Asus Releases External Video Card

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Rich Tate

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Asus has an external video card on display at CES with some very cool features.

Asus has just revealed the world’s first external video card for laptop computers at CES Unveiled in Las Vegas. The XG Station is connected via Express Card also featuring USB 2.0 and Dolby digital headphone jack support. On the XG Station itself it displays system master volume, GPU clock speed, current GPU temperature, FPS (frames per second), and a GPU fan indicator. Asus is expecting to release the XG Station with a EN7900GS graphics card in the Q2 of 2007, no word on the final price yet…
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I have a few niggling conerns:
1. ExpressCard is only PCIe 1x. That's faster than regular PCI, but is still only around AGP 1x speed. I have serious questions about the performance of this solution, and would like to see benchmarks.
2. The 7900GS is huge overkill for a lot of people. Will they sell a version without a card?
3. What kind of OS support will it have? I assume it's just a PCIe bridge, which means Linux ought to handle it fine.
4. Will the internal laptop LCD still be handled by the internal graphics? This isn't a game breaker by any means, just a matter of curiosity.
5. How does the DD audio work? Will it be able to provide digital or analog multi-channel outputs?
6. Is the USB 2.0 provided through a separate chipset, or does it make use of ExpressCard's built-in USB 2.0 capabilities?

If the price is even remotely reasonable ($150 cardless?), I'd buy one without a second thought just to get a good docking solution for this laptop (thanks for the craptastic XB2000, HP!).

Also, the linked source absolutely sucks. VR-Zone has got much better info:
http://www.vr-zone.com/?i=4426
 
erwos said:
I have a few niggling conerns:
1. ExpressCard is only PCIe 1x. That's faster than regular PCI, but is still only around AGP 1x speed. I have serious questions about the performance of this solution, and would like to see benchmarks.
2. The 7900GS is huge overkill for a lot of people. Will they sell a version without a card?
Click to expand...



Express Card at PCI-E 1X = 2.5GB/s. AGP 1x = 266MB/s. AGP 8X = 2.1GB/s.

I think it's going to do just fine.

Alot of notebooks are IGP, or as you pay more things like Radeon 1150s, x1400s, x1600 and really only the expensive gaming 17" big and heavy gaming laptops can deal with the heat of a 7900GS.

And lets not forget that laptop gpus are decidedly non-upgradeable.

This makes for a heck of a docking-station type game solution.
 
still i have ASUS A8JM/F3JM both has 7600 512mb, and such a small 14.1"/15.4" screen, it is already consider a good gaming laptop...i still wanna more !!! i hope they put 8800GTX in that GX station,///!!!
 
That is pretty slick, I would buy one if I had a laptop that had an express slot. :p
 
I can see external GFX's for SFF rigs right now....


*drools at thought of 8950GX2 in a SFF case*
 
markintosh13 said:
Express Card at PCI-E 1X = 2.5GB/s. AGP 1x = 266MB/s. AGP 8X = 2.1GB/s.
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Yet another poster who doesn't know the difference between bits and bytes, and then jumps in to "correct" me.

ExpressCard is 2.5Gbit/s. AGP 1x is 266Mbyte/s. These two numbers are, you guessed it, pretty much the same.
 
Elemental said:
That is pretty slick, I would buy one if I had a laptop that had an express slot. :p
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http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16834147272

HP Compaq nx6325(RB544UT#ABA) NoteBook AMD Mobile Sempron 3200+ 15.0" XGA 512MB 40GB 5400rpm DVD/CD-RW Combo ATI Radeon Xpress 1150 Integrated - Retail

$689.99 ($589.99 after $100.00 Mail-In Rebate)

It ain't nothing special, and the cpu sucks, needs more ram and lacks DVD burning.

But it might make a reasonable student laptop and it has Express Card, so a GX Station might be just the thing - and even with the underpowered cpu, would be better than the integrated 1150.

Laptops with mobile 7900GSs tend to be big and heavy 17" laptops, like the Dell M1710 which runs about $2600 - $3200 or the Toshiba Satellite P105-S9722 at around $1999 (though to be fair, you get alot more cpu, RAM and HD and screen, etc compared to the above HP). Big gaming laptops aren't for everyone - so a smaller 15" works well for schlepping and the GX Station for docking & gaming.

Pretty hard to find a decent cheap laptop that actually has Express Card though. Alot on the 'Egg - including Core 2 Duos - don't.

These is the cheapest Core 2 Duo I found - in the $1000-1100 range at least you're getting more cpu, ram and HD.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16834220110
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16834114283
 
erwos said:
Yet another poster who doesn't know the difference between bits and bytes, and then jumps in to "correct" me.

ExpressCard is 2.5Gbit/s. AGP 1x is 266Mbyte/s. These two numbers are, you guessed it, pretty much the same.
Click to expand...

You are correct, so sorry.

As for remotely reasonable... it has a blinging LCD display and an "overclocking" knob... so don't hold your breath. :D
 
So to use this you need a monitor to hook it up to? What exactly is the point?
 
VGplay said:
So to use this you need a monitor to hook it up to? What exactly is the point?
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Good notebook docks are rare, to say the least, and generally non-existent on consumer-level notebooks. Yeah, this one doesn't do full port replication - but then again, everything's USB these days anyways, so all you're missing out on is firewire.

Another way of looking at it: with something like this, you could buy an ultra-portable that's great on the go, and a beast at home.
 
Looks like a desktop 7900GS running in a 1X pci-e lane drops about 40% compared to an X16 setup - ie scoring about 63K in Aquamark3 vs 103K in an X16...

...which puts it about on par with a 7600Go and under the 85K AM3 you'd expect from a Go7900GS.

So really, I'd guess that a 7900GS is probably the top card you'd want to drop into this, and even a 7600GT would probably do the trick. An 8800GXX wouldn't even FIT in this thing and even if it did, it'd be a total waste.

Still beats the pants off an i945/i950/ x1150 IGP though.
 
I would love to see an external GFX card that has an PCI-E 16x connection so than you can plug/unplug the external housing from the rest of your setup. That'd be so cool! :D :eek:
 
holy crap, im gonna buy one of these when they come out, is there any release date for them?
 
sparky1_2007 said:
holy crap, im gonna buy one of these when they come out, is there any release date for them?
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Q2 2007. I'd imagine that means June or so.

The more I think about it, the more I am entranced by this entire idea. Don't screw it up, Asus.
 
markintosh13 said:
Looks like a desktop 7900GS running in a 1X pci-e lane drops about 40% compared to an X16 setup - ie scoring about 63K in Aquamark3 vs 103K in an X16...

...which puts it about on par with a 7600Go and under the 85K AM3 you'd expect from a Go7900GS.

So really, I'd guess that a 7900GS is probably the top card you'd want to drop into this, and even a 7600GT would probably do the trick. An 8800GXX wouldn't even FIT in this thing and even if it did, it'd be a total waste.

Still beats the pants off an i945/i950/ x1150 IGP though.
Click to expand...

This was my train of thought as well, as in only a 7900GS takes a 40% hit.
By the time this is released, or within the year, there will probably be an internal video board for laptops that would absolutely smoke the fastest thing you can put in this.

It definitely gives you portability, and power on an ultra-portable though. Being an ultra-portable person myself, I'm going to have to say that this does interest me, but it's just too bad Express Card is limited to being so slow.
 
MrMike said:
This was my train of thought as well, as in only a 7900GS takes a 40% hit.
By the time this is released, or within the year, there will probably be an internal video board for laptops that would absolutely smoke the fastest thing you can put in this.

It definitely gives you portability, and power on an ultra-portable though. Being an ultra-portable person myself, I'm going to have to say that this does interest me, but it's just too bad Express Card is limited to being so slow.
Click to expand...
That's just the problem. What's the best video chipset you can get in an ultraportable? 7600 level? I think I'd rather go with that than get a nominal increase with an external adaptor like this one. This thing is cool, but the bandwidth limitations will be the achilles' heal.
 
I know I'm going to buy one, regardless of how much of a performance hit the 7900GS takes. I am using a Dell XPS M140, a very nice computer and I love it to death, but it sucks for gaming.

If I can get some better graphics on this beast, even if its only while docked, I'll keep it. At least there is finally a good reason it has an Express Card slot.

Just the either day I was thinking how great it'd be to get even a 7-series external graphics for this thing. Now, I guess I need to grab in 2GB of RAM and maybe a 7200RPM HD.
 
Now I have something to put in that expresscard slot. I'd buy it if it was a reasonable price like under $200.
 
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