Sony Vaio Z Has External Radeon Light Peak GPU
The best of both worlds for the roadwarrior and desktop replacement.
Sony has taken the wraps off its new high-end premium notebook, the new Vaio Z Series with some pretty interesting expansion options.
The Vaio Z is super-travel-ready with a weight of about 1.18 kg or 2.6 lbs and a thickness of 16.65 mm or just under 0.66 of an inch. Despite its small size, it is sturdy thanks to a carbon fibre composition.
The 13.1-inch screen has a 1600x900 resolution with an anti-reflective coating. Various configurations include Intel Core i7 processors and fast SSD storage as well as an optional secondary sheet battery gives up to 14 hours of use.
While roadwarriors will love the Vaio Z for portability and speed reason, this fancy notebook can shine with some added power thanks to a docking expansion called the Power Media Dock.
Notable about the Power Media Dock is that it contains an AMD Radeon HD 6650M with 1GB DDR3, which takes over the graphical duties from the integrated Intel HD Graphics 3000. The discrete GPU can an additional three external displays with a maximum resolution of 1920x1200 through VGA and HDMI outputs.
Besides just packing a GPU, the Power Media Dock also sports an optical drive bay that can be specified with a Blu-ray Disc or SuperMulti combo drive.
The Power Media Dock obviously has big I/O requirements with the laptop, and that is all facilitated by the architecture codenamed 'Light Peak'. Apparently, it can't be called Thunderbolt because it uses a USB connector interface rather than the DisplayPort that Apple first implemented earlier this year. When the optical-based Sony proprietary cable isn't plugged into the notebook, the port can function as a regular USB 3.0/2.0 one.
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As for pricing, the premium Vaio line has never been cheap. Expect prices starting in the $2000 range and into the $3000 range depending on configuration and Power Media Dock.
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GreaseMonkey_62 Way cool. I've been waiting for some to make a way to add an external video card to a laptop. If AMD's APU line makes it way onto more laptop however, this won't really be needed.Reply -
burnley14 nebunnot bad....now put the gpu inside the machine...you can do itThe whole point is to make it thin, then have GPU power back at home if you so choose.Reply -
whysobluepandabear I don't know why they haven't done this much earlier. Use desktop grade GPUs in external inclosures, and have them run off of a separate power supply. Create a link a method to output the device so no motherboard attachment is needed, and there you go.Reply
It would work for upgrades, temporary gaming and for desktops that lack the PSU. -
warmon6 If it wasn't the fact that gigabyte already had something close to this about 1.5 years ago, i would be more impressed.Reply
http://www.gigabyte.us/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3233#kf
As for you whysobluepandabear, both this old model and it's succesor have desktop grade gpu's. Although neither are mind blowing for there times.
http://computingforever.com/archives/2634
Although i do like the idea of a docking station with a gpu in it for games and gpgpu intensive stuff while having IGP for battery life on the road. -
zorky9 Pricing will be interesting. The PMD will be bottlenecked by the Radeon which is rather anemic for gaming. Maybe you can buy a high-end desktop GPU for the price of the PMD.Reply
But hey, this is a start. -
hang-the-9 warmon6If it wasn't the fact that gigabyte already had something close to this about 1.5 years ago, i would be more impressed. http://www.gigabyte.us/products/pr id=3233#kfAs for you whysobluepandabear, both this old model and it's succesor have desktop grade gpu's. Although neither are mind blowing for there times.http://computingforever.com/archives/2634Although i do like the idea of a docking station with a gpu in it for games and gpgpu intensive stuff while having IGP for battery life on the road.Reply
It looks like Gigabyte has 3 US distributors, none of which I have heard of. Never even new they made laptops. Laptops have been offering graphics slots in docking stations for at least 10 years, not just 1.5. I worked with a Compaq that had a dock with multiple PCI slots that we put video cards in just fine. -
schmich Why the f did they put such a simple GPU in it? Put a desktop-grade GPU in it like a 6950 or 6970! Such a waste at the moment :/Reply