By Andrew Liszewski
The PCI Special Interest Group (aka the PCI-SIG for geeks like me) has just approved a new PCI express standard that among other things will facilitate the development and operation of PCIe graphics cards that sit outside of the computer.
Why would you want that you ask? Well the biggest advantage to this is that it allows newer graphics cards (which seem to get larger with each generation) to sit in their own external enclosure instead of being crammed into a computer tower adding to the heat and power consumption. This is especially useful when you’re running multiple graphics cards on a single system.
As a ‘graphics professional’ I’m actually really excited about the potential the PCI express standard has. Previously the graphics card was only ever used to provide real-time renders on your screen since the pipeline from the computer to the card was really only one way. PCIe allows a two-way communication between the CPU and card which means the graphics chipset can now help out when it comes time to render those fancy effects.
Of course since this was only recently approved don’t go running out to your local computer shop looking to upgrade because it’s probably gonna be a while before this becomes available to us lowly consumers.
VIA [ Ars Technica ]
