GS30 Shadow MSI w/ External GPU. UPDATE 11/09/14

[randomhkkid]

This looks very interesting, possibly the first true thunderbolt e-gpu dock.

Source

 

 

 

      

 

Unleash the graphics power by Intel Iris Pro

Eric Kuo, vice president of global sales & marketing, MSI Notebook, pointed out that the latest GS30 Shadow is designed for mobile gamers who don’t want to compromise between portability and performance. With its incredible thin and insanely powerful, MSI wants to create new style of this performance machine not only for gamers, but for some stylish and cutting edge fashion users.

 

Docking and transforming, shift into the Elysium!

There is a specific GamingDock designed for GS30 Shadow and the overall graphics performance will be shifted to a higher level while GS30 Shadow is docking on it. By the inserted desktop discrete graphics card inside the GamingDock, more graphics calculation will be enhanced and more visual detailed will be revealed. Users can choose any desktop graphics card, which is stronger and more powerful, then easily insert into it to unleash the most stunning visual effect and deliver the most exciting gaming experience to gamers by full bandwidth of PCI-e x16. The GamingDock is no wonder the most powerful upgraded cannon for slim gaming laptops to play on those most performance demanding titles in highest resolution and settings. The target launch time would be January 2015.

   

 

 

 

 

 

I hope this really does come to market and that it doesn't end up as vapourware. There's no mention of the link between the GPU and the laptop but I assume it's thunderbolt (Or equivalent) through a proprietary interface on the bottom of the laptop. I hope this takes off as a trend in laptops for the future, these mobile CPUs are plenty powerful to hand high end single GPUs.

 

Hopefully the pricing and availability is decent so that we can get our hands on it

 

Edit 10/09/14 :

 

Thanks snowComet for the post, here's a very basic hands on video of the laptop and dock.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t71VnfhgIA

 

 

The video confirms a couple of my suspicions as well as a few other things. 

 

1. The laptop connects to the dock via a connector on the base rear of the laptop and so must be placed on top to utilise the external GPU.

 

2. The external unit comes with/has space for a PSU

 

3. The video mentioned pricing of around $1K for the laptop and a couple hundred for the dock as likely.  Price confirmed as $2000

 

4. The dock has 2 Pcie brackets so triple slot cards are unlikely to fit without modification.

 

5. The laptop is powered through the proprietary connector whilst docked (In most configurations)

 

 

Edit 11/09/14

 

Using photoshop and fiddling around with exposure revels 3 objects behind the grille. I'm guessing that these are either speakers (Confirmed 2.1 setup) or fans (more likely the latter), however a combination of both is a possibility.

 

 

 

Edit 05/01/2015

 

MSI has been showing off the dock and laptop at CES 2015 http://www.pcper.com/news/Mobile/CES-2015-MSI-GS30-Shadow-Notebook-Discrete-GPU-Dock-Station

 

Several things have now been officially confirmed.

 

• The interface is PCIE Gen 3.0 16x not Thunderbolt
• The dock includes room for more storage, 3.5" mount
• The dock and the laptop will be sold together for $2000 MSRP
• For some higher end GPUs (ie 980) the laptop and the dock must be plugged in seperately

 

 

Laptop Specs:

 

Screen: 13.3" 1080p

CPU: i7-4780HQ

GPU: Iris Pro 5200

RAM 16GB DDR3

Storage: MSI Super Raid 0 (M.2)

[qwertywarrior]

dude dont copy paste the whole thing

post important stuff pics and then ur opinion and thoughts

[PhantomChevron]

gpu is iris graphics, meh

[randomhkkid]

gpu is iris graphics, meh

Once you plug it in it isn't.

[patrickjp93]

gpu is iris graphics, meh

Iris Pro is as powerful as the GPU in AMD's Kaveri chips. Intel just lacks the drivers to make programming for it seamless. That changes with Skylake of course where Intel has already put a whole graphics library into Linux.

[geogga]

Holy shit this is pretty amazing.

I may have to get one for college..think of that. After you wake up from gaming, disconnect and go to class. Boom.

[randomhkkid]

Holy shit this is pretty amazing.

I may have to get one for college..think of that. After you wake up from gaming, disconnect and go to class. Boom.

Unfortunately a January 2015 launch is some time away and availability will surely be scarce.

[Trik'Stari]

Price?

[PhantomChevron]

Once you plug it in it isn't.

Still, who is going to carry this around, laptops are mean't to be convenient, not bulk, rather bring a Asus 750JZ, since it would be lighter

Iris Pro is as powerful as the GPU in AMD's Kaveri chips. Intel just lacks the drivers to make programming for it seamless. That changes with Skylake of course where Intel has already put a whole graphics library into Linux.

Or when DX12 comes out

[randomhkkid]

Still, who is going to carry this around, laptops are mean't to be convenient, not bulk, rather bring a Asus 750JZ, since it would be lighter

 

I'm pretty sure that's not the intended use case scenario. This is more like instead of needing a big desktop for gaming you have the laptop plugged into the dock which sits on the desk. Then the laptop itself is meant to be carried around and Iris Pro can be used in a cinch.

 

Also being able to replace the GPU is a big plus as you can't replace the GPU in most laptops.

[patrickjp93]

I'm pretty sure that's not the intended use case scenario. This is more like instead of needing a big desktop for gaming you have the laptop plugged into the dock which sits on the desk. Then the laptop itself is meant to be carried around and Iris Pro can be used in a cinch.

 

Also being able to replace the GPU is a big plus as you can't replace the GPU in most laptops.

^This. External R9 295x2 anyone?

[randomhkkid]

^This. External R9 295x2 anyone?

Hopefully haha, I wonder what the power restrictions will be as it looks like a self contained unit.

[patrickjp93]

Hopefully haha, I wonder what the power restrictions will be as it looks like a self contained unit.

Just have a PSU standing by

[The_Evenger]

so wait, you put it on the dock, and it then has a external GPU for high performance gaming? that sounds Awesome!

[Sidiox]

The dock seems a bit large though, what is in it? (I hope also the posiblity for an HDD (either via that PCI lane or SATA express or USB3.0) 

 

Or maybe a ton of cooling

[Yoinkerman]

Ya pretty much.

so wait, you put it on the dock, and it then has a external GPU for high performance gaming? that sounds Awesome!

[randomhkkid]

The dock seems a bit large though, what is in it? (I hope also the posiblity for an HDD (either via that PCI lane or SATA express or USB3.0)

Or maybe a ton of cooling

I'm guessing it's a power supply, pcie slot and some other ports like usb 3.0 & ethernet judging from the pictures.

[Homicidium]

Very interesting concept, and I do think that this could replace the regular desktop for quite a few people. Obviously, a gamer and/or enthusiast with the "I want all the frames and highest settings" attitude, it's not, but for someone, who is just somewhat of a casual gamer, this could be a very good alternative, if competitively priced. 

[Socky]

better be less than $900 or im getting a Lenovo Y50

[razor767]

That dock is huge, 

[aom]

That dock is huge, 

what did u expect, custom gpus, psu, a board for the pci lanes, cooling fans, etc.

[randomhkkid]

better be less than $900 or im getting a Lenovo Y50

 

Doubt it, the laptop itself may cost that much but I'm guessing the dock will be another 200-300USD. I'm curious as to weather the laptop screen is used or if it has to be an external monitor. 

[snowComet]

mobilegeek published a hands-on video of this laptop and dock

 

[Scionyde]

Since the laptop needs to be on top of that massive docking station whenever you use the external GPU, it seems like it'd be impossible to play games comfortably on the laptop itself. If I really I wanted to lug a monitor and keyboard with me everywhere when I travel, I'd probably just stick with a mini ITX system. If somebody needs an actual portable gaming PC, a gaming laptop is a better choice. If somebody just wants to game at home and take something for light browsing on the go, then they're still probably better off with a gaming desktop and a cheap tablet. It's still a cool idea, but I'm not a fan.

[Kamil]

I don't like the whole docking part of it. Couldn't they have made it just a cable or something? I guess if you have to use an external monitor in docked mode anyway it's not much of a stretch to also require an external keyboard, but it just looks awkward and bulky.

 

I do like the concept though. Sony had a short-lived series of laptops with a similar concept, only the result was "ultrabook that turned into a low-end gaming laptop when docked" since the dock used a mobile GPU anyway so it only reduced the weight. Still a good idea, but I wouldn't have bought one unless the dock's GPU were at least a high-end mobile GPU.