Is there such a thing as an "external" Video Card.

I want to buy the Dell 3008 WFP monitor.

I currently have an ASUS z70va with ATI Mobility Radeon X700 video card which won't support the monitor's resolution.

This is what Dell says I need to support the monitor:

The Dell tech person said the following video cards would support it:

ATI RadeonTM HD4850,
NVIDIA® GeForce® 9800GT,
NVIDIA® GeForce® GXT280 and A
TI RadeonTM HD4850 CrossFireX


I don't know if this is a stupid question but is it possible to purchase one of the above video cards, enclose it and attach it externally?

Frankly, I would rather not buy a new laptop right now. I am pretty happy with the two I have--- the ASUS z70va and the HP dv1000t Pavilion -- both about 3 years old. I would prefer to wait until Windows 7 comes out and see how it does.

TIA

Justitia

 

Unfortunately, not really any good solutions. The only one I know of is an external ExpressCard XG Station from Asus that was released a while ago, but I'm not sure if you want to pay $375 or so for that and a video card. Not to mention if your machine has an x700 I don't even know if it'd have an ExpressCard slot...

 

Thanks -- do you hae any other suggestions?

I've posted in What Should I Buy for a new laptop and coming up with zip -- same in ASUS and now I am looking in the Sager Clevo section.

I would prefer a 15-6" screen to a 17" but I would rather go with a17" rather than a desk top which someone suggested.

 

I recently saw a review of a laptop that supported external graphics accelerator, some quite fast one too. It only worked with an external monitor and the connector between the card and the laptop isn't standardized yet, but such setups are not too common yet. They might become more popular, though, as it frees up huge spaces inside the laptop and would suit for people that want good battery lifetimes but also good performance when 'docked'. I know it would suit me.

e: It was this http://www.fujitsu-siemens.com/home/products/notebooks/amilo_graphic_booster.html

 

Unfortunately I don't have any good solutions for you. Wish I did. Laptops just aren't designed to drive huge panels like that, very few people need them to do so and it takes a significant engineering hurdle to get it there.

You MAY consider looking into Thinkpads or something with a full dock that provides an extra PCI slot you could fit a big graphics card into:

 

The Amilo graphic booster solution no longer requires an external monitor. Now it works to accelerate the actual Notebooks graphic capabilities too.

 

Would this external video card work with all internal video cards or just ATI, etc?

 

matrox makes such a thing........

 

here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=390634