What’s an External GPU?

Print anything with Printful



External graphics cards can connect to a computer, allowing multiple monitors or displays. They are inexpensive but have a signal bottleneck. Some external cards can render and display graphics for a computer, but they are more expensive and require a separate graphics card. They connect to a laptop via PCIe or PCI-E for better performance.

An external graphics card is a device that can be connected to a computer, usually intended for use with laptop computers, to provide graphical output for that computer. There are two basic types of devices referred to as external graphics cards. The former provides a way to connect two or more monitors to a single computer. The other type is a device that can be plugged into a computer, to which a graphics card can be connected or installed and provide graphics processing for that computer.

One of the more common types of external cards is a device that can be plugged into a computer, allowing that computer to be connected to multiple monitors or displays. These cards are used for a variety of different reasons, often to create computer workstations where someone can use a program on one monitor, while viewing other information displayed by the computer on another monitor. This type of graphics card can also allow the user to connect their computer to a monitor that they are viewing, while also connecting to a larger display to allow others to see what they are doing for demonstration or seminar purposes.

The benefits of this type of external graphics card are that it’s usually quite inexpensive and can be useful for users with a graphics card that doesn’t innately support multiple displays. Due to the fact that this type of device is usually connected to a computer through a Universal Serial Bus (USB) port or similar connection, however, there is usually a signal bottleneck. This means that the data sent through this type of system is limited by the USB connection, so these devices aren’t really used as external graphics rendering systems.

An external graphics card that is actually used to render and display graphics for a computer, however, is available from some manufacturers. These devices are usually rarer than the other type and are also a bit more expensive due to the features they provide. This type of graphics card often acts as an enclosure for a separate graphics card that can be installed inside it.

The device is then connected to a computer, usually a laptop, and is used to process graphics data for that machine. A separate graphics card is usually required with this type of external graphics card, which increases the expense of such a system. These devices typically connect to a laptop via a PCIe or PCI-E connection for interconnecting peripheral components, which takes the bottleneck out of USB connections and allows the graphics card to effectively reproduce even highly detailed graphics.




Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN


Skip to content