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?"

13 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:Thunderbolt = dead in two years. by TheRaven64 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Totally agree. I mean, a single connector that can drive a monitor, external disks, and a range of peripherals and is small enough to fit on something like a mobile phone? What possible use case is there for that?

    --
    I am TheRaven on Soylent News
  3. Re:Thunderbolt = dead in two years. by RyuuzakiTetsuya · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Thunderbolt is protocol agnostic. It's not meant to compete with USB, but express card. In fact you can run USB devices over thunderbolt.

    --
    Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
  4. "So why not just buy a proper gaming laptop?" by macklin01 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    So why not just buy a proper gaming laptop?"

    For docking stations and such. Plenty of us plop our laptop onto a docking station or a USB hub + monitor + speakers + keyboard + mouse anyway.

    It beats the hell out of hauling an overpriced 10-pound beast to the same office desk every day, when you can just keep better equipment (with better ergonomics) neatly arranged and haul a lighter machine to/from work.

    --
    OpenSource.MathCancer.org: open source comp bio
  5. 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...

  6. No bandwidth limiting yet by EdZ · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Thunderbolt is only 4x PCIe 2.0, so you won't be using this to connect modern, desktop-class GPUs to your laptop

    For multi-GPU systems in current desktops at least, there's little to no performance penalty going from 16x to 4x.

  7. 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"...

  8. Gaming + laptop = contradiction by Stormwatch · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I just don't understand the purpose of a high end gaming laptop. It's always quite more expensive than the equivalent desktop; and ultimately you're playing with a small screen, a cramped keyboard, and an imprecise pointing device, in a far less comfortable way... unless you plug the laptop to an external screen, keyboard, and mouse, so what was the point of a portable anyway?

    --
    Circumcision is child abuse.
    1. Re:Gaming + laptop = contradiction by ledow · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I used to think this. Then, by chance, my workplace bought me one. I'd specified nothing more than "Must have Intel chip, more than one core, and an nVidia graphics card" - for convenience, compatibility with my existing disk images, etc. and to suit all the tasks I do during the average work day.

      I ended up with an MSI gaming laptop - my workplace didn't even realise that the rucksack and mouse it came with were anything more than "freebies" even though the mouse was one of those stupidly expensive ones that has multiple DPI modes, weights for balance and all sorts of other shite (but, hell, it's a very good mouse).

      They didn't even care that the WASD keys were highlighted or that it had all sorts of gaming features like a touch-button to overclock both processor and graphics (2 year warranty not applicable...). Apparently it was a super-cheap deal and even now I can't get the same laptop or any equivalent for even half the price they paid for it.

      I have to say - it's been wonderful. I've always had a dedicated "games" machine in the past and never had the money for this sort of laptop and probably would never have bought it for myself. I threw 300 Steam games at it and it laughed at every single one (I've always played the defaults that games offer but now I can actually ramp up to maximum easily).

      It has a huge screen that, even as up close as being laptop-range, you can really appreciate every pixel. It does HD video like I was asking it to add 2+2. The processor laughs at my Eclipse platform and compiles take no time at all. I've never NEEDED to press the overclock button for any reason, ever, at all. It has all the usual gadgets (webcam, bluetooth, wifi, even an "eco" button) and some more unusual (e.g. an external wifi antenna port!).

      It has a huge (full) keyboard that's ideal for typing AND gaming. It has a solid aluminium construction that has so far suffered more and survived better than any other laptop I've ever seen in my life (and has a custom-designed backpack to carry it in that holds more weight that I ever thought a backpack like that could). The sound is amazing and the first full 7.1 setup I've ever owned (hell, I've never bothered to have anything but stereo before - and this is WITHOUT having to plug any speakers in) and it's the LOUDEST laptop I've ever heard (you can easily watch a DVD on a crowded noisy airplane, or in a room with the TV on, and hear every word - and the positional audio does still work in those circumstances.

      I would never have touched this laptop in a million years, much preferring two or three more ordinary ones instead. But now I'm trying to find this EXACT laptop again for myself at a decent price. It's really changed the way I used my computer and I use the laptop exclusively now. There's nothing better than having a machine that you can use all day at work for menial tasks and then have that same machine at home to play anything you throw at it, and take the same machine with you on holiday and have it do everything you need/want while you're away too.

      Plus, gaming laptops have huge advantages in terms of some basic specifications - big GPU's that you just don't get on business laptops, great for video encoding - large amounts of RAM, big screens, every port imaginable, full keyboards that you can get to every key easily, and a lot of money spent on making it feel "right" and solid. I can type on this laptop all day long, go home and type on it for hours, and then take it on the road and type on it for even longer and not fatigue. Even the mouse is the most comfortable that I've ever used.

      I would never pay what I see as the gaming premium (similar to the wedding premium - a £5 cake suddenly costs £50) but a single gaming laptop changed it for me. It's not like this is even a model that *pretends* to be gaming while actually being general purpose - the WASD are marked and everything about it says "gaming laptop". But it laughs at everything you throw at it because, compared to a to

  9. So why not just buy a proper gaming laptop? by mlk · · Score: 3, Insightful

    They are bloody heavy and expensive. And when you drop it in an airport... :sob: (x-Alienware laptop owner).

    This seams like an interesting idea, get a mid-range laptop (£500 will get you an i5 with a smallish screen) and then add this and a nice big monitor for home use. That way I can get a the odd game of TF2 and about and get my work done while out and about, but get home and play something a little more taxing.

    --
    Wow, I should not post when knackered.
  10. Re:Woosh! by drsmithy · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The latest Intel graphics cards aren't that bad. They're not great, but I'd imagine that they'd stack up quite well against something that's crippled by the bandwidth of Thunderbolt. Modern GPUs use 16x PCIe cards. Even with PCIe 1, this is 3 times the bandwidth that this device can use. With PCIe 3, it's 12 times as much. A slightly weaker GPU on a fast interface is going to beat a fast one that's spending 90% of its time waiting for data over the bus.

    The vast majority of stuff you might want a GPU to do, is not bandwidth-limited. Numerous tech sites have shown that in most cases, the difference in performance between a GPU on a x16 PCIe bus and a x4 PCIe bus is nothing, and even a x1 PCIe bus doesn't suffer much.

  11. 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.

  12. Re:Thunderbolt = dead in two years. by JBMcB · · Score: 3, Interesting

    > If anything, we need LESS of cable solutions and more slots.

    'Cause that's what consumers are looking for, great big huge desktops with loads of slots. That's what's filling the aisles at Best Buy.

    No, the majority of consumers want tiny, unobtrusive PC's that they have to mess with as little as possible.

    > Look up at what's missing inside laptops in comparison to desktops.

    Uh-huh. That's why nobody buys laptops. Oh wait, laptops are almost more popular than desktops these days. If only there was some technology that would bring PCIe level expandability to laptops without eating up a bunch of space like ExpressCard...

    --
    My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.