Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Computing
  3. News

Razer’s Core is here to make any Thunderbolt 3 system ready to game

Brad Bourque
By

Razer Blade Stealth and Core
Brad Bourque/Digital Trends
The move to USB Type-C and Thunderbolt 3 has brought with it massively increased data bandwidth, and manufacturers are already looking for ways to take full advantage. One of the most appealing innovations to come out of this new connectivity is the possibility of standardized, external graphics, and the Razer Core is finally ready to make that possibility a reality.

Although it isn’t the first device to attempt such a feat, the Core is certainly the most seamless yet. That’s largely thanks to the Thunderbolt 3 connection, which carries not just a PCIe signal to the GPU, but also four USB 3.0 port and Ethernet, while still powering and even charging the battery in the connected system, which Razer hopes will be the already compatible Blade Stealth, or the brand new Razer Blade. It isn’t an exclusive device though, and any manufacturer can build support into systems with a Thunderbolt 3 port and Windows 10.

Recommended Videos
Razer Blade Stealth and Core
Brad Bourque/Digital Trends
Brad Bourque/Digital Trends
Get your weekly teardown of the tech behind PC gaming
Check your inbox!
Privacy Policy

We spent some time reviewing the Blade Stealth not long ago, and appreciate its beautiful display, speedy performance, and solid, attractive design. The battery life was a little lacking, but the system is the perfect candidate for this kind of upgrade. Its i7 processor, when paired with a nice GPU, could be the perfect candidate for truly powerful gaming in a desktop-like setting.

AMD Compatibility

  • R9 Fury
  • R9 Nano
  • R9 300 Series
  • R9 290X
  • R9 290
  • R9 280

The Core supports PCIe x16 cards from both Nvidia and AMD cards, including the two-lane, full-length Titan X and Fury series offerings (we’ve included a full list to the left and below). Whether you’re on the red or the green team, card installation is simple and tool-free. The back of the aluminum chassis slides out, and the card is held in by a single thumb-screw.

Razer Stealth and Core gaming pc laptop
Brad Bourque/Digital Trends
Brad Bourque/Digital Trends

Nvidia Compatibility

  • GTX Titan X
  • GTX 980 Ti
  • GTX 980
  • GTX 970
  • GTX 960
  • GTX 950
  • GTX 750 Ti
  • GTX 750

When using an AMD card, the system is also able to take advantage of the brand new XConnect technology. This feature allows R9 300 and Fury series owners to quickly attach or detach the cards from their system with the same ease as unplugging a USB thumb drive.

Pre-orders for the Core are already available, with an expected ship date some time in April. The external unit will cost gamers $500 on its own, but bundling it with the purchase of a Blade Stealth brings that price down to $400. Current owners of the Blade Stealth will also be offered that price if they want to add a Core to their existing setup.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Brad Bourque
Brad Bourque
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Brad Bourque is a native Portlander, devout nerd, and craft beer enthusiast. He studied creative writing at Willamette…
2 gaming laptops you should buy instead of the Razer Blade
Cyberpunk 2077 running on the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14.

The Razer Blade line of gaming laptops is iconic. There's no doubting it's influence, and the Razer Blade remains one of the best gaming laptops you can buy today.

But it's also expensive. It's beyond high-end -- existing in its own echelon of pricing, perhaps rivaled only by the MacBook Pro. Just to give you an idea, the cheapest version of the Razer Blade 16 costs $3,000 and comes with an RTX 4070, 16GB of RAM, an OLED 240Hz screen, and 1TB of storage. That's quite a powerful configuration, mind you, but it's considerably more expensive than similar laptops. If you really want to max it out, you can spend up to $5,500. The Razer Blade 14 is a bit more affordable, starting at $2,200, but can quickly get expensive when you bump up the specs.

Read more
The ReSpec newsletter is here: your weekly breakdown of the tech behind PC gaming
Jacob Roach sitting behind a ReSpec logo.

The world of PC gaming moves fast. New titles are constantly being developed and discovered, game-changing hardware launches that could affect your next PC upgrade, and news breaks that can alter the stakes for some of the biggest PC companies in the world.

We're so invested in this corner of the tech industry that we're launching a newsletter, and it's called ReSpec. Once you sign up, you'll get your very own weekly breakdown of the tech behind PC gaming -- delivered right to your inbox each Friday morning.

Read more
This might be why AMD’s FSR 3 isn’t picking up momentum
Combat in the game Nightingale.

AMD's platform-agnostic FSR 3 is a great feature, but months after releasing, it's only available in a small list of titles. Now, we might finally have a clue as to why.

Developers of the upcoming open world survival game Nightingale posted a development update stating that it was removing FSR 3 due to crashes. "After reviewing crash data from the Server Stress Test, a significant number of them seemed to point to FSR3 integrations, whether or not users had the setting turned on," a prelaunch update post reads.

Read more