Thanks for asking ahead here!
The docking station and its USB graphics will work, and will perform great for normal use (web, applications, etc.), however games on the USB graphics screen still won’t be acceptable. This is because full-screen games are changing every pixel many times per second, and while you’ll be fine in terms of CPU, USB 2.0’s 480Mbps bus won’t be able to keep up.
Hope that helps!
Bernie
Thanks, Bernie - here is my follow-up: I really want a solution to be able to plug my laptop computer in to be able to use my old 23" Mac monitor and a keyboard, etc with this new Asus Gaming laptop i7 (republic of gamers). I actually use it for video/graphics, not gaming. Can it handle the mix of DVI Mac monitor and new i7 Win 7 laptop?
Thanks,
Stephanie
Hi Stephanie,
Unfortunately, I don’t think this particular combination will work, but we’ll have to check the exact model of Apple 23" monitor to be sure (is it the 1920x1200 resolution A1082 model?)
Apple’s monitors can have problems that normal monitors don’t because Apple has often switched connectors over the years: ADC, DVI, Dual-Link DVI, DisplayPort, etc (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Ci…). It’s good this one uses DVI for its connector.
But there are other problems because they tend to have cost saving features (e.g. no hardware scaler) that Windows PCs assume. It’s not a problem if the graphics adapter can support exactly the native mode of the monitor, but it can be a problem for setting any other lower mode.
A good example of the impact of this: If the Apple monitor has a native resolution of 1920x1200 (and this might be yours). In combination with the UD-160-A (max resolution 1920x1080), and the monitor has no scaler, the monitor won’t be able to set the the best common mode (1920x1080 or 1600x1200) and will drop to some unappealing 1/2 or 1/4 low resolution mode (that doesn’t require a hardware scaler in the monitor).
This doesn’t happen on normal PC monitors, because their hardware scalers let the monitor use the best available mode (below their native one).
If this is the case, you do have an option which will work: buy the http://plugable.com/products/UGA-2K-A/ which does support 1920x1200 natively, and won’t have a problem that way. And if you need extra USB ports, you can combine it with any powered USB hub like http://plugable.com/products/usb2-hub… Plus it’s a less expensive option if you don’t need the audio and network functions anyway.
So check on that exact Apple monitor version - hope that helps! And feel free to post with any follow-up questions.
Thanks again and best wishes,
Bernie