How does an external video card work on a laptop?
Jun.03, 2010 in
computers
Does having an external video card mean that you can treat a laptop as something with greater graphical power? For example, if a laptop has a very low-end Intel video card, can an external video card compensate for it and allow the video card to play high-end games, such as Crysis or Assassin’s Creed?
June 3rd, 2010 at 11:35 am
it sounds like external graphics cards are just for boosting your resolution and showing your laptops image on a monitor. It does no boosting of performance.
so the answer to your question is no
June 3rd, 2010 at 11:53 am
No. External Video Cards are for those that need to run an additional monitor. They are not for gaming. Likely you are limited not only by your video card but also your ram and processor.
June 3rd, 2010 at 12:49 pm
Dan, depends on what you are willing to spend.
On the low end(less than $50) there are USB adapters that allow you to add monitors to laptops. They do most of their graphics processing by using your CPU, and they are kind of limited in the way of resolution. So if you are looking at playing games this would not be a good solution.
There are companies that make full featured external cards, but they can run well over $1000. Take a look at the Sidecar.
http://www.digitaltigers.com/sidecar.asp?bhcp=1
There is also the option to add a card slot from an external box like the Magma Expressbox.
http://www.magma.com/products/pciexpress/expressbox1/
I don’t know what your budget is like, but in some of these cases it might just be cheaper to buy a new laptop.