ViDock 2 - My experiences so far

Actually the ViDock4 was suppose to be able to use larger and more powerful video cards, but I am wondering if just purchasing a Vidock2 now and using it with the ATI 5670 now and later upgrading it by adding a more powerful videocard and powersupply would work. Anyone know ??? God Bless

 

It should work as long as the power does not exceed that of 5670. If you need more power later on you can always add external power source.

 

With vidock 4plus can i handle one HD5850 ? or maybe a GTX470 ?

 

I send one mail and they answered :

"Versions of the GTX 470 card that do not exceed the power requirements and mechanical dimensions of the PCI Express® 225 W/300 W High Power Card Electromechanical Specification Revision 1.0 (no higher than 111mm) will work in ViDock 4 Plus. ViDock 4 supports up to 150W of power which is not enough for this card."


So Vidock 4 plus will work and Vidock 4 no !
What is the better card that consumes up to 225 watts ?

 

Village Instruments sells direct and charges $30 for international shipping. Of course, they're out of stock right now...
See Village Instruments : Store

 

I appreciate your help, but that's too little, too late.

 

hey,
i'm interested in selling my viDock4plus and evga gtx 470 sc, both about two months old, perfect condition, for about 320 dollars, where should i post something like that?
i had a hp dv8 custom laptop, it had a x2 expresscard and the vidock and 470 worked awesome, i was playing starcraft2 and world of warcraft on a samsung 3d plasma (in 3d using nvidia 3dtvplay)
however, ive decided to take the lsat and goto lawschool, and am gonna need to put the toys/addictions away to study
send me a pm or email me if you are interested or can help me sell these two pieces, thanks
paul

 

im interested

 

On the expresscard, I dont see how this thing could take advantage of a fast video card. The bandwidth is not there. Seems like a gimmic, especially to say a high dollar card will work in it, which is technically true with power requirements but you are only at like 2X PCIe bandwidth, and these cards need at least 8X ports to be utilized correctly, with PCIe2.0 then I guess even a 4X bandwidth might do some good but its only 2X.

 

Have you seen the DIY Vidock thread at all? People there are using GTX 460/470 cards and are apparently getting pretty decent performance with x2 setups and x1 setups that use nvidia optimus.

 

But is it better performance than using a lesser card? Like a HD5650 or GT540 if these lesser cards can already saturate the 2x PCIe2.0 bandwidth?

I'll see if that comparisons are available. Its too bad that there are only a couple AMD systems that use the XGP port which is an external 16x PCIe2.0 video port.

 

From the somewhat unorganized data on the DIY vidock thread it seems like there is some performance increase, but I have been having trouble determining if it is a performance "wall" that gets hit with decreased bandwidth, or just diminishing returns (where a more powerful card gets a little but more performance, but not as much as it should). It is really a shame that laptops don't have external x16 PCI-e connectivity of any kind. I doubt it would be all that difficult for laptop manufacturers to implement. I have a feeling that it isn't the amount of work it would take that is the issue, but rather the fact that no one is going to waste their money on a laptop with gtx 485m sli and 20 minutes of battery life when they can get a laptop with integrated graphics and hook it up to a GTX580 that will completely smash it in every way.

I may eventually do a DIY Vidock setup with a gtx 560 (which will also be used in my desktop when I am at home where it will be utilized to its full capacity, so I am not worried if it doesn't give much of a performance increase over a GTX 460).

 

There are laptops with external PCIe2.0 X16 graphics card ports, the 13" Acer Ferrari is one, and a 13" Toshiba. But I think the only official XGP external cards that came out were mobility HD3850 and HD4850.

Hopefully this port will catch on with AMD's latest APU processors.