Thinkpads Forum

1) Excuse the ignorant question but how would you connect the T410s to an external monitor? The T410s has a DisplayPort port, but what if the monitor does not have a DisplayPort port but an HDMI port?

2) Which leads into my second question. How would I connect the T410s to two external monitors? I guess whatever the answer is to the above question, but connect some kind of a splitter coming out of the T410s DisplayPort port?

3) And lastly, take a look at this link...
http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/cont ... me=Gallery

Once you get there, click on T400s below the thumbnails. If that long link I pasted does not work right, it is the T-series gallery on Lenovo's site. In one of the pictures, it shows the T400s connected to two external monitors, but does not say how. They brag at how you can export 2560x1600 to two monitors without the use of a dock. Is this possible even though the T410s video card tops out at 1440x900?

Thank you.

No HDMI on the other monitor, use the VGA port or use the dock and the USB to Displayport (Converter, to be specific) adapters then a DP to HDMI adapter.

See Matt Kohut's video on the new docks, you can run more than 2 monitors (!)
http://lenovoblogs.com/insidethebox/?p=290

Navck wrote:No HDMI on the other monitor, use the VGA port or use the dock and the USB to Displayport (Converter, to be specific) adapters then a DP to HDMI adapter.

See Matt Kohut's video on the new docks, you can run more than 2 monitors (!)
http://lenovoblogs.com/insidethebox/?p=290

I think I had edited my post before you replied. Sorry... so if I do not have a dock, what would I do to connect to one external monitor? To two external monitors?

Displayport and VGA, use both to connect to two monitors. Adapters as needed to make connections.

By the way the Intel or NVIDIA graphics is powerful enough (Not joking) to drive monitor resolutions like that so you'll be fine.

Navck wrote:Displayport and VGA, use both to connect to two monitors. Adapters as needed to make connections.

By the way the Intel or NVIDIA graphics is powerful enough (Not joking) to drive monitor resolutions like that so you'll be fine.

Thanks. So you're saying VGA on T410s to VGA on monitor 1. And DisplayPort on T410s to x to HDMI on monitor 2 (where x is an DisplayPort-to-HDMI connector or something similar).

Now I guess there isn't a way to use the DisplayPort on the T410s to power both monitors, right? Reason I'm asking is I'm assuming that DisplayPort has better video quality.

And lastly, when you say that the video card is powerful enough to drive those high resolutions, are you saying that 1440x900 is the limitation of the T410s built-in display and not the video card itself? If this is the case, do you happen to know what the max resolution the NVidia cranks out?

Define "better" display quality for yourself and ask if it'll be noticeable under normal usage and not just personal benchmarks.
I am not sure if a single DP can be used to drive two monitors, you'll have to check around.
HDMI is DVI with DRM.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/nvs_techspecs.html

Navck wrote:Define "better" display quality for yourself and ask if it'll be noticeable under normal usage and not just personal benchmarks.
I am not sure if a single DP can be used to drive two monitors, you'll have to check around.
HDMI is DVI with DRM.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/nvs_techspecs.html

Thanks for the link. The reason I asked if the single DisplayPort port could power two monitors was from looking at that link I posted above. If you click on that link, then click on "T400s" below the thumbnails and then click one of the middle pictures, they show a T400s with two external monitors claiming both display at 2560x1600 without a dock. Unless the VGA could output at that resolution too, I'm assuming they did it all with the DisplayPort port on the T400s. Just wish they explained how.

You realize at those resolutions you'll have lowered refresh rate, right? Unless you own an IBM T221, driving two monitors (Unless you're talking about two 1080 plasma screens) is not going to be a problem. It would of been back when Pentium 3s and GeForce 2s were the cutting edge of technology.

Matrox dual or triple head 2go's are available with displayport input and outputs as well as dvi output. Or you can use some adapter on the outputs for whatever your monitor needs. You need to verify that your video gpu is supported.

Ok thanks a lot for your help guys, I appreciate the education.