External GPU's the future for mobile notebooks?

[ieatdonuts]

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4569/...mises-graphics-card-enclosure-for-thunderbolt

I'm surprised this isn't bigger news. The one thing that most notebooks suffer from is a bad graphics card - their CPUs are more than adequate.

I'm thinking this could change the whole future of the PC as a gaming and computing platform. In other words - the need for a full-fledged desktop for high performance computing and gaming could be eliminated.

When you need desktop power, you dock it and you have a large high quality monitor with a high performance graphics card. When you need portability, you just take your Macbook Air or whatever with you, using integrated graphics or a fusion IGP.

TLDR - I think it's retarded for OEMs to continue putting these crappy GPUs into notebooks when this solution is far more elegant and ideal. Maybe Thunderbolt 2.0 will give us an x4 PCI-E 3.0 lane (more than enough bandwidth).

 

[TakeNoPrisoners]

I've been hoping for something like this. Imagine a 14" 1080p notebook around 4-5 lbs with a good quad core CPU and something like an Intel HD 3000 GPU and an external GPU with the power of a 6950 for use when you have external power.

 

[philosofool]

Hell, if a solution like the one you linked worked without much overhead, I would want one for a Sandy Bridge PC so that I could turn this hot, loud, power-hungry card off while internet browsing.

 

[mnewsham]

It isn't bigger news because all that has been stated is that they will start trying to design the product the thing is they haven't even started, let alone made promising progress. Once we start seeing prototypes and price points as well as proof it can deliver 10GB/s (instead of 10Gb/s) then we will see some hype and some bigger names start talking about it (spreading the word).

Also isn't this more of a VC&G topic instead of SFF? After all it is thunderbolt (light peak) that enables this and it is available in desktops as well as laptops.

 

[ieatdonuts]

The thing is it's obviously feasible, it's not like a hypothetical processor where you don't know if they can deliver. They can deliver. We already have external GPU solutions that are OK but they are

a) not as simple as a thunderbolt dock

b) nowhere near the same throughput. thunderbolt is x4 pci-e 2.0 which is finally enough to NOT limit the vast majority of applications.

before we had express card which is pci-e x1 which cripples any high end GPU. now we finally have a connection that could deliver enough bandwidth or at the very lease significantly improve throughput.

c) This is just the beginning. The next version of Thunderbolt could realistically deliver twice the throughput as PCI-E 3.0 x4. There is also an external PCI Express spec being developed by PCI-SIG that has been speculated to bring an external connection for x16 lanes. What has always been a novel idea is actually becoming reality.

 

[biostud]

Then the laptops just need a video-in port.

 

[gsaldivar]

This comes up every few years. While certainly a nice idea, the problem seems to always be that the external card is crippled by the external bus speed and only runs at a fraction of it's true potential. This was announced in 2007 and discontinued two years later...

http://www.asus.com/Graphics_Cards/External_Graphics_Card/XG_Station/

 

[Schadenfreude]

Having an external dGPU for a laptop may sound fine on paper, but it's just not practical.

The whole point of a laptop is portability; I can game on the couch, the bed, etc.
As someone who games on a regular basis, it doesn't make sense to get a laptop, and then getting a semi-permanent attachment that ties your laptop down to a certain place; why not get a desktop then?

And then who is this market for? Sure, there's gamers, but most likely they either shelled out the cash for a beefy laptop to begin with, or already have a desktop + laptop setup - which also defeats the purpose of this device.

Moving on to the soccer-mom casual gamer set; would a casual gamer that only plays a game of Farmville or whatever justify several hundreds of dollars to get this? I think not.

Again, I just can't see the practical uses for this device.

 

[gsaldivar]

it doesn't make sense to get a laptop, and then getting a semi-permanent attachment that ties your laptop down to a certain place; why not get a desktop then?

This makes more sense as a DIY project than a marketable product. If you already have a monitor and graphics card laying around, and a laptop with an Expresscard slot, it could be useful to toss in a few cables and adapters to connect everything together.

If it means buying alot of new hardware however, I see your point - desktop computers are dirt cheap, it wouldn't take much to surpass this type of setup in performance with a midrange desktop PC.

 

[Schadenfreude]

This makes more sense as a DIY project than a marketable product. If you already have a monitor and graphics card laying around, and a laptop with an Expresscard slot, it could be useful to toss in a few cables and adapters to connect everything together.
. . .

Essentially making it a desktop.

All I'm saying is that it's too much of a niche item for a specific group of people for it to be even a moderate success outside of it being a novelty item; I'm not wishing anyone ill-will naturally, but it's like attempting to sell a Monowheel to bikers, it just seems like a step backward.

 

[gsaldivar]

it's too much of a niche item for a specific group of people for it to be even a moderate success outside of it being a novelty item

Oh I agree. It's a nice idea, but not commercially viable. Case in point would be the Asus XG Station: RIP 2007-2009...

 

[JSt0rm]

dont limit it to just videocards. I think the point is being able to dock your computer into something in a pcie 4x bandwidth. Now you are talking larger groups of people.

 

[gsaldivar]

dont limit it to just videocards. I think the point is being able to dock your computer into something in a pcie 4x bandwidth. Now you are talking larger groups of people.

True, but it's still very much a niche product.

http://www.magma.com/pciexpansion.asp

http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/10/msis-luxium-external-graphics-solution-spotted/

Other than video cards, there really aren't masses of people trying to shoehorn any other kind of expansion card into a laptop. For I/O, sound, etc. 99% people will just buy a USB/SATA product that does the same job.

 

[mnewsham]

I could see this for a 13" portable 3-4Lbs laptop, I would love to be able to take the laptop to my classes without the GPU power then take it home and be able to hook it up to my dGPU and possibly external monitor/TV for some gaming. All it would need would be a moderately powerful CPU with no GPU (except integrated). Think about it... college kids would LOVE this.