No, you cannot use 2 TB3 devices with TB3 Add-in-Cards.
No, you cannot use 2 TB3 devices with TB3 Add-in-Cards.
Examining the Gigabyte Titan Ridge Thunderbolt 3 Add-in-Card, it features one DP, two TB3, and two MiniDP ports. I aim to utilize the two TB3 ports for an eGPU dedicated to rendering, minimizing gaming performance loss. With two TB3 ports available, can I connect two eGPUs using each port with dual lanes, or is only one TB3 device permitted per port?
You can likely connect two TB devices, but it doesn’t make much sense, particularly for e-GPUs. Until these cards support PCI-E 4.0 to boost their bandwidth, it’s essentially pointless because the 40GB/s claim is misleading. In reality, a 4x PCI 3.0 bus only provides 4Gb/s, and to move 40 Gbps you’d need a much faster transfer speed. Why are you planning to render using an external GPU?
I see your point. Rendering with GPUs tends to stack, but my tests show only a 6% gap between GEN3 x16 and x4. For gaming, the difference jumps to 33%. I’d prefer better performance over anything else. For gaming, I can’t test with x2 since my laptop isn’t an x2 port, even if it would be slightly slower. Still, having two GPUs in x2 would give more speed than one in x4. Price isn’t the main factor—time definitely matters more to me.
I plan to place it on my desktop. I needed to test the eGPU on my laptop because my desktop lacks a TB3 port. That was the main reason for writing this post. During testing, it didn’t rely on the CPU, making the comparison accurate. Heat management is also an issue. I currently have three GPUs installed in my PC. Which one has the lowest clock speed and produces the most heat? I’m using an x370, so my third GPU is already running on PCIE 2.0 x4 (not 3.0). This matches PCIE 3.0 x2. I already own the three GPUs and one eGPU. Essentially, I’d just need to purchase another eGPU paired with a TB3 AIC. My cards drop down to 1400Mhz while in the eGPU they stay at 1950Mhz. Overall, TB3 seems like a better option. As I mentioned earlier, time matters more to me. That’s why I reached out here first. I don’t have to return it if it only supports one TB3 device. If it works for two, I’ll switch to an ITX case to accommodate the extra eGPUs. My main concern was whether the TB3 card could handle two TB3 devices. Your answer was a guess?
Thanks for the input. The internal TB3 header isn't mandatory. The provided link indicates it can be resolved by connecting pins 3 and 5 together.
Really, thanks you solved all my issues man, and post this as a thread by itself, it's helpful, but where did he get the red wire?