06 Apr 2016

It’s not official, but it’s fantastic!


Graphics cards installed in laptops tend to be low caffeine versions of high power desktop adapters. And some desktop computers have fairly modest graphics cards that are hard-wired and cannot be upgraded in the usual plug and play way. If you’re browsing the Internet or creating spreadsheets, this isn’t a big deal. But if you’re a gamer, video editor, colourist or 3D designer, you’re going to need a much stronger brew.

Graphics cards installed in laptops tend to be low caffeine versions of high power desktop adapters. And some desktop computers have fairly modest graphics cards that are hard-wired and cannot be upgraded in the usual plug and play way. If you’re browsing the Internet or creating spreadsheets, this isn’t a big deal. But if you’re a gamer, video editor, colourist or 3D designer, you’re going to need a much stronger brew.

A lot of Vloggers and YouTubers have done amazing things to super-charge the graphics grunt of their ageing computers and sluggish notebooks. They use a Sonnet Thunderbolt Echo expansion chassis with a fast, external graphics card to achieve excellent game play and greatly accelerated content creation.

Upgrade

The upgrade path is simple. Attach a Sonnet Thunderbolt expansion chassis to your computer’s Thunderbolt port. Insert your graphics card into one of the PCI expansion slots in the chassis, connecting power cables as required. Configure your computer’s settings to use the external graphics card, ensuring that you have the latest drivers installed for the card.

That’s it! You’re done.

The Sonnet DIfference

What results can you expect? Check out:

Obviously these videos are mostly about extreme gaming machines where Fallout 4, Call of Duty and Resident Evil fans crave hyper-realistic blood shed on an epic scale.

But, editing and grading software such as Grass Valley EDIUS Pro, Apple Final Cut Pro and DaVinci Resolve also benefit hugely from the power of external graphics card. The Sonnet set up delivers true 4K workstation performance from laptops: you can now attach to multiple external monitors for a familiar desktop-style creative workspace and full resolution playback.

GPU Applications

Some programmes are optimized for Nvidia’s CUDA graphics technology. This provides a significant hike in performance and unleashes the full potential of creative software such as Adobe Premiere Pro, Avid Media Composer and Autodesk’s 3DS Max and Maya. For more details, visit Nvidia’s website.

Most professionals using these applications will insist on a full, standalone Nvidia graphics card to get the performance they need. Sonnet gives them the flexibility to add this power, via their Thunderbolt expansion units.

Even More Speed

Whether your PC or Mac is new or ageing, many of Sonnet’s Thunderbolt enclosures give you the option of adding super-fast storage in addition to an external graphics card.

The xMac Pro, Echo Express III-R units support mobile racks that can house external two SSD drives. That’s fast storage and power instantly on tap – or it’s a blisteringly fast array if you go for RAID 0 with 2 SSDs.

Another option is to load the expansion chassis with a Tempo 512GB PCIe card and prepare for 1350 MB/s read, 1288 MB/s write speeds.

Still hungry for more?

Add a 10GbE network card in your Echo unit and you’ve got incredibly quick connectivity. Add a Blackmagic DeckLink card for HD and 4K full raster, full motion video input and output options.

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