Which PCIe video card for T60p with Win 7 and advanced dock?

[jasolution]

I've learned from Matrox that they will not be releasing drivers that support the Millenium P650 128 PCIe on Windows 7 in the Advanced Dock configuration. This means I'm going to need to replace my card with something supported on Windows 7.

I'm curious what recently produced PCIe video cards people have had success with in an Advanced Dock and a T60p running Windows 7 with two 22" or greater DVI displays connected to the PCIe card.

[eyeland]

wonder if this thread is dead...
I am considdering the purchase of an advanced dock for my t61 and I'm wondering which low profile gfx will be supported
T61 7661-gn3 - 14,1 inch Wide - Win7

[RealBlackStuff]

You both have a lot of reading to do
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=22358

[jasolution]

[quote="RealBlackStuff"]You both have a lot of reading to do
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=22358[/quote]

Unfortunately, that thread doesn't deal with any experiences of users running Windows 7 with Advanced Dock + PCIe card.

[RealBlackStuff]

Not specifically W7, I agree, but it should give you a lot of insight in what works and what not.
IMHO it's crazy to want to run your proposed setup from a laptop.
You'd be much better off with a desktop/tower.

[jasolution]

[quote="RealBlackStuff"]Not specifically W7, I agree, but it should give you a lot of insight in what works and what not.
IMHO it's crazy to want to run your proposed setup from a laptop.
You'd be much better off with a desktop/tower.[/quote]

I suppose you're right, what am I thinking?!?!?! It would be far more convenient to carry a tower through airports, to client locations and home each night. Silly me.

You are right about that thread though, it is what I used a couple of years ago when I originally purchased this setup and needed to choose a video card. The information there is useful, but since it doesn't specifically have any accounts of Windows 7 setups, I fear that purchasing a different video card mentioned in that thread may leave me right back in the same situation -- a setup that works great in Vista or XP, but is unsupported in Win 7.

This T60p/Advanced Dock/Matrox Millenium P650 setup has worked quite well for the past two years with Vista & XP. The advanced dock supports the add-in cards, the T60p has the horsepower to do what I need and it offers the portability that my job requires. As a software developer, it's not unreasonable for me to want to - and expect to be able to - run a dual DVI setup while docked.

Who knows, maybe I'll have to retire the T60p and just request a new machine, but before I waste my company's money like that, I want to make sure that I've exhausted all of my options to make a less costly alternative work.

[RealBlackStuff]

Have you looked at the Matrox DualHead2Go? http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/products/gxm/
Or Lenovo's USB2DVI adapter? http://www.itechnews.net/2009/08/30/len ... d-support/

[eyeland]

well, I only use 1 external display atm, so I am mostly into this gfx to get a little better visual performance than the built in gma...

[RealBlackStuff]

If you have built-in (intel) GMA, then you don't have an (ATI) T60p.

[misfit]

This T60p/Advanced Dock/Matrox Millenium P650 setup has worked quite well for the past two years with Vista & XP. The advanced dock supports the add-in cards, the T60p has the horsepower to do what I need and it offers the portability that my job requires. As a software developer, it's not unreasonable for me to want to - and expect to be able to - run a dual DVI setup while docked.

If it works in Vista it'll likely work in Windows 7 as W7 isn't in fact 7 at all, it's Windows 6.1 (Vista was 6.0). Therefore a lot of Vista drivers will work fine with '7'.

[eyeland]

ok, so maybe I should post this in another thread I guess... For what its worth I have been running a fireGL 3300 in my advanced dock on a t61 (x3100) running win 7.
As the advanced dosk is too noisy I mistakingly thought that the fan on the 3300 would be enough so I disconnected the psu fan (;)) which led to the death of my 3300.
Now I am looking for a new gfx and thus, a list of supported cards would be sweet. Question is: what limits the number of useable cards? The thinkpad model? the operating system? or the dock itself?

Happy new year
Rune

[RonS]

The v5200 and v5700 (PCI-Express) cards are both 32-watt cards and are good for the Advanced Dock. They both support 3840x1600 resolution, which can then be fed into a Matrox TripleHead2Go and split again. I have that setup working on my Advanced Dock right now.