NVIDIA shows a bit of interest in external graphics for notebooks

Some comments made by a high-up executive of NVIDIA just recently indicate the company's interest in external graphics adapters for notebooks. Whilst there's no definitive plans to introduce products of this nature to market as yet, Rene Haas who is the general manager of the notebook GPU sector at NVIDIA believes it is a big oppportunity for success :-

I think it is a big opportunity. We have two strategies at Nvidia: one is to put graphics everywhere, the other one is to [find more ways to] integrate discrete chips into the box. I think there is definitely a place for [external graphics cards for notebooks], no question. We continue to look at whether this is a GPU [docking stations] or external devices.



ATI had already come out with something like this in 2008; an external graphics card in a sleek looking box, connected using XGP (External Graphics Port) technology, but this has yet to be really pushed in the market and there is currently only the one solution available from Fujitsu called the Fujitsu Siemens Amilo Graphics Booster which houses ATI's Mobility Radeon HD 3870 GPU and can be connected to Fujitsu's Amilo SA3650 or Acer's Aspire Ferrari One.

Rene Haas, whilst showing interest in this type of technology, says the hardest thing will be finding the right price point to market such devices where people will see them as a viable option for users with notebooks running lesser capable IGPs as opposed to simply picking up a notebook with a better internal discrete GPU.

With that said, there's no evidence of NVIDIA's plans to maintain focus on developing this type of product, but early signs suggest we might eventually see something in the works.