External PCI express x16 graphics card?

I know a few a companies talked about doing this in the past but haven't heard any hit the market. Magma | Rock Solid PCI Express® Innovation is developing the Thounderbolt which would allow a full size graphics card to used with your laptop. Seen this on dell ideastorm.

In my mind it would be great to have a full size GTX 590 or even sli for my laptop even if only used when at a desk. But question being it seems like it may use an express port which my m17xr3 does not have, but makes me wonder if they could use the two usb 3.0 ports for data transfer. Even if they do release the Thounderbolt would it be worth getting? Would usb 3.0 or express ports be able to really prrocess the data well enough to make it worth while to be better than current mxm cards? What about it being connected to the eSATA plug?

Seems that they want to release the Thounderbolt first for Apple computers then possibly PC's. What do you guys think?

 

There are external graphics cards, but mostly of the low-end variety to allow multiple-monitor setups. It wouldn't be too hard to throw in a better GPU, even of the mobile variety, to give mainstream laptops better graphics capabilities. The USB 3.0 port would be a good setup for higher end cards, but I doubt there will be a plug-in PCI x16 adapter made so you can plug in a graphics card. Not that it would be hard to do or implement at all, but there might be safety/liability issues with such a device. If they were going to do so, they probably would have done it years ago.

As for Thunderbolt, that's just Intel's attempt to subvert USB 3.0. It's nice, but I doubt it will endure. Rumor has it Intel won't even be in the next Macs, so Thunderbolt will have come and gone. Once USB 3.0 takes over in the next few generations Thunderbolt will probably just be a has-been gimmick, unless Intel can do something spectacular with its strengths. Maybe it'll make it onto gaming PCs instead.

 

There are tutorials around which tell you how to make your own using your express port or mPCIe.

Overall they work wonders for the lower-end or mobile type laptops for when you are sitting at your desk.

The thread is located HERE

 

Done already via expresscard or mPCIe x1 1.0 (and now trying x1 2.0) port: http://forum.notebookreview.com/gam.../418851-diy-egpu-experiences.html#post5324240

Thunderbolt is in all the recent Macbooks (Air/Pro) and offers a x4 2.0 (20GT/s) link, which has been benched to deliver 80% of x16 2.0 gaming performance. USB 3.0 is 5GT/s, or a quarter of the bandwidth. BIG difference. Sony is the only PC vendor to have a similar optiical Lightpeak interface in ther Z2 that attaches a PMD with an external HD6650M. There is no Thunderbolt or Lightpeak external x16 enclosure to host a desktop video card as yet but there are definite plans by Villagetronic, hwtools/bplus and Sonnet to make at least the TB version.