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PB+30" ACD???

TheMonarch

TheMonarch

macrumors 65816
Original poster
May 6, 2005
1,467
1
Bay Area
Hello. I'm wondering how the Powerbooks w/128 vram and dual link DVI handles the 30" ACD...

Any screen shots?
Any pictures of a PB next to the ACD?

I recently went to my local Apple store and saw a mac mini connected to a 23" ACD, and tried an iphoto slideshow... And IT SUCKED!!! The cube was so slow and the image tore and stuff. I was disappointed. Would the PB do the same?

BTW, anyone with a mac mini and a 23" ACD (or equivalent)? What to you think about the graphics performance? How bad is it?

It would be so awesome to connect a 1" thick computer to a 30" apple display (makes me drool).
 
blaskillet4 said:
Hello. I'm wondering how the Powerbooks w/128 vram and dual link DVI handles the 30" ACD...

Any screen shots?
Any pictures of a PB next to the ACD?

I recently went to my local Apple store and saw a mac mini connected to a 23" ACD, and tried an iphoto slideshow... And IT SUCKED!!! The cube was so slow and the image tore and stuff. I was disappointed. Would the PB do the same?

BTW, anyone with a mac mini and a 23" ACD (or equivalent)? What to you think about the graphics performance? How bad is it?

It would be so awesome to connect a 1" thick computer to a 30" apple display (makes me drool).
Click to expand...

considering you need to two video cards to run a 30" display, they won't handle it very well.
 
17indexdisplay20050531.jpg
 
superbovine said:
considering you need to two video cards to run a 30" display, they won't handle it very well.
Click to expand...
You do NOT need two video cards to use the 30" display. You need dual-link DVI (a.k.a. DVI-D). The new PB's with 128MB of VRAM (standard on the 17", optional on the 15) have it, so they can run a 30" Apple display. I can't say how well they run it, because I have yet to see one in action. I'm reasonably sure that slideshow effects on a PB will be much better than on a mini.
 
I would assume it should be very good. It is a 128MB ATI Radeon 9700 which kills the 32MB Radeon 9200 in the Mini. It is very similar to the 9650 card used in the PowerMac that can also power the 30" the 9700 has half the RAM.
 
blaskillet4 said:
Hello. I'm wondering how the Powerbooks w/128 vram and dual link DVI handles the 30" ACD...

Any screen shots?
Any pictures of a PB next to the ACD?

I recently went to my local Apple store and saw a mac mini connected to a 23" ACD, and tried an iphoto slideshow... And IT SUCKED!!! The cube was so slow and the image tore and stuff. I was disappointed. Would the PB do the same?

BTW, anyone with a mac mini and a 23" ACD (or equivalent)? What to you think about the graphics performance? How bad is it?

It would be so awesome to connect a 1" thick computer to a 30" apple display (makes me drool).
Click to expand...

Was the mini in store an old "stock" one with only 256MB RAM? That would make the slideshow suck some eggs. With >1 GB in there the thing should be fine. The newer ones come with 512MB but they mightn't have one on the floor as a demo yet.

Anywho as far as the 30" question goes head over to the MacNN forums and check out the powerbook setup thread. I've seen some pics in there of both 15 and 17 inchers hooked up to 30" ACDs. Unfortunately there's a a basquillion pages of setups in that thread and I don't know if I like you enough yet to search a pic out ;).
 
ummmm

i thought the 30" needed the uber1337 6800 geoforce to drive it? :eek:
that sucker takes up TWO slots in a powermac. :rolleyes:
i wouldn't think anything in a powerbook would be able to power it very well at all, given those cards are matched to the monitor in the PB.
just my $0.02 :eek:
 
sambo. said:
i thought the 30" needed the uber1337 6800 geoforce to drive it? :eek:
that sucker takes up TWO slots in a powermac. :rolleyes:
i wouldn't think anything in a powerbook would be able to power it very well at all, given those cards are matched to the monitor in the PB.
just my $0.02 :eek:
Click to expand...

Nope, it needs dual link DVI which is now available stock in the 2.7GHz PowerMac and the 17" PowerBook (Optional on the 1.67GHz 15"). It's basically two DVI connections in one cable and plug. The video card in the 17" PowerBook will handle it just fine unless you're trying to do some serious gaming on it (although why you would buy a PowerBook and a 30" monitor,let alone a Mac for serious gaming escapes me)

The 6800 GeForce will drive 2 30"ers - serious screen real estate!!
 
sambo. said:
i thought the 30" needed the uber1337 6800 geoforce to drive it? :eek:
that sucker takes up TWO slots in a powermac. :rolleyes:
i wouldn't think anything in a powerbook would be able to power it very well at all, given those cards are matched to the monitor in the PB.
just my $0.02 :eek:
Click to expand...
At its release, the only video card available for Macs that could run it was the 6800 Ultra. Since then, Apple/ATI have made several cards available (and I think there's another NVidia one as well) that can run it. I think the 6800 Ultra is still the only one that can run two 30" displays. I haven't looked in a while though :eek:
 
I had the 15" pb hooked up to the 30" acd for a few months, and had no problems with it. it worked great.

I did end up getting a G5 because I needed a desktop (performance/disk space).
 
Well, I knew all along that it could power the 30" ACD, but I was asking how well would it run...

Exposé?
Dashboard?
iPhoto effects?
Minimization?
screen saver?
window resizing?
App performance? ?< as opposed to the normal screen


I'm not asking if I could game or anything, I'm asking if all the basic stuff would run flawlessly...
 
I would imagine it would be just fine, but you don't know until you actually see it. If you can, head over to an Apple store. Ask them to hook it up and let you check it out. I'm sure they would be happy to oblige.
 
Counterfit said:
You do NOT need two video cards to use the 30" display. You need dual-link DVI (a.k.a. DVI-D).
Click to expand...
Just for the record, "DVI-D" does NOT mean "dual-link DVI"... it means "DVI Digital", which is different from the very uncommon "DVI-A" ("DVI Analog") or the more common "DVI-I" ("DVI Integrated", which supports both Analog and Digital DVI).

Mac minis have DVI-I ports on them; that's why you can use a simple dongle (included with the Mac mini) to adapt them to standard VGA-compatible monitors. The same is true for smaller PowerBooks and iBooks... DVI-D, on the other hand, CANNOT be adapted to work with a VGA-style connection, i.e., no dongles. That's why you have to specify that you want DVI-D; you're committing yourself to using a particular type of (more expensive) monitor.
 
Chundles said:
Nope, it needs dual link DVI which is now available stock in the 2.7GHz PowerMac and the 17" PowerBook (Optional on the 1.67GHz 15"). It's basically two DVI connections in one cable and plug. The video card in the 17" PowerBook will handle it just fine unless you're trying to do some serious gaming on it (although why you would buy a PowerBook and a 30" monitor,let alone a Mac for serious gaming escapes me)

The 6800 GeForce will drive 2 30"ers - serious screen real estate!!
Click to expand...


ohhh, TWO 30"ers, silly me.

i'd lurrve a 30" monitor anna 21" CRT (for the critical colour work) running off the PowerMac i don't have....... YET! :eek:
 
I'm asking if all the basic stuff would run flawlessly...
Click to expand...

Yes all the basic stuff worked fine, as far as I could tell.

One little slow down I noticed was when I expanded a firefox window the full length of the screen (top to bottom), it would some times be a little slow if I tried to scroll down a page using the cursor key. So, instead I just used the scroll slider button thingy to slide down, and that was fine.

I had no problems w/ DVD playback either. :)

-- J.
 
If you're that concerned about it, call up your local Apple Store and see if they'd be willing to hook a compatible powerbook to a 30" ACD. I mean, if you're spending that much money at their store I think they'd be more than happy to accommodate you.
 
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