Gaming PC vendor Razer presents a pair of products at Games Developer Conference (GDC) 2016-- the Core plug-and-play external GPU enclosure and an update on the 14-inch Blade ultrabook.
First seen at CES 2016, the Core is essentially a means for customers to add a GPU to a compatible Razer gaming laptop. It can carry one double-width, full-length PCIe x16 graphics card, and handles both AMD Radeon and Nvidia GeForce GTX GPUs. However customers have to keep in mind the Core does not actually include a graphics card, and as such need to buy one separately.
In turn the Core connects to laptops via Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C), with AMD XConnect technology handling the switching between discrete and integrated Intel HD graphics. Also included in the Core are x4 USB 3.0 ports, an ethernet connector and a battery.
So far the number of Razer laptops compatible with the Core totals two-- the Blade Stealth and the 2016 Blade, the second GDC 2016 announcement from the company. The 14-inch ultrabook offers upgraded specs with a 3200x1800 resolution display, Intel Skylake i7 quad-core CPU, GeForce GTX 970M GPU, 16GB DDR4 RAM and SSD storage, all within an aluminium chassis complete with individually backlit RGB keys.
The Razer Core ships from March 2016, while the 2016 Blade should be available on April.