how does the mac mini run a 20" display and a powerbook doesnt. It must be really slow and laggy? even if you have the ram maxed out how does the graphics card pull that off?
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mac mini runs 20" display and an ibook doesnt?
- Thread starter Rob587
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Rob587 said:
a powerbook does
if you want to use the lcd and a extermal monitor for monitor spanning with the ibook you need the dual monitor hack (seach google) the limitation in the ibook is not technological is just to create a bigger gap with the powerbook.
Rob587 said:
The iBook can drive a 20" display... just not *Apple's* 20 display. The Apple display only has DVI in, while iBooks only have VGA out. This presents a problem
However, an iBook can drive a Dell 20" or something similar with a VGA port.
Powerbook can do both, VGA or DVI.
Both can run a 20" display (with the proviso that it has a VGA port in the case of an iBook, as pointed out by debroglie ). Both have 32mB of video memory which is more than enough - for example 1920 x 1200 resolution at 32 bit colour needs 9mB of video memory. The iBook can, with the help of the spanning hack as mentioned above, run its own lcd at 1024 x 768 plus an external monitor at a higher resolution.
Extra video memory is needed for 3D applications, gaming and all the fancy eye-candy in Tiger, but for ordinary 2D stuff like photoshop you don't actually need much, even for 32 bit colour. It certainly won't result in the display being 'slow and laggy' (except in the case of the 3D stuff).
Extra video memory is needed for 3D applications, gaming and all the fancy eye-candy in Tiger, but for ordinary 2D stuff like photoshop you don't actually need much, even for 32 bit colour. It certainly won't result in the display being 'slow and laggy' (except in the case of the 3D stuff).
The ibook is still so-so with an external display, with the hack, for you cannot dedicate the full VRAM to the external display.
No matter what, it cuts your VRAM down to 16MB on the external.
No matter what, it cuts your VRAM down to 16MB on the external.
hmmm, so powerbooks have dual-link DVI output, right?
does that mean you can split the dual-link DVI output to 2 standard flat panels (and not use the PBs regular screen)?
is it possible to EVER split a dual-link DVI into 2 separate standard DVI signals?
does that mean you can split the dual-link DVI output to 2 standard flat panels (and not use the PBs regular screen)?
is it possible to EVER split a dual-link DVI into 2 separate standard DVI signals?
captainwinky said:
Only the 15" and 17" PowerBooks with 128MB ATI 9700 Pro have Dual Link DVI Ports. So the 12" and low end 15" PowerBooks only have regular DVI Ports.
No, what that basically means is that you can power very high resolution displays, such as Apple's 30" Widescreen Display.
So what this software essentially does is it runs the same thing on both the ibook's as well as the external display's screen?
Can i just keep the iboook in a corner and use this software just for my external screen at 1280*1024?
Really, Apple should look at this 1024*768 restriction with the ibook.. just sucks :|
Can i just keep the iboook in a corner and use this software just for my external screen at 1280*1024?
Really, Apple should look at this 1024*768 restriction with the ibook.. just sucks :|
oober_freak said:
Not quite. By default, the iBook will plug into an external display and show you exactly what you have on your inbuilt display (at the same 1024x768 resolution) on the external. However, this hack allows you to show different things at different resolutions on the external display.
oober_freak said:
You can do this if you want to. The hack still allows you to mirror AFAIK.
powerbook911 said:
Bingo! This is how Apple can be sure that there will still be a market for the powerbook. Even with the hack, you are limited to 16MB on the external display. Because of this, the speed of graphic intensive operations such as exposé runs a little slow. The mini dedicates all 32MB to the external display and that is why it runs faster.
captainwinky said:
Dual-link DVI is possibly the crappiest name for a new technology in the last couple of years, with the possible exception of USB 2.0 full-speed vs. hi-speed.
Dual-link DVI contains twice the signalling bandwidth, but is not two separate DVI channels. (I believe it literally contains twice the data lines, but still.)
So, I can understand your confusion, but unfortunately, no.
powerbook911 said:
That's not entirely accurate. VRAM can be shared between the displays for a lot of things, like OpenGL textures (used for font rendering in Tiger).
I'm not up on the recent ATI architectures, but last time I was writing drivers for this sort of thing, screen spanning created a giant logical screen and displayed parts of it on both screens. Meaning, buffer area is split depending on the size/depth of the displays, and non-buffer data (backing stores, textures) is shared.
cbiffle said:
I'm just saying even if you turn off the LCD on the iBook, you're still limited to 16 MB of VRAM according to the system profiler, and I sure felt it! I had only a 15-inch LCD connected to the iBook, when I owned one, and the graphics performance was not very good.
I find that running my iBook on my tv/monitor can cause some slowdown in graphically intensive stuff, eg. games that normally run ok, tend to suffer from some nasty slowdown.
But for most things I do; full screen vids, internet browsing etc. The iBook + DisplayConfigx do the job superbly.
But for most things I do; full screen vids, internet browsing etc. The iBook + DisplayConfigx do the job superbly.