
Your Ultrabook’s onboard graphics chip may be good enough for some gaming, but what if you could enjoy all the power of a high-end desktop video card or even dual video cards, every time you sat down at your desk? A new technology from Lucid, makers of the Virtu MVP graphics acceleration software, will let you attach any Thunderbolt-enabled notebook to an external graphics card that’s good enough to transform your 3-pound ultraportable into a heavy-hitting gaming system.
In a private briefing on the eve of Intel’s Developers Forum, Lucid allowed us to go hands-on with a prototype Thunderbolt graphics card. To show the difference in performance discrete graphics makes, Lucid first had us run the 3DMark06 benchmark on a standard Ivy Bridge motherboard using Intel’s integrated Intel HD Graphics 4000 chip, where the system returned a mediocre rate of 28 frames-per-second.
We then closed out of 3DMark06 and plugged the external graphics card, which had its own case and power supply, into the computer’s Thunderbolt port. The screen went black for just a second or two and then the external video card, which in this case was an AMD Radeon 6700 chip, appeared in the Windows Device Manager under Display adapters. We launched 3DMark06 again and this time saw a frame rate of around 89 fps.
What happens when you accidentally (or purposefully) disconnect the external graphics card from your laptop while you have a program running? Lucid’s Thunderbolt graphics software will simply force close your application and return you to the Windows desktop, without forcing you to reboot or allowing a system crash. While this solution isn’t ideal, it is far superior to the epic Blue Screen of Death you’d experience if you yanked a video card out of your motherboard with the system running.
The notebook world has long been waiting for truly powerful and practical external graphics solution. Back in 2007-2008, ASUS teased mobile gamers with its XG Station graphics peripheral, which when it finally appeared, was only available in a few distant markets like Australia. Since then, a handful of notebooks like the Gigabyte M2432 have had proprietary graphics docks that gave them a little more oomph, but nothing to type home about. A number of companies also sell USB docks that employ DisplayLink technology that allows you to output to several monitors at once, but the performance of these isn’t good enough for serious gaming.
When it comes to market, Lucid’s Thunderbolt video solution could change the way we look at notebook gaming. Today, if you want a portable gaming rig that really performs, you plunk down several thousand dollars on a gaming system that’s probably too bulky to carry. Tomorrow, you could have the best of both worlds: a light-weight Ultrabook that can play mid-range titles like World of Warcraft on the road, and demanding games like Batman: Arkham City when you come home and attach it to an external video card.
Even better, with graphics over Thunderbolt, users will be able to upgrade to their notebooks’ video capabilities without purchasing a new system or whipping out a screwdriver. If your current external video card is getting long in the tooth, simply toss it and buy a better one. Lucid even told us that the technology could be used to support dual-graphics cards in SLI or possibly to daisy chain multiple cards together for maximum performance.
Right now, however, Lucid’s external Thunderbolt graphics technology is still under development with no set release date and no official partners on board. However, today’s notebook buyers can take heart as the company says that graphics peripherals based on its technology should be compatible with current-generation Ultrabooks that have Thunderbolt on board.

September 18th, 2012 at 12:37 am
LOL… Thunderbolt won’t have enough bandwidth to drive multiple graphic cards… or even the current higher end cards… that only has a PCIe 2x slot… http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1389740
October 8th, 2012 at 7:59 pm
If the human eye can capture only 32FPS, what becomes of all the excess?
October 9th, 2012 at 11:23 am
1 Thunderbolt port has two 10GB/s channels so it can handle multiple graphics cards. If you have 2 thunderbolt ports that is four independent channels.
October 16th, 2012 at 4:45 pm
Make this happen in 2013 and I will buy it and pay the price
October 19th, 2012 at 9:13 pm
Yanking out the cable is the wrong way to remove it… What is the right way?
November 1st, 2012 at 9:48 pm
@David: “PCIE2.0 (4 Lanes) is 16Gbit/s (2GB/s) and Thunderbolt is 10Gbit/s (1.25GB/s) though Thunderbolt does have 2 channels which could be used to double its speeds to 20Gbit/s (2.50GB/s)
Using both lanes this would make it equivalent to PCIE2.0 (5 Lanes)”
Visit the page in the first comment.
November 11th, 2012 at 10:59 pm
Can u guys tell more about it? Does it need to change ports for the monitor? What is the estimate release? What about Thunderbolt-powered MSI GUS II GPU?
December 6th, 2012 at 11:14 pm
You can have external gpu With expresscard port . Price is 70$ for the cables . Only for windows computers ;p
December 7th, 2012 at 12:47 pm
This looks like a vaporware, just like MSI Graphics Upgrade Solution (GUS). NEVER RELEASED TO BUY.
December 13th, 2012 at 10:10 pm
Btw, if you remove your video card from a computer, there’s no blue screen of death… just black
December 26th, 2012 at 3:36 pm
It’s a myth that human eye can only capture 32fps. That should be evident in the fact that your head feels much more relaxed playing at 60fps, or the fact that many of us experience less eye fatigue on 120hrtz monitors with the fps capped to 120fps. Even the controls act differently with certain engines when pushing the fps envelope, ie. the ability to jump higher in the original COD engine when maintaining 85 or 120 fps. The theoretical limit of 32fps was derived from console manufacturers that want to produce more profits while providing the minimum service.
January 15th, 2013 at 2:49 am
” While this solution isn’t ideal, it is far superior to the epic Blue Screen of Death you’d experience if you yanked a video card out of your motherboard with the system running.”
WHAT…….IS THIS? I can’t think of any BSODs appearing with the Graphics Card connected to the display, during removal (which is difficult btw)……only a BLANK SCREEN maybe….
March 4th, 2013 at 8:28 am
@flyrasin Try to remove graphic card from PCIE slot (its basically what you are doing with removing the cable from thunderbolt port) while working on that graphic card. You will experience at least BSOD(if you have gpu on board to process that screen), but the computer will freeze for sure. So thats something good that it doesnt hang out with thunderbolt.
March 20th, 2013 at 12:20 pm
Great!
but where the hell can i buy this piece of hardware???
anyone could help… i have been searching for a thunderbolt external gpu for my macbook pro 13″ for days…. i see many videos and solutions but no where to buy it…
also saw a real nice one box from msi but no where to buy it!
please help!
my email: paulo.carneiro.email@…g…mail.com (obviously some dots don’t belong)
many thanks,