dual-link in laptops

[ZmaxDP]

So, I've got a "technical" question...

How exactly do the graphics ports on the back of a laptop connect to the graphics card? I believe the 3600M is an MXM card, but who knows how dell installed it...

I'm asking because Dell, in their infinite wisdom, has choosen to install a graphics card (Nvidia 3600M) into their workstation laptops but has neglected to include a dual-link DVI port on the back of the laptop. I've checked with Nvidia (as best I can) and the card itself supports 30" monitor resolution in all its glory but since the actual display ports are not attached they can't promise any one laptop will support it.

Since I've got a 30" monitor running at 1280 by 800 at the moment, I'd kind of like to know if there is anything I can do about this...

Dell of course doesn't claim that the laptop supports dual-link, but it does say to reference Nvidia's site which does say that the 3600M supports it (given manufacturer implementations).

Point being, I've got 2 grand sitting on my desk wasting space if I can't make this work.

Thanks,

 

[aka1nas]

There's nothing you can do about it. Likely, the laptop mobo has a socketed GPU module of some sort and the VGA/DVI out would have been attached to the mobo.

 

[ZmaxDP]

Right,

But, I know that HP's workstation has the same limitation, but has a docking station that can support a 30" monitor. This tells me that there are possible solutions, but not a precise one. I don't know if there are express cards that provide additional graphics expansion options, or universal docking stations that support dual-link DVI. I assume (perhaps incorrectly) that the HP one won't work...

Point being, while Dell is unbelievable stupid for not including a dual-link dvi port on their motherboard, there aught to be a way to fix this...

Any suggestions?

 

[aka1nas]

Originally posted by: ZmaxDP
Right,

But, I know that HP's workstation has the same limitation, but has a docking station that can support a 30" monitor. This tells me that there are possible solutions, but not a precise one. I don't know if there are express cards that provide additional graphics expansion options, or universal docking stations that support dual-link DVI. I assume (perhaps incorrectly) that the HP one won't work...

Point being, while Dell is unbelievable stupid for not including a dual-link dvi port on their motherboard, there aught to be a way to fix this...

Any suggestions?

Unless they offer a dock for that specific model that allows for it, you are out of luck. There isn't really a universal solution that is going to work well. The only thing I can think of is something like that Asus external GPU solution. It was limited to a 1x ExpressCard datarate, so I don't know if it will drive that high of a resolution well.

 

[ZmaxDP]

That's what I was afraid of. Seriously, I can't believe I'm the only one that has had this problem. 30" LCDs aren't exactly unheard of in the architecture/construction world, and this laptop is one of the few that meets the requirements for the more demanding apps out there in the field. It just blows my mind that Dell would have put together a motherboard that didn't support one of their popular workstation monitors...

I may send this back to them and buy a bloody apple and run Vista64 on it instead, of course first I have to try and install 8 gigs of memory in an apple laptop... Bloody hell.