AMD hints at standardization for external graphics cards

by Hilbert Hagedoorn on: 03/01/2016 10:46 AM | source: | 27 comment(s)

Personally I feel it's kicking a dead horse as the idea has been done over and over again. However on it's facebook page Robert Hallock (chief technical marketing AMD) is making a case for a standardization of external graphics cards.

The idea is that you can hook an external graphics card into a laptop. So if you are traveling, you do not need to carry arround the external GPU, but at home you could plug it in to play games. Let's just call this port external PCI-Express.

Hallock:

Alright, let's have some Real Talk about gaming on the go. Gaming notebooks are great for gaming, but nobody in their right mind wants to carry one all the time. Ultrathin notebooks are awesome to carry, but nobody in their right mind would confuse one for a gaming notebook.

But there's still a HUGE appetite for thin notebooks that can game. I also bet there's a bunch of gamers out there who, as they get into their 30s and 40s, wouldn't mind condensing their entire computing life down into one device that does it all. I ALSO bet that some people wouldn't mind giving up an mITX LAN rig if their notebook had the potential to serve that role with gusto.

External GPUs are the answer. External GPUs with standardized connectors, cables, drivers, plug'n'play, OS support, etc.

More info very soon.

It is not the first time AMD is attempting to do something like this, back in 2008/2009 we have already seen the ATi XGP, or ATI eXternal Graphics Platform (graphics booster). Which back then failed substantially. But sure, to get an open standard for this would give the concept more chance of succeeding this round.

If you want to have a nice flashback into the past, read our (pretty old) article about that right here.

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fantaskarsef
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#5237959 Posted on: 03/01/2016 10:57 AM

Probably why Nvidia had that USB icon in it's driver too, sort of 'leaked' feature for such an upcoming standard.
Not my personal thing though, quite interesting from the technical side.

Noisiv
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Joined: 2010-11-16

#5237966 Posted on: 03/01/2016 11:23 AM

wait... so I am supposed to buy a laptop so I CANT play demanding games on the move,

so that later when I'm home I can have ALMOST desktop-like gaming experience???

LOL the marketing genius behind this...

fantaskarsef
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#5237967 Posted on: 03/01/2016 11:29 AM

Pretty much sums it up. I think it's weird too, but there'll be sales (and wasted R&D budget) I guess.

TheDeeGee
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Joined: 2010-08-28

#5237971 Posted on: 03/01/2016 11:38 AM

Personally I feel it's kicking a dead horse...

Maybe AMD likes horses, specially dead ones

Fox2232
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Joined: 2012-07-20

#5237979 Posted on: 03/01/2016 11:57 AM

I think about it as "Choice user can make".

You can have one system doing everything at home. And when you go out, you'll decide if you take eGPU with you or not. If not you have thin, light system with great battery life.

Because if we are honest, those Gaming laptops eat 100~150W+ anyway and that means like 30minutes of battery under full load. So you are actually gaming "on the move" only if you are stationary and have external source of energy available. (Or in the train with Power sockets.)

And this is choice between 1.0~2kg notebook convertible to 6kg desktop with eGPU. Or having huge 5~6kg desktop replacement at all times.

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