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NewerTech's 'HDMI Headless Video Accelerator' Keeps GPU Active for Better Performance With No Display

"smooth graphics" over a VNC connection...

There is just something wrong with that statement. I have always found VNC to be crap. Serviceable in a pinch, but far inferior to Microsoft's RDP when it comes to efficiency and quality.
 
I am so confused! Please help me. How can this improve video performance for a computer that doesn't have a monitor connected? Like you're telling me that plugging this into a computer without a display will make the UI smoother. How can the UI be smoother if there's no display to see this UI?
 
Speedman100 said:
I am so confused! Please help me. How can this improve video performance for a computer that doesn't have a monitor connected? Like you're telling me that plugging this into a computer without a display will make the UI smoother. How can the UI be smoother if there's no display to see this UI?
Click to expand...
Did you even bother to read just a handful of the replies here?

If you connect remotely to the computer, it'll have a GUI still, it's just sent through the network instead of the display port/HDMI/etc...
If you rent hosting with a company, you'll get access to a computer, which a server only is as well, and usually you'll get command line access and access through an admin panel (a bunch of webpages), but if you get a VPS (virtual private server) for example, you get full access, including being able to install an OS of your choice, etc... In any case, that's when you'll often connect to the server using RDP or VNC, which will send the graphical interface to you.

Glassed Silver:mac
 
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cast128 said:
What is the difference between this and the product here below from Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00FL...ay+adapter&dpPl=1&dpID=31uHUN7qVqL&ref=plSrch

I have been using these for years and they work great on my Mac mini's that I use as plex servers.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I wondered that, too. As far as I can tell they do the same thing, but this "new" one costs more. I've been using the one you linked to at Amazon and it's worked well for me. (I did need to get "Display Menu" http://displaymenu.milchimgemuesefach.de/index.html from the Mac App store in order to get the resolution I wanted, though.)
 
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Looks like I need this because my Mac mini server is hopelessly slow over VNC. Though it might be some other issue. Gotta wipe/re-install the OS that thing someday.
 
longofest said:
"smooth graphics" over a VNC connection...

There is just something wrong with that statement. I have always found VNC to be crap. Serviceable in a pinch, but far inferior to Microsoft's RDP when it comes to efficiency and quality.
Click to expand...

When going over my local wired network, I get very smooth performance from my MBP to my headless mini. Going over the Internet via Back To My Mac is not nearly as smooth. I think the biggest reason is that VNC is designed to be a general purpose, platform agnostic, screen sharing technology. RDP, on the other hand, is designed to share Windows screens to other Windows devices (though there are clients for other platforms too). I wouldn't be surprised to find out that Microsoft's implementation has it's hooks deep inside the OS.

That said, there is nothing inherently wrong with either approach -- I prefer the VNC approach because I can install VNC servers wherever I need them and the clients just work. But if I was using more Windows machines than a mixture, I would probably prefer the RDP approach instead.
 
definitive said:
Is this the same thing as turning off graphics auto switching in energy settings?
Click to expand...

Nope. On a Mac without a monitor, if you look at the About This Mac window under Graphics, it's like there is no graphics card installed at all. Or if it does show one, it shows it as having no video memory. This means all graphics rendering has to be done strictly via the CPU, hence the slowdown that is seen with VNC when there is no display connected.

When there is a display connected, the GPU is also active. Which means the impact of moving around a window is now primarily on the GPU instead. The machine does what it would normally do and VNC only has to send an updated copy of the current frame buffer.

The option that you are referring to controls if the OS will switch between the integrated Intel GPU and the discrete GPU based on the graphics load of the system. As far as I know, this is only available on the MBPs, and since there is always one display on those machines (the built in display), the VNC slowdown doesn't effect those.
 
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Will this device provide an additional boost even if I have a monitor attached to the Thunderbolt Display port? Or is the boost only realized if no monitor is used at all? Thanks.
 
Honestly I'm surprised there isn't some terminal command to get around this.
 
Does Windows suffer from the same problem? My main machine is an iMac, and I have a headless Windows box in my living room which I remote into via Splashtop. It is supposed to take advantage of the newer AMD and NVidia cards which have a hardware 264 encoder to stream the desktop. Many people report that the remote experience is similar to the PS4 or XBox One (which is super quick, in the range of milliseconds).
 
So why Apple will not allow the GPU to be active in the first place for better performance?
 
I've had a Fit Headless 4K connected to my 2012 Mac mini for the past year. Exactly the same concept as this, a dongle that plug into the HDMI port, but it provides a lot more resolution flexibility. They also sell a cheaper version for $15 that allows resolutions up to 1080p.

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hand123 said:
Will this device provide an additional boost even if I have a monitor attached to the Thunderbolt Display port? Or is the boost only realized if no monitor is used at all? Thanks.
Click to expand...
No, it won't provide any performance increase if you already have a display attached. The reason it's necessary is because a Mac without a display attached will fail to utilize the GPU at all, even while being accessed through Screen Sharing.
 
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This voids warranty according to Apple. So deny using it.

Also..does using a VGA/DVI splitter keep it active even if not switched to using it?
 
pgiguere1 said:
There's also the DIY way:

dummydone.jpg


http://blog.macminicolo.net/post/33839671756/build-a-dummy-dongle-for-a-headless-mac-mini

A must for VNC access on a headless Mac mini.
Click to expand...

I did this trick with the VGA converter and a resistor: it works, really improves the performance over VNC. But the display resolution is limited to either 800x600 or 1280x1024. I've been thinking about buying one of the HDMI headless dongles to have higher resolution possible; up to 1920x1080 if I understand correctly. Not sure if the 4k version of the dongles will provide much benefit on the Mac Mini 2012, since the resolution of the graphics card is limit to 2560x1440 (or something like that).
 
Maybe I'm an idiot but couldn't you just buy or find a spare hdmi cable, cut the hdmi plug off one end and tadaa, you just saved $20!
Hell, you could just plug one end of the cable into the mini if you don't want to cut the cable but then you'll have a long cord hanging off the back.
 
ILikeAllOS said:
Maybe I'm an idiot but couldn't you just buy or find a spare hdmi cable, cut the hdmi plug off one end and tadaa, you just saved $20!
Hell, you could just plug one end of the cable into the mini if you don't want to cut the cable but then you'll have a long cord hanging off the back.
Click to expand...

As I understand it, HDMI requires a chip to negotiate the connection between the graphics driver and the attached display and to inform the graphics driver about the possible resolutions, encoding schemes, protection/encryption, etcetera of the display. This chip is typically embedded in the display, the cable is just a link for signal transport. Hence a cut-off HDMI cable won't work. You need a dongle, which is essentially a cut-off HDMI cable with one of those chips.

[ Disclaimer: story could be utter bollocks, never bothered to check the story, or if a cut-off HDMI cable works on the Mac Mini ]
 
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