Alienware Concept Polaris Set To Free Laptops From GPU limitations
January 14, 2022Dell aims to liberate laptops from their constrained graphics performance with Concept Polaris. Revealed at CES 2022 and part of the Alienware eGPU line, its purpose is to provide laptop users with the same graphical computing performance as desktop workstations. It comes from a long line of graphics amplifiers that can be traced back to 2014.
The tubular outer shell and honeycomb mesh, lend it a unique look, which is far removed from the usual boring, black boxes we are use used to seeing. It has the Alienware Legend 2.0 ID due to its soft rounded corners and cool lighting. Dell says that the system can be positioned vertically or horizontally, depending on how you’d like to placed it.
Concept Polaris owes its slender silhouette to the omission of the built-in power supply. Instead, it uses an external dual AC adapter for power. It can deliver 330W but if configured with two adapters, a total of 425W is produced. This arrangement, allows the graphics card to function at optimal levels to deliver desktop level performance.
Off the shell graphics cards meant for desktop PCs fit perfectly in Concept Polaris. However, to keep the GPU temperature in check, the system uses a liquid cooling solution (240mm Cryo-Tech cooling solution), which includes thermal interface material, Element 31. This setup should allow users the breathing room to overclock their GPUs without worrying about heat issues.
As the name suggests, Concept Polaris isn’t a real product but if does make it to the production line, the system, could have connectivity for Thunderbolt 3, Thunderbolt 4 and USB-4. This would allow it to plug into just about any laptop without detriment to performance. It could also have USB-A, USB-C and 2.5Gb ethernet ports for expanded support for peripherals.
Dell’s Concept Polaris is a pipe dream of what a “no compromise” external GPU could look like. It may provide for the kind of graphical computing power that was once reserved for desktop PCs. We might see a derivation of this system hit store shelves in the near future, but how much of Concept Polaris is retained, remains to be seen.
