Razer Core X Chroma Aluminum External GPU Enclosure (eGPU): Compatible with Windows & MacOS Thunderbolt 3 Laptops, NVIDIA/AMD PCIe Support, 700W PSU, 4X USB 3.1, 1x Gbit Ethernet, Chroma RGB, Black

Like every Razer item I've purchased, it's top notch quality products and the best bang for the buck. The Razer Core X eGPU seemed quite expensive at first but if you factor in power supply, control board, and quality; it's a great bargain. I've assembled every Win PC gaming rig that I've owned and use Macbook Pros for work. I recently upgraded to 2x BenQ 4K displays since the price was right and the WFH situation made it the right time... which is how I discovered the Razer Core X / eGPUs.My Macbook Pro (15" mid 2015) is "kind of" capable of running 2 4K monitors but noticed performance issues when the 4K resolution is scaled to 1440p. macOS shows a warning for this under display settings when changing the resolution. It's either 1080p or 4K where it doesn't bog down. Well, we all know 4K on a 27" monitor is going to make everything very tiny and the 1080p resolution is going to be in yo face but the picture quality is amazing. I prefer the 1440p with the better image quality reason I went 4K rather than native 1440p. 5K is just still super expensive.Some folks will probably be like why dual 4K?! I'm a software engineer so the extra real estate for the IDE / Text Editor on one screen and the rest on the other is what I've always preferred. The 1440p in high def makes the text look amazing. I know, I know... folks be like, you got a 4K for TEXT and 2 of them?! ... Yes, my eyes are not the same as they were over a decade ago when I started my software development career.Anyway, back to how I got here. The MBP was sluggish due to the GPU. My specific model is described to work with 1 5K external monitor. Makes sense, it's a 5 year old laptop GPU powering dual 4K. I needed to upgrade my GPU and researched some solutions. I was disappointed finding out there's no native macOS support for Thunderbolt 2 and eGPUs but I found purge-wrangler.sh.After following the basic instructions from the purge-wrangler github page, it was plug and play. I installed an AMD RX580... YES, an AMD... I have not purchased a desktop AMD card ever since the whole Bitcoin mining phase, people were forced to turn to NVIDIA cards. It all works great on my MBP. Also, I have this connected to a 4 port DisplayPort KVM for dual monitors. It works, make sure to buy the official Apple TB3 to TB2 since it's bidirectional and get a TB certified cable to plug into the adapter.# Pros- Quality packaging as always (stickers swag) 👏- Quality product, paint, mesh, design, etc. 🙌- Works with MBP (15" mid 2015, and a 13" MB Air 2012) TB2 (with install scripts) - Apple's limitation 🤦‍♂️- macOS detected my monitors supported HDR and displayed an enable/disable checkbox in the display settings where as before it didn't 🤔- Might have the highest wattage support compared to other competitors at the time of this review. Can support most high end GPUs but double check the dimensions and power requirements! 🥇- The swivel / lock handle design - 👌- It can play games with the RX580 but nowhere close to what my 1070Ti on the PC can do. I'm upgrading to a 5700XT since I got a Prime Day deal on it.- Can play fortnite, cs:go, left4dead, etc. I suggest a better card since the Razer X is designed for some serious gaming GPUs. The RX580 is an insult for what this eGPU enclosure can support. However, if you don't care about gaming in high/ultra settings, software & web development, CAD, video editing etc. then a RX580 paired with this enclosure is a great upgrade.# Cons- Leaving idle state, the fans spin quickly causing some fan noise. It's only like a second or two. Not that big of a deal. Might be the GPU + Enclosure combo. Will find out with the 5700XT swap.# Neutral- Ventilation - can be used as a mini space heater for the winter by playing games at ultra settings. Not sure how much the office will warm up during the summer. It's fall.- Some people complained theirs "didn't power on". You have to plug in a TB3 cable. Most people will assume they would see some kind of light or power when flipping the PSU switch. Wasn't the case and it left me scratching my head a bit. My situation with purge-wrangler had me connect the cable during script install. Razers instructions were to plug in the TB cable THEN flip the PSU switch.- Wish it came with a longer TB3 cable but they sell longer TB cables separately. That's how they can keep the price low b/c a 6.6 FT TB2 cable cost me $45 so be glad it came with one.

The usb-c/Thunderbolt 3 cable you use to connect the Razer Core X to your compatible laptop MUST be able to deliver at least 60W of power and deliver data transmission speeds of 40Gbps. Razer provides a very short version of this cable with the Razer Core X. Be aware that the Apple Thunderbolt 3/USB-C Cable does not work for this function. I tried to use the one that comes with the Apple MBP 16 and it didn't work. The Razer Core X will not actually turn on unless a compatible video card is installed, Razer Core X power switch is on, and the right USB-C/TB3 cable is in place plugged in to your computer. If it is, then it will light up as soon as your connected compatible laptop computer turns on.It works great and the installation process on my 4 year old Razer Blade 17 laptop was almost immediate as it recognized it and asked me to follow through on installing the necessary drivers for both the video card and the Razer Core X. This device works as advertised.2022 update. I originally ran an ASUS ROG STRIX GeForce RTX 2060 Advanced Overclocked 6G in this unit. The card worked great, but was starting to feel underpowered in certain high object count situations.I have since upgraded it to an EVGA GeForce RTX 3090 FTW3 Ultra Gaming, 24GB GDDR6X, iCX3 Technology. The Razer website lists the 3090 as compatible with the Razer Core X Chroma. This GPU card requires 350W to work and needs 3 GPU PCIe connections. Doing the math, the card would require a minimum 116.6667W per PCIe connector to function. The Razer Core X Chroma feeds 500W to the GPU but only has 2 PCIe connectors. With 250W to one connection, and 125W and 125W via a splitter to the 2nd and 3rd, this card turns on, works, and is recognized by the now 6 year old Razer Blade 17. However the card does throw a decent amount of heat so I wouldn't run it without AC on a hot day and I would let the fans on the eGPU run for about a minute or two after the laptop is shutdown before I shut the Core X Chroma off.Finally as I learned more about performance bottlenecks, I found that in retrospect this card is overkill for this rig setup because of the data bottleneck through the Thunderbolt 3 cable. A GPU in a PC tower has a much faster data rate than Thunderbolt 3 can provide. So generally if you play games in FHD (1920X1080) with the settings turned up then a rig set up with an eGPU will work for you. It also means you will never be running the card at its full potential. If you want to be able to play at higher resolutions, you will want the GPU card in the PC tower wired into the motherboard. Don't use an eGPU.So the moral of the story is do your homework. I would recommend anyone looking at GPUs for a Razer Core X Chroma to look at GPUs that only require 2 GPU PCIe's first and read the reviews. They'll use less power, and may get you the same FHD performance for less.