 x 1080 px | 60 fps | 45-53 fps | 60 fps | 60 fps | 39-41 fps | 38-40 fps* | 60 fps* | 60 fps | 23-25 |
| Dragon Age Inquisition – Battle nearby a camp at the beginning |
| Desktop w/970 | Blade + Core+970 | Blade + Core+1070 | Blade + Core+1080 | Blade | XPS 15 + Core+970 | XPS 15 + Core+1070 | XPS 15 + Core+1080 | XPS 15 |
| Ultra, 2560 x 1440 px | 32-35 fps | 22-28 fps | 32-40 fps | 45-48 fps | N/A | 23-28 fps* | 22-28 fps* | 43-48 fps | N/A |
| High, 2560 x 1440 px | 53-61 fps | 55-60 fps | 57-64 fps | 67-75 fps | N/A | 42-47 fps* | 40-48 fps* | 63-73 fps | N/A |
| Ultra, 1920 x 1080 px | 46-54 fps | 35-42 fps | 48-56 fps | 58-63 fps | 27-31 fps | 35-40 fps* | 35-42 fps* | 52-64 fps | 17-20 |
| High, 1920 x 1080 px | 75-89 fps | 60-68 fps | 73-90 fps | 80-98 fps | 48-52 fps | 55-64 fps* | 55-65 fps* | 76-88 fps | 26-33 |
| Crysis 3 – Opening mission |
| Desktop w/970 | Blade + Core+970 | Blade + Core+1070 | Blade + Core+1080 | Blade | XPS 15 + Core+970 | XPS 15 + Core+1070 | XPS 15 + Core+1080 | XPS 15 |
| Very High, 2560 x 1440 px | 31-45 fps | 25-45 fps | 35-65 fps | 40-75 fps | N/A | 25-40 fps* | 20-50 fps* | 40-65 fps | N/A |
| High, 2560 x 1440 px | 43-65 fps | 34-65 fps | 49-96 fps | 57-110 fps | N/A | 35-60 fps* | 33-75 fps* | 57-95 fps | N/A |
| Very High, 1920 x 1080 px | 46-67 fps | 40-65 fps | 46-85 fps | 52-100 fps | 29-42 fps | 37-60 fps* | 29-65 fps* | 50-85 fps | 17-27 |
| High, 1920 x 1080 px | 65-96 fps | 53-85 fps | 59-96 fps | 71-120 fps | 44-60 fps | 46-82 fps* | 45-80 fps* | 65-103 fps | 25-40 |
*readings
on the XPS were taken with bios version 1.2, which was found
to(sometimes) hinder performance of the GPU slightly. I can’t go back
and remeasure them since I no longer have that GPU. The GTX 1080
readings were taken on bios 1.1.19, which is much more consistent.
I
also added a few logs showing frequencies and temperatures of the Razer
Core connected to the Razer Blade and my 1440p monitor.
As
you can clearly see, the Razer Core certainly does a good job boosting
the performance over the Razer Blade alone. If you have the new Nvidia
GTX 1070 or 1080, it improves those graphics settings even more to get
some really decent fps on AAA titles. Even the 970 shows some
significant signs of improvement over the 970m, if you don’t want to
spend that kind of money.
I’ve been doing a lot of research since
originally writing this section and there have been a number of things I
found out over the past few weeks. The first thing to mention is the
performance hit the Core takes as opposed to using a desktop. If you
compare my desktop+970 readings to the Razer Blade+Core+970, you’ll
notice a significant fps drop. The CPUs in both machines offer very
similar performance scores in benchmark tests, so the only thing I can
chalk off the performance hit to is losses through the thunderbolt
connections/driver issues. So if you’re planning on using a particular
graphics card and are comparing it to desktop benchmarks, expect to see a
10-15% performance drop right off the bat.
Another thing I want
to mention is the performance with the newest Nvidia GTX 10xx series
cards. As you can see, my Firestrike scores are much higher than the
970, which is what you would expect. But if you compare those results
with Firestrike benchmarks taken in people’s desktops with the 1070 or
1080, you’ll see a much larger performance drop(nearly 30%). On top of
that, the Firestrike performance of the 1080 is only 10% higher than the
1070. At first I thought maybe the 1080 is being bottlenecked by the
Core somehow. I ran another test though(which I’ll get to shortly) and
determined it wasn’t the bandwidth limit being reached. My only
conclusion is that the CPU in the Razer Blade is skewing the Firestrike
scores to be really low. Here’s why.
The score is actually
calculated off of the weighted average of three scores: Graphics(GPU
only), Physics(CPU) and combined. Since the CPU is the same in all
tests, the Physics score is unchanged. And since the Graphics score has
such a large increase, but the CPU score stays the same, the average is
going to be lower when compared to someone testing the card in a
machine with a top of the line Skylake desktop CPU. In other words, a
20% increase in graphics performance equates to roughly a 10% increase
in the Firestrike(standard) score. This would be a good place to use
the Firestrike Extreme score as a comparison since it relies more on
graphics performance at high resolutions.
The good news is this
isn’t really a factor with many titles since they are more driven by the
GPU than the CPU. You can definitely see a more proportional
performance jump between the 1070 and the 1080, when looking at the fps
measurements I got in the games I tested. It’s certainly better than
the 970 readings and much much better than using the 970m in the Razer
Blade. To the point, I’m happy with the performance of both the 1070
and 1080 in the Core.
So how did I determine that I wasn’t hitting
the bandwidth limit of the Core? Well since I got the Asus Strix 1080,
I decided to overclock it and see if I could improve things. My
original Firestrike score was 12797(Graphics: 16764, Physics: 9603). I
overclokced the GPU boost clock to 1973 Mhz, the memory to 11.2Ghz and
let the voltage alone. My Firestrike score jumped to 13294(Graphics:
17785 Physics: 9610), a 6% gain from a ~10% overclock – not bad! I
didn’t go crazy testing games with the overclock but I did gain 3-4 fps
on the Witcher on Ultra QHD settings.
In regards to the XPS 15,
you’ll notice my benchmarks are a little all over the place between
GPUs. It’s because the system is a little sensitive to a number of
factors(which I describe in more detail below). In short, if you use
the wrong bios your performance will differ. For the 970 and 1070 tests
I was on bios 1.2 but for the 1080 I was on bios version 1.1.19. The
main thing it allows is for more consistently higher GPU usage, whereas
before it was erratic and sometimes throttled for whatever reason. I
left the XPS 15 + 970 and 1070 benchmarks on the table but take them
with a grain of salt.
You might have noticed that even with the
1080 and the better bios, the XPS 15 still has a lower Firestrike score
and some of the gaming benchmarks are a little lower than with the Razer
Blade. I looked into it and it’s definitely because my XPS 15 is the
i5 version. I’ve been collaborating with Doug who also recently got a
Core. He has the i7 version of the XPS 15 and got a Firestrike score
more similar to what I got with the Razer Blade. The physics portion of
his score is 9973, which is more consistent with the Razer Blade. The
physics portion of my score was only 6165. So if you’re looking for the
bext performmance and want an XPS 15, aim for the i7 version. It’s
still a buggy connection though, which I describe more in the section
below.
Heat and Noise
One nice feature of the
Razer Core is that the external GPU takes some of the heat load off the
Razer Blade. If you read my review on the Razer Blade, you noticed that
when gaming I was getting CPU and GPU temperatures as high as 87C.
That’s not the case when you attach the Core though.
If you look
closely at the HWinfo screenshots I took, you can see that the cooling
system adequately cools the CPU alone and keeps temps in the 60s and
70s. And this is with my Razer Blade lid shut. Surely it will be a
little cooler with the lid open, if that’s the way you want to set it
up.
Of course the GPU still gets hot, but that’s solely going to
depend on the GPU you choose to use and whether or not you repaste it.
For my setup, everything is using the stock paste and fans. My temps
for the 970 are in the 70s, so I’m not worried at all. For the 1080, my
temps were even better for the most part.
I also took some noise
readings with the Core. It’s actually pretty quiet compared to my
desktop and even the Razer Blade by itself. The ambient readings in the
room I was in measured 25 dB. Under normal use, the Core with 970 made
noise levels increase to 35dB at ear level and 40dB six inches from the
Core. Utilizing silent mode on the Asus Strix 1080, noise levels were
31bD at ear level and 36dB six inches from the Core.
Under heavy
gaming loads, the levels for the 970 increased to 40dB at ear level and
50dB next to the Core. The Asus Strix 1080 measured 35dB at ear level
and 46dB next to the Core. Compared to my desktop which was 50dB at
normal levels, this is a welcome improvement. Of course, your mileage
may vary depending on what graphics card you choose.
All this
noise is pretty much coming from the Core. I barely heard my Razer
Blade fans at all really. Since it’s only using the CPU and the temps
are within a low range, the Razer Blade fans are not spinning as fast.
Good thing too, because the combination of both would probably be a
little too noisy for me.
Support for non-Razer Laptops
The
Razer Core is specifically designed for the Razer Blade and Razer Blade
Stealth. Even Razer’s CEO mentioned that it would not be plug and play
for non-Razer laptops. But he did say that they weren’t closing the
door on the option and the software was going to be open source.
Of
course I’m going to give it a try though – it’s what I do. The whole
point of me getting this thing was to eliminate my desktop and my wife
doesn’t (and won’t ever) use a Razer laptop. So I went ahead and
installed all the software on her Dell XPS 15.
Let’s just say for now that I got mixed results.
First
off, I have no idea what actually made it work right off the bat, but
it did. I installed the GPU switcher, Razer Synapse and then installed
the desktop GPU drivers. Then I connected the Razer Core and I
immediately got multi-monitor support. That wasn’t even that easy for
my Razer Blade… but it didn’t last.
Once I unplugged
it, the XPS 15 locked up with a blank screen. Every attempt after that
resulted in either a BSOD with an error with nvlddmkm.sys or a complete
input hang, where the mouse and touchscreen would stop working. I tried
booting with it attached, but it would just hang at the log in screen
and I couldn’t do a thing.
Currently, the only way I’ve
been able to get it to work is by going into the Device manager and
manually disabling the mobile GTX 960M inside the laptop. Once I did
that and connected the Core, it works… sort of. I’m able to get the GPU
to display on my monitors, but I still don’t have interface with all
the USB devices attached to the Core. Also, Razer Synapse doesn’t
recognize the Core, so there’s definitely something up. To make it
worse, unplugging the Core causes the laptop to sit at a blank screen
indefinitely unless you reboot.
Needless to say, the
support for non-Razer laptops isn’t there. But the capability certainly
exists and I’ll be continuing to mess around and try to get things
working. I think there’s a possibility that laptops without a discrete
GPU will fare better, but I don’t have one to test. Doug is also
getting a Core soon and will test it on his XPS 13, so hopefully he’ll
chime in with his progress soon.
UPDATE 5/31: I’ve done
some extensive testing with the XPS 15 and I can’t seem to get it to
work properly. It outputs to both monitors and I can verify that the
graphics card is driving them. But what I can’t figure out is why the
performance is choking so bad. As you can clearly see in my benchmarks
above, the performance with the XPS 15 and the Core is almost equal to
the performance with the 960M. There’s definitely some firmware or
driver changes that have to be made to get this thing working properly.
I’ll be working on it some more, but I don’t think this thing is ready
for Non-Razer laptops without some major tweaking.
UPDATE
6/2/16: As you can see from the lined out mess above, I had some
challenges getting the XPS 15 to work properly. Long story short, there
are some Thunderbolt drivers and firmware that must be installed in
order for things to work properly. I actually figured all this out
after a fresh install and I ended up getting things running rather
quickly, the second time around. Here’s what I did.
First things
first, make sure ALL your Dell drivers are installed and up to date.
This especially includes the Thunderbolt driver and the Thunderbolt
updated firmware. I think the updated firmware was the bigger part of
my problem before. Also make sure the 960M is fully updated, but before
you do sso, uninstall the old driver and completely delete it. This is
important because when the GPU switcher disables the 960m, it will
randomly try to reload the old driver which isn’t compatible with the
Core. It took me forever to learn about this…
Next, install Razer
Synapse. This will not be up to date right away, but it will
automatically update once it detects the Core. Once that happens, you
might also be prompted to accept the Core for Thunderbolt. Do so and
Things will start to happen on their own.
The
last thing you’ll need to do is install the desktop graphics driver
provided by Razer(I had Nvidia). It will then detect your desktop GPU
and everything should shift to those monitors once it does so. If it
doesn’t, manually disable the 960M in device manager and things should
start to pick up. Note that if things lock up for whatever reason try
this again with the 960M disabled from the beginning.
Update 7/4:
{You’ll also want to make sure you’re on bios version 1.1.19. The
latest is bios 1.2 but has been found to be a little more buggy in
regards to GPU performance. Credit goes to Doug for finding this out.}
You
can also use the GPU switcher at this point, which works ok but is
still kind of buggy. I’ve noticed it likes to keep my 960M disabled if I
shut down while plugged into the Core. It’s not perfect yet but it’s a
good start.
So if you’re caught up with me now, you’re able to
output to both monitors and all your peripherals Attached to your Core
are working ok. I am able to connect and disconnect pretty much the
same as the Razer Blade now, which is great.
I took some
benchmarks and put them into the table above. As you can see, it’s not
quite as powerful as the Razer Blade and the Core but it’s really
close. This is most likely due to the i5-6300HQ processor and 8GB ram
configuration I have. Still, this might be something that will swing
you in one direction or the other, if you’re having trouble deciding
between the Razer Blade and the XPS 15.
I did notice that the fan
noise was a little louder than the Razer Blade. I definitely heard it
when the temps started to rise, whereas with the Razer Blade, I could
not hear the fans at all. It’s not terrible, but something I wanted to
note.
So there you have it folks, a non-Razer laptop working
pretty decently on the Razer Core. Sometimes I still have trouble
getting the Core to load properly when plugging it into the XPS 15, but I
think I figured out a routine to get it to work on a regular basis. The
key component is making sure the 960M is disabled. Booting with the
Core plugged in works about 50% of the time and I can’t find out why it
doesn’t yet. I’ll be sure to keep you guys updated if I run into any
bugs or anything. But if this section stays as it is, assume no news is
good news.
Update 6/21: {After a couple more weeks of on and off
use, I’ve come to a happy medium with the XPS 15. It still gives me
trouble occasionally but a reboot and a second try usually does the
trick. I do notice that Chrome doesn’t perform as well, which I find
very strange. It’s tolerable but seems sluggish.}
Update 7/4{:
Doug and I have been collaborating since he also now has a Razer Core.
He has been using it with an i7 version of the XPS 15 and a GTX 970.
He did a lot of trial and error with different bios versions and found
that version 1.19 was the most stable. I’ve been on 1.2, which has been
somewhat stable but, as I mentioned before, I sometimes had to reboot
because of sluggish performance. Version 1.1.19 seems to be a lot more
stable in terms of performance.
We still both have different
experiences, even though our firmware versions are practically the same.
I can’t boot 100% of the time with the Core attached for some reason,
but Doug can. But I can wake my computer from sleep and he can’t. He
also sometimes has disconnect problems but I haven”t experienced any
yet. Chrome for both of us is still a little sluggish but Edge works
just fine. So there’s still some bugs to work out with the XPS 15.}
Update
12/25: It’s come to my attention that the reason for the erratic
performance boost on the XPS 15 could be because the Thunderbolt 3 port
is limited to x2 PCI speeds instead of x4. All of this info is limited
to the forums but there are some pretty solid benchmarks that pretty
much show the TB3 port only putting out 16GB/s. If that’s the case,
that’s most likely the reason why I had such varying results and why the
performance isn’t as good as other laptops. It’s still a big unknown
as to whether it’s a firmware or hardware issue, but it’s good what the
reason really is. It’s a shame that Dell is marketing this as being
40Gbps though – this is something everyone should be complaining about
considering it’s marketed that way.
As for other laptops, I gave
the Alienware 17 a try but I didn’t get it to connect. After a little
research, I think Dell needs to update the firmware on the Thunderbolt 3
hardware. The AW 17 doesn’t even have any firmware on their support
page, so I’m assuming it’s out of date for the specs the Core needs to
operate properly. The XPS 15 had multiple firmware updates for their
Dell dock, which is probably why it is somewhat compatible. I wouldn’t
hold my breath with Dell doing this for Alienware though because they
probably intend for you to just use the Alienware graphics amplifier
instead.
Another laptop that works with the Core is the MSI GS40.
I haven’t tested it personally, but hart breaker in the Razer Insider
forums started a
thread
to try to get his to work. At first, he wasn’t able to get it to work
but after installing the Thunderbolt 3 driver on Razer’s website, he got
it to connect fine. He was able to run a Firestrike benchmark and get a
score of 8651 with a 970 in the Core. That’s pretty much identical to
what I got with the Blade, so that is very promising for GS40 owners.
Update 8/25/16: I recently got my hands on an MSI GS73VR.
I’m still forming up my review on it,
but I couldn’t wait to try it out with the Core. Long story short, it
works just as if it was the Razer Blade. It’s actually kind of nice
because since the GS73VR is equipped with a desktop variant GTX 1060,
the drivers are exactly the same. Without the Core I got a Firestrike
score of 9497 and a Time Spy score of 3579. With the Core and GTX 1080
attached, my Firestrike score rose to 12980 and Time Spy hit 5733. It’s
still a very significant upgrade, granted you put the 1080 in there.
The MSI
GS43VR(14-inch) and
GS63VR(15-inch) are also compatible with the Razer Core.
I
think it’s safe to say that MSI is leaving the eGPU capability of their
laptops open. Of course if you get one with a 1070 or 1080 in it, the
Core is practically useless, especially since those versions are MXM and
are upgradable anyways. But if you go for the thin and light versions
like the one I have, you can still see the benefit of having the Core
attached and still enjoy carrying around a somewhat light laptop.
Price and availability
The Razer Core is currently
only available for $499 on Razer’s website. It’s available to order now, but looks like the stock is backed up for several weeks
I’ll
keep you posted if any other retailers get some in stock. If you do
purchase from Razer, you can get a $100 off coupon code if you also buy
the Razer Blade or Razer Blade Stealth.
Of course the cost doesn’t
stop there since you also need to put a graphics card in it for the
Core to operate. I initially was using an Nvidia GTX 970 but recently
switched to the newly released Asus Strix GTX 1080. As of 7/4, they are
still in very high demand, but they frequently go in and out of stock
and can be picked up at many retailers such as
Amazon. The base price is $649.
Razer certainly beat
everyone to the punch by releasing the first Thunderbolt 3 graphics card
enclosure. As a tech enthusiast, the Razer Core has been quite an
interesting gadget for me to play with. Even though it was a little
rocky getting it set up with my Razer Blade, I’m glad they worked out
the bugs and made it plug and play.
Sure, there’s a little
performance loss when compared to the desktop experience, but to be
honest, I was totally expecting that. I can’t think of a single
enclosure where no performance is lost through a wire, compared to a
direct connection. The good news is the performance is greatly
increased over using the laptop by itself. This is especially true for
Razer Blade Stealth owners, because without the Core, the Stealth is not
much of a gaming machine.
The price tag on the Core is pretty
scary though and will probably shy most people away from it. But
considering there is absolutely no other alternative, Razer is going to
get away with the sticker price for a little while. On top of that, the
overall look and build quality probably adds $100-150 value to the
device by itself, so there is some justification to be noted.
The
icing on the cake would be Razer optimizing their drivers to work with
other laptops. Maybe it’s not their responsibility, but I think it
would boost sales if the Core would be
. Considering it’s on heavy backorder though, I guess they probably aren’t all that worried.
.
Now that I got this thing working with my wife’s XPS 15, I can say
without a doubt that this is going to replace my desktop. To us, the
performance loss compared to a desktop is negligible and having to
disable a GPU in device manager to get it to work is small potatoes
compared to having to maintain a separate OS and have a giant beast of a
desktop on the desk.
The good news is the drivers are open source
and I’m sure somebody out there will figure out a way to optimize the
performance on non-Razer laptops, even if Razer won’t. I’m excited to
see how things pan out in the coming months.
For now though, that
wraps things up. Again, I’ll be updating this post as I learn more, so
please keep an eye out for further updates on my progress, and if you
have any questions or comments, please leave a message below.
