Can a high speed GPU be hooked up to a laptop?

[animaguy]

Is it possible to hook up a GPU such as a nVidia GTX580 to a laptop (any laptop)?

 

[T_Yamamoto]

Yes. They sell an external thing. Not sure on how it works but I've heard about it and its rather expensive.

 

[Red Storm]

I cannot wait until this becomes commonplace. Then I can buy a sleek, powerful thin machine and hook up the VGA when I want to game.

 

[railven]

Yes. They sell an external thing. Not sure on how it works but I've heard about it and its rather expensive.

Is this that adapter that works off USB or something of the sort? If it is, I remember it having abysmal performance due to latency. At least I remember something like that - unless this is another device.

 

[animaguy]

I want to purchase a GPU for rendering animation. I want to use it on a desktop but if there was a way to hook it up to a laptop that would be interesting.

If anyone knows any details on how this can be done I would appreciate any feedback.

 

[videogames101]

just solder straight to wherever the PCI-E traces end up

 

[KingFatty]

Yes, you can take a video card and connect it to a laptop. I remember reading about various options a while back, where someone used a 5870 connected via an x4 PCI slot connected to the laptop.

Here's an example, I think this one is only a x1 slot so maybe you'd want a faster version of at least x4:
http://www.techradar.com/us/news/computing-components/graphics-cards/how-to-make-an-external-laptop-graphics-adaptor-915616

 

[NTMBK]

This can be done via Thunderbolt: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/pci-express-graphics-thunderbolt,3263.html

Of course, something like a 580 would be badly bottlenecked.

 

[SPBHM]

here
http://forum.notebookreview.com/e-gpu-external-graphics-discussion/418851-diy-egpu-experiences.html

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Yeah.

You can use a thunderbolt breakout box, which is limited to x2 or x4. Or you can use an express card to pci-e box, assuming your laptop is equipped with an express card slot. (which is an x1 lane.)

Sadly, those kind of solutions often cost more than the card, unless you jerry-rig something like the photo above.

It's going to be bottlenecked, probably.

 

[thetuna]

Yes, it is possible.

I used to have a GTX470 hooked up to my laptop like in the picture above, except with a x2 link.

It was a huge pain in the ass getting the x2 set up and recognized, and my laptop looked ridiculous with 2 hdmi cables coming out of the DVD bay.
It did work fairly well, but I ended up building a desktop about a month later and I was so much happier with the desktop.

 

[ElFenix]

iirc sony made a notebook with an external gpu. saw it at the microsoft store a few months back.