EXTERNAL GRAPHICS CARD FOR DESKTOP PC FULL
EXTERNAL GRAPHICS CARD FOR DESKTOP PC PORTABLE
EXTERNAL GRAPHICS CARD FOR DESKTOP PC WINDOWS 8.1

It started while I was looking at a Sony Z Series (LINK) laptop that utilised an external graphics card solution. Stop gaming on my PC and buy an ultraportable.

EXTERNAL GRAPHICS CARD FOR DESKTOP PC PORTABLE

Buy a desktop machine for gaming and keep my laptop for portable computing? Not ideal, this means I would then have to purchase two machines, then maintain and sync files between them.

EXTERNAL GRAPHICS CARD FOR DESKTOP PC FULL

Buy a new laptop every 3 years instead of every year? Not ideal, this would mean around 18months of dissatisfaction with the laptop being unable to play the latest games at full detail with top frame rates - yet still weighing the same as a small car.

At the time I saw a number of valid options: So in early 2012 I decided a change of tactic was required. However time inevitably catches up and soon dropping ?2k+ every year on a shiny new laptop just to get the latest graphics is no longer practical, a combination of wedding, wife, mortgage, wife, kids and wife have seen to that. Why have two machines, a desktop and a laptop when you can have a single machine with everything on and take it everywhere? I didn't have a wife to answer to and I didn't have a mortgage or children to support - so naturally I threw my money at the most powerful laptops I could find so I could play the most demanding games I could find while retaining my portability and still be able to attend LAN parties. Once upon a time I was young and frivolous with my money. I'm writing this because it seems that the industry just isn't making it accessible to the masses, so we need to help them along a little.

External Monitor optional, can power the internal laptop screen.

Upgrading to play the latest games in two years' time can be done by upgrading the graphics card only - not the entire setup.

Powerful external graphics card to play games on when docked that can beat top gaming laptops.

EXTERNAL GRAPHICS CARD FOR DESKTOP PC WINDOWS 8.1

Small and light 12' Windows 8.1 tablet for portability.

So my highly portable, small, light, tablet machine just bested a 17' behemoth 'gaming laptop' that is about 3x heavier? and this is how it looks on my desk: This setup is approaching 2 years old now so if we compare this to a top 17' gaming laptop purchasable at the same period we come up with 3dMark2011 scores of around 5,900 mark (Alienware M17x R4, using a Nvidia GTX 680M GPU.

To resolve this performance issue I have an external Nvidia 670GTX desktop card that connects to the tablet like a docking station so that when plugged in the very same little 12' tablet provides a 3dMark2011 score of: However I also enjoy gaming and sadly the tablet's integrated Intel HD4000 graphics only provide a 3dMark2011 score of: I move around quite a lot for my job, so I use a 12' ultraportable Windows 8.1 tablet PC.

External graphics card for desktop pc