Blog

Razer announces the Razer Core X Chroma on the 16th April 2019. It is a minor upgrade from the Razer Core X which retails for S$449.90 in Singapore and it is frequently out of stock.

Razer Core X Chroma retails for S$599, making it S$150 more expensive than the Razer Core X.

Razer Core X and Razer Core X Chroma are the most value for money eGPU in the market. The other eGPU I was looking at is the Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box.

Between Razer and Sonnet, I ended up choosing Razer because it is cheaper, sleeker, and overall the design looks better.

Between Core X and Core X Chroma, I chose the Core X Chroma. For just S$150 more, you get four USB 3.1 Type-A Ports, a Gigabit Ethernet Port, 50W of additional power, and a dual-chip design on the Thunderbolt 3.

Razer Core X Chroma measures 374 x 168 x 230 mm (L x W x H) and comes with a 700W internal power supply.

The power supply is capable of delivering up to 100W of power to charge your laptop via USB-C PD. Despite having an additional 600W of power, it only supports graphics cards up to 500W. The other 100W goes to powering the USB-A ports, Ethernet port, and Chroma lighting.

The maximum inner dimensions measure 330 x 160 x 60 mm (L x H x W) and hence it is capable of supporting up to 3-slot wide, full-length, PCI-Express x16 graphics card.

According to Razer, the dual-chip design will handle both graphics and data (4x USB 3.1 Type-A Ports, 1x Gigabit Ethernet Port) through a single Thunderbolt 3 cable to your laptop.

The Thunderbolt 3 cable that is included in the packaging is rather short at 0.5m.

Thunderbolt 3 is capable of delivering up to 40 Gbps of bandwidth.

Both Windows 10 (RS5 or later) and Mac (10.13.4 or later) are supported. If you are using Windows 10, both Nvidia and AMD graphics chipsets are supported, but if you are using Mac, only AMD graphics chipsets are supported.

Windows 10 Compatible Nvidia And AMD Graphics Chipsets

• NVIDIA Graphics Chipsets
  • NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti
  • NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080
  • NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070
  • NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX Titan X
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX Titan V
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX Titan Xp
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Ti
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750
  • NVIDIA Quadro P4000
  • NVIDIA Quadro P5000
  • NVIDIA Quadro P6000
  • NVIDIA Quadro GP100
• AMD Graphics Chipsets
  • AMD Radeon VII
  • AMD Radeon VEGA RX 64
  • AMD Radeon VEGA RX 56
  • AMD Radeon RX 500 Series
  • AMD Radeon RX 400 Series
  • AMD Radeon R9 Fury
  • AMD Radeon R9 Nano
  • AMD Radeon R9 300 Series
  • AMD Radeon R9 290X
  • AMD Radeon R9 290
  • AMD Radeon R9 285

Mac Compatible AMD Graphics Chipsets

• AMD Radeon RX 570
• AMD Radeon RX 580
• AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100
• AMD Radeon RX Vega 56
• AMD Radeon RX Vega 64
• AMD Vega Frontier Edition Air
• AMD Radeon Pro WX 9100
• AMD Radeon RX 470
• AMD Radeon RX 480

One of the downsides of using it for Mac is the Razer software. Razer Synapse 3 is available only on Windows. The legacy Razer Synapse 2 which supports Mac doesn’t work with the Razer Core X Chroma and unlikely it will. So we can only hope Razer will port Razer Synapse 3 to Mac soon!

Without Razer Synapse 3, you just can’t configure the Razer Chroma colors. Everything still works per normal on the Mac and it is not a deal breaker.