AMD Teases Standardized External GPU Solution To Bring Desktop Gaming Performance To Ultrathin Notebooks

[Mr_Troll]

AMD Teases Standardized External GPU Solution To Bring Desktop Gaming Performance To Ultrathin Notebooks
 

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AMD is prepping a standardized solution to plugin desktop class graphics cards into laptops for a huge boost in gaming performance. This tease came via AMD’s Robert Hallock’s facebook page  and the solution promises to bring desktop class high-performance gaming experiences to ultra portable laptops via a simple plug and play solution.

A Simple Plug And Play Solution To Convert A Portable Notebook To A Desktop Gaming Machine
 

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Hallock is in no doubt correct when saying that there’s a huge appetite for an on-the-go desktop-class gaming machine that can replace your ordinary, mostly stationary, desktop. Whether it be for frequent LAN partiers or frequent travelers or even just casual gamers that want a portable and capable system; gaming notebooks have been the only go-to solution thus far.
 

A Simple Plug And Play Solution To Convert A Portable Notebook To A Desktop Gaming Machine
 

However it has always been the case that gaming laptops are both significantly more expensive than similar performing desktops and simply not as portable as ultrathin notebooks. Gaming notebooks have always been about compromise, whether it was at the expense of weight, cost, display panel quality, limited component choice or all of the above. This is where external GPU solutions come in where you can have your cake and eat it too

 

The issue with external GPU docks is that they’re in serious need of standardization. We’ve seen proprietary solutions like Alienware’s Amplifier and MSI’s Dock but they force you into a locked ecosystem where you have to pony up for an expensive external GPU setup that can only work with one set of hardware from one company. Simply changing your laptop to a different make means losing the entirety of an already expensive investment.
 

A standardized solution means that no such restriction exists. All you would need to do is plug it into your laptop and it’ll just work. All it would require is for laptop makers to simply implement compatibility into their products. And as with all technologies that have seen standardization, it will drive adoption up and cost down and simply create a more comprehensive and robust solution. Also just like a desktop, when you grow in need of more graphics performance you simply upgrade to a more powerful graphics card, install it into your dock and you’re ready to go again.

 

This also opens up whole new set of opportunities for flexibility by which you can simply have one external GPU dock and plug it into any one of your many systems whenever you need the extra graphics oomph, maybe even lend your dock to a friend. Certainly, the prospects are huge and extremely exciting for a small plug and play box that can convert a small ultrathin notebook to a desktop class 4K gaming monster and we really can’t wait to see it in action

 

 

We have seen external gpu dock for laptops for a while. But those are made specifcaly made for 1 couple types of notebooks. This would work with everything. Nice.

Source: Robert Hallock Facebook Page

http://wccftech.com/amd-teases-standardized-external-gpu-solution-for-notebooks/

 

[Qwertious]

But we already have Intel tb3. Might not be as easily plug and play but it is a very versatile port especially when it's Piggybacking off the usb standard

[RexinOridle]

Finally some open solution. Hope Nvidia doesn't stick with their NOPE policy.

[RexinOridle]

1 minute ago, Qwertious said:

But with already have Intel tb3. Might not be as easily plug and play but it is a very versatile port especially whe. Piggybacking off the usb standard

 

Pretty sure it's some kind of implementation of thunderbolt with PnP bios and OS support on PCIe.

[Amazingasian]

Hold on here..... 

That one is from Razer ^

I think it's just an AMD GPU in a Razer dock......

Edit:  Linus even did a video on it:

 

 

Edited March 1, 2016 by Amazingasian

[Curufinwe_wins]

2 minutes ago, Amazingasian said:

Hold on here..... 

That one is from Razer ^

I think it's just an AMD GPU in a Razer dock......

This. My first reaction was that this looked just like the Razer implementation and unless Razer was really making it universal I doubt it was actually a standard.

[VinsinityKT]

It has the green USB and everything. 

[JCtech00]

yep thats definitely just the razer dock

why amd? 

[QueenDemetria]

10 minutes ago, Amazingasian said:

Hold on here..... 

 

That one is from Razer ^

I think it's just an AMD GPU in a Razer dock......

That was my first thought too, but AMD could have been working on this with Razer. AMD has the know-how to make the technology for this and Razer has the market presence. 

[The Salt Is REAL]

I wonder if this could resurrect my old Dell Latitude E6410.

[Amazingasian]

2 minutes ago, Riki the Legendary Heropon said:

I wonder if this could resurrect my old Dell Latitude E6410.

Remember that this still uses the laptop CPU so you'll have to watch out for potential bottlenecking.

[Nic]

2 minutes ago, QueenDemetria said:

That was my first thought too, but AMD could have been working on this with Razer. AMD has the know-how to make the technology for this and Razer has the market presence. 

This would explain why razer is being so quiet about the release date of the core (name of their dock), they must be waiting for the standard to be finalized.  

[The Salt Is REAL]

4 minutes ago, Amazingasian said:

Remember that this still uses the laptop CPU so you'll have to watch out for potential bottlenecking.

Possibly, then again GPUs barely started being bottlenecked by the 2500k.

[Kinda Bottlenecked]

Just now, Riki the Legendary Heropon said:

Possibly, then again GPUs barely started being bottlenecked by the 2500k.

 

Nahhhh. For 2015-2016 open world games, even big mama can't help you 

[Big-G]

With Thunderbolt 3 I reckon we'll see only PCEx4 or x8 equivalent performance... so the bottleneck will be in the interface already...

[patrickjp93]

10 minutes ago, GidonsClaw said:

With Thunderbolt 3 I reckon we'll see only PCEx4 or x8 equivalent performance... so the bottleneck will be in the interface already...

4x PCIe 3.0 is only 32Gb/s. And we're actually not that close to saturating PCIe 3.0 8x anyway. TB3 is 40Gb/s. And in gaming the PCIe bus really is not the issue. In big-data compute it is, but that's a wholly separate beast.

[MoonSpot]

Here's hoping for USB type-C.  Guess the thing to do is think about what chipsets laptops will be using in order to support this.  Will want it to have pretty much direct access to the PCIe bus, but then how would they address plug and play / ejecting the device?

 

So long as it happens anyways.  I want this.

[Misanthrope]

Hopefully it will get at least some OEM support.

[Citadelen]

It's good to see AMD taking the initiative and making stuff people actually want.

[IAcKI]

Be interesting to see which implementation of these external docks actually crack plug and play first. 

[ShadowCaptain]

I love the idea of GPU docks

 

but I still would want like a 960m 970m inside my laptop too

[zacRupnow]

8 hours ago, Amazingasian said:

Hold on here..... 

That one is from Razer ^

I think it's just an AMD GPU in a Razer dock......

Edit:  Linus even did a video on it:

It even has the Green USB ports... now why would AMD use Green ports...

[AbeTrve]

Well the post never mentions they're working on their own product right now, it's more a "we're working on *the thing*" situation.

[ZestyJalapeno]

Not a moment too soon. I'd love to swap out my AW 15 for an an ultralight thing I can put in a small bag with a Type-C or a TB3.

[AlexGoesHigh]

The way i understand this is that there just adding eGPU capabilities to the driver, so it can act as PnP device via thunderbolt which AFAIK is the same thing Nvidia did like a month and a half ago on their driver, i don't see the need of creating such a standard when TB is already here and has been for a while and right now is mature enough to this without much effort, now if they are saying they are making their own version of TB and and pull a fresync so its free, then that's a whole different thing a good luck with it