Let's face it, gaming PCs kind of have the upper hand when it comes to upgrading and form factor. A laptop carries the restraints of smaller size and thickness, portability, and of course cooling. Instead of us waiting forever for a company to come up with the perfect gaming laptop that could perform like a PC, let's think about real-life options. Apparently, they aren't so bad, anymore. The Alienware Graphics Amplifier is a great way to save time and money when wanting to upgrade graphics on a gaming laptop.

Alienware wants this to be an option for some of its new gaming laptops by using an external cabinet, called the Amplifier, holding a standard graphics card, connected by a cable. Once plugged in, the laptop's internal graphics go into chill-out mode, and the Amplifier takes on all of the burden, said to be “desktop-class power” (Tech Spot).

Additionally, you are able to upgrade a laptop like never before. Both Nvidia and AMD graphics cards can be used in the Graphics Amplifier, as well as your own, and it is compatible with the Alienware 13, 15, and 17 gaming laptops, currently. Not that it's any surprise, but having this external power supply is already showing a dramatic increase in performance for Alienware. After sharing some slides from internal testing for the Amplifier, Fudzilla reports a 40 to 120 percent increase on certain games for the various Alienware notebook models mentioned. Not to worry, you'll never have to replace the entire Amplifier when you want stronger graphics cards. Next gen cards are compatible with the device as long as they fit the power profile and have the PCIe interface. Alienware's Amplifier is currently on sale for $300.