Acer: AMD's XGP External Technology No Good

By Kevin Parrish
published

Ouch. Acer didn't speak too fondly of AMD's XGP technology.

TechRadar reports that Acer isn't too keen on AMD's XGP external graphics technology. The feelings were conveyed to the website during a query about the release date of Acer's external ATI Radeon graphics card, slated to ship this year. According to the report, it appears that the card has now been placed on the back-burner. In TechRadar's actual words, Acer responded to the query with a "less than flattering description of XGP."

While TechRadar didn't offer a full disclosure of the transaction, Acer apparently still shows some interest in the external GPU technology. "Acer is interested in this solution, but at the moment it doesn't offer the best user experience," said a spokesman for the company. AMD was a little more positive, saying that it was working closely with Acer to bring the XGP product to the market.

"The Acer Ferrari One [netbook], now available for purchase, does include the XGP port," AMD told the site. "AMD demonstrated a prototype solution with this notebook at International CES 2010 in Las Vegas at the beginning of this year."

For laptops without graphical horsepower, AMD's XGP technology (short for eXternal Graphics Platform) could be a huge boost to consumers wanting to play better games or survive the flood of embedded Flash objects littering the Internet. Unfortunately, the XGP market is scarce, virtually non-existent at this present time.

Kevin Parrish
21 Comments Comment from the forums
  • nevertell
    It should be just a port in which you can plug in an "extender-cord" to which you can plug in any pci-express 2.0 video card. And it should come with a 200w power supply that supplies the video card with power. It should be a way of turning a portable doc writer/netbook into a semi-portable gaming machine.
    Reply
  • silentq
    3DFX accelerator cards reborn?
    Reply
  • mister g
    When I first looked at this I thought that AMD had finally created external graphics cards, after reading this up at Wikipedia I'm still confused at what this is for.
    Reply
  • hellwig
    We have express-card which already breaks out a PCIe x1 slot (and USB if I recall). In theory, XGP should just be like an Express-Card slot. Of course, this isn't x8 or x16 bandwidth, so the performance won't be great, but it should be better than anything you can get on-board. I wish there was some detail in this article.
    Reply
  • victomofreality
    hellwigWe have express-card which already breaks out a PCIe x1 slot (and USB if I recall). In theory, XGP should just be like an Express-Card slot. Of course, this isn't x8 or x16 bandwidth, so the performance won't be great, but it should be better than anything you can get on-board. I wish there was some detail in this article.
    That's just it though they're designing the platform and interface from scratch theres no reason they shouldn't be able to get it up to atleast the speed of a PCIEx8... as for the complaint from Acer it's new tech, show me a piece of new tech that worked right out of beta without flaws.
    Reply
  • figgus
    hellwigWe have express-card which already breaks out a PCIe x1 slot (and USB if I recall). In theory, XGP should just be like an Express-Card slot. Of course, this isn't x8 or x16 bandwidth, so the performance won't be great, but it should be better than anything you can get on-board. I wish there was some detail in this article.
    The on-board would still get better bandwidth, and that counts for a lot. XGP is a neat idea, but not very practical for exactly that reason.
    Reply
  • etrom
    The XGP is a feature that I was thinking about for years: it's understood that VGA cards consumes a lot power and draws a lot of heat to be inside of a notebook case, so why develop a pcmcia-like external card, or even a USB 3.0 card to do the job? This would rock the gaming notebook market!
    Reply
  • 'mister g
    When I first looked at this I thought that AMD had finally created external graphics cards, after reading this up at Wikipedia I'm still confused at what this is for'

    there's always the ATI website.... granted it's probably got they're marketing spin on it but should give you a feel for the tech

    interesting, could be eyefinity for laptops that just dotn have the space for 6 ports or even better still..... hybrid crossfire with compatible ATI IGP, mostly though i just like the idea of not having to rely on Sony/Dell/vendorX releasing half a$$ed drivers thats are not supported for the latest OS cause they want me to upgrade my laptop so i can use the TV out which worked perfectly fine on the old OS..... dont i just love Intel GMA chips........
    Reply
  • CptTripps
    Maybe it's not that great atm, but I have no doubt this kind of thing will mature over time. It will be very cool for those laptops/netbooks that are fully capable in all respects except graphics power.
    Reply
  • wcooper007
    How about that Intel Light Peak as the connection what 10 gigs a second or something like that granted okay i know the device is made by AMD but i doubt even a video card could saturate the connection of that light peak technology... humm larabee with light peak
    Reply