External Thunderbolt Graphics Adapter in the Works

[Camikazi]

[citation][nom]drumsrule786[/nom]except for the fact that most games are only for the PC[/citation]
Don't know what Bootcamp is I see

 

[liveonc]

Build a m-ITX & put it in your backpack with a UPS, gaming keyboard & mouse, 15"LCD, & 4G USB modem for a fraction of the cost of a Mac-Thunderbolt+Thunderbolt-Eternal-GPU+Windows7 or Clevo 30min on battery gamer!

 

[hang-the-9]

This is a bit of a neat product that most people when they think about it more, would not buy. This will go into the pile of all the ipads/netbooks that are all over craigslist now because people ran out to buy and then realized it's a toy and they now need money for food.

For the $500 this and a video card would cost, you can just get a pretty high-end gaming laptop to begin with and not have to worry about dragging another 10 lbs worth of stuff with you.

 

[g-unit1111]

I'm seriously intrigued by this idea - as much as I rely on my laptop keeping it around for a couple more years by adding a new graphics card for $200 as opposed to plunking down a thousand or more every two years is definitely worth it, I'm going to be keeping an eye on this product.

 

[cburke82]

The problem with a VI dock is if you look at the price it is very much not cost effective. In most cases with the price of the card and vi dock you could be well on your way to just buying a better laptop with a good mobile GPU and no extra box required lol.

 

[chillermethod]

Dear Village Instruments:
Please, when it is convenient, please fork this project and adapt an ARM platform and memory card slot. K, thnx. Bye

 

[iwantamd7970]

Most of the people here just don't get it. This isn't meant to bring with you. It's meant to let you have one computer - a Macbook Air or something similar - that you can take with you everywhere. But when you are at home or when you need a graphics card you just plug it in and you are set.

 

[chillermethod]

[citation][nom]iwantamd7970[/nom]Most of the people here just don't get it. This isn't meant to bring with you. It's meant to let you have one computer - a Macbook Air or something similar - that you can take with you everywhere. But when you are at home or when you need a graphics card you just plug it in and you are set.[/citation]

IMHO it seems like if there could still be a clock, calendar, email, games, web(hardware accelerated[I can dream right?]) up on the monitor even when the computer isn't docked/present, it would make this device wholy more usefull. Mr. Jobs, jump on the iDock... One for every TV! Comes with wireless keyboard, mouse, remote[dreamin]...

 

[cburke82]

Most of the people here just don't get it. This isn't meant to bring with you. It's meant to let you have one computer - a Macbook Air or something similar - that you can take with you everywhere. But when you are at home or when you need a graphics card you just plug it in and you are set.

My point is that for the price of this thing and the price of a good laptop that you might keep as your only computer ( mac book air of a nice PC laptop) you could have a laptop with intigrated m gpu that will game just as well. This VI dock does not support the highest end GPU's your not throwing a 580 in this thing. The best one right now supports 225w GPUs. So your looking at 6950 max for AMD prob more like a 6870 and your looking at a 560 for Nvidia cards. So you spend $279 for the dock and $200 for the card thats $479 plus the cost of the laptop. A base Mac Book Air is $999 (only 64GB of memory) the base Mac book pro is $1200 At least it has 320 GB. So with that Your spending about $1700 on your solution. For $1700 you could have:

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?oc=dkcwvv1f&c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&model_id=alienware-m17x-r3

At $1700 you can upgrade that one to the 6970M card. So for the same price you have more storage and about the same performance if not better AND yu can bring it anywhere. So then we are back to the VI Dock not being a very good choice for the amount of money you pay.

 

[captaincharisma]

Don't know what Bootcamp is I see

bootcamp to use another OS besides apples perfect OS? that's blasphemy to apple fanboys

 

[cburke82]

THERE'S been around since 2001 external pci-e specifications with cables etc and with some implementations in several areas. external pci-e is the way to go. no way thunderbolt has the necessary bandwidth.

notebook manufactures earn waay more profit selling new notebooks then just selling external graphic upgrades.
the problem here is in the interface. vidock can make use of thunderbolt because many new notebooks will come with thunderbolt.
but the only solution is to use an external pci-e connector. and vidock doesn't make notebooks and no notebook will be made with this kind of connector.
this problem will never be solved because of the greedy notebook manufactures.
If only 1 notebook was released with this kind of capability then the other brands would follow immediately to avoid losing market share.

external pci-e is not like something that needs to be developed or that needs to be worked to be implemented. it's been around since many years ago, much older then thunderbolt. there's no excuse to not implement it.

PCI-e or what ever option they decide to use this is still IMO not a good option for one reason. The cost is to high. The only way you would ever go this route is if you have an older laptop you want to upgrade I guess. If you have not purchased one yet your can get a good gaming laptop for the price of and avg laptop+VI dock+the GPU. So that markets out even so If you have an older laptop you would be better off just saving your money for when you can buy a newer gaming laptop or better yet just build a desk top. So really the only way this makes any sense is if you have an older laptop live in a dorm room and 100% can not wait to play some new game that comes out.