Alienware should sell external GPUs!

March 29, 2012

Posted By:  HerrKaputt

4 Votes

Status: Archived

Promote

Imagine this: you buy a business notebook like a Latitude E6220 because you need something that doesn't fail in the middle of work. At your workplace and at home, you dock it to a docking station and use external monitors, keyboard, etc.

But you can't play modern games on it with decent framerates... WELL, ACTUALLY YOU CAN!

If you never heard of external GPUs for laptops, you can read about it here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/gaming-software-graphics-cards/418851-diy-egpu-experiences.html

Several members of that forum have created such a setup by themselves, but you can also see a commercial product here:
http://www.villageinstruments.com/tiki-index.php?page=Store

An external GPU, or eGPU, is a way to have a desktop video card used by your laptop to output graphics to an external monitor. It can be linked to an ExpressCard or a mPCIe slot. There is a limiting factor: the ExpressCard slots do not have enough bandwidth to support a top-tier desktop card. Nevertheless, decently-powered cards such as the Nvidia GTX 560 Ti (not 560m -- I am talking about the desktop card!) can be used and yield very good results. For example, a member who linked a GTX 560 Ti to his HP Elitebook 2560p (a 12-inch business ultrabook!) got 148.3 fps on the Resident Evil 5 benchmark! The link for the NBR forums above has hundreds of benchmarks showing that this setup WORKS. It even works on some Dell laptops, such as all Latitudes and Precisions. With the appearance of Thunderbolt, which offers huge bandwidth and a simpler cable setup, the time for eGPUs to boom is NOW.

Alienware should offer a product like this. It would feature a case in Alienware's style, like its desktops, with changeable lights and the Alien logo. It would connect via ExpressCard and Thunderbolt. Like all Dell products, it should be customizable: the case color and the actual GPU used can be selected.

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  • Apr 17, 2012

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    Posted By:  HerrKaputt Comment Link

    There already is a company who will provide Thunderbolt eGPUs in the near future:
    http://www.sonnettech.com/news/nab2011/

    Dell, time to step it up or you'll lose the race!
    Comments :
     

  • Apr 17, 2012     Comment Link

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    Posted By: CyJ

    The first out of the gate isn't always the winner at the end. The only way to ensure a loss is to not participate. 
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  • Apr 14, 2012     Comment Link

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    Posted By:
    Hyncharas

    This is something I'd definitely like to see.

    I know Matrox have released their own device about one or two years ago, but the only alternative sometimes is to purchase a new laptop and, with the Recession, not all of us have the luxury of doing that every two years!  Perhaps the Alienware brand could partner with NVIDIA on making an affordable solution.
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  • Apr 1, 2012     Comment Link

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    Posted By: HerrKaputt

    I'd like to add that these external GPUs can even be used with the internal monitor of the laptop, although that involves considerably more hassle (because internal monitors don't receive data via VGA / HDMI / DVI as external monitors do.

    Come on Dell, just imagine an M11x with a thunderbolt port + an external GTX 560 Ti hooked up to a 27-inch monitor. Pure flexibility, you can use it as a stand-alone small gaming system or as a beastly powerful desktop PC!