ASUS Unveils External Graphics Card

[GoNz0]

i did a quick search and couldnt see this, may be of use to a news poster




The ASUS XG Station is connected via a dongle to the notebook ExpressCard interfaceASUS introduces the world's first external graphics card for notebook users

ASUS today introduced a dedicated external graphics card for laptops -- the XG Station. The XG Station is an external graphics card that allows laptop users to enjoy high end graphics performance while plugged in. As the XG Station is an external graphics it can be unplugged when portability is needed.

The XG Station connects to any notebook’s ExpressCard slot and provides a PCI Express x16 slot for graphics cards. Since ASUS has opted to equip the XG Station with a standard PCI Express x16 slot, the station can be equipped with any PCI Express based graphics card: AMD, NVIDIA or even Matrox. ASUS launched the default XG Station with an NVIDIA 7900GS powered graphics card.

The XG Station is powered externally. A separate power brick plugs directly into the adaptor.

An integrated LCD display and control also grace the XG Station. The display is customizable and can display information such as frame rate, fan speed, GPU temperature and more while the control knob can change various settings of the XG Station such as the core and memory clocks.

Expect ASUS to release the XG Station in Q2'07 this year. Pricing of the XG Station is unknown at the moment.

The XG Station adaptor only interfaces with ExpressCard interfaces at the moment, but will work with with PCIe ExpressCard interfaces installed in a desktop PC.

http://www.dailytech.com/Article.aspx?newsid=5602

[s_kinton]

Sounds like a handy piece of kit.........but I bet its gonna be extortionately expensive!

[DavidM]

Unless I'm mistaken - I think Mobility Electronics (www.mobilityelectronics.com) where one of the first companys to do an external graphics card for Notebooks?

[xolotl]

I wonder how much of a performance hit there will be from having it externally.

The latencies will be huge and I doubt the bandwidth offered by the Express Card slot will be great either.

[dave87]

I'm suddenly finding a use for my Express Card Slot - Want to run a 20" WS TFT but doubt my x1300 would cope with 2x1680x1050 workspace (15.4" inbuilt screen has a native resolution of 1680x1050)

[Clunk]

That is one seriously fugly gadget!

[DavidM]

It is.. but it is clever

[Clunk]

Possibly, but I'm not convinced that anyone would actually want to buy one of these

[CrazyMonkey]

Is it me or just widescreen monitors but that external gfx card looks near as big as the laptop itself.

Imagine lugging that around with you, just not practical and yeah i expect prices are going to be major £££.
It does look clever, how the knob ups clocks and LCD for temperature.

[dave87]

More practical than lugging a Desktop Replacement or for that matter, a Desktop PC around... You've got to remember that takes a fullsize PCIe graphics card in it - so its going to be large

[Clunk]

By the time you have that big bugger rigged up, along with its power brick and extra mouse and monitor, you might as well have just built a desktop pc though....a desktop pc would probably take up less space

[chrestomanci]

Originally Posted by Clunk

By the time you have that big bugger rigged up, along with its power brick and extra mouse and monitor, you might as well have just built a desktop pc though....a desktop pc would probably take up less space

I don't think this is about saving money, it is about being versatile. With this you can still have an ultra portable laptop for use on the road, and when you get back to the office you can plug in and get good 3D performace on a large monitor.

I also think it is good that this is an eclosure that can take any card rather than a dedicated card. It makes it upgradable.

What remains to be seen is how windows will cope with what is effectively a hotplug graphics card. I am fairly sure that moden windows supports PCe hotplug for other devices, but graphics cards and drivers are deeply embeded into the OS much more than most things, so I sususpect that you would have to flip some control pannel settings and reboot to get windows to use the external GPU rather than just hotplug it.

[fisnik]

I think it's a cool idea. I just hope it's not ridiculously expensive.

[azrael]

Would be nice to see a standard interface with interchangeable graphics, certainly on workstation or gaming laptops.

This may be of use if you want to run multiple monitors though I would have thought the target audience would be small.

[sawyen]

Also. this technology opens up opportunities for truly lightweight *gaming* laptops, where on default the lappy has everything powerful other than a gamers card, so if anyone wants to just surf, do something non-gaming, they can do it with longer battery life.

I can imagine Alienware selling a Core 2 Duo lappy, with everything super fast, but on an Intel X3000 graphics. But the package comes with this little device.. where when you decide to game, youll just plug it in.. et voila..

Hopefully theyll be able to loop the signal back to the lappys own LCD, thats going to make it alot more practical...

[MadduckUK]

if this works well then my next desktop case can be half height. simple..