I just can't see it. I mean you can buy a laptop with powerful onboard graphics. Why would you need this addon? Power consumption? Most GPU's all but turn themselves off when not in use - power management is king. The last succesful addon graphics accelerator I'm aware of was the 3dfx Voodoo2 and it was only successful because there was no other viable option at the time. More recently we've seen Physx addon cards - never seen one in the flesh because it was quickly absorbed onto the NVidia GPU.
An EXTERNAL graphics card is just bonkers.
When we last saw the Sony Vaio Z laptop, all 2.5 pounds of it, it was available in United Kingdom, but now it’s made its way across the pond. Starting for a shade under $2,000, the 13.1-inch ultraportable notebook comes complete with the Power Media Dock, which not only includes an optical drive but also the AMD Radeon HD 6650M graphics card.
For the base price of $1,969.99, you get an Intel Core i5-2410M processor, 4GB of RAM, and a 128GB solid state drive, but no wireless broadband option. Prices go up from there if you want to equip the Vaio Z with an Intel Core i7 CPU instead, up to 8GB of RAM, up to a 512GB SSD, a 1080p display, Power Dock with Blu-ray burner, and/or wireless broadband modem. Fully decked out, this little laptop can easily set you back well over $3,000.
One thing you won’t see Sony talking much about, but you’ll find on both the Vaio Z and its Power Media Dock is a Light Peak-based port, which can power that external GPU. Sony calls it a “docking station port” and takes pain to point out that you can attach USB 2.0/3.0 devices to it. As This is my next… points out, the port will not work with the handful of Thunderbolt devices available (the trademarked name for Light Peak), and Sony doesn’t plan any other Light Peak peripherals for the Z series.
Our sister site CNET already has a review of the Vaio Z to check out, and while noting its high price tag, reviewer Dan Ackerman does believe it delivers luxury and decent performance.
