I've heard about external graphics cards and that they can be used on laptops to compensate for the built-in crappy card. I know how most laptop's GPUs cannot be replaced and I'm wondering if any of you have any help regarding an external?
I need one that can run any game today on at least medium graphics, any price.
Well, I've never heard of them, but you can just take a peek inside your laptop and replace the graphics card with a new one, or get a professional to do it.
I'm pretty external means on the outside like an external Hard Drive, except he wants an External Graphics Card O.o
If that is what he means, I am sure that the motherboard won't have any free PCI-E slots and those would be useless anyway, because it would require major case hacking.
If that is what he means, I am sure that the motherboard won't have any free PCI-E slots and those would be useless anyway, because it would require major case hacking.
O.o I can't believe I forgot about the Motherboard... Silly me!
Unfortunately, External graphics cards are usually rubbish. Usually, their sole purpose is to provide the functionality to add an extra desktop screen, meaning, There isn't much in the way of extra gaming power. Aside from that, external cards tend to heat up quite quickly and the use of USB as a connector often leads to a bottleneck in data flow depending on the power of the external graphics card.
most external graphics cards are meant to give you more displays, they don't really help much on graphics power, esp. with what they cost ($300-$500 for a good one). At that price point, its almost better just to get a whole new laptop
The problem with graphics cards that connect to laptops via ExpressCard is that whilst the graphics card may be exactly the same card that you can use in a desktop, the ExpressCard interface is functionally equivalent to a PCIe 1X slot.
i.e., a heck of a lot slower than a standard 16X slot.
true, if you plug in a gtx580 you won't get nearly the desktop performance, but like a 5770 or 5870 might come alot closer. But its really the best option for that (if you don't consider the price :dry.gif: )
For $800, you can get a pretty serviceable rig. That's about the price you're looking at, if you go the vidock/new card route. You can dedicate it to gaming, while your laptop can be for business/class/whatever.
For $800, you can get a pretty serviceable rig. That's about the price you're looking at, if you go the vidock/new card route. You can dedicate it to gaming, while your laptop can be for business/class/whatever.
External graphics cards are just a novelty/experiment. Honestly, if you're seriously willing to spend money on something, get a desktop, since every single piece can be replaced and/or upgraded.
I need one that can run any game today on at least medium graphics, any price.
I'm pretty external means on the outside like an external Hard Drive, except he wants an External Graphics Card O.o
If that is what he means, I am sure that the motherboard won't have any free PCI-E slots and those would be useless anyway, because it would require major case hacking.
O.o I can't believe I forgot about the Motherboard... Silly me!
true, if you plug in a gtx580 you won't get nearly the desktop performance, but like a 5770 or 5870 might come alot closer. But its really the best option for that (if you don't consider the price :dry.gif: )
For $800, you can get a pretty serviceable rig. That's about the price you're looking at, if you go the vidock/new card route. You can dedicate it to gaming, while your laptop can be for business/class/whatever.
yea probably a better idea tbh
I've got you some links here, it seemed valueable for your research.
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/laptops/2010/05/21/computex-2010-preview-msi/1
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1522180
Especially the second seems nice.