AMD Plots Thunderbolt Competitor Lightning Bolt; May Sink External GPU

From DailyTech: Today’s increasingly thin ultraportable laptops (e.g. Intel Corp.'s (INTC) beloved "Ultrabooks") tend to lack a discrete GPU powerful enough to do anything outside of low-to-mid range gaming and a bit of photoshopping. Want to do even basic 3D modeling? Want to play Metro 2033 on decent settings? Well, you'll have to sacrifice portability for power, getting one of the "brick-style" laptops.

That's precisely why the idea of an external GPU (eGPU) has long been exciting. Imagine having the power of a discrete GPU that you can connect to your laptop at home for heavier workloads, without needing a second system or heavier laptop.

At the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show Micro-Star International Comp. Ltd. (TPE:2377) titillated us with the latest "coming soon to a market near you" external graphics card solution.

The new system is called GUS II and it will retail (hopefully) for around $150. It connects to your laptop/Ultrabook via Intel's proprietary Thunderbolt interface, which means if you don't have Thunderbolt, you're out of luck. On the flip side, Thunderbolt cables themselves can run $50 or more, so the free included cable makes the price point seem pretty good. (It's unclear if the price will include a basic graphics card.)

The enclosure can accept standard small to medium size graphics cards, but there's a power ceiling of 150 watts -- 75 watts of the PCI Express graphics slot and 75 watts off a 6-pin ATX connector routed from an internal power unit (which means you'll have to plug in an external power cord).

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