External Laptop gpu?

[MasterYster]

I had a laptop, toshiba A15 S127. It was pretty good but the gpu was horrible. Some intel chipset. I was wondering if there was a possible way to boost my performance on the laptop with some sort of external gpu to render the graphics on my laptop? COD4 on my laptop would be sweet

 

[sabot00]

Nope, at CES AMD had a XGP allowing a netbook to run Eyefinity. The XGP came in a box.
However that is probably at least 1Q away from market, and will probably run off high-bandwidth ports.

USB 3.0 will probably have the bandwidth, but will be a weird way to hook it
PCI-E/Mobile PCI-E lanes are the most obvious, haven't heard of laptops equipped with them yet
eSATA will have a lot of bandwidth, but this will be very hard to use without custom drivers

For now you can pray standardized ports (Mobile PCI-E FTW) & dimensions are implemented soon.

In short, no.

 

[impaledmango]

I heard about an external gu. I think it was a 4670, but im not sure the interface. I dont think usb would be fast enough, try looking it up.

 

[impaledmango]

here's the one I ws talking about. it comes with a desktop 4670

http://harmonicinversion.com/index.php?product_id=162&page=shop.product_details&category_id=4&flypage=shop.flypage&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=21&vmcchk=1&Itemid=21

 

[sabot00]

USB 3.0's theoretical maximum is 4.8Gbit/s.
The specification considers it reasonable to achieve 3.2 Gbit/s (400MByte/s)
So it'll be enough for a low end cards like a 4550 (desktop)
1 PCI-E 1.0 lane delivers 250MByte/s, so it'll be 1.6 PCI-E 1.0 lanes.

 

[sayantan]

check this out::
http://ts.fujitsu.com/home/products/notebooks/amilo_graphic_booster.html

 

[cjl]

USB 3.0's theoretical maximum is 4.8Gbit/s.
The specification considers it reasonable to achieve 3.2 Gbit/s (400MByte/s)
So it'll be enough for a low end cards like a 4550 (desktop)
1 PCI-E 1.0 lane delivers 250MByte/s, so it'll be 1.6 PCI-E 1.0 lanes.

Yeah, but USB has much higher latency and CPU overhead than PCI-E. I doubt it would even be the equivalent of PCI-E x1 for performance.

 

[frozenlead]

There are a few external interfaces for notebook GPU upgrades, but none of them are very feasible aside from the one displayed at CES (which isn't out yet). They lack drivers, bandwidth, and low latencies, which really don't make the power of the card they hold within effective.

Basically, when getting a notebook (at this point in time), you should get the best GPU you can afford if gaming. But, for now, you're stuck with what Intel gave you.

 

[impaledmango]

You guys realized I posted an external HD4670 above....

 

[MasterYster]

problem is I want one to use on my laptop not an external screen

 

[impaledmango]

you dont hav to hook it up to a monitor, if you watch the video they just show it is capable off, if you look you can see the laptop monitor is still working.

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

Nope, at CES AMD had a XGP allowing a netbook to run Eyefinity. The XGP came in a box.
However that is probably at least 1Q away from market, and will probably run off high-bandwidth ports.

.... For now you can pray standardized ports (Mobile PCI-E FTW) & dimensions are implemented soon.
In short, no.

Please stop posting stuff like that.
XGP is ALREADY in the market and has been for over a year from Fujitsu;
http://ts.fujitsu.com/home/products/notebooks/amilo_graphic_booster.html

But you still need a laptop with the proprietary JAE connector.

And they already have ExpressCad slot solutions, and have have since before the GF8 series was out.
http://www.magma.com/store/expressbox1.html

and Cleeve reviewed the ViDock solution a year and a half ago;
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/vidock-expresscard-graphics,1933.html

The ViDock is essentially the only viable option for existing laptops that have an expresscard slot, and even then it's only mediocre performance, better than intel integrated, but not great. However would play COD4 as long as the settings are right.

 

[impaledmango]

This one has a 4670 in it so It should handle Cod4 just fine.

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

Nah, I wouldn't say it would handle it 'just fine' it'll still need settings to be toned down to make it playable, and even then it will equalize things a bit, because the main choke point is not the card's processing power, it's the interface.

Remember, it's an HD4670 being choked by a single PCIE 1.0 lane. If you read Cleeve's article you'll see he swapped in a more powerful HD3870 (which is more powerful than the HD4670) and it crippled it so much as to render it not that different from and HD2600XT;

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/vidock-expresscard-graphics,1933-9.html

It'll play COD4, but it's going to require alot of tweaking to optimize, and likely there'll still be alot frame drops because of the lack of bandwidth on the interface.

 

[MasterYster]

I dont think you guys get it, I want a gpu that simply plugs into my laptop, without external power, and thats improves the laptops performance without me having to route it to a different screen

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

I don't think you get it, YOU CAN'T !!! [:thegreatgrapeape:2]

That's the only way n00b, like it or leave it! [:mousemonkey:2]

 

[impaledmango]

You don't have to route it to a different monitor, but there is no other way to do it then the vidock or similar devices. This isnt a gaming desktop.

 

[protokiller]

I dont think you guys get it, I want a gpu that simply plugs into my laptop, without external power, and thats improves the laptops performance without me having to route it to a different screen

What does this guy think he can plug in a GPU thumbdrive that gets all bandwidth and power from usb.

lol just the thought of that made me lol.