External Graphics Card Boost to Laptop all will be revealed!

[BIGPADDY]

Hi all

Someone as boosted there macbook pro graphics potential, benchmark is borderland 2 with a max frame rate of 90 from an external graphics card.

http://www.engadget.com/2013/07/31/macbook-air-home-built-external-gpu/

I think this can be done for other laptops as well.

 

[csd_images]

It's a shame that AMD's XGP (external GPU) tech never took off. It was a rather elegant solution, I think they're trying to resurrect it again though. There is several pushes towards external PCI buses over the coming years as we saturate what USB 3 can give. Thunderbolt will never be a mainstream connector as long as they keep the license fees at such a high level, it'll be a repeat of what happened with Firewire with USB being ubiquitous and 'good enough'. The e-SATA is one such example of trying to bypass the limitations of such data interfaces.

It'll become less critical in many ways to have an external GPU with the push towards APU based systems. External GPUs are very much a niche product but could have their place for high end tablets like the Surface Pro to give it more workstation like abilities.

 

[BIGPADDY]

It's a shame that AMD's XGP (external GPU) tech never took off. It was a rather elegant solution, I think they're trying to resurrect it again though. There is several pushes towards external PCI buses over the coming years as we saturate what USB 3 can give. Thunderbolt will never be a mainstream connector as long as they keep the license fees at such a high level, it'll be a repeat of what happened with Firewire with USB being ubiquitous and 'good enough'. The e-SATA is one such example of trying to bypass the limitations of such data interfaces.

It'll become less critical in many ways to have an external GPU with the push towards APU based systems. External GPUs are very much a niche product but could have their place for high end tablets like the Surface Pro to give it more workstation like abilities.

I would buy it for my laptop, it could used the boost in graphics and would save me building a PC.

 

[Laura Knotek]

That's a cool idea, but I doubt if anyone is going to take along external GPU and power supply on the go. If one is going to use something that is stationary, rather than portable, why not just use a desktop?

 

[csd_images]

It's the same principle as to people have docking stations for laptops. With tablets and laptops you pay for the lack of expandability compared to desktop, I use a tablet both as a companion and as a desktop replacement. The tablet is sufficient for much of my work but it's only when I get into photographic retouching and graphics design will I power up my workstation so a port replicator makes more sense than buying yet another desktop and the tablet allows to be more flexible with clients. If I could off-load the GPU compute aspects of the applications I use then a External GPU would be of interest for office work without having to rely on a heavy duty workstation that can chew through power. Plus an external GPU could be considered an upgradeable feature of a tablet/laptop which historically it's been one of the key weaknesses of any system and one of the areas that produces the most heat more so than the CPU. So externalising the GPU to a degree would help with keeping the system cooler.

Also a lot of business now use what's called 'Hot Desks' where a person comes into the office and uses the first available desk with their own laptop or tablet. This is where port replicators/docks/external GPUs would come into their own.