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Performance with dual monitors on ATI 4870

Markleshark

Markleshark

macrumors 603
Original poster
Aug 15, 2006
6,249
10
Carlisle, Up Norf!
Hello,

I recently purchased a second 22" Dell 2209WA to go with my Mac Pro. They are both running from the ATI Radeon 4870 on my Mac Pro (2009 Quad) but the Expose performance seems to be really quite poor. Displaying all the windows is very juddery and not smooth at all. Is that what I should be expecting now? I wouldn't have on a £2000 Machine. Going into Spaces is fine, it's just Expose thats poor.

Thanks,
Mark.
 
Odd. I have a 23" ACD and a generic 22" and they both work fine.

Are you using a an Apple 4870 or flashed?

Is the other monitor using a Mini Display port to dual link DVI or just to DVI? People have had some problems with the dual link DVI.

If only on one monitor, try switching the outputs from the 4870.
 
It's an Apple 4870, all that I've added is hard drives.

I'm using one monitor with the DVI and the other with the Apple Mini DisplayPort to DVI thingy ma jig.

I seem to be getting lag on both monitors. Have opened Windows on both sides and then one and the other, it's lagging everywhere.

I'll try recording a video with SnapsPro see if it shows it.
 
I run dual 24" monitors at 1920x1200 on a 7300GT and I don't see how Expose could be any faster. It screams! Even with heavy apps and/or video in every window.

Extremely smooth!

<shrug>
 
I run 2x30" ACDs off my 4870. No lags and I have lots of windows open sometimes. The MDP to DL DVI adpater is a POS. It flickers every 20-30 minutes. It really p*sses me off especially having to pay extra for it and it doesn't work 100% :mad:
 
Mac Pro, 4870 with 2x 23" Cinema Displays

Mine work fine, no flickering or any issues at all...besides hearing the fan in the box.
 
You mean you can't capture the laggyness on a screen recording utility?

OK.

If you wanna know why this is happening (in order to possibly fix the problem) you can download and use the free "Instruments" utility found in the XCode Tools dev distribution here: http://developer.apple.com/technology/Xcode.html You have to fill out a form but other than than it's free. It's useful. Anyway it will allow you to profile just OpenGL, just the CoreGFX, etc. etc. in order to isolate what's hitting your resources hard enough to lag it.
 
I run a 30" on the DVI and a 27" on the DCP->DVI side and I don't have any lags.
 
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