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Mac Mini 3 displays. (Ati Radeon)

N

neander

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 19, 2014
203
85
Hi I am new here. I am looking to hook up 3 monitors to a Mac Mini via hdmi.

I read that the Mac Mini Amd ATI graphics card could be hooked up with 3 displays.
I read about the daisy chaining via thunderbolt but I am new to this and doesnt really know what that means..?


What do I need to daisy chain a Mac Mini with the AMD Radeon HD 6630M card to three hdmi ports, Is this even possible??
Adapters thunderbolt to hdmi? daisy chaining? how do I do it etc.

Model: Mid 2011, Macmini5.2, i7 2.7 GHz, AMD Radeon HD 6630M graphics.

Thanks!
 
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Q

QWERTYMac7

macrumors regular
Nov 20, 2012
157
14
FWIW - and, NO all three are not HDMI - I use three monitors often:

1) HDMI
1) Thunderbolt to HDMI
1) USB - to a USB monitor - all it's power comes from the USB

I have a mid-2011 with the AMG graphics card.

Good luck!
 
P

paulrbeers

macrumors 68040
Dec 17, 2009
3,963
123
neander said:
Hi I am new here. I am looking to hook up 3 monitors to a Mac Mini via hdmi.

I read that the Mac Mini Amd ATI graphics card could be hooked up with 3 displays.
I read about the daisy chaining via thunderbolt but I am new to this and doesnt really know what that means..?


What do I need to daisy chain a Mac Mini with the AMD Radeon HD 6630M card to three hdmi ports, Is this even possible??
Adapters thunderbolt to hdmi? daisy chaining? how do I do it etc.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

The ATI Radeon models from 2011 are the only ones that can natively run 3 monitors.

Here's how:
Mac Mini Thunderbolt port -> Apple Thunderbolt Display -> Apple Thunderbolt Display
Mac Mini HDMI -> HDMI/DVI display (this one will be limited to 1920x1200)

How you daisy chain, is that the Thunderbolt displays have a Thunderbolt cable AND a Thunderbolt port, so you can hook the thunderbolt cable of the second model into the thunderbolt port of the first one.... Unlike USB or Ethernet where everything works off of hubs that "split" the signal, Thunderbolt is a single chain.
 
Gav2k

Gav2k

macrumors G3
Jul 24, 2009
9,216
1,608
As above you can drive two from the mini's hdmi and thunderbolt connectors but additional monitors will have to be run off usb adaptors.
 
B

blanka

macrumors 68000
Jul 30, 2012
1,551
4
It can also run 3840x2160@24hz on the HDMI. So you can theoretically run 2 TB displays AND a 4K screen for movies.

I was wondering, can the Radeon Mini also do TB-TBDisplay-DP Dell U2713HM?
I also heard a few 3rd party screens also do the daisy-chaining thing.
 
P

paulrbeers

macrumors 68040
Dec 17, 2009
3,963
123
blanka said:
It can also run 3840x2160@24hz on the HDMI. So you can theoretically run 2 TB displays AND a 4K screen for movies.

I was wondering, can the Radeon Mini also do TB-TBDisplay-DP Dell U2713HM?
I also heard a few 3rd party screens also do the daisy-chaining thing.
Click to expand...

Yes it can be daisy chained using another 1440P display (or lesser resolution); however, like all situations you have to have another TBD (non-display) between the Thunderbolt display and the secondary display (something like a hard drive with two thunderbolt ports or a docking station).

----------
Gav2k said:
As above you can drive two from the mini's hdmi and thunderbolt connectors but additional monitors will have to be run off usb adaptors.
Click to expand...

No

The AMD Radeon models from 2011 can run three WITHOUT USB adapters.

Seriously. I'm right... here's the Apple KB to prove it....

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5219#18

Please see footnote #3 that specifically is tied to the 2011 Mac Mini w/ ATI graphics....

3 Mac mini with AMD graphics can support an HDMI compatible device on its HDMI port when using two Thunderbolt displays.

P.S. OP. You should be able to use two of the caldigit docking stations to hook HDMI monitors to the Thunderbolt port.
 
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N

neander

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 19, 2014
203
85
Thanks guys.

Ok so I have read up a bit from scratch:D on this.
So if you dont have any displayport/thunderbolt monitors, only HDMI inputs, you cant have 3 monitors without a separate USB solution like this..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWBFeVAcYcE

It looks like the "USB" monitor is lagging a bit.. and its not really good for me if I want to play videos and videos in browsers etc..


So there is no chance that it works with this solution..?
Club 3D MST hub
http://www.club-3d.com/index.php/pr.../multi-stream-transport-mst-hub-hdmi-1-3.html or

http://www.club-3d.com/index.php/products/reader.en/product/multi-stream-transport-mst-hub.1649.html


What I have gathered from googling the Thunderbolt connection is a Displayport 1.1 (HBR)version and it says on the "System Requirements" that it can support "1920x1080 60hz, up to 2" but it also says "Multi-stream support, No....
So I am confused here.. will it only clone the desktop ?
(This is all + the original native HDMI connection on the Mac Mini, 1 + 2 via thunderbolt = 3, is what I hope for.)


This is the only variation that probably works, but it will psedudo virtually extend the desktop, so that it will be like a big stretched desktop split into two displays by a program...
and its not really an optimal solution.. How good will it be for Videos, flash, html, video players etc will it be as smooth and lag free as a normal desktop solution??

Matrox DualHead2Go Digital Mac Edition (ME)
http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/products/gxm/dh2go/digital_me/


Any help?

Model: Mid 2011, Macmini5.2, i7 2.7 GHz, AMD Radeon HD 6630M graphics.
 
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