ViDock 4: External Laptop GPU solution that works?

For the longest time we've known that laptops may not be the best route to go for gaming. Gaming laptops are big, heavy, low on battery life and can get extremely hot. It's hardly the most economical option either. The worst part to me, though, was the lack of upgradeability: my one attempt to survive off of a desktop replacement ended in disappointment when I saw how quickly its GPU became useless.

So despite all those problems, people still buy gaming laptops. I noticed a product was released earlier in August called "Vidock 4" which sounds like one of the best attempts at an external GPU solution for laptops yet. I was wondering if anyone's tried out this product firsthand.

Vidock 4 basically is an expansion chassis that lets you connect a PCI-Express x16 video card to the ExpressCard slot of a laptop. It's 13 inches in length, so it can fit full length graphics cards, and supports up to a 150W power output. So in theory you should be able to buy Vidock, attach a Radeon 5770 to it, connect that to your laptop -- and that's it, when connected to an external monitor you get 5770-level performance. The Plus version comes with "a second 2 x 3 pin power connector to accommodate graphics cards that require up to 225W.", so I assume the Plus can handle GTX 470s and 5870s.

So has anyone tried these out? Do they really work? Here's the website for it: [link], [link]. It only recently came out and there's a real lack of info on it.

For DIY ViDock refer tohttp://forum.notebookreview.com/gaming-software-graphics-cards/418851-diy-vidock-experiences.html

For official support, buy Village Instruments's ViDock.

My DIY ViDock setup from http://forum.notebookreview.com/gaming-software-graphics-cards/418851-diy-vidock-experiences-48.html#post6155257

I used my old Sony Vaio VGN-FW45 laptop and desktop ATI Radeon HD 5770.

It's highly limited by the Express Card slot's bandwidth, but it's a readily available solution for those that want performance better than what their integrated graphics offer, without having to resort to a large laptop or sacrificing portability.

It certainly is a bit on the expensive side, but it seems like this could present an interesting paradigm shift when recommending desktop replacements.

For example, the absolute cheapest gaming laptop I could find with a Mobility Radeon 5870 was the MSI E7405-080US. It's 17", 7.04 pounds, and comes with a Core i5 430M [link]. At $1150, this would normally have been one of my top recommendations.

But with this solution, I guess it's possible to technically purchase something like the Studio 14 or Toshiba Satellite M645-S4047 [link] with an i5-450M for $699, buy the ViDock for about $300, and put a Radeon 5770 in there for $150 more. The total cost is the same, but you'd have a lighter, smaller computer with longer battery life and an upgradeable graphics card for a few years down the line.

I wonder how much truth there is to the answer they give in the "questions" sections, though: "In benchmarks that VillageTronic has done, they have found that there is only a very small speed decrease in running the PCI-Express x16 cards through the x1 speed slot. So while it does limit the speed and the power of the card it is very minor overall and will still allow you to have much higher performance than with most laptop video cards."

ill still wait on the MSI's gus which is compatible with all hd 500 series gpu up to the 5750

ill still wait on the MSI's gus which is compatible with all hd 500 series gpu up to the 5750

ionusX

Bit-tech also argues that anything higher would probably be wasted anyway on the Express Card slot's bandwidth; that would contradict what Village Instruments claimed. Hmm.

however the hd 5670 sp640 uses the same amount of power as a 5670 yet is clearly an hd 5750 once you overclock it.. it preforms literally the same.

however the hd 5670 sp640 uses the same amount of power as a 5670 yet is clearly an hd 5750 once you overclock it.. it preforms literally the same.

ionusX

[QUOTE="ionusX"]

ill still wait on the MSI's gus which is compatible with all hd 500 series gpu up to the 5750

SakusEnvoy

Bit-tech also argues that anything higher would probably be wasted anyway on the Express Card slot's bandwidth; that would contradict what Village Instruments claimed. Hmm.

Looks like the XGP tech from AMD But c'mon, with an external monitor ther is no reason to have a laptop, better save the money and build a desktop.

Looks like the XGP tech from AMD But c'mon, with an external monitor ther is no reason to have a laptop, better save the money and build a desktop.

warishuku

Well, I actually bought the top of the line ViDock 4 Plus so I am speaking with 2 days experience in mind.

I got it running with a PNY 460 GTX 1GB, albeit with a couple of problems.

First, I had to remove a stick of 2GB RAM from my laptop just to get the videocard properly recognized.

Otherwise, there is this infamous resource allocation problem, but I've already heard many funny things when it comes to 4GB RAM.

Be advised, this might be a model/manufacturer specific issue. I've heard others who didn't have this problem.

I have an ASUS F8Sn, BIOS 304, WINDOWS 7 Ultimate x64

Secondly, there are stability issues when the card is under heavy load. For instance, when running the last segment of Devil May Cry 4 benchmark, the screen always go blank, the music continues to run, but the keyboard and mouse aren't responding and I can't swtich back to Windows.

To verify my finding, I proceeded to run FurMark, and the same symptons occur when the card reaches around 103 degrees C.

The only thing I could do is power down my laptop and reboot.

I am not sure whether this is an issue of overheating or it is a sign of power shortage. The two power adaptors that come with the ViDock 4 Plus only go up to 222W, if I did the math correctly according to the labels.

In light of this, I am wondering whether I should exchange the 460 GTX for something cooler, an ATI 5770 perhaps.

Although I am awaiting tech support from Village Electronics before I make that decision.

If you are interested and capable to read Chinese, you can visit the link down there.

I wrote my mini-review, complete with pictures.

http://www.pcdvd.com.tw/showthread.php?t=905818

About the stability issue, I made a mistake myself.

I forgot heat is supposed to go up, so reversing the case with the vents facing up solved the overheating problems.

bro carage, thanks for the useful infor. in fact i had created a new "ViDock" topic earlier b4 i came across these discussions. sorry for tat. may be the moderator can help to delete it so we all can focus our discussion under this thread.

read yr posting in chinese as well. so did u able to implement the VD subsequently?

you see, my job requires me to travel on a very frequent manner with a business laptop mainly meant for business presentation. now i plan to replace my 4yo+ laptop with one that cater for gaming as well. as we all know business laptop normally does not come with good graphic card and the design of gaming laptop could be too "glaring" for business presentation (also most of them are very heavy too). so when i came across a device like ViDock it's like a light in the tunnel and hopefully it's not the headlight of a train. will appreciate if you could enlightened me with some knowledge on ViDock from your experience.

is ViDock a "plug-and-play" device that all we need is the ViDock (and its accessories) and an external graphic card, with some simple assembly process for execution?

is it necessary to have an external monitor to use the ViDock? what i mean is that can it use it just to by-pass the integrated graphic processor (or mobile graphic card) with the laptop's screen remains my monitor?

do we need any software to run the ViDock?

many thanks in advance.

I have dell vostro 1510 laptop with Nvedia Gforce 8400m Gs (256MB) . I want to upgrade my graphic card i jus called dell care they told me to buy xternal Graphic card so i searched for xternal Graphic card for laptop , i came to know about this Vidock 4. I jus want to know wot are the requirements , do i need a personal computer too ..? or this device i directly connet to my laptop nothing else require please help..!!ajax_45

You don't need a desktop PC with ViDock.

Dell Vostro 1510 is 2008 era laptop which may have Windows Vista. It's highly recommended to update to Windows 7 when working with multi-video cards.

There's a user with Dell Vostro 1500 with a working DIY ViDock setup from Link. A workaround was applied i.e. there could be an issue with PCI address resource allocation with this laptop. I'm not sure if Dell has a BIOS fix for your laptop.

Laptop PC's BIOS(ACPI) behaviour may not be like Desktop PC's BIOS (ACPI) i.e. Laptop BIOS's PCI address resource allocation function could be broken i.e. for cost-cutting measures.

My Dell Studio XPS 1645 laptop's BIOS(ACPI) behaviour is similar to a Desktop PC and my laptop don't need any workaround fixes i.e. it just works.

My 2008 era Sony Vaio VGN-FW45 (includes Intel Core 2 P8700 + Radeon HD 4650M) laptop also works fine with my DIY ViDock and doesn't require any workaround fixes.

Well, I actually bought the top of the line ViDock 4 Plus so I am speaking with 2 days experience in mind.

I got it running with a PNY 460 GTX 1GB, albeit with a couple of problems.

First, I had to remove a stick of 2GB RAM from my laptop just to get the videocard properly recognized.

Otherwise, there is this infamous resource allocation problem, but I've already heard many funny things when it comes to 4GB RAM.

Be advised, this might be a model/manufacturer specific issue. I've heard others who didn't have this problem.

I have an ASUS F8Sn, BIOS 304, WINDOWS 7 Ultimate x64

Secondly, there are stability issues when the card is under heavy load. For instance, when running the last segment of Devil May Cry 4 benchmark, the screen always go blank, the music continues to run, but the keyboard and mouse aren't responding and I can't swtich back to Windows.

To verify my finding, I proceeded to run FurMark, and the same symptons occur when the card reaches around 103 degrees C.

The only thing I could do is power down my laptop and reboot.

I am not sure whether this is an issue of overheating or it is a sign of power shortage. The two power adaptors that come with the ViDock 4 Plus only go up to 222W, if I did the math correctly according to the labels.

In light of this, I am wondering whether I should exchange the 460 GTX for something cooler, an ATI 5770 perhaps.

Although I am awaiting tech support from Village Electronics before I make that decision.

If you are interested and capable to read Chinese, you can visit the link down there.

I wrote my mini-review, complete with pictures.

http://www.pcdvd.com.tw/showthread.php?t=905818

carage

I have PCI address resource allocation problems with my old ASUS G1Sn (with Nvidia Geforce 9500M GS) and my bro's old ASUS N80VN (with Nvidia Geforce 9650M GT) laptops.