SLI/CrossFire, GPU dock for Elitebooks, other HP notebooks

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So there’s been a lot of talk about GPU docks since Gigabyte showcased one of their notebooks recently, which has integrated Intel graphics but allows users to park their notebook to a dock which holds an external Nvidia desktop graphics card. Besides feasibility and potential demand (how many people need/want such an accessory?), there’s no reason why HP can’t do the same for their Elitebook series, and perhaps their other notebooks in the future.

SLI/CrossFire GPU dock for Elitebooks

Let’s split things up into two sections – first, I’ll talk about the Elitebook side of things. The Elitebook series are already prepared to support such an accessory – via the dedicated connector for existing docking stations (small/large) at the bottom of the notebook. Since HP’s Elitebooks (14 inches and up) already come with built-in dedicated graphics solutions, an external graphics dock can house a secondary graphics card which the notebook can make use of. So when docked, your Elitebook can become an SLI/Crossfire dual graphics card powerhouse! This might pose a bit of a problem for Nvidia’s graphics cards, as SLI only works with two of the same cards and, correct me if I’m wrong, I don’t think Nvidia’s Quadro mobile cards can bind to work as one (Quadro Plex seems to be only for desktop cards?) – seeing each Elitebook model uses different Nvidia graphics, I’d say it’ll also be too expensive for HP to create ‘GPU docks’ unique to each notebook/graphics card combination.

But wait, we have ATI’s FirePro mobile cards coming to 2010 HP Elitebooks. Could GPU docking/cross-firing be one of the reasons why HP is bringing ATI graphics to their ex-Nvidia exclusive Elitebooks? I’m not quite sure… but seeing existing CrossFire (ATI’s version of SLI) implementations allow use of two different graphics cards, then HP could make a one-size-fits-all GPU dock – stuffing in something like an ATI Mobility Radeon 5870 or FirePro equivalent of that – as an optional add-on. If you’ve ever seen the performance increase in CAD work using 1 vs 2 graphics cards, then you’d know why such an accessory (CrossFire GPU dock) has the potential to sell like hotcakes to the market of mobile power-users, artists and designers.

Dedicated graphics GPU dock for Pavilion/Compaq notebooks

The thing which makes me think such an accessory can sell is because of real life experience with some people I know. Most recently, I “converted” one of my friends from ‘game spectator’ to ‘player’. All it took was watching me play Left4Dead 2 on an Elitebook 8440w I was testing, and she was sold on the idea of ‘PC gaming’ – she had never expected that a 14 inch notebook could play games so well (versus consoles), and also because a game about chopping up zombies somehow seems to appeal to many people (huh?!). She initially installed Left4Dead 2 on her Dell notebook (I think it’s either an XPS or Studio 14) and was disappointed by the choppy frame rates because of Intel integrated graphics. Long story short, she now has to temporarily play her newly acquired PC games on her sister’s notebook which has a Nvidia GT200-series mobile card while she shops for a new one with discrete graphics.

There is an untapped market of users who want to ‘game’ with their notebooks but don’t know that they can’t game for peanuts with Intel integrated graphics, either that, or the psychology is that ‘no laptop is powerful enough for games, I will need a desktop but in that case, I’d rather buy a PS3/XBOX instead’. Including a desktop graphics card in a notebook dock can not only help in performance (dekstop graphics typically have better performance per dollar than mobile equivalents), but also might help computer makers earn more per customer. Why? Traditionally, the average consumer and/or student would not pay more than $500-$900 for a ‘laptop’ due to their ‘budgets’… and for games, they go out there and buy a gaming console instead; since the common false perception is that PS3/XBox 360 consoles are superior compared to PC’s for gaming (Personally: To hell with that statement, how do you explain things like the HP Envy 15 and Alienware M11x?!). An external graphics card dock for ‘gaming’ would psychologically fall under the “accessories I should buy” list in consumers’ minds, for which they have separate budget allocations for. Yup, I’ve seen it happen before: Most people aren’t willing to pay a few more bucks for the discrete graphics option so they can game, yet they’re willing to pay something ridiculous like a hundred bucks for a ‘color/pattern matching notebook case’ or notebook cooler.

Coincidentally, HP has this port called “Expansion Port 3″ for an external dock for some of their Pavilion notebooks. I wonder what other things they could do with it…

3 Comments

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  By lucklucky, February 14, 2010 @ 6:26 pm

  “If you’ve ever seen the performance increase in CAD work using 1 vs 2 graphics cards, then you’d know why such an accessory (CrossFire GPU dock) has the potential to sell like hotcakes to the market of mobile power-users, artists and designers.”

  I have never seen that, what specific application you are talking about?

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  By Brad, February 14, 2010 @ 10:13 pm

  You’re right in the sense that we normally don’t see that everyday in every single application. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t any apps that take advantage of 2+ graphics cards – such applications do exist. Here’s a good example (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2ba86DA6kE) by ATI themselves showing Maya running on 1 vs 2 workstation class graphics cards (albeit on a desktop) and the performance increase (roughly 55-60% increase). Most high end design software are able to run better using 2+ graphics cards, same goes to certain games (though workstation graphics aren’t made for gaming, they can still take advantage of a 2 GPU setup)

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  By lucklucky, February 19, 2010 @ 6:15 pm

  I know and worked Maya, 3dsMax, Softimage etc but didn’t know it improved Maya, thanks for the link.

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