Apple MacBook Pro - Triple LCDs - Hybrid SLI

I keep putting off buying a MBP because despite it's inherent ability to run dual external LCDs (not counting the MBP screen) apple fails to provide for this functionality with an adapter. The hardware is capable of it.

Any ideas? My guess is they somehow own a stake in Matrox (they make kits to use dual/triple external lcds off one video port). Or some other odd reason like they don't want to take away sales from the mac pro tower.

I tested running HDMI + VGA on an HP workstation and dual lcds worked fine.

So here's how Apple can own the market. Now that it has 3 video cards 9400+9600. Make it triple lcd capable (3 external, 2 + macbook) and make hybrid sli work so that both cards can work together to increase game performance (hopefully you dont have to go into single lcd mode for this).

If at the least they included an adapter to allow for 2 dvi lcds (not a splitter - similar to docking a dell or hp and getting 2 video connectors). I would be sold.

Voice your opinions and call Apple!

 

Haha yeah right. They would never do that because it would make the laptop thicker and we all know apple is more about looks than function.

 

Have you looked at the disassembled pictures of the MB/MBP's?

They really did cram a lotta stuff in there, without much space for anything else.

Although it would be nice, and maybe they do own a share of matrox. Or they coulda made a completely new port which crams two dvi connectors into one plug. (lol..apple likes to make proprietary stuff)

But honestly, I dont think that theres much space in the new laptops (just from quick looks)

 

They could easily have made the new mini display port thing support it. I just hope its a marketing ploy and in a few months we will see the new mbp with oh wow multiple monitor support.

Here's the teardown link
http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/First-Look/Mac/MacBook-Pro-Unibody

 

If you want multiple monitor support, get a desktop. People buy laptops for portability.

 

But like he said, you can run an hp or dell with one out through hdmi and another through vga. My 500 dollar laptop in my sig can do ti no problem. Why cant the 5-6 times more expensive apple brand do that.

 

Theres a big size difference between a cheapo laptop, and a macbook or mbp.

Like I said before, go look at the disassembly pictures of the new apple laptops, and tell me where you think they could put it in the current body. If they wanted to add one more port, they would change the size of the laptop completely.

Sure maybe its a design decision, and apple not wanting to make the laptops bigger then 1" thick, but the dimensions would have to change just for that extra port, something i dunno apple would do.

 

I wouldn't add an extra port. I would have made the mini display port capable of it. So that you have yet another adapter to plug in there which would have 2 dvi plugs.

Things are tight that's for sure.

 

How do you know it would be easy? Are you an Engineer? Have you researched this?

So Apple should change their products to match features of other manufacturers just to say "We can do that too"?

People need to stop buying products because of what they HOPE it will do in the future. Buy a product for what it CAN do, and if it can't do what you want (run two external monitors for example), then don't buy it.

 

Who says I bought it? There's nothing wrong with a wish list. Companies love feedback like this. It helps them understand what markets they could tap into by adding certain functionality. Not to mention the MBP is apple's mobile workstation.

And on another note. There are lots of people who don't want to have a desktop and a laptop. It's nice to have everything in one place always with you.

 

They do have a point. Since macs are the only computers that are allowed to run OS X, they force a user into paying for their product if they want to use it, so it really should be the most flexible system possible to suit the needs of a wide variety of people.

 

definitely not going to happen, buy a external adapter or get a desktop.

 

i dont care about the dual external screens, or playing games for that matter. but i would like HDMI. that would really make it perfect.

 

3 video cards? Eh? Wha? Did I miss something. I could have sworn I only have 2 video cards in my MBP....

 

Today's consumer graphics processor units (GPUs) drive only two separate displays, thus single-GPU laptops drive {Internal+External} and single GPU desktops drive {screen+screen} or {screen+TV}. Using only dual-port video chips, laptops require two GPUs to drive three screens.

Triple-port video chips are not marketed by ATI, IBM, NVIDIA, S3, or VIA. Only Matrox offers consumer GPUs able to drive three video displays. However, this is pretty much the only thing Matrox does well. Matrox hasn't been competitive in 3D gaming since before 3Dfx hit the spotlight.)

SO waiddafrigginminnit!! If two GPUs can drive three (or four) screens, and we all know multiple GPUs are used for SLI, doesn't that mean ANY SLI-equipped laptop can drive 4 displays?!?!

Gold Star for the day. Yup, in theory. Nope in practice.

All SLI implementations could drive four displays whenever SLI is disabled. However, our beloved laptop OEMs choose instead to cripple .... er, choose not to offer .... four-display support. And like a SLI implementation, the two NVIDIA GPUs in this week's newest MacBook Pro could drive three external displays plus the internal! Yet as I read the specs, Apple chose not to support more than one external display, even while changing the display connector. ( What a senseless waste of differentiating technology. We can only hope that a 3-display dongle is Apple's reason for that new video port.)

Random Spew:
I may disdain Matrox for 3D gaming, but Matrox brought to market a technology that NVIDIA tried and failed at. In 2001-3, NVIDIA explored a triple frame-buffer GPU in the form of NV18/18M. However, triple-display functionality ended up too unreliable in silicon. The triple-port feature never made it to a features list, let alone to market, despite triple-display logic being present within all AGP 8× GeForce4 MX chips.

( Note: I'm speaking of DVI, VGA, and SVideo/Composite display ports. HDMI, totally unknown to me, may play by different rules.)