
MACBOOK PRO THUNDERBOLT PORT REPLICATOR PLUS
The icing on the cake is that the dock can provide compatible laptops with up to 87W of power - something many cheaper docks lack.ĬalDigit offers both a TS3 Plus and a cheaper TS3 dock, the latter of which is a bit easier to find. The Venus (which I currently base my home setup around) is my favourite all-round TB3 dock it not only supports a GPU, but provides five USB 3.0 Type-A ports (two on the front, three in the back), Gigabit Ethernet, and (most notably) an internal SATA connector for connecting an SSD or hard drive. In my opinion, one of the best all-around Thunderbolt 3 eGPU docks is the Mantiz Venus. Some of them are overpriced, lack ports, or have no power delivery over USB. Not all eGPUs are created equal, however. They are larger, more expensive, and louder than other Thunderbolt 3 docks, but nothing will make your laptop feel like a full-on desktop like an eGPU. eGPU docks tend to have fewer features than productivity-focused TB3 docks because there is only so much bandwidth to go around, and the more ports the eGPU has, the less bandwidth there is for the GPU. Docks that offer this functionality generally place the graphics performance as the first priority (the Lenovo TB3 Graphics Dock being an exception) and other ports as bonuses. While eGPUs have existed for almost a decade, the TB3 protocol brought the concept to the mainstream by making the external GPU a (mostly) plug-and-play affair. If you bring your laptop around with you daily, but also like to relax with games at home - and you don’t want to have more than one computer - a Thunderbolt 3 external GPU (eGPU) dock is for you. External Thunderbolt 3 GPU docks – from US$249



But do you really need an expensive TB3 dock, or will a USB 3.1 Type-C hub do? How much should you expect to spend? The answers will very much depend on your use case, and thus this article will be divided into recommended docks/port replicators by functionality. If you don’t have a Type-C dock yet, it might be a good time to pick one up for the inevitable. Fast-forward more than two years later, though, and USB Type-C w/ TB3 support ports are continuing their steady encroachment into our mobile devices, making “legacy” connectors such as USB Type-A, RJ-45 Ethernet, HDMI, VGA, SD card, etc.
