I find the AMD 6630M better for Lion animations in general, but the HD 3000 is plenty to drive 2560x1440. I have even played Duke Nukem Forever in windowed mode without issue. 2560x1440 is too high for any Mac graphics card in a modern FPS with all the graphical enhancements turned on. I have to say Windows 7 has absolutely no problem with all aero enhancements turned on.
Well that is now two votes for the 6630 > HD3000. I really need to get to a store to see if it is true. (Unfortunately the only store near me only has the base i5 2.3, which performs just like my server with 8GB of faster RAM.) Note, that I took your suggestion from another thread that 1867MHz RAM might increase OpenGL performance on the HD3000 - but if it does, I am unable to notice the difference in Lion.
It did increase my Geekbench score by approx 400 points though! (5%)
In fairness, I would indeed have expected the 6630M to be better than the HD3000...so I do need to test the 6630M out somewhere.
Please note, I am NOT talking about 3D. Purely about desktop animations and Safari scrolling. At 2560x1440 with a lot of things open, and wide 1440 tall Safari window, Lion animations are NOT smooth on my i7 server machine. They are smoother on the same hardware under SL. And 10.5 Expose is even smoother still.
Also, 1080i is less than 1,920x1,080: that's 1080p.
I have a 13" MBP with an Intel HD 3000: which is basically an entry-level Mini portable. Connected to a TV at 1080p, the OS X desktop performance is fine. But 2,560x1,440 has twice the pixels of 1080p and would be, in my view, a stretch: I expect it will stutter and choke.
I agree with the comment (I forget whose) about Apple not speccing the basic Mini to work appropriately with it's Thunderbolt display. But still, Mini owners will buy them, so...
There isn't much option! The cheapest model with a decent graphics card is the 21 inch iMac. And I find glossy displays counterproductive for work (this is for my shared office environment), so I would have to put the iMac under the desk and plug in an external monitor.
A MacPro case is a huge waste of power, space and resources for what I need (low CPU power with smooth expose). In any case, installing Leopard Expose in SL on the 2011 mac mini has almost completely solved my animation glitches with the 27" display.
Which in my mind points to lazy software writing (and/or Lion driver writing) being the cause.
I use a 2011 Mac mini (2.3 GHz model) with a 27" Apple Cinema Display (2560x1440) without any problem.
Yes. I know it works, but is Expose SMOOOOOOTH ?
Is there an Apple Store near to you that might be able to give you demo? That's your best bet, I'd say. Always a tricky business, asking other people whether they find the performance of [x/y/z] to be good enough: what's good enough for them may not be good enough for you.
I know this wasn't directed to me, but the AppleStore near me only has demo unit of the 2.3, not the 2.5/2.7 with AMD graphics. Expose on the 27" imac was beautiful.
