Advanced Dock with 2560x1600 PCI Express Card

[juller]

Hi-

After reading all relevant threads I could find (several times) I am still a little stuck on which dual-link PCI Express card to get for my Thinkpad T60p (Windows XP Pro) and Advanced Dock to enable driving a 30" monitor at 2560x1600 (needs dual-link dvi). I don't really run games, this machine is for coding.

The main reason for my problem is obviously the size and power consumption restriction with the dock and also that the forum message posts, although great (RonS et al!), are often quite old and the cards mentioned are no longer available (new at least), and often the newer cards consume more power. Also I'm trying to get a reasonably cheap card, ruling out the FireGL V5200 256MB, unless I have to get it.

I have a Thinkpad T60p with the ATI Mobility FireGL V5250 internally. I have seen mentioned that it is a good idea to stick with the same brand for the PCIE card and also vice versa. Not sure about that. I presume no one has managed to get this machine to drive 2560x1600 without a dock and PCIE card? I saw some success with the v5200 card but no mention of the v5250 working in this way.

Still, I have seen the following cards and wondered if anyone had any opinions at all on them as regards suitability for my purpose? It's really hard to judge whether the card will fit the dock and I can't find out much on power consumption. This link was good though: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/ ... noise.html

1. Gigabyte ATI X1550 256MB: http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=4N79 which is the same as: http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/VGA ... uctID=2462

2. MSI ATI X1550 256MB: http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=4P4J which seems to be the same as the MSI one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814127294

3. Sapphire ATI X1550 512MB: http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=4DL9

4. XFX GeForce 7600GS 256MB: http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=4LNB which is the same as: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814150235

5. Gigabyte GeForce 7600GS 256MB: http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=42HM which is the same as: http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/VGA ... uctID=2237

I have seen mixed results but definitely some success on the message forums for the 7600GS (no mention of those specific card models I think, only older cards) but no mention of the X1550.

Any information/ tips/ advice/ anything! would be much appreciated, on these cards or others (available new today preferably). I have steered clear of the newer, more powerful cards because of power concerns.

Thanks a lot for any help-

Joel

[juller]

All fixed.

Sorry, I should have investigated further before posting the previous message about running a 30" display off my T60p with FireGL V5250: it turns out when I updated the BIOS and ATI drivers through the ThinkVantage System Update utility that the display properties settings in Windows XP would allow me to set the res to 2560x1600.

So I updated the BIOS & graphics drivers and it just works. I don't know whether I'll have to change this every time I dock/ undock yet as I haven't tried it.

I should have read some of the old posts more carefully:
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... v5250+dual
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... v5250+dual
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... v5250+dual
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... v5250+dual