how well does the MAC MINI fare at 1280x1024?

[macOSX-tastic]

hi all,

i am thinkking about getting a mac mini to compliment my dell. i will be using an 1800FP dell monitor, whose native resolution is at 1280x1024 pixels.

i will be getting 512MB ram, and possibly BT + AE.

i have heard and experienced at apple stores, with the 20" displays, a choppy animation when using things such as Exposé, but these are at higher res. than what i shall be using.

my question is: at what resolution does performance start to become "unsmoothed" in terms of graphics?

this sort of thing is important to me as i am an "eye candy" guy, who wants no caveats in a new system!

thanks for any input

tastic

 

[feakbeak]

I'm running my Mac mini (specs in sig.) with the Dell 2001FP at 1600x1200 and don't notice any choppy animation with Expose or anything, even with half a dozen apps running and 12-15 windows open. I don't do any gaming on the Mac, so can't speak on that topic. I've used iPhoto a bit and the image editting happens quickly without any problems. I don't own a DV cam but I was playing around with iMovie a bit just to check it out. Adding some of the effects slowed the machine up a bit - that's not surprising considering the specs though. If you plan to do video-editting even on a semi-regular basis you should probably avoid the Mac mini. I'm sure my 1 GB of RAM helps, but I'm sure most any of your daily tasks and use of Expose would be fine on a Mac mini with 512 MB with that display.

 

[gekko513]

I use the Mac mini with 512MB at 1280x1024. No problems.

It is by no means a workstation, though. If I get too enthusiastic in my creations with several apps and lots of media content open in different places it certainly does slow down when switching between apps.

 

[macOSX-tastic]

well, thanks for the input guys....its music to my ears, bank account, get ready for a cleanout!!!

i do none of movie editing, save for stitching movies from holidays together....the most intense thing this mini will see is somee light photoshop work.

tastic.

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

I set up my father in law's mini (the low end model with 512 MB RAM) at 1280x1024 with a (really) cheap 17" LCD (with that as native resolution) and it looked very good... crisp with no lag...

I was actually quite envious for a while as it ran so much better than my 12" iBook G4@800MHz with 640 MB RAM...

I really need a new iBook (or maybe even a PowerBook)...

 

[ravenvii]

I run my Mac mini (1.42 GHz/1 GB RAM) with a Samsung 172T (college) and a Dell 1901FP (home). Both has the 1280x1024 native resolution, and the mini worked perfectly with them. The Mac mini does have a measly 32 MB card that could be saturated easily, but 1280x1024 isn't quite it. Enjoy your mini, I know I do!

 

[macOSX-tastic]

thanks guys, i shall be waiting until april 29th so i can get tiger, who knows, maybe it will have better graphics management features.

tastic

 

[Patriotsv4]

I'm running my Mini (default set up) at 1280x1024 on a old Hitachi 17"inch Monitor and it runs fine, no slow animations unless I have a ton of apps open(due to the memory).

 

[baby duck monge]

i'll also chime in as someone whose mini pushes 1280x1024 with no problems. it also runs photoshop just fine (with 512 RAM), and i have even been satisfied with its performance playing WoW (average 25-33 FPS even with up to 5 other programs open most anywhere except, say, orgimmar).