External GPU

[Mr. Pedantic]

Does anyone have experience with using an external GPU with a laptop? I have an Acer Aspire S7, so connectivity is a bit limited, but there is an HDMI out which should be able to provide the bandwidth. Is it possible to buy an HDMI-in, PCIe-out adaptor, or buy a GPU designed for external use?

 

[nsafreak]

HDMI doesn't pass data that way so you wouldn't be able to send the video output from the laptop to be processed by the GPU. There are hacks to get external GPUs working with a laptop but I haven't seen a ready made product. The one most common hack that I've seen is to use a PE4H board and a few other components, details here. Your problem is that you have a laptop that does not have an ExpressCard slot so none of your output options have enough bandwidth to support an external GPU. Your only option unfortunately if you want to do laptop gaming is to replace your laptop with one that's capable of it.

 

[Eurydice]

I am not well acquainted with the S7 series. Does your laptop have an mPCIE based WiFi module?

 

[Zodiark1593]

HDMI doesn't pass data that way so you wouldn't be able to send the video output from the laptop to be processed by the GPU. There are hacks to get external GPUs working with a laptop but I haven't seen a ready made product. The one most common hack that I've seen is to use a PE4H board and a few other components, details here. Your problem is that you have a laptop that does not have an ExpressCard slot so none of your output options have enough bandwidth to support an external GPU. Your only option unfortunately if you want to do laptop gaming is to replace your laptop with one that's capable of it.

There is a PE4 cable that works with the mPCIe slot where the wifi card usually is. However, if you're moving the laptop around a lot, such arrangement quickly becomes a royal pain in the ass, and somewhat risky as the slot itself probably wasn't designed for the constant pulling-in, pulling out.

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

I am not well acquainted with the S7 series. Does your laptop have an mPCIE based WiFi module?

I don't think it's worth that kind of trouble. Thanks anyway.

 

[Eurydice]

Oh well, mPCIE based builds do work, but not as well as TB/EC implementations, because, like Zodiark said, mPCIE is hardly a plug and play slot.
My rMBP works beautifully over TB2 with an Akitio thunderII.
If you're still interested at all, check the TechInferno forums, they're all over eGPUs.