External Graphics Cards

[errorfied]

http://www.fujitsu-siemens.com/home/products/notebooks/amilo_graphic_booster.html

Fujitsu have just developed an external graphics card for laptops with PCI-Express slots, which touts to massively increase notebook gaming performance by up to 470%.

Now, I don't mean to be a sceptic, but am I the only one who thinks this will only ever work if it's priced very competitively? People who care about gaming probably won't use notebooks, or if they do, they'll already have a good card built in. I love the idea, but I don't really see where it fits in the current PC gaming market.

That said, it's still a very interesting development. Anybody have any thoughts on the hardware in general?

 

[Baby Tea]

Old news. Asus did this first and a while ago.
I think they priced it at about $400. At least, I can get it for that much here in Canada (And it includes a Video card, not just the unit)

 

[crimsondynamics]

It's about time. Really. Alienware offered something similar in their notebooks a few years back where you could swap out the existing graphics module for an updated one, albeit at extortionate prices.

If the prices were reasonable, I would have been interested, but I'm not going to pay a ransom for decent frame rates on any computer.

As the OP said, prices should be reasonable if Fujitsu ever wants this technology to take off.

Pricing! We need pricing!

Edit: Well, this is Fudzilla we're talking about so take this with a nice heaping of salt, but the article states:

"The FSC Amilo SA 3650 bundled with the Amilo Graphics Booster comes in October and the retail price should end up around ?1300..."

http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9056&Itemid=38

I guess that's not too shabby for a notebook with upgradeable graphics.

http://news.softpedia.com/news/FSC-039-s-AMILO-Sa-3650-Gets-Whooping-Graphics-Boost-98825.shtml

 

[crimsondynamics]

Fujitsu isn't known for cheap notebooks, but the technology itself may be adopted by more reasonably-priced notebook manufacturers.

Actually, ?1,300 is about par for the course with Fujitsu.