ATI announced XGP (eXternal Graphics Platform) technology back in 2008, which brings high-performance graphics to notebooks by connecting high-performance graphics card with specially designed notebooks via external PCI Express 2.0 connector. But the solution has hardly become widespread until now. The only product available now is one notebook model offered by Fujitsu Siemens with built-in Mobility Radeon HD 3870.

However, NVIDIA considers this segment to be very promising – “I think it is a big opportunity. We have two strategies at NVIDIA: one is to put graphics everywhere, the other one is to integrate discrete chips into the box. I think there is definitely a place for [external graphics cards for notebooks], no question. We continue to look at wheather this is a GPU [docking stations] or external devices,” said Rene Haas, general manager of the notebook GPU business at NVIDIA, in a brief interview with Xbitlabs.

One of the reasons that why the technology hasn’t become popular yet, according to NVIDIA, is the price of such graphics solutions.

“I think, the issue that has to be solved for something like that is the right price-point that hits the right segment. There is definitely a lot of interest in it and [this is] something we are keeping our eye on to be able to offer something there,” said Mr. Haas.

“This is my opinion, I cannot say much about our plans,” added Haas.