entry level advice please

I dont have a mini personally, but I have read that they remain cool and quiet even after hours of use (read this in PC World of all places ).

If you're buying a Mac Mini because your video card isn't good enough, that's pretty sad.

Don't buy the Mini. It comes with an ATI 9200 with 32MB of RAM, which isn't even as good as the one in your rev B Powerbook, which comes with an Nvidia 5200 with 32MB of RAM. And even if it were better, its still not worth spending $500+ on it just for a card that's slightly better, or just equivalent.

Wait until a graphics card improvement (next revision, maybe?) comes along.

There was a post a few months back where someone showed calculations for how much VRAM was required to run displays at different resolutions.

I haven't been able to find it, but if I remember right it came down to roughly 4 MB for a 1024 x 768 display.

So on that basis, even if your Dell LCD used double that you would only be up to 12 MB used. OK, if you are gaming or using graphic card intensive apps then maybe these figures are less meaningful, but I wouldn't expect your PB to be so overworked simply running this second monitor in normal use.

Early PB's did run hotter than current ones, but for the fans to be on almost constantly sounds odd to me.

I use an iBook with 8 MB of VRAM (in a hot environment) and if I connect it up to the TV and play a movie the fans still do not turn on.

Have you experimented with raising the level of your PB a little? Cut off four pieces of plastic piping and rest it on them. It might aid in the airflow under and around your Mac a little.

If it doesn't then you have my sympathies mate. It would be a shame to have to buy something just to be able to use a monitor that your PB is supposed to be able to drive.

Deebster, I just wanted to note that while a lot of what you say is spot on, the raw calculation of how much memory a graphic adaptor needs based on the number of pixels and bit depth of the display doesn't really work.... Even in the absence of compute intensive graphics apps or games, because of Quartz Extreme and the other things like it, your computer is caching a lot of video information in the video card. I'm not 100% sure how it works, but I think an example is that if you have four windows up on a 1024x768 screen, and each of them is, say, 800x600, you essentially are using (if its available) additional memory to store representations of each of the four windows in the video card, as well as a representation of the full screen. This is why you can change windows very quickly -- because they're still being buffered in the video card, even if they are partially obscured. Someone correct me, though, if this is wrong.

But nonetheless, a number of people have posted favorable results running that monitor in native resolution on both the Mini and on the PB12" here. So it can be done.

Anyway, for your powerbook, you might also give the following a try: get an iCurve or other stand that lifts the PB off the desktop when you're running on a monitor. This will help it cool substantially. And then also play around with seeing if the reduced performance hit from running only one monitor in clamshell mode makes up for the lost heat dissipation ability through the keyboard surface, and if running the PB closed (with external mouse and kb) is an improvement.

Hope that helps?

My Mini has absolutely no problems with my 2005FPW at 1680 x 1050. For 2-D office and graphics programs, limitation of 32 Mb VRAM is not an issue.

I see your point mkrishnan.

So if there is a lot of caching going on and your (read: my) GPU isn't up to it, does this caching get transferred to normal RAM, meaning that upping the RAM might mean an improvement in graphics and display-running performance?

Not that I can do anything about it, but I'm interested now in just how this works.

Although for you fuzzynavo, I doubt this is the case since you already have 1.25 GB of the stuff.

Ugh, now I'm even more confused

Too bad.

I have a rev B 12" Powerbook with a 32MB Nvidia 5200 as well, and I'm saddened by the fact that I can't run this external monitor with it. Oh well.

Well, you could always buy a refurb G5 or a nice used G4 or something. The mini wouldn't be much better than what you have, but maybe use mirroring instead of dual display. That way you still have all 32MB instead of 16 each. Or buy a new PowerBook because they have 64MB. If you're like me, you'll just wait a bit for an upgraded single G5. Preferably around $1300 for a 2GHz with the ability to up the video card. Any day now.

I thought about the iMac too, but it doesn't suit my needs as well as I'd hoped.

solvs said:

... but maybe use mirroring instead of dual display. That way you still have all 32MB instead of 16 each.

Click to expand...

I'll just say that mirroring splits your video memory just like dual display. At least that's what it says according to the ATI Displays preference pane I installed to see if there was a difference between mirroring and dual display.

After G said:

I'll just say that mirroring splits your video memory just like dual display. At least that's what it says according to the ATI Displays preference pane I installed to see if there was a difference between mirroring and dual display.

Click to expand...

Really? Well, that kinda sucks. So much for that idea.

But I guess try it anyway. Couldn't hurt.