External graphics card/ViDock 2

[Joedanbeck]

I know that lots of mac users want an external graphics card. The Asus thing is never gonna come but there is a product called ViDock (http://www.villagetronic.com/vidock2/index.html) that has mac compatibility. It is an external graphics card dock that connects to a pci port, and can except any card that will fit. The company says it is only compatible with the 2.3GHz 15inch MacBookPro, but the only reason is it's pci plug in. There is another company that makes a similar product that connects via vga plug/pci adapter, but it is several thousand dollars. I would like to blindly assume that the later product could be connected to a usb to vga adapter, but is there such a thing as a usb to pci adapter? If i could rig something up would this even work? My optimistic setup is; ViDock-pci adapter-usb-bingo.

 

[The ORly owl]

I'd really really really love this. You could play top-notch games with only a 13" MB/MBP without the need to spend more on a 15" or a 17" for the sole purpose of the graphic card.

The thing is that I don't think the PCI bus is fast enough to drive things like this one smoothly while playing.

EDIT : Oops, I missed the point, it only works with PCI, so that means 17" only... USB is definitely not fast enough I think...

 

[Joedanbeck]

I made a mistake. The device uses a express-card slot, not a pci. Express card usb adapters are available, but would the length of adapters slow it down to much. Would a Firewire 800 adapter be fast enough? If it is i don't see why it shouldn't work since the MBP 17" and desktops run the same software. I guess would just have to find a compatible card.

 

[fkntotalkaos]

Are there any other mac forums where I can get more discussion on this

 

[jamone13]

You can not use USB or Firewire 800 to do graphics. (Well you can use USB with certian USB monitors but performance blows).

USB to Express card still is limited by USB's 480mb/s where graphics cards need many gb/s (how much exactly I forget).

Even using the express card port on the older 15" and current 17" MacBook Pros won't be that much of a help. They are Express34 cards not the 56 and really don't have enough bandwidth to offer much performance increase over the built in Nvidia 330M.

So I wouldn't waste your time/money on a external graphics card solution at this point. Deal with a laptop, or get a cheeper laptop and a desktop...