I have a Thinkpad X200, but now I need some 3D graphics power...

[slugg]

I love my X200. It's amazing. However, now due to some new development stuff I'm doing, I need a real graphics card. It doesn't have to be anything ridiculously good, but definitely a discrete card. Must support direct x 10.

I really don't have the money to switch to a new laptop. What ever happened to the ExpressCard slot video cards that were supposed to come out? Are there any other options?

This sucks really bad. I'm horribly screwed, money wise. My desktop is dead - I'm stuck with my laptop. Trying to find the cheapest solution :-/

 

[Brainonska511]

Is the X200 compatible with the a full docking station? IIRC, those come with a PCI or a PCI-E slot of some sort, but the outlay for the whole setup would probably run you on the order of just fixing up a desktop or laying out the money for a cheap one and throwing in a graphics card.

 

[slugg]

Well it looks like I kinda HAVE to be portable, anyway...

 

[CurseTheSky]

You're stuck between a rock and a hard place, like most of the rest of us that have crappy integrated graphics. IIRC, ASUS was the company working on the ExpressCard graphics cards, and it never came to be. I was hoping for one of those too.

If you still need to be portable, your best bet would probably be to salvage what you can from your dead desktop, and build a small, light SFF system. That's about the cheapest solution you're going to get, unfortunately.

 

[yhelothar]

What kind of development stuff? Rendering is all done by CPU anyways. It doesn't take much graphics power to run CAD programs.

 

[slugg]

What kind of development stuff? Rendering is all done by CPU anyways. It doesn't take much graphics power to run CAD programs.

Game development.

I don't need anything that can max out every game out there - I just need to be able to run modern game engines at minimum settings just to test my code.

 

[CurseTheSky]

How "dead" is your desktop?

 

[yhelothar]

Game development.

I don't need anything that can max out every game out there - I just need to be able to run modern game engines at minimum settings just to test my code.

I bet it should run anything that'd run on a PS3/xbox360 under minimum quality settings.
It does support DX10 while it won't play crysis at playable rates.

It's not that bad selling and buying a new laptop. Go get a cheap external drive to backup if you need to.

 

[slugg]

How "dead" is your desktop?

Mobo, cpu, memory, video card. Fried. :'( But the PSU lives on? How? I have no idea. I don't trust it anymore. Ironically, it's the only thing with a warranty left on it.

I bet it should run anything that'd run on a PS3/xbox360 under minimum quality settings.
It does support DX10 while it won't play crysis at playable rates.

It's not that bad selling and buying a new laptop. Go get a cheap external drive to backup if you need to.

Not really. The oldest engine I'm touching is Source, and that lands me about 10 FPS. The big deal right now is Unreal Engine 3 and XNA. UE3 crashes immediately and any real XNA environments dip below 10 FPS.

I love the X200 to death, but it was never designed for games! But yea, I'm already looking around to see if anyone wants to trade a laptop with a discrete graphics card for my X200. Kinda tough, since I'm spoiled with the build quality of a Thinkpad. I really don't WANT to get rid of this laptop, but money is tight...