Nvidia embraces eGPU for pro-grade Quadro cards

Graphics giant Nvidia has announced that it is to begin supporting its pro-grade Quadro and top-end Titan Xp graphics card families when installed in external graphics processing unit (eGPU) houses, with the first certified examples to arrive on the market in September.

Speaking during the SIGGRAPH ACM conference in Los Angeles, Nvidia announced a new push towards supporting pro-grade graphics hardware in external housings as a means of allowing professionals - particularly those working in video editing, interactive rendering, virtual reality, and deep learning fields - to work on-the-go using a laptop that would otherwise lack the processing power to handle their workloads. Key to this: official support for using Nvidia's Quadro family of professional graphics cards.

'While more computer power than ever is needed for VR, photoreal rendering, and AI workflows, mobile systems are getting thinner and lighter with limited performance and memory,' claimed Bob Pette, vice president for professional visualisation at Nvidia, during the announcement. 'Our eGPUs can now solve this problem, enabling creatives to plug into our most capable GPUs so they can do their best work on the most graphically demanding applications.'

As well as supporting the Quadro range, the first certified eGPU boxes for which will be available in September from qualified Nvidia partners, Nvidia confirmed that its eGPU platform will support the prosumer-oriented Titan Xp cards - and that it is releasing a new driver which triples the performance of the card in professional applications like Maya.

Pricing for the pro-grade eGPU chassis has yet to be confirmed.