CES 2007: First Ever External Video Card (And Other Asus Goodies)
Mon Jan 8, 2007 7:18PM EST
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This bizarre contraption takes quite a bit of explaining, and it's hardly something that every consumer is going to rush to buy. Listen: It's an external video card. Bear with me. I'll explain.
Say your notebook doesn't have 3D graphics (as is the case with many a crippled business machine). But you want to play Oblivion nonetheless. So you just hook up the an external video card (called XG Station, at least for now) via your laptop's ExpressCard slot, and run a cable to an external monitor.
Close the lid and boom, the monstrous XG Station takes over and does all the graphics processing instead of the lame chip inside the laptop. Because ExpressCard has very high available bandwidth, this is now a real possibility.
I saw the XG Station in the flesh, attached to a low-end notebook alongside that same notebook with the XG. Talk about night and day. The XG-equipped machine was running heavy-duty 3D benchmarks without much stuttering. The non-XG machine looked like it was about to catch fire. Whoosh!
As for the dial, it lets you adjust the fan speed, among other things, depending on how hardcore your gaming plans may be. The readout shows temperature, volume, and other stats. No pricing or release date, but it's targeted for a Q2 release.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in Asus's hidden little cave of a booth, I got to check out new laptops, including the W5Fe (the one with the tumorous SideShow display, which lets you play music, look at pictures, and even read email headers while the notebook is not only closed but completely shut down) and a whole host of designer notebooks clad in leather of various colors. The high-end Asus Lamborghinis were also on display, along with a sub-two-pound notebook that uses LED backlighting. Nice!
I saw much more but don't have space to blog it all here. Once again, Asus proves itself to be the coolest company with the quietest voice. Watch my blog for more coverage of Asus in 2007!
Comments on CES 2007: First Ever External Video Card (And Other Asus Goodies)
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2 Posted by aznboi978978 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:00PM EDT Report Abuse
WOW WOW WOW WOW!!! I want this soooooOOo bad. I got a Sony Vaio laptop which the person from best buy told me was good for gaming so I bought it and I couldn't play any of the new games that were coming out. Only the old 5 year old games. I am hoping this will get me back to computer gaming becuase I am a big MMORPG fan.
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3 Posted by sandman42005 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:03PM EDT Report Abuse
Who ever completed this marvel is Einstien at his fullest!!! I was wondering when these video cards would go external!! Supporting high end graphics is why people buy desktop pcs..Up with Laptops!!, n desktops may just go down in history with the dumb- terminals..
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4 Posted by sandman42005 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:03PM EDT Report Abuse
Everyone with a Laptop will have one..this is bigger then the playstation 4!!! This will be a trillion dollar invention!! One of computer nerds just struk it rich.. I just wonder the tech spechs of it..
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5 Posted by mrmistermarty on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:28PM EDT Report Abuse
This has to be the dumbest thing I've ever seen. Why not just get a desktop? You basically are going to have too much stuff to carry around that it eliminates the purpose of a laptop.
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6 Posted by swgneni on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:52PM EDT Report Abuse
This is EXACTLY what i've been waiting for. I don't have the new money to buy a new laptop and my video card can't be upraded. This will be perfect for me and i can't wait to see the specs =D
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7 Posted by elli_yan on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:53PM EDT Report Abuse
This is a wonderful must-have, especially for my laptop with a lame 32MB shared video memory, in running graphics-intense applications like that of windows vista. The bad side on the other hand, I still have to look for a new external display. Shouldn't the developer created one that can still make use of the LCD built-in (and an option to hook it up to an external display and support dual-view) and literally passes off the processing from the on-board chip to the external processor.
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8 Posted by masterfurbix on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:10PM EDT Report Abuse
something tells me that i will be buying this isn the near future... hopefully it isn't as pricey as im sure it will be if I get one of these then it will be finally worth it to upload my PS2 bios to the PC.... well its either this or the XPS, OR BOTH!!! would that be a sexi combo or what! wellll... i am sooo buying one of these if its affordable
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9 Posted by d_dark_prince on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:50PM EDT Report Abuse
This thing sounds pretty cool,and expensive:)Totally usefull and practical too(mrmistermarty,u wanna take it to the cafe with you?).Asus rock!
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10 Posted by guardianangel071 on Tue Jan 9, 2007 10:17AM EST Report Abuse
I was just thinnking about this concept the other day. I have a core solo, and in order to keep my battery time to four hours, they stuck in a crappy Graphics card that does me almost no justice, but with this, holy crap, you'd be able to bring it to LAN parties, it will usher in a new era of laptop gaming.
1 Posted by smckey3 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:28PM EDT Report Abuse
I will def want one of these for my laptop, that is the biggest downfall of it. Even though it is brand new with duo core and all that, it still won't ru n the high end 3D games like Neverwinter nights that I would like to play...Just interested in the price$$$$?