Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

External Thunderbolt Graphics Card On Its Way

Posted by timothy on from the hook-to-the-big-monitor-on-the-wall dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Last week, as the result of a straw poll on Facebook, Village Instruments agreed to begin development of an external Thunderbolt-connected graphics card enclosure. Village Instruments already has experience with its ExpressCard-connected ViDock graphics card chassis, which provides extra GPU juice for Windows and Mac laptops, and the Thunderbolt version is expected to be the same kind of thing — but faster. The only problem is, Thunderbolt is only 4x PCIe 2.0, so you won't be using this to connect modern, desktop-class GPUs to your laptop — and more importantly you need to carry around a second monitor to actually use a ViDock. So why not just buy a proper gaming laptop?"

5 of 207 comments (clear)

  1. HP dv7 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    So why not just buy a proper gaming laptop?

    It's not exactly a gaming laptop... but it does have a Core i7 2ghz CPU, Radeon HD 6770M 1GB, 8GB of RAM, and a 17.3" LCD... Oh and when I get bored of gaming it also came with a BD-ROM.

    Costco has them for $999 and I bought two :)

  2. Re:Woosh! by bemymonkey · · Score: 3, Informative

    "And to answer the summary's closing question: because it means I can carry an ultra-portable (MacBook Air) when I travel and plug it in at home to give it a much needed graphics boost for use at home."

    Sure, that would be great - but Apple crippled the MBA with a downsized Thunderbolt port. http://www.slashgear.com/macbook-air-gets-half-power-thunderbolt-29168292/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+slashgear+(SlashGear)

    If the thing can't even handle two external screens, I doubt it'll handle an external screen and an external graphics card...

  3. Re:Thunderbolt = dead in two years. by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 3, Informative

    It isn't exactly protocol agnostic, it's essentially an external 4x PCIe cable. Assuming the device in question doesn't flip out at finding itself a bit further than usual from the PCIe controller, there is certainly a lot of stuff you can plug in to it(with the addition of a case and one of those fancy custom Intel converter chips); but it isn't "agnostic"...

  4. external pci-e is in the works and does not have t by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 3, Informative

    external pci-e is in the works and does not have the over head at Thunderbolt has and will not be Intel locked.

    http://www.zdnet.com/blog/computers/look-out-thunderbolt-external-pci-express-spec-being-developed/6220
    http://www.molex.com/molex/products/family?key=external_pci_express_pcie&channel=products&chanName=family&pageTitle=Introduction
    http://www.andovercg.com/datasheets/molex-74546-0813.pdf

    Thunderbolt may be good for external HDD's and other high data stuff. But for PCI-e add in cards and video cards better to go with pci-e also the mac's with on board video have like 8-12 unused pci-e lanes any ways so why not run a video card off of them as 1 video card just maxes out the Thunderbolt bus and still does not let it hit it's full power. Maybe in 2013 you can have a mac mini with a good cpu and a pci-e box with a good video card in it.

  5. Re:Thunderbolt = dead in two years. by Luckyo · · Score: 1, Informative

    You may want to engage your brain and re-read my post. You're repeating my argument.