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Dual display slows down GUI

K

karohan

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 25, 2010
396
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Is the Macbook Pro graphics card strong enough to handle dual displays (I imagine it should be since my old laptop could handle it just fine)? When ever I run dual displays, all OS X animations slow down considerable and everything is really choppy. I don't think this is a hardware limitation, and it seems like an issue with OS X, but is this something that everyone is experiencing and are there any solutions? I typically have a video run in the second screen, but that's definitely not causing the lag because running it with a single monitor experiences no lag.
 
Hi, I'm running dual displays right now and have never had a problem (doing some fairly intensive sort of work like ripping backup dvd's/iphoto/other apps concurrently)-sorry if this doesn't help, but I will say that I think I noticed (placebo?) an improvement after Apple issued some sort of graphics update a few months ago?
 
karohan said:
Is the Macbook Pro graphics card strong enough to handle dual displays (I imagine it should be since my old laptop could handle it just fine)? When ever I run dual displays, all OS X animations slow down considerable and everything is really choppy. I don't think this is a hardware limitation, and it seems like an issue with OS X, but is this something that everyone is experiencing and are there any solutions? I typically have a video run in the second screen, but that's definitely not causing the lag because running it with a single monitor experiences no lag.
Click to expand...

Hi karohan, what Macbook Pro do you have? In general I have seen little slowdown on the newer MacBook Pro's when two monitors are attached. I have the 330m, and run at full native resolution on both my 17 inch built in display and my 20 inch Apple cinema display with zero slowdown.
 
I have the 15" i7 Macbook Pro with 4gb of RAM. The Macbook Pro is running at 1680x1050 and the external monitor at 1920x1200. Once again, I highly doubt that I'm doing things that are too hardware intensive because things were perfectly smooth on my old laptop with a same setup (but with an Nvidia 7600 Go graphics card). But animations like Expose, moving windows, and even Spaces are noticeably choppier. I can sort of deal with this, but it really hurts my productivity/experience if I'm on a webpage and the scrolling is so very slow. One example of a page that scrolls slowly:
http://scores.espn.go.com/nfl/boxscore?gameId=301010022
 
lilcosco08 said:
I do think it is a hardware problem
Click to expand...

As in my hardware isn't powerful enough? Or my hardware is dysfunctional? Can it be an issue with the cables at all? I can't imagine that being the case because the lag occurs on the main screen as well.
 
Have you tried forcing the high-power GPU to on? Perhaps the applications you are running are not triggering the switch over to the more powerful GPU.
 
HotPopsicle said:
Have you tried forcing the high-power GPU to on? Perhaps the applications you are running are not triggering the switch over to the more powerful GPU.
Click to expand...

The dual display automatically triggers the Nvidia, but either way, yes, I have forced the Nvidia to run.
 
It happens if nothing is running at all in the second display. The choppiness is exacerbated if I'm running heavy flash/java webpages though.
 
I have noticed on mine in OSX certain flash adds will sometimes runn choppy but thats a problem with flash in OSX not the macbook pro itself. i have read about a bunch of people experiencing slows when flash is running in browsers.
 
Do you find your Expose/spaces/dock magnification choppier in normal use, when flash isn't running? I would say, even slightly so, but its pretty considerable and should be rather obvious (especially if you have the Nvidia enabled).
 
I have no issues, make sure you update your softwares. Try different browsers.
 
It's definitely not a browser problem. I don't know how to explain this because the actual videos and the performance of the video aren't really lagging. It's just the UIs. So in the context of a browser, that's essentially moving the window and scrolling. The dock magnification is noticeably choppier and so is Expose. There are things that can't be changed by changing what browser I use. I am also up to date with software update.

To be clearer, this occurs when I use both screens simultaneously (I'm not just using an external display. In that case, there is no choppiness).

I have AppleCare, should I call support? I just don't want to have to give up my laptop for a few days running diagnostics that don't tell them anything (this has been done before).
 
I think is an OS issue, I've has the same problem with the following:

Macbook pro 15 2.8 C2D Nvidia 9600 + 22" Samsung 1680x1050

Macbook pro 13 2.4 C2D Nvidia 9400 + 24" Apple 1920x1200

Imac 27 i7 2,8 ati 4850 + 19" Dell 1680 x 1050

Hoping lion fix this
 
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