I've been waiting for the PUMA platform to come out and reading any related articles. I noticed that one article mentioned that the Hybrid Graphics function won't be released until later in the year. It popped into my mind that this just may be what takes us into the reality of discrete external video cards. Asus had an external card and enclosure at one of the shows early last year but we never heard much else about it. Since the 780g platform supports Hybrid Crossfire, this could be another link in the path forward. The other issue in the past was an adequate bus to transfer the information. Since USB and Express Card were the only interfaces available, there just wasn't bandwidth available to really make it work. With a better bus and now Hybrid Crossfire, it sure looks like this is getting closer to reality.
 
I can see a minor revolution in the industry. If you integrate the power supply with the external video card and enclosure then you won't need the massive power supply (and heat) in the main case and it only gets used when needed.
 
So what do the rest of you think - does this sound like what's coming down the road or have I just got too much time on my hands?  

I think youre looking in the wrong direction. Sure these things are being done, and could be a future solution, but it goes against the grain of both Intel and AMD. Theyre currently trying to integrate a cpu/gpu mix, even to go as far as compatible upgrades on the mobo being done that way. Like I said, these things are available, and in some cases, even desirable, but the larger picture seems to be the cpu/gpu convergence on the mobo

I really hadn't thought of the integrated CPU/GPU in that context - good point.  Although now that I think of it, the external video card idea may be too small of a market segment to be profitable.

If the cpu/gpu idea doesnt pan out, and the process nodes run out (die shinkage), we just may see what youre talking about