Does using a external monitor drop your frame rates?

[TheShinyMac]

I have windows 7 on my boot-camp partition. I would like to get a 24 inch Dell monitor, but I think that if you hook it up to a external display the frame rates will drop, is this true? I am using the nvidia 8600gtm card if that helps! Also is there a adapter so my macbook pro can output hdmi its a early 08 model

 

[HiRez]

Assuming you are talking about an external monitor replacing an internal instead of adding to it, I don't think it'll necessarily drop frame rates. But, higher resolutions usually will mean lower frame rates (depending on the visual settings of your game, the age of the game, etc.). So if you run your external at a higher resolution than your internal (which will almost always be the case with a 24"), yes, you probably will take a frame rate hit because more pixels to render = more work for the GPU. Really depends on the game though.

 

[jakeguy99]

Yes using an external Monitor will drop frame rates, but it really depends which monitor you decide to buy and what programs you are going to be running. You will be able to run a 19 widescreen with very minimal drop in fps, however any higher than that may start to be noticeable especially if you decide to go with a HD monitor. Your graphics card is becoming fairly old now so you must keep that in mind when purchasing new equipment.

 

[Anonymous Freak]

1. If you are using your MacBook Pro in "lid-closed mode", so that you are using *ONLY* the external display, and...

2. You are running the external display at the same resolution as the internal display (you don't specify if you have 15" or 17"; so either 1440x900 for the 15", 1680x1050 or 1920x1200 on the 17", depending if you opted for the 'high-res' screen or not.)

If both are true, then you will get the exact same frame rate.

More likely, you are *NOT* running at the same resolution on the external that you were on the internal (i.e. you are likely running the Dell at it's native resolution of 1920x1200; and unless you had the 17" MacBook Pro, *AND* had opted for the high-res screen, you weren't running at that on the built-in screen.) If you run at a higher resolution, you will see a lower frame rate. (Except on some old games, where even the slowest part of the games will be higher frame rate than the monitor is capable of.)