Sony FW series graphics card solution

For everyone here that is concerned about being able to play GPU-intensive games on their notebooks, there is a solution.

The FW series notebooks uses an Ati graphics card-the HD3470 256MB. Therefore, it should be compatable with external graphics cards, such as the one recently launched by AMD and announced by Asus.








For anyone else interested, here is a link:

http://amdandintel.blogspot.com/2008/06/amd-launches-external-graphics-card-box.html

Let's hope they officially launch these products soon!
I can't wait to play Crysis on my notebook!

 

as long as the 3470 can play diablo 3 when it comes i'll be set for the next 3 years.

 

Although a great idea when you are at home, it falls apart when you want to use it on the go, say on a plane, train or wherever.

 

This kind of solution is particularly good for college. When your doing work, the HD3470 is more than enough. You will get good battery life as well. When your at home, you just plug the external graphics card in and start playing some games.

 

Since the U.S. only gets the HD3470 graphics card in the FW series notebooks, this is a viable solution. Unless Sony releases a newer model with the HD3650 graphics card.

I'm particularly interested in Crossfire. It will offer great performance.

 

went to look for more info

http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/04/amds-ati-xgp-external-laptop-graphics-platform-goes-legit.

err the FW has no such connection afaik. maybe an adapter is needed?

always good news.

 

There should be an adapter available soon. It's worth it.

 

"One unique aspect of the T500 is its ability to be able to switch between dedicated and integrated graphics with a simple click of an icon on the task bar. You can switch between the Intel X4500 graphics and the ATI 3650 chipset without rebooting, and doing so lets you conserve quite a bit of power if you don't need to game. "

Wouldn't it be great if the Sony FW series had an HD3650 as standard, as well as switchable graphics? Great performance and battery life. I hope Sony implements something similar to this in their future models.

 

Check again. The Asus branded external graphics card is connected via USB 2.0. So it should work with the FW series and it should be compatable.

" Asus has just revealed the world’s first external video card for laptop computers at CES Unveiled in Las Vegas. The XG Station is connected via USB 2.0 and also has a Dolby digital headphone jack for an added audio experience. On the XG Station itself it displays system master volume, GPU clock speed, current GPU temperature, FPS... "

 

Here are some more interesting pictures:

 

still usb 2 is slower than pcie2 and the speed would be limited by the capacity of usb 2.0. thing looks massive and with a decent card the price might not even be worth it in the end.