One of the selling points for laptops with Thunderbolt 3 ports is that they support data transfer speeds up to 40 Gbps over a USB cable… so you can connect use a desktop graphics card with notebooks like the Razer Blade Stealth by connecting an external graphics dock.
But it turns out that not every laptop with a Thunderbolt 3 port can take full advantage. YouTuber Jarrod’sTech ran a series of tests and determined that a notebook with a 10th-gen Intel Comet Lake-H processor performs much more poorly when gaming with an external graphics card than a system with a 10th-gen Ice Lake chip, even though Ice Lake has lower power consumption. The difference? The way the Thunderbolt 3 controller is implemented.
Here’s a roundup of recent tech news from around the web.
- eGPU CPU Bottlenecks Tested [Jarrod’sTech/YouTube]
Thinking of picking up a laptop with a Thunderbolt 3 port so you can use it with an external graphics dock? Then you might want to pick one with a TB3 controller integrated on the SoC because it’ll make a big difference in performance. - Quibi is shutting down [Quibi]
Short form, mobile-first video streaming service Quibi is shutting down half a year after launching. Despite raising $1.75 billion, Quibi couldn’t find an audience. 2020 might not have been the best year to launch a video service aimed at users on the go. - Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 20241 [Windows Blogs]
The Windows 10 October 2020 Update is rolling out now, but Microsoft continues to roll out experimental new features to Insider Preview program members. Win10 Build 2041 introduces theme-aware splash screens for MS apps and defrag enhancements. - MuditaOS goes open source [Mudita]
The makers of the Mudita Pure minimalist phone with an E Ink display are open sourcing its MuditaOS operating system. A dev preview is available now. The phone itself has been up for pre-order since a 2019 crowdfunding campaign, but hasn’t shipped yet. - Control your Fire TV Hands-Free with an Alexa Device [Amazon]
Amazon Fire TV devices paired with Alexa-enabled smart speakers are getting support for new hands-free, voice-activated features in the coming weeks. You can browse or search for content by voice, view smart home camera feeds, view traffic or weather, etc. - Lenovo unveils new Yoga 13s, Yoga 14s, and Yoga 14c laptops [GizmoChina]
Lenovo introduces Yoga 13s Carbon, Yoga 14s, and Yoga 14c Tiger Lake laptops for the Chinese market. The 13s Carbon seems to be a different name for the notebook already known as the Yoga Slim 7i Carbon in other markets. - Descript does video editing now [Descript/YouTube]
Text-based audio editing app Descript is expanding to video. Upload a video file, it will automatically spit out a transcript, and you can edit the video by cutting/pasting/rearranging the text.
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