Advanced Dock PCI-E Graphics Card

[emconuk]

Hello.

I want to run a dual monitor output from an Advanced Dock. First monitor will be 1920x1600 ( landscape ) and the second shall be 1600x1200 ( in portrait for coding ). I am going to use a PCI-E graphics card - probably a x1300 based one. I checked the Lenovo site and the part number 41U5028 looks like what I need.

I am open to advice and suggestions on my plans. In partcular the part numbers of any cards used by forum members to achieve what I am looking to do.

thanks. emconuk.

[Radioguy]

A tad more info here:

http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/ThinkPad_Advanced_Dock

[RealBlackStuff]

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... 3&p=545436
do a search on the T60 forum, many posts about that.

[jbren]

For whatever it's worth, I have a Radeon HD4650 (Sapphire I think) running fine in the Adv. Dock. Runs fine with Vista & Win7, didn't try XP. I read through a lot of those threads when I first got the dock. For me the most helpful posts were those by forum member RonS.
As far as I could tell, the sticking point is the card's wattage. I figured anything under say 30+ watts would be fine, maybe more chance of success if Amd/Ati.
My 4650 has a fan that might not be necessary but it's ok. Well, maybe a bit noisy. You can read the older threads for ideas on that.

I am only using 1 monitor now (24" 1920x1200) but I tried with 2 and it worked fine.

Oh, also make sure the card's short enough to fit in the bay. I measured with an older card that fit.

[eyeland]

Do you know if anyone has compiled a list of cards that have a low enough powerdraw to work?
I am wondering if I should just get a 4650 or if any better cards such as 4670 or 5670 would work?

[eyeland]

According to This list the TDP of the of the buspowered cards I am looking at are as follows:
Below 50W:
5450=19W
4550=25W
5550=40W
5570=43W
Above 50W (and thus presumably not compatible with the dock at anything close to full load):
4650=55W
4670=70W
5670=61W
Is going for the 5550 or the 5570 gonna be cutting it too close?
Furthermore: Should I expect any significant changes in power draw between the different version utilizing different size/speed RAM and passive/active cooling solutions?

For whatever it's worth, I have a Radeon HD4650 (Sapphire I think) running fine in the Adv. Dock.

What version of the advanced dock are you using? Are you using the card for anything that puts any "real" load on it?
Is your 4650 running wthout any crashes, artefacts or other issues? If the list linked above is accurate, then it should draw more power than the dock can suply? If indeed it works and if the list is accurate, is seems safe to assume that the 5550 and the 5570 will work as well?

[jbren]

The 4650 worked fine when I tried it with FarCry2(at med/lowish settings). Don't know if that qualifies as"real" load? At one point I tested it with the benchmarks mentioned in the diy-vidock thread on another forum, and it did fine for a 1x link. Never had any problems at all. On Win7, WinExperienceIndex gets 4.9 (Desktop/Aero) and 6.3 (3D).
The card is a Sapphire with 512Mb. For newer cards their website shows the watts fairly similarly to the above post but not for the 4XXX series. When I did my research I had found a table somewhere showing 32 watts for the 4650.

No idea what version the dock is.

I tried a 5570 but couldn't get the T60 to even boot. I just tried it once though.

[eyeland]

ok thanks
I wonder why you didn't get the 5570 to work..
I whish someone had some experience with working setups running cards in the 55x0 series