Thursday, August 16th 2018

AKiTiO Node Duo is an External Graphics Box with Room for Two

In the unlikely event that you need to lug two graphics cards for an on-site job (think having to carry an ultraportable with two professional graphics cards for touch-ups and rendering on the fly), AKiTiO has a solution, with the Node Duo. This box measures about 29.3 cm x 15.5 cm x 23.2 cm (DxWxH), and encloses two PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots (electrical gen 3.0 x2), which it wires out upstream with a Thunderbolt 3 (40 Gbps) connection. Each slot has room for 2-slot thick graphics cards that are up to 22 cm in length. The enclosure ventilates them with a 120 mm intake fan.

The Node Duo uses USB-C ports with Thunderbolt 3 wiring. The upstream port has standard 15W delivery, and plugs into your PC; whereas the downstream port supports USB PD, with up to 60W downstream power delivery. This port has no USB link-layer, only Thunderbolt. There's also a standard-size DisplayPort 1.2 output, if your Thunderbolt input is meant to daisy-chain with a DP monitor at one end (not with display from the installed graphics cards, though). Out of the box, you get a 150W power-brick that supplies up to 25W each to the graphics cards through the slot; although you can expand that to a 230W PSU that supplies up to 75W. Available from a little later this month, the Node Duo by AKiTiO is priced at USD $394.95.
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6 Comments on AKiTiO Node Duo is an External Graphics Box with Room for Two

#1
azdesign
IIRC, CF/SLI support depends on the motherboard right?
Posted on Reply
#2
btarunr
Editor & Senior Moderator
azdesignIIRC, CF/SLI support depends on the motherboard right?
It does. This box won't give you either. You'll probably be able to do DX12 multi-GPU.
Posted on Reply
#4
bug
koaschtenThe Power Limitation is irritating me...

yeah, look at www.akitio.com/information-center/pcie-card-compatibility-chart this is not designed for GPUs but for Audio/Video Processing, network and storage extension cards.

edit: also as per FAQ MacOS only. www.akitio.com/support/faq/45-node-duo
Makes sense. Apple users are know to pick form over function, so this works best for them.
Joking aside, who knows what arcane workflow this thing is supposed to enable.
Posted on Reply
#5
TheinsanegamerN
btarunrIt does. This box won't give you either. You'll probably be able to do DX12 multi-GPU.
For the whole, what, 2 games that support it?
Posted on Reply
#6
Prima.Vera
Better run any 3D apps on 1080p or less due to severe bandwidth limitation of TB3.
Posted on Reply
Apr 23rd, 2024 14:10 EDT change timezone

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