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Macbook Pro and External Display

A

answer348

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 25, 2004
91
0
I have a new 15" 2.4Ghz Unibody MBP on the way, and I'm wondering if it will be able to capably power a 1920 x 1080 external display. Are there some things that will work fine and others that will suffer in performance? Would gaming be a possibility?

I'll be upgrading the RAM and HDD also, in case that affects anything.
 
the latest unibody MBP will handle external displays easily, in fact even the previous generation models can. Depending what type of monitor you choose you will need a mini display port to dvi connection cable, although some newer model displays come with mini display port jacks built in.

currently i am experimenting with setting up a dual monitor set up.
 
I am currently running a 22" Samsung external display from mine with a display port to dvi adapter so I don't think you will have any problems with the 15".

I have run games in parallels with no issue on the display, maybe a slight delay but I think it was just my imagination.
 
I had this question also. I am fixing to purchase a 24" Apple LED display. I currently play "Left 4 Dead" on high settings(shaders medium) and it plays perfect. Will playing on a 24" screen affect this(Also, I have 4GB RAM, 500GB HDD)? Sorry, not meaning to hijack this thread, but thought it was better than starting a new one. :)
 
Chad H said:
I had this question also. I am fixing to purchase a 24" Apple LED display. I currently play "Left 4 Dead" on high settings(shaders medium) and it plays perfect. Will playing on a 24" screen affect this(Also, I have 4GB RAM, 500GB HDD)? Sorry, not meaning to hijack this thread, but thought it was better than starting a new one. :)
Click to expand...

i also see that you have the 2.66GHz MBP. The 512 of VRAM is what will help with the external monitor. this being said i believe that you will be able to run it at high settings.
 
Unfortunately, I didn't have the money to spring for the 2.66 version with the 512 VRAM. Should I consider going with a lower resolution monitor to ensure good performance?
 
answer348 said:
Unfortunately, I didn't have the money to spring for the 2.66 version with the 512 VRAM. Should I consider going with a lower resolution monitor to ensure good performance?
Click to expand...

oh was answering for the member above me. are you going to be playing games at high resolution with high settings? if not i think you should be fine with a high resolution monitor.
 
answer348 said:
Unfortunately, I didn't have the money to spring for the 2.66 version with the 512 VRAM. Should I consider going with a lower resolution monitor to ensure good performance?
Click to expand...

Personally go for the higher res. As long as it's good quality it should display text clearer and show more of each image. There should only be a couple fps drop when using a higher res.

Again that opinion is just if you game some of the time(I would assume so otherwise you should have a different computer)
 
ViciousShadow21 said:
oh was answering for the member above me. are you going to be playing games at high resolution with high settings? if not i think you should be fine with a high resolution monitor.
Click to expand...

The only gaming I would do would be MMOs, nothing like Crysis or other graphic-intensive first-person shooters.
 
answer348 said:
The only gaming I would do would be MMOs, nothing like Crysis or other graphic-intensive first-person shooters.
Click to expand...

yea then go for the high-res. you still have an incredibly powerful computer. you could probably play those other games but maybe just not at high res in combination with high settings. you would have to choose btw the two.
 
ViciousShadow21 said:
yea then go for the high-res. you still have an incredibly powerful computer. you could probably play those other games but maybe just not at high res in combination with high settings. you would have to choose btw the two.
Click to expand...

Awesome. I'm very glad to hear that the MBP can handle that. I think I'm going to go with a Dell, somewhere in the 20"-22" range.
 
I'm on a 30 inch dell running at native resolution of 2650x1600

So you can go pretty damn high on a macbook pro
 
I wonder if switching to the 9600 while running a bigger external display will make everyday tasks more smooth than the 9400? (obviously it will help gaming). I had a 22'' monitor hooked up to my unibody mbp, and for some reason my mouse wheel would delay slightly when scrolling documents even though it was connected via usb directly to the mbp. Not sure if it was my mouse that was an issue or the larger resolution screen.
 
Jottle said:
I wonder if switching to the 9600 while running a bigger external display will make everyday tasks more smooth than the 9400? (obviously it will help gaming). I had a 22'' monitor hooked up to my unibody mbp, and for some reason my mouse wheel would delay slightly when scrolling documents even though it was connected via usb directly to the mbp. Not sure if it was my mouse that was an issue or the larger resolution screen.
Click to expand...

some say that the extra VRAM helps with smoothing things out, but i would think that scrolling shouldnt be a problem.
 
I had a similar question, i have a 2.53 MBP with the 9600M GT (512MB), mainly a work computer but on the side play a little TF2 and company of heroes (vista bootcamp) looking to also get left 4 dead. Was wondering about any performance issues in the games with the 24' apple screen?

Took my computer into the Sydney mac store yesterday hooked it to the 24' screen to give it a go, looked to run fine but hard to tell under those conditions, will order it soon after seeing some good experiences here also :)
 
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