Anyone ever drive a 2nd high resolution 2560x1440 monitor with pre-rMBP?

[SGeeFree]

Like the title says, I'm currently looking to drive a second high resolution 2560x1440 monitor with my pre-rMBP. I know the graphics power of my system will not allow me to run 50+ FPS on each monitor and performance will be marginal at best, but the real estate would increase my productivity ten fold as opposed to one monitor and the standard 15" laptop screen.

Current setup:

Monitor 1: Mini DisplayPort to Dual Link DVI Converter driving a 2560x1440 monitor

Proposed setup (coming from this user's experience (https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1573965/):

Monitor 1: Mini DisplayPort to Dual Link DVI Converter ----> 2560x1440 Dual Link DVI Monitor
Monitor 2: USB to DisplayPort adapter ----> DisplayPort to Dual Link DVI ----> 2560x1440 Dual Link DVI Monitor

Does anyone else have any experience in terms of FPS or other issues associated with such a setup? I know it's possible, but I'm just looking to see if anyone has any experience

 

[yjchua95]

Like the title says, I'm currently looking to drive a second high resolution 2560x1440 monitor with my pre-rMBP. I know the graphics power of my system will not allow me to run 50+ FPS on each monitor and performance will be marginal at best, but the real estate would increase my productivity ten fold as opposed to one monitor and the standard 15" laptop screen.

Current setup:

Monitor 1: Mini DisplayPort to Dual Link DVI Converter driving a 2560x1440 monitor

Proposed setup (coming from this user's experience (https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1573965/):

Monitor 1: Mini DisplayPort to Dual Link DVI Converter ----> 2560x1440 Dual Link DVI Monitor
Monitor 2: USB to DisplayPort adapter ----> DisplayPort to Dual Link DVI ----> 2560x1440 Dual Link DVI Monitor

Does anyone else have any experience in terms of FPS or other issues associated with such a setup? I know it's possible, but I'm just looking to see if anyone has any experience

cMBPs can normally drive two 2560x1600 displays at 60 Hz.

 

[SGeeFree]

cMBPs can normally drive two 2560x1600 displays at 60 Hz.

And how do people usually go about this? Searching for this topic has only come up with the thread listed above. With a similar setup as to what I proposed?

I do not have Thunderbolt and/or Thunderbolt displays, so I cannot daisy chain my monitors together. That would be too easy if that were the case

 

[Freyqq]

Like the title says, I'm currently looking to drive a second high resolution 2560x1440 monitor with my pre-rMBP. I know the graphics power of my system will not allow me to run 50+ FPS on each monitor and performance will be marginal at best, but the real estate would increase my productivity ten fold as opposed to one monitor and the standard 15" laptop screen.

Current setup:

Monitor 1: Mini DisplayPort to Dual Link DVI Converter driving a 2560x1440 monitor

Proposed setup (coming from this user's experience (https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1573965/):

Monitor 1: Mini DisplayPort to Dual Link DVI Converter ----> 2560x1440 Dual Link DVI Monitor
Monitor 2: USB to DisplayPort adapter ----> DisplayPort to Dual Link DVI ----> 2560x1440 Dual Link DVI Monitor

Does anyone else have any experience in terms of FPS or other issues associated with such a setup? I know it's possible, but I'm just looking to see if anyone has any experience

That will work fine. If you have usb 3, be sure to get a usb 3 adapter for better performance.

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And how do people usually go about this? Searching for this topic has only come up with the thread listed above. With a similar setup as to what I proposed?

I do not have Thunderbolt and/or Thunderbolt displays, so I cannot daisy chain my monitors together. That would be too easy if that were the case

Yeah, I think the poster was talking about if you had 2 thunderbolt displays and thunderbolt on your mac. Otherwise, you can't do this on a cmbp. Displayport 1.2 has this capability too, but macs don't support it.

 

[SGeeFree]

That will work fine. If you have usb 3, be sure to get a usb 3 adapter for better performance.

Unfortunately I don't actually have USB 3.0, but by gauging off of the one link I provided the user only had USB 2.0 on his 2011 Mac Mini and he said it worked just fine. So at this point I'm just trying to duplicate his setup.

 

[Freyqq]

Unfortunately I don't actually have USB 3.0, but by gauging off of the one link I provided the user only had USB 2.0 on his 2011 Mac Mini and he said it worked just fine. So at this point I'm just trying to duplicate his setup.

Yeah, it'll work fine. Just use the mini-dp for your main display and the usb one for the other one.

 

[austinpike]

I do not have Thunderbolt and/or Thunderbolt displays, so I cannot daisy chain my monitors together.

What displays do you have? Most 27"s have Displayport (unless you have the very bare-bones Korean eBay specials.) Your Thunderbolt port can plug directly into the DP on the monitor with a miniDP->DP cable.

You still can't daisy-chain, so it doesn't help your original question, but it might save you purchasing another active DVI adapter. I just see a lot of people thinking they need to use DVI when they already have DP built-in.

 

[SGeeFree]

Yeah, it'll work fine. Just use the mini-dp for your main display and the usb one for the other one.

Excellent! Thanks

What displays do you have? Most 27"s have Displayport (unless you have the very bare-bones Korean eBay specials.) Your Thunderbolt port can plug directly into the DP on the monitor with a miniDP->DP cable.

You still can't daisy-chain, so it doesn't help your original question, but it might save you purchasing another active DVI adapter. I just see a lot of people thinking they need to use DVI when they already have DP built-in.

That's the issue, I have two of the Korean eBay specials I picked up for pennies a while back and they only have DL DVI inputs. They run and function great, but the lack of inputs isn't helping my current situation. I've been running one display without a problem, but just want to get the second up and running.