External Graphics card for laptop

[Tanner The Monotone]

I have purchased a new laptop, a dell insprion 5720. I realized now, after doing some research, that I made a mistake not spending the extra money on a gaming computer. It apparently has an integrated graphics card and the only way to upgrade my laptop would be to replace the motherboard along with the graphics card.

Now, I've been doing some research and I have heard about External graphic cards. The only problem is that any sigh that has any information on them goes into great detail, using terms and numbers that I don't know.

Is there anyone here that knows anything about them and could help me understand it. Could anyone point me in the direction of a sight that explains it in lamens terms?

I've tried the advice forum and didn't get much, and what I did get was conflicted, so I'm re-posting it here in hopes that more people would look at it.

 

[Supernova1138]

Right now the only device that lets you use an external GPU on a laptop is something called ViDock. It uses an ExpressCard Connection. The problem is, ExpressCard is pretty much defunct now, and very few laptops made in the past couple of years will have it, your laptop does not have an ExpressCard slot.

Other devices have been speculated, but the only interfaces that would be fast enough to run an external graphics card would be USB 3.0 or Apple's Thunderbolt port. Looking at your laptop's specs, it does look like it has USB 3.0, so an external GPU might be a possibility, if someone comes out with a version of ViDock that uses USB 3.0. Right now I don't think such a device is on the market yet, so you are going to have to play the waiting game.

Do note that any sort of external GPU dock would be quite pricey, I think ViDock goes for nearly $200, plus the cost of the video card you want to use. You also have to be near an electrical outlet to plug in the external graphics card, it can't run off the laptop's battery.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Honestly an external graphics card is even more pissing against the wind then a gaming laptop, it is absolutely essential cards have huge bandwidth and direct communication access to do their magic... external cards can not do that.

If you really want to make this work then sell your laptop now with minimal loss and buy something up to spec that you need.