SGWZONE eGPU – Gaming & AI BOX Review: An eGPU & Docking Station With Built-in GaN Power!
We were pretty lucky to get an early sample with full features, while the commercial version may be a bit more refined in appearance. But that couldn’t take away from the fact that we love it, this gadget is so cool that it pretty much accomplishes everything we’ve ever imagined for a graphics card box.
The version I got is powered by an AMD Radeon RX 6600M graphics card with an 80W TDP and 8GB VRam, which you might have heard about on some gaming laptops. Well, unlike those bulky eGPU products on the market, the Gaming & AI BOX surprisingly has a very compact size with a built-in 240w GaN power supply. Its compatibility is awesome, supporting devices with Thunderbolt 3 & 4 or USB4 ports. Thunderbolt ports used to be only seen on expensive laptops, while now thanks to USB-4, we can already see the future of normal laptops and mini-PCs getting modularized with such a compact but powerful graphic card.
Unbox
There’s no Unboxing this time, and since we got an early sample, the packaging is obviously not informative. What we got is just a Type-C cable compatible with Thunderbolt and a power cable apart from the eGPU model. But here I have to remind you guys: besides the version I got, SGWZONE also released another RTX 3070 version with a 120W TDP. which is pretty insane. But I still prefer the 6600m version because the 6600M can also work with Mac devices that are powered by Intel chips. And it’s driver-free to conveniently plug and play.
Design
In terms of design, since I got the early version, The Gaming & AI BOX uses a 3D printed black case, which will be updated in the later official products, but of course, the super-cool round screen here will remain the same. It can be quite informative to display some performance parameters of the connected devices, such as temperature, clocking, and so on. And what’s interesting is that you can also showcase your own pictures or videos here as a geeked deco.
Well, emmm..pretty weird, right?
Compared with some regular eGPU products, The graphic box offers a lot more ports, there are 2 HDMI 2.0 and a DP1.4 for video output. and there are also two 40Gbps Thunderbolt-compatible USB4 ports. In addition, you even can find the other three USB3.0 ports. So to speak, this EGPU can even act as a docking station in addition to providing additional graphics performance.
The USB-4 UFP port even can support an extra 85W PD power supply for connected devices, which means you can even power up and strengthen graphic performance with a single cable for the laptop. This graphics box gets a maximum of 240W power, which is more than enough to provide an extra 85W of charging in addition to its own power supply!
Of course I did a simple disassembly of this EGPU, the internal structure is quite neat, a part of the power supply, the GPU module, and the whole cooling solution. It’s good to see the power supply part has a metal layer for shielding, I did not disassemble it further for safety reasons. But it’s worth noting that the 6600M graphics card uses the standard MXM interface, which means that this graphics card can be replaced for upgrade. This is amazing and also one of the most attractive things about the Gaming & AI BOX to me. And SGWZONE admits to releasing a 40 series card in the future for users to upgrade.
On top of that, there is a triple heatpipe cooler and a centrifugal fan on top of the GPU for cooling. Temperatures in gaming are great, only around 75°C at full power on the GPU.
In daily use, the noise level is not annoying at all. But when the GPU is fully loaded, the fan would accordingly speed up to guarantee stable running, then the noise will become a bit more perceivable. But here the brand also got their reason. SWGzone explains that because the model will be upgradeable in the future, it’s designed to be more thermally robust to handle higher power output of more powerful GPUs. Well, That’s really the way engineers think.
Of course, the size of the Gaming & AI BOX is perfect for me. Well, of course, there’re small-sized eGPUs on the market, but the funny thing about them is that they are often equipped with an external power adapter, bulky and silly. So it’s very smart of the graphics BOX to use the built-in GaN power supply.
How to use
It’s extremely easy to use. Make sure you get the right connection, USB-4 or Thunderbolt. For first use, just connect the EGPU to the PC and then install the graphics driver. After that, power on the PC and the eGPU, set the cable connection. DONE, very simple right? And the driver will also prompt you that you have successfully connected the external GPU. And if your PC supports a PD power supply, all you need is just a compatible Type-C cable between them.
Performance
Finally, let’s talk about performance. The first question here: is there any performance loss? Well yes, there is but not much really. Taking the 6600M as an example, in the 3Dmark time-spy test, the graphics scored 6811
which is almost a 4% performance loss compared to the 7101 score of the direct PICE connection. Similarly in the fire strike test, compared to the 19,919 scored by the direct connection to PICE, there was a 6% performance loss. This is perfectly acceptable with such a simple connection. Personally, I wouldn’t be complaining over it.
For gaming tests, I realize that most people who would consider buying an eGPU product are probably using Integrated GPUs, so I used the most common 96eu xe graphics card for the comparison tests. And mainly having fun with the graphic cards is the Geekom mini IT13 that we reviewed before and a Xiaomi gaming monitor with 21:9 ratio.
In The Witcher 3 Remastered, using 3440×1440 and high quality, it averaged 52fps, a very good performance. The xe GPU only had 10fps, a huge improvement in the gaming experience.
In Cyberpunk 2077, using 3440×1440 resolution with medium graphics the Gaming & AI BOX game ran at an average of 49fps. with the same graphics settings. the xe graphics card was just under 10fps.
I also tried my favorite game Genshin Impact and at high graphics, this eGPU could maintain 60fps at high quality, compared to the 20fps of the Xe graphics, I can only say that this eGPU is really perfect for gamers.
I also tested some e-sport games, in Counter-Strike2, the average fps was around 160, if you pair it with a high refresh rate screen, you can get a truly E-sport level gaming experience on a portable device.
AI & Video Production
Outside of gaming, I also tried to run some AI apps on this eGPU, setting the resolution to 512×512 and steps to 20 in stable diffusion, typing in some simple keywords, and generating an image took about 25s, the 8GB vRam clearly has good performance in AI.
I also tested the speed of the Gaming & AI BOX video export. The same 5-minute 4k 25 fps video exported in Premiere took 6 minutes with the eGPU, while it took 11 minutes with the Xe Integrated GPU. This is very impressive and almost doubles the speed of the exported video. Of course, this improvement is not limited to Premiere. In software such as Photoshop, Lightroom, and DaVinci Resolve, The eGPU will bring a significant performance improvement.
Conclusion
Overall, The Gaming & AI BOX is really impressive, with its mini size and built-in GaN power supply compared to traditional eGPU products. Compared to some smaller eGPU products, The Gaming & AI BOX has a universal MXM graphics card and USB-4 connectivity, which means it has excellent upgradability and good compatibility. Also, I think the price of this product is very competitive. So if you are in to it, please check out the link down below. It might change the way you work and play. Thank you for watching. This is Will from Gizmochina. See you soon!
Now the eGPU Dock is running a campaign on Indiegogo, where you might find something more than what we tested. And if you are a passionate player, SGWZONE also set up an official Facebook Group, which should take care of all the queries.
