External GPU via thunderbolt: the future of MBP gaming?

Remember this?
AnandTech - MSI's GUS II: External GPU via Thunderbolt

Obviously these kind of things are non exist at the moment since thunderbolt is new, but lets say in 3 years could I just get an enclosure like this, get a good modern desktop gpu, then via thunderbolt use it with my MBP? If I could do this then I could maybe keep my laptop for 4-5 years since it could still be decent for gaming since the CPU will probably not be too much of a bottleneck. What do you guys think?

 

Current Intel 4core notebook CPUs have fantastic power and they are way more than needed to any game available.
I have been waiting for thunderbolt equipped portable i7 notebook + thunderbolt egpu solution for 2 years now. Losing my patience here... Am i the minority who doesnt deserve enough attention?
I do not want to drag large and heavy 15+inch laptop whereever i go...
I was talking about non-mac.

 

I'm disappointed in Apple for not capitalizing their lead with Thunderbolt. Seriously, external optical drive, Ethernet, and displays aren't that innovative, nor is it exciting.

 

I am in the same boat with you, lightweight laptop + external GPU seems like the perfect combination.

 

They are still coming but it appears that the Windows camp is focusing on them more. Sony has a thunderbolt notebook out that is actually docked to an external accessory (though it uses a non-standard USB connection). That accessory has a Blu-ray drive, dedicated GPU, and a few other things. So the industry is starting to move that way, it will just take a while before it gets there. Whether or not those accessories are supported in OS X is going to be a different matter entirely.

 

Sony PMD is piece of crap. I doubt very much that they even have full thunderbolt bandwith on it, because their 6650M PMD performs extremely bad compared to dedicated card.

 

Most likely not.

 

Head over to the e-GPU (External Graphics) Discussion to see the latest and greatest about expresscard, mPCIe and Thunderbolt eGPUs. You may be interested to know BPlus have set a July 2012 ETA for the TH05 Thunderbolt eGPU product. See Wall Photos | Facebook .

 

Yeah, I know it sucks but it is still an example of the industry adopting that sort of technology. Nobody ever said that the first one out of the gates has to be a winner (much like the first MBA from Apple).

 

It sounds like perfection... hence why I doubt it'll work as such.

 

The sony dock is really a tough sell. The drive itself is worth $30-40. So you're really paying $260 for a very below average card that simply does the incredible 1080p screen no justice.

Having said that, the Z is... in my book, the best 13 inch on the market. Too bad it's windows though. To apple: give me 1920x1200 mba.

 

If you don't need to take your GPU with you, why not just use a desktop computer for gaming? The eGPU solutions that hobbyists seem to be pursuing are intended to allow a full-on desktop GPU, which requires a desktop power supply and a small desktop-sized case. To do it justice, you'll want an external monitor and mouse & keyboard as well. So you're not far away from a desktop gaming rig anyway.

The difference is that the Sony dock is the size of a slimline external optical drive and therefore it still offers portable gaming, albeit with an increased footprint.

 

basically I rarely see people gaming on the go. For me it works as a perfect solution, since i would game at home and be perfectly fine with it.

But indeed it has some similarities, thus those more portable and developed solutions like the ones from villagetronics or the msi gus II are what we are waiting.

 

If there was some serious external GPU's out there capable of transforming a laptop with a good CPU but only a moderate GPU into a true gaming machine I would definitely go for that over the M18x. If one doesn't come out in the next year, I going to have to go for the AW... dat desktop performance is beautiful...

 

@ dmk2. Currently i have PC+ notebook solution. Everything work related i just drag with along with fast USB3 stick. However, i dont like the solution. I´d like to have a single computer, were i dont need to transfer all my things every time i go somewhere. I dont need GPU with me.
Remote desktop is not a solution for me either. Its too complicated and laggy because of wireless mobile internet i use on the go.
Ultra portable notebook plus e-GPU would be just perfect.

 

I am just gaming on medium settings. Not a great fan of 3d actions / racing so that cuts most of the super demanding games and so i am fine with current gpu, but obviously waiting for e-gpu solutions as an alternative way of prolonging notebook life cycle.

 

I'm not sure about this... the current Mac can only support a 45 watt gpu and with no external power supply you won't find a more efficient and optimized gpu than the 650m... at least until the next batch of cards come out... apple already ships a power supply that barely supports the rmac pro.

 

I'm probably going to buy a mac mini and do the egpu route, Flash an xfx 6870 and game off of it. Thunderbolt is the future and thank god the pc manufacturers are figuring it out finally

-- Sent from my TouchPad using Communities

 

just sign the petition to have some thunderbolt egpu faster

 

i would expect them to perform worse then desktop. its like laptop gpu usually are not as good as their desktop counterparts. i think the same will be with these external gpus. Laptop gpu performance would be the best to hope for and will likely be less.

 

it all depends on how much bandwidth we are going to be able to use. If its pcie 2.0 x4, it should be 0-10% loss in terms of performance. For some people like me, that only have the HD 3000 this should be more than good enough.

 

For anyone who spend months on the road, the eGPU solution would be a perfect fit provided it could drive the internal display. Those boring nights at the hotel with an eGPU would make me a happy customer.

Close to desktop performance in such a small package would be to close to the perfect solution, hence the reluctance from any manufacturer to even go that route.

Think about it. Why would you buy a new laptop if all you had to do was upgrade your eGPU solution, since most medium CPU's can handle gaming with ease. There would be no sustainable growth for PC manufacturers, they want to sell you $1000 laptops not $300 gpus and an enclosure. I strongly feel this is the reason why this hasn't been done yet. The corporate mentality isn't geared towards small profit margins. I would like to see a small startup group go this route from the get go. I think the longevity of the product upgradeability would be the backbone of said business, and the profits would come from the future upgrades.

I remember reading a story about a car manufacturer that thought this would be the future of automobiles. They would manufacture the chassis and support structure from stainless or other non oxidizing materials, and would be be upgradeable with future interiors, exteriors, lights, suspension and so on. The world is on a recycling/reusing binge and no manufacturers that I know of has taken this route. Just seems like a huge market up for grabs if some one has the BALLS to challenge the established markets.

 

or they can simply do what sony does, launch a 2k laptop with a egpu

 

Because once you commit to using an eGPU, you give up portability and compactness, two of the major reasons people look towards laptops in the first place. It's pretty marginal versus just getting a small desktop with a carrying handle.

It's not really like buying a modular chassis. It's more like buying a motorcycle for fun and then using it to haul a trailer by putting the motorcycle in the bed of a pickup truck, and attaching the trailer to the motorcycle and the pickup truck, and then driving off in the pickup truck.

If laptops became more like desktops in that the parts were all standardized and the internal chassis could be standardized as well, then you could have *internal* swappable parts, which could be interesting. However, it would definitely be a tradeoff against the size of the laptop.

I'm actually pretty happy with the current system. Make internal graphics cards faster. Focus on that first before anything else.

 

Depends for some a egpu solution is a great thing. Those people are the ones with ultraportable systems (ultrabooks + 11-14'' light notebooks). They can have more power when at home.

I will use myself as a example (poor argument I know): Im mainly on the road for the most of my day, I arrive at 11pm, and sometimes I do like to game, I wouldnt do it at uni or work, however when I have a spare time why not?

And for me to have 2 pcs doesnt make monetary sense, when I do need a desktop power I need it server grade power, due to the app that Im developing (sorry, kind of snotty put take it as true), I use my uni server that I bought from the gov budget that was granted due to the app. Its a 4 cpu, 8 core amd with 128gb of ram. I would be out of my mind to purchase that for home use, thus I still only rely on my notebook as my main and only pc.

Again no measurement contest meant.

 

You don't have to buy a multi-cpu computer with 128 GB of memory to play games. You can literally get a complete computer for marginally the same cost as an eGPU system, which makes the whole thing... well... marginal.

That's why eGPU doesn't have more demand than it does currently. Conceptually, you are taking the processing elements that generate too much heat and draw too much power to exist in your laptop, and you are buying those expensive components, and an enclosure, and a power supply...

You can save yourself a few components this way, but the niche-ness of this operation also raises the price. It's not a bad idea at all - but it's also not the long term evolution of the laptop. Quite the opposite. High performance parts continue to get cheaper, smaller, more powerful, less power hungry. All the more reason to keep them in the chassis, particularly in the long run.

 

thats why I said it was a poor argument to use me as an example. While you can get a 3kg notebook with a 680m which is a heavily downclocked 670, and can overclock to reach its brother power, comparing it to a RMBP is just... not practical.

However I disagree the trend is going to be more and more portable machines that in the end need a simple connection to dock to several peripherals, something that is limited currently to enterprise class hardware, although due to thunderbolt and its future revisions we are going to see more and more peripherals that take that advantage and push the development forward.

Cutting those components out leads us to the current fever around ultrabooks, add thunderbolt to those and some products we can have good performance with great portability. Specially if intel keeps pushing that idea of variable TDPs. And one thing that I like in the design of the acer V3 was the added cooling that the port cover provided, I know most will look at it as a gimmick, I do see a way to keep things portable and the variable TDP working.

 

I don't know. It doesn't sound like Ultrabooks are selling very well.

 

better ask for hp consumers. those envy AFAIK are really selling well.

Until I have numbers of sale of each model there isnt much that we can prove or disprove, but given the push to launch several models this year and in the past, and the success that is the MBA, I wont doubt that this should work.

Remember the money that intel threw at those OEMs is just a bunch of pennies. I remember it was 300mi, divide that for the several OEMs and you are left with not enough to make a conscious manager to even accept it.