Thunderbolt 3 external graphics demoed at IDF 2015

[HEXUS]

Could powerful external graphics have an impact on the gaming laptop market?

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[Tattysnuc]

I do hope that this takes off. It's been talked about for years, but nothing has ever taken off.

Fingers crossed that the external "cradles" or docking stations don't get priced too high to let them take off, and that they have interchangeable components (ie so you can change you GPU)

[Kanoe]

Could you imagine the AMD dual fury board in a small-ish enclosure for laptop boosting performance. Could be a good fit.

Only concerns about doing that though is with the CPU performance from a laptop, surely that would be the bottleneck for most external GPU boosted systems then by a big margin.

[qasdfdsaq]

It'll only have any chance of replacing "proprietary locked-in 'graphics amplifiers'" if it actually implements important functionality of those proprietary locked-in graphics amplifiers, namely, the ability to drive the laptop's internal display.

Not sure if it's possible without proprietary implementation: PCIe lanes going from the laptop to the external dock, and DisplayPort lanes going from the dock back into the laptop.

[LSG501]

I do hope that this takes off. It's been talked about for years, but nothing has ever taken off.

Fingers crossed that the external "cradles" or docking stations don't get priced too high to let them take off, and that they have interchangeable components (ie so you can change you GPU)

These gpu caddies have already been out for quite a while albeit mac focused, they usually cost around £300 but it does include a psu....

I hope it takes off too, I'd love a little external 'gpu render box' rather than another complete pc for gpu encoding/rendering

[edzieba]

Intel have torpedoed EVERY outboard thunderbolt GPU adapter shown off for the last few years (by refusing Thunderbolt certification and thus trademarking etc). As recently as this year's CES, Alienware and MSI's outboard GPU boxes both used non-Thunderbolt implementations. I wonder what finally changed their mind?

[LSG501]

I wonder what finally changed their mind?

Probably the fact nobody apart from Apple is really using thunderbolt... and usb 3.1 etc is offering nearly the same features with full support from MS unlike thunderbolt.

[Zhaoman]

Intel have torpedoed EVERY outboard thunderbolt GPU adapter shown off for the last few years (by refusing Thunderbolt certification and thus trademarking etc). As recently as this year's CES, Alienware and MSI's outboard GPU boxes both used non-Thunderbolt implementations. I wonder what finally changed their mind?

It is strange; I never understood why they were so vehemently against Thunderbolt being used for external GPUs when it was the perfect interface. A few years ago I would have loved this with my chunky laptop but nowdays with tablets and phones that can do everything, and the fact I prefer ultra low power laptops that wouldn't make sense to use this with, I think I prefer having a desktop at home now.

[Zhaoman]

Intel have torpedoed EVERY outboard thunderbolt GPU adapter shown off for the last few years (by refusing Thunderbolt certification and thus trademarking etc). As recently as this year's CES, Alienware and MSI's outboard GPU boxes both used non-Thunderbolt implementations. I wonder what finally changed their mind?

It is strange; I never understood why they were so vehemently against Thunderbolt being used for external GPUs when it was the perfect interface. A few years ago I would have loved this with my chunky laptop but nowdays with tablets and phones that can do everything, and the fact I prefer ultra low power laptops that wouldn't make sense to use this with, I think I prefer having a desktop at home now.

[HandiHanyut]

how about the price hmm

[marshalex]

Does seem like potentially great idea. The ability to have the portability of a laptop when out and about then come home and dock it to get desktop grade graphics and additional functions. Get a few companies creating graphics orientated docks that people can bolt on (and ideally replace) could open up more possibilities for users.

[aidanjt]

Let's just hope Intel doesn't try to squash them again.

[KillerCoati]

I could do with something like this so much! I'm having to build an entirely new desktop for VR as my graphics card in my gaming laptop wont quite cut it so a solution like this would be perfect. Would also mean i'm able to take VR out and about with me