External Graphics Vidock

I see a few problems with that. First, when OS X installs on a MBP, I think it only installs drivers for the hardware present or the hardware it expects. It might or might not have drivers for all video cards included in that, and my guess is it won't. Second, there are already two video cards in your computer, and I don't know if it can handle a third. It might not have any way to switch to the external one. Finally, the expresscard slot is limited to PCIe 1x, so the bandwidth of any video card you plug in will be severely limited.

Generally, connecting stuff to the Expresscard slot doesn't slow the computer down, and in the case of a graphics card, it wold normally speed the computer up (in a normal configuration). The only way something in the expresscard slot would slow the computer down is by requiring CPU or memory resources, which an external video card doesn't.

I got your suggested setup working on a MacBookPro 4,1.
I used a the PE4L V1.4. They now sell V1.5 http://www.hwtools.net/Adapter/PE4L.html
and a flashed ATI Radeon HD 4870 with 1 GB VRAM.
It works under Windows 7 only with 2GB RAM and if attached after booting.
It works under Mac OS 10.6.4 with 4 GB Ram and if attached before booting. Otherwise it causes Kernel Panics. Of course you cant get the power of the card through the PCIe 1x adapter. But HD video playback runs smooth.

For more information:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/gaming-software-graphics-cards/418851-diy-vidock-experiences.html
http://www.villageinstruments.com/tiki-index.php?page=ViDock

antifish said:

I got your suggested setup working on a MacBookPro 4,1.
I used a the PE4L V1.4. They now sell V1.5 http://www.hwtools.net/Adapter/PE4L.html
and a flashed ATI Radeon HD 4870 with 1 GB VRAM.
It works under Windows 7 only with 2GB RAM and if attached after booting.
It works under Mac OS 10.6.4 with 4 GB Ram and if attached before booting. Otherwise it causes Kernel Panics. Of course you cant get the power of the card through the PCIe 1x adapter. But HD video playback runs smooth.

For more information:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/gaming-software-graphics-cards/418851-diy-vidock-experiences.html
http://www.villageinstruments.com/tiki-index.php?page=ViDock

Click to expand...

Hi antifish,

I have the same mac as you have, and i'm searching hard to find someone with the successful "DIY VIDock" configuration!

Did the gaming improved with the Vidock? or you only use it to saw movies in the external monitor?

My scope is to improve the gaming experience, by using the internal monitor as well as an external monitor! Is that feasible?

Is the flashed ATI Radeon HD 4870 good for gaming? And you used the PE4L V1.4, which is only x1, and the graphic is PCI Express x16? You should use the PE4H, right?

looking forward for your reply!

hey!

My usecase for this was to use 3 external screens like a video wall.

In lack of Mac games i cant tell you anything about gaming experience under mac os x.

Gaming under Windows seemed to be better. But i have not benchmarked it.
You can find a bunch of benchmarks in this thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/gaming-software-graphics-cards/418851-diy-vidock-experiences.html

The bottleneck is the expresscard slot. It is only x1 so if you buy the PE4H which can handle x16 your expresscard is still only x1.

There are PC laptops with expresscard 2.0 but our macs got expresscard 1.0 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ExpressCard

To use the internal screen with your external graphic card seems to be impossible.

antifish said:

hey!

My usecase for this was to use 3 external screens like a video wall.

In lack of Mac games i cant tell you anything about gaming experience under mac os x.

Gaming under Windows seemed to be better. But i have not benchmarked it.
You can find a bunch of benchmarks in this thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/gaming-software-graphics-cards/418851-diy-vidock-experiences.html

The bottleneck is the expresscard slot. It is only x1 so if you buy the PE4H which can handle x16 your expresscard is still only x1.

There are PC laptops with expresscard 2.0 but our macs got expresscard 1.0 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ExpressCard

To use the internal screen with your external graphic card seems to be impossible.

Click to expand...

Hi,

I really appreciate your reply!

Can you just help out with the setup? I mean, in the forum.notebookreview.com has several setups, but i can't find a a mac based setup.
So my system is:
MacBookPro4,1 2,4GHz
4 GB ram
GeForce 8600M GT

Do i need some special software to make it run? like DIY ViDock Setup 1.x or so??

There are any allocation resources errors?

Or it's just plug-in and and everything works properly?

So there is no benefit if i buy the PE4H right? So the PE4L should do de trick for me, right?

Sorry for all the questions, but i'm really interested in doing it. If you could just do a step by step for me would be nice

Thanks antifish!!

hey!

My setup is exactly the same as yours.

MacBookPro4,1 2,4GHz
4 GB ram
GeForce 8600M GT

Do i need some special software to make it run? like DIY ViDock Setup 1.x or so??

Click to expand...

speaking for using it under mac os 10.6 i did not need any extra software and it also worked with 4gb of ram. But the graphic card has to be plugged in before booting and can not be removed while running, otherwise you get kernel panics.

under windows 7 64 bit via bootcamp i got allocation errors when using the graphic card with 4gb of ram. when unisntalling 2 gb all worked fine. I did not try any of the methods described in that forum to fix the allocation problems with 4gb ram.

So there is no benefit if i buy the PE4H right? So the PE4L should do de trick for me, right?

Click to expand...

As far as i understand it, yes.

antifish said:

speaking for using it under mac os 10.6 i did not need any extra software and it also worked with 4gb of ram. But the graphic card has to be plugged in before booting and can not be removed while running, otherwise you get kernel panics.

Click to expand...

Due the internal monitor work, i mean, can i still use it? I know that the power of the graphic is when an external monitor is connected! But with the external monitor connected, i'm still able to use the internal one ,i.e., use both at the same time?

Thanks once again!

pedromendes27 said:

Due the internal monitor work, i mean, can i still use it?

Click to expand...

Sure, you can still use it. Both graphic cards work paralell

Between me and my bro, we have a MacbookPro and Thinkpad. How do I determine whether the PCIe / Express card adapter on these are 1x or 16x?

antifish said:

I got your suggested setup working on a MacBookPro 4,1.
I used a the PE4L V1.4. They now sell V1.5 http://www.hwtools.net/Adapter/PE4L.html
and a flashed ATI Radeon HD 4870 with 1 GB VRAM.
It works under Windows 7 only with 2GB RAM and if attached after booting.
It works under Mac OS 10.6.4 with 4 GB Ram and if attached before booting. Otherwise it causes Kernel Panics. Of course you cant get the power of the card through the PCIe 1x adapter. But HD video playback runs smooth.

For more information:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/gaming-software-graphics-cards/418851-diy-vidock-experiences.html
http://www.villageinstruments.com/tiki-index.php?page=ViDock

Click to expand...

Referring to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ExpressCard the expresscard connection can't be faster than x1 or x2 in the expresscard 2.0 standard.

On my machine, MacBookPro4,1 2,4GHz the expresscard speed is x1.