Not sure how this could be added to the entire Dell linup, wouldn't it basically have to be connected by a big pipe to handle that kind of data to the external GPU? Probably Intel's Thunderbolt which would make sense with the price point this thing sells at. Not going to be very likely on a $399 Dell 15".
So what's this interface like in terms of latency and bandwidth? Does it take a performance hit to the GPU like Thunderbolt does?
Pretty cool though, this is something a lot of users expected to take off years ago but never really materialized. If you're planning on using one of these, I guess the idea would be spend as much on the CPU as you can, since you still can't upgrade that while you can upgrade the GPU.
Haswell U => BGA packaging, which means it's soldered in. I would have liked to see a version with a full-speed quad core and no d-gpu integrated. Maybe that's the sort of thing we might get if the external GPU idea takes off.
That would be awesome and i can see it being useful for some professional users as well, maybe stick a quadro in the case and have a powerfull meeting/off-site PC that can still pack a punch when in office and using say a pair of big monitors.
Gizmodo says they're using a proprietary connector instead of thunderbolt (presumably to do an endrun around the driver integration problems that have stopped other would be TB GPU boxes from getting Intel certification); but doesn't mention how much PCIe is being pumped over it. Offering at least 4x PCIe instead of the 2.5x that thunderbolt tops out at would be a large bump in some more bandwidth hungry games.
The back end is still PCIe 2.0 x4 though, so that's all she wrote. The Alienware Graphics Amplifier is apparently PCIe 2.0 x4 + USB 3.0, so not hugely different in terms of peak GPU performance.
About a decade ago one the docks available for Dell's Latitude C series had room for an expansion card; don't recall if it was PCI or AGP though, It was a much more compact dock than MSI's monolith; but it only needed to handle single slot cards that were powered via the bus alone.
The D-series Dell also supported an expansion card with one of their two docking devices. It was a PCI slot and since the power supply in the dock was only 135 watts and the enclosure was a confined area with active cooling (though limited to one 60mm fan) it wasn't a good gaming solution, though you could squeeze a little more performance from a D series laptop (that's early Core Duo and Core2 Duo stuff) with Intel graphics if you went through the trouble. It was not at all an elegant solution though and for people who like to play games in their lap, getting an upgraded GPU was probably a better option, though the D630 and D830 had faulty 8000 series nvidia cards with high failure rates. :(
I'm curious how easy it is to swap the hard drive, and whether it's a standard 2.5".
My current gaming laptop (a 14" Asus from a couple years ago) has a 512 GB SSD that I installed. I was thinking I could upgrade to this, and just move my SSD (and move the hard drive the other direction).
How is the external GPU a different implementation than what Sony did three years ago with the Vaio Z? Is it using the Thunderbolt (a.k.a. Light Peak) port as well? http://www.anandtech.com/show/4474/sony-updates-va...
Interesting idea, but I suspect that you're going to be bottlenecked by the ultrabook CPU on a great many games. If you have a ton of cash to spare on an expansion chassis like this, the chances are you'll be housing a meaty GPU in it - one that's much more powerful than the GTX 860M (aka GTX 750 Ti) found in the laptop itself.
I suspect that this will make a lot more sense when you can utilise it with a proper quad i7 in a larger Alienware laptop.
so it can use the GPU in my desktop setup....but i have 16gb of RAM, 27" screen, an i7 4790k @ 4.6ghz....so why exactly would i use the GPU in my desktop on this thing? How is this practical?
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djc208 - Tuesday, October 28, 2014 - link
Not sure how this could be added to the entire Dell linup, wouldn't it basically have to be connected by a big pipe to handle that kind of data to the external GPU? Probably Intel's Thunderbolt which would make sense with the price point this thing sells at. Not going to be very likely on a $399 Dell 15".tipoo - Tuesday, October 28, 2014 - link
So what's this interface like in terms of latency and bandwidth? Does it take a performance hit to the GPU like Thunderbolt does?Pretty cool though, this is something a lot of users expected to take off years ago but never really materialized. If you're planning on using one of these, I guess the idea would be spend as much on the CPU as you can, since you still can't upgrade that while you can upgrade the GPU.
Zap - Tuesday, October 28, 2014 - link
Depends on the CPU. While unlikely for a thinner/lighter notebook, higher end mobile CPUs can be had socketed.Flunk - Tuesday, October 28, 2014 - link
Haswell U => BGA packaging, which means it's soldered in. I would have liked to see a version with a full-speed quad core and no d-gpu integrated. Maybe that's the sort of thing we might get if the external GPU idea takes off.PrimozR - Tuesday, October 28, 2014 - link
That would be awesome and i can see it being useful for some professional users as well, maybe stick a quadro in the case and have a powerfull meeting/off-site PC that can still pack a punch when in office and using say a pair of big monitors.nathanddrews - Tuesday, October 28, 2014 - link
Will you be testing against any of these other external GPU enclosures?http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-External-Graph...
DanNeely - Tuesday, October 28, 2014 - link
I'm really looking forward to this review.Gizmodo says they're using a proprietary connector instead of thunderbolt (presumably to do an endrun around the driver integration problems that have stopped other would be TB GPU boxes from getting Intel certification); but doesn't mention how much PCIe is being pumped over it. Offering at least 4x PCIe instead of the 2.5x that thunderbolt tops out at would be a large bump in some more bandwidth hungry games.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/5458/the-radeon-hd-7...
repoman27 - Tuesday, October 28, 2014 - link
Well, Thunderbolt 2 does PCIe 2.0 x4, although there is a little additional overhead.limitedaccess - Tuesday, October 28, 2014 - link
Haswell ULV is limited to 4x1 and 2x4 PCie 2.0 lane configurations (for a maximum of 12). It doesn't support PCie 3.0 or a 16 lane configuration.This is actually the first x60m or higher GPU I know of offered with a ULV.
DanNeely - Tuesday, October 28, 2014 - link
I wonder if you could aggregate the two 4x clusters together via something similar to a PLX but working in reverse.DanNeely - Tuesday, October 28, 2014 - link
PCIe 2.0 4x is equivalent to the 3.0 x2 in the article I linked; which is narrow enough to start hurting some games badly.TB2's 20gbps bandwidth is equivalent to 2.5 PCIe 3.0 lanes which is what I was referring to.
repoman27 - Tuesday, October 28, 2014 - link
The back end is still PCIe 2.0 x4 though, so that's all she wrote. The Alienware Graphics Amplifier is apparently PCIe 2.0 x4 + USB 3.0, so not hugely different in terms of peak GPU performance.flemeister - Tuesday, October 28, 2014 - link
The 1366x768 panel is TN, not IPS. =(olafgarten - Tuesday, October 28, 2014 - link
Didn't MSI do something similar recently?olafgarten - Tuesday, October 28, 2014 - link
Here it is http://www.pcworld.com/article/2605879/this-msi-la...I guess the alienware solution is more versatile because it connects through a cable, but it's a similar concept.
DanNeely - Tuesday, October 28, 2014 - link
About a decade ago one the docks available for Dell's Latitude C series had room for an expansion card; don't recall if it was PCI or AGP though, It was a much more compact dock than MSI's monolith; but it only needed to handle single slot cards that were powered via the bus alone.BrokenCrayons - Tuesday, November 4, 2014 - link
The D-series Dell also supported an expansion card with one of their two docking devices. It was a PCI slot and since the power supply in the dock was only 135 watts and the enclosure was a confined area with active cooling (though limited to one 60mm fan) it wasn't a good gaming solution, though you could squeeze a little more performance from a D series laptop (that's early Core Duo and Core2 Duo stuff) with Intel graphics if you went through the trouble. It was not at all an elegant solution though and for people who like to play games in their lap, getting an upgraded GPU was probably a better option, though the D630 and D830 had faulty 8000 series nvidia cards with high failure rates. :(barleyguy - Tuesday, October 28, 2014 - link
I'm curious how easy it is to swap the hard drive, and whether it's a standard 2.5".My current gaming laptop (a 14" Asus from a couple years ago) has a 512 GB SSD that I installed. I was thinking I could upgrade to this, and just move my SSD (and move the hard drive the other direction).
secretmanofagent - Tuesday, October 28, 2014 - link
How is the external GPU a different implementation than what Sony did three years ago with the Vaio Z? Is it using the Thunderbolt (a.k.a. Light Peak) port as well?http://www.anandtech.com/show/4474/sony-updates-va...
OrphanageExplosion - Thursday, October 30, 2014 - link
Interesting idea, but I suspect that you're going to be bottlenecked by the ultrabook CPU on a great many games. If you have a ton of cash to spare on an expansion chassis like this, the chances are you'll be housing a meaty GPU in it - one that's much more powerful than the GTX 860M (aka GTX 750 Ti) found in the laptop itself.I suspect that this will make a lot more sense when you can utilise it with a proper quad i7 in a larger Alienware laptop.
poohbear - Tuesday, November 4, 2014 - link
so it can use the GPU in my desktop setup....but i have 16gb of RAM, 27" screen, an i7 4790k @ 4.6ghz....so why exactly would i use the GPU in my desktop on this thing? How is this practical?