30" and 64MB VRAM?

[TheMonarch]

Hello all. I've been looking at the 30 incher from apple and I want to know how well would it do using only 64 megs of vram? Because I want to hook it up to my 17" PB 1.67, but I wouldn't want to close the screen knowing I could have another 17 inches to "my" cinema. I say 64, because the 128 will be split. 30" with only 64 vram seems like too little (even if gaming is out of the question)... Speaking of which, wtf is up with that? Why not split it accordingly?

I'm only wondering, I've been looking around for a second screen. 3K seems horribly expensive, but there aren't any other 30 inchers with the same resolution.

I may or may not get it, but I'd still like to know. So anyone have a 30 incher on their PB? How well does it perform?

 

[1nsanity]

It works great!

The store where I shop for apple products has a 17'' connected to the 30inch.

Beside being gorgeous and really expensive it works like a charm.

Enjoy!

 

[ham_man]

64 MB of VRAM should be enough to power the 30 inch ACD without issues. However, I do have a question.When running dual monitors, does the VRAM split 50%/50% or does it change dynamically?

 

[mad jew]

However, I do have a question.When running dual monitors, does the VRAM split 50%/50% or does it change dynamically?

I'm pretty sure it splits it 50:50.

 

[homerjward]

if it's a 17" pb with 64vram that means it's a 1.5ghz, and thus doesnt have dual-link dvi. only the new one with 128vram has dual-link. you'll be able to run the 30" in "presentation" mode, or 1280x800, which is the only way it'll look good. you'll also be able to run it up to 1920x1200 but it'll look crappy cause of non-native res. if you want a 30" display you can run from your powerbook you'd be better off with a cheaper, 1280x768 display.

 

[ham_man]

if it's a 17" pb with 64vram that means it's a 1.5ghz, and thus doesnt have dual-link dvi. only the new one with 128vram has dual-link. you'll be able to run the 30" in "presentation" mode, or 1280x800, which is the only way it'll look good. you'll also be able to run it up to 1920x1200 but it'll look crappy cause of non-native res. if you want a 30" display you can run from your powerbook you'd be better off with a cheaper, 1280x768 display.

Unless I am dislexic, he has a Rev D 17 inch PowerBook 1.67 Ghz with 128 MB of VRAM...

 

[mad jew]

Don't worry homerjward, I read it the same way too at first and I had a reply all ready to go with "what the hell are you thinking, good luck with that!" but blaskillet4 is just accounting for the fact that 64MB of VRAM will be lost to the PowerBook's inbuilt screen.

 

[Mechcozmo]

64 MB of VRAM should be enough to power the 30 inch ACD without issues. However, I do have a question.When running dual monitors, does the VRAM split 50%/50% or does it change dynamically?

I believe that it is reserved 50/50, however, you don't use all of your allocation. Example: 1024x768 @ Millions of Colors uses 4MB of VRAM. When I dual-screen on my PowerBook 12" Rev. C, Each monitor has 32MB available to it but uses 4MB each, for 8MB total. Those are approximate BTW. However, special eye-candy still works fine. Not sure how that works... probably, being a System event, is just done regardless.

 

[homerjward]

oops i thought he was asking if splitting 64 would be okay... sorry