Taiwan (Taipei) – MSI took the wraps off some of its Computex exhibits today, showcasing a external graphics solution as well as a monstrous graphics card without fan.

 

---

MSI at Computex 2007 ...

---

Hard drives won’t be the only computer components that are built into external casings – MSI showed off one of the first external boxes for graphics card. The device shares some similarities with a concept device Tom’s Hardware talked about in July of 2006. The box integrates an x16 PCI Express graphics card, which you attach to your system (notebook) via ExpressCard interface.

The company also unveiled “Geminium,”  the firm’s latest, passively cooled graphics card. It is powered by two ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT GPUs and provides 2x 512 MB GDDR3 memory, running at 700 MHz (1400 MHz DDR). As opposed to other dual ATI Radeon HD cards, this product is passively cooled.

 

Read all news from Computex 2007 

big and bulky

Jun 04, 2007 15:19     

Woah, is it me or are these graphic solutions getting bigger, hotter, and more power hungry than ever? If Core 2 Duo can reverse the power consumption and still kick butt in performance, why can't GPU go the same route? What is the point of reducing CPU power consumption when GPU just fill the void left by it?
Jerry report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Geminium: interesting but ... too big

Jun 04, 2007 15:21     

That Geminium card looks very interesting ... at first. Until I saw how big it was, that thing is a monster, well not too surprising since it has two chips. I only wished they would somehow make it slightly smaller, like around the size of regular 2900 or the 8800 cards. Personally I don't think that product will ever fly, I mean given the size people will rather go with either 2900 or the 8800 series. Especially if the performance of the 2900XT is any indication, I'm not really expecting much from the 2600XT. But then again until someone get a hold on the card and do review ... I can only guess so much.

Toby report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

big but still useful

Jun 04, 2007 15:40     

Laptops carry the forever problem of not having room for a decent onboard graphics card. Someone out there with enough money will have use for and buy these things.
Truxy report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Hm....

Jun 04, 2007 16:43     

Well, fromt the looks of it, the card is replaceable, so, if they sold the box sexperately, it would make high-end laptop gaming a viable option, while still being moderately portable.
Pyro report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

External graphics

Jun 04, 2007 23:59     

I can't wait to see benchmarks on external graphics solutions. My laptop has a radeon mobility 1400, but I could really use more power and the ability to upgrade. Then again, if it is too big, and requires an external moniter to use, it will have to be low in price, or it would suddenly make more sense to have a laptop plus a gaming rig. When you guys bench it, be sure to give a mention to its portability in addition to whether or not it cripples the cards. Thanks!

Mister report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Looks like an XG-station wannabe

Jun 05, 2007 00:43     

Well, obviously ASUS may have started a trend, I still don't see these as being decent replacements for good on board graphics cards for laptops, mostly because ExpressCard is only a mix of USB2 and PCI-e 1x, the only way I can see these becoming popular is if there is a new ExpressCard standard, something along the lines of PCI-e 4x or 8x then this would then be very useful.
Justin report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

expense

Jun 05, 2007 08:13     

I gather that this will be expensive... but then, anyone ever actually priced a true desktop replacement laptop? You can drop $3500 for the lower end of that market segment. This is, in my opinion, a viable alternative to that, assuming of course that performance is comparable.
Scott report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Price for that market segment

Jun 05, 2007 09:29     

With the external GFX solution, there really is no reason to go out and buy a beast laptop, something with 2GB DDR2667 and a decent dual core cpu should do the trick... and that is in no way super expensive.
Ninjaquick report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Luxium is nice, but how much?

Jun 05, 2007 10:03     

I really like the idea of the luxium. People can buy budget laptops with low-end GPU's to save on power and heat, especially while taking the laptop on the road. When you get home, plug in the external graphics card and you're ready to game! No worries about power since you will be plugged in and no worries about lag since you have a nice gfx card with some real horsepower. But how much will it cost? How much more will it cost for budget laptop-gfx and external-gfx purchased together?

gwolfman report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Better alternatives available

Jun 18, 2007 09:40     

Why wait for this product to launch and get all the bugs worked out when there's already the CinePort Express from CineMassive Displays. Its a PCI Express expansion slot system for your laptop that adds gpu's for up to 4 additional screens from your laptop. Its been around for a while so they probably have the bugs worked out. This isn't vapor wear. Its worth a look: http://www.cinemassivedisplays.com/index.php?a=4&b=2d=2

StevenHeinrich report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0