I bought a datacenter GPU that doesn't fit in a normal motherboard, macgyvered the fan with jumper wires, and now I'm running a model that ties with Claude Sonnet 4.6 on benchmarks, all for £200.
A while back I was able to use an nvidia m40 as a GPU while using embedded intel as the primary video output. This worked back then because laptops with nvidia GPUs rely on this hybrid GPu setup built into windows to conserve power and optimize for apps that actually need acceleration (windows surface book had a detachable nvidia GPu built into the keyboard). I did have to tweak some things in the driver to pick the default GPu. I don’t remember exactly how I did it back then and I’m not sure if it’s relevant any longer. I’m sure it’s better now that USB-C docks provide acceleration as well without needing to be connecting directly to the output device.
I’m sure anything and all of these datacenter systems will eventually find creative places in the aftermarket.
A while back I was able to use an nvidia m40 as a GPU while using embedded intel as the primary video output. This worked back then because laptops with nvidia GPUs rely on this hybrid GPu setup built into windows to conserve power and optimize for apps that actually need acceleration (windows surface book had a detachable nvidia GPu built into the keyboard). I did have to tweak some things in the driver to pick the default GPu. I don’t remember exactly how I did it back then and I’m not sure if it’s relevant any longer. I’m sure it’s better now that USB-C docks provide acceleration as well without needing to be connecting directly to the output device.
I’m sure anything and all of these datacenter systems will eventually find creative places in the aftermarket.