sn0wl Posted January 7, 2007 Report Share Posted January 7, 2007 Asus introduced a dedicated external graphics card for laptops -- the XG Station. The XG Station is an external graphics card that allows laptop users to enjoy high end graphics performance while plugged in. As the XG Station is an external graphics it can be unplugged when portability is needed. The XG Station connects to any notebook’s ExpressCard slot and provides a PCI Express x16 slot for graphics cards. Since ASUS has opted to equip the XG Station with a standard PCI Express x16 slot, the station can be equipped with any PCI Express based graphics card: AMD, NVIDIA or even Matrox. ASUS launched the default XG Station with an NVIDIA 7900GS powered graphics card. The XG Station is powered externally. A separate power brick plugs directly into the adaptor. An integrated LCD display and control also grace the XG Station. The display is customizable and can display information such as frame rate, fan speed, GPU temperature and more while the control knob can change various settings of the XG Station such as the core and memory clocks. Expect ASUS to release the XG Station in Q2'07 this year. Pricing of the XG Station is unknown at the moment. The XG Station adaptor only interfaces with ExpressCard interfaces at the moment, but will work with with PCIe ExpressCard interfaces installed in a desktop PC. News from: www.dailytech.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smax Posted January 8, 2007 Report Share Posted January 8, 2007 Whoa. That's one of the coolest things I've seen released in a while Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr_distraction Posted January 8, 2007 Report Share Posted January 8, 2007 I'm still waiting for a good quality sound card that uses my notebook?s ExpressCard slot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zeitgeist Posted January 10, 2007 Report Share Posted January 10, 2007 Outputs? DVI? HDMI? I came by looking to upgrade my Alien's 6800 go on the mobo after Goldenstar has decided they can no longer sell me the upgraded video card:( But this is interesting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smax Posted January 10, 2007 Report Share Posted January 10, 2007 Probaly depends on what kind of card you put in it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lych Posted January 11, 2007 Report Share Posted January 11, 2007 I wonder if speed will be affected since the external graphics card is accessing the laptop via the card slot. I would suspect the speed of the graphics card would be limited to the bandwidth of the card slot. I would like to see how a Geforce 8800 preforms in this device compared to a normal desktop 8800's performance. I wonder why Asus doesn't just make more MXM based cards (I think that would make more sense). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smax Posted January 11, 2007 Report Share Posted January 11, 2007 I guess the 1x PCI-e would be a bit of a drawback. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamesd Posted January 13, 2007 Report Share Posted January 13, 2007 I wonder if speed will be affected since the external graphics card is accessing the laptop via the card slot. I would suspect the speed of the graphics card would be limited to the bandwidth of the card slot. I would like to see how a Geforce 8800 preforms in this device compared to a normal desktop 8800's performance. I wonder why Asus doesn't just make more MXM based cards (I think that would make more sense). So you can buy their billion dollar card slot graphics card adapter? :) Looks sweet, but the prices are probably going to HURT. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
canismagnus Posted January 13, 2007 Report Share Posted January 13, 2007 I guess the 1x PCI-e would be a bit of a drawback. Crap! I was getting all excited to eventually plug in something that will support DX10. Wishful thinking *sigh* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dzjepp Posted January 14, 2007 Report Share Posted January 14, 2007 This sounds really interesting. Are you guys sure it only does 1x pci-e? I thought that article mentions something about 16x. Also will this require the new faster expansion slots? I got my notebook a month ago and I don't know if it has something like this. But I would definitely be interested in this a year or two down the road and if I would be able to upgrade by then my old video card. Will be nice to see some benchmarks on this thing soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smax Posted January 15, 2007 Report Share Posted January 15, 2007 It has a 16x slot in it, but the Exresscard slot only supports 1x. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lych Posted January 15, 2007 Report Share Posted January 15, 2007 (edited) Thats true. While this device is a very cool idea, I wouldn't waste my money on it. The bus speed is the limiting factor. No matter how fast the card is, it will always be hurt by the 1x limitation. I would rather save my money on a newer laptop (mine just died :) ). At least I got a new desktop as a graduation present. Now all I have to do is finish my Master's program and get the ol' family started. Edited January 19, 2007 by ®®® Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ice-Tea Posted January 15, 2007 Report Share Posted January 15, 2007 Outputs? DVI? HDMI? I came by looking to upgrade my Alien's 6800 go on the mobo after Goldenstar has decided they can no longer sell me the upgraded video card:( But this is interesting. Doubt it`s gonna offer much performance gain over a 6800 on that x1 bus.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zeitgeist Posted January 19, 2007 Report Share Posted January 19, 2007 Well I would love to upgrade my Alienware but I am being deviled on finding a suitable card. :) Thats really the only thing holding it back I think. Any Ideas would be greatly appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krapatouille Posted January 19, 2007 Report Share Posted January 19, 2007 It does'nt work with the the notebook's screen... For this price (600$), you must buy a deskop... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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