Sluggish video performance on Mac Mini

[iPhazer]

Hi, I just got a brand new Mac Mini 2,26 Ghz Core 2 Duo, 2 gig RAM, and it's hooked up to my tv with a mini-DVI adapter. Snow Leopard installed.

I noticed right away that the screen looks really sluggish, with screen tearing and laggy video performance. Playing videos in Plex for instance there is a lot of screen tear and I had to set the display to 720p to get it decent, and even then it's rough, even on SD videos!

So I ran Xbench, and got a remarkable slow score on OpenGL; 43. My MacBook Pro running with the 9400M card got 97.

Anyone know what could be causing this?

 

[MacMini2009]

If your TV has HDMI, get a Mini-Displayport to HDMI cable.

http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10246&cs_id=1024603&p_id=5995&seq=1&format=2

Also upgrade the RAM to 4GB and upgrade the hard drive to a 500GB 7200RPM.

http://www.amazon.com/Crucial-CT2KI...1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1260133688&sr=8-1

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Seagate/YST9500420AS/

 

[flopticalcube]

Check Activity Monitor for process activity. Even my 1.66GHz CD mini doesn't do that.

 

[MaxMike]

What should a mini be at? I have a stock Mac mini (specs in signature) and my overall score is 115.23.

 

[macchiato2009]

plex is not the best player, get xmbc

 

[iPhazer]

My TV supports HDMI, I'm running a mini-DVI->DVI->DVI-HDMI cable to my TV. That might be the problem, if I run Xbench without the mini-DVI plug in, just through screen sharing in Snow Leopard from another mac the Xbench OpenGL test jumps to around 90, same as my MacBook.

Plex does not seem to have anything to do with it, screen is slow in other video apps as well, and just moving windows around the screen is sluggish.

I'm gonna borrow a regular monitor and a Mini Displayport adapter to see if that makes it any better.

 

[stix666]

I have no problems playing 1080p via miniDVI (early 2009 mac mini, 2Ghz), so I don't think it's a problem with the sort of connector you're using

 

[iPhazer]

I have no problems playing 1080p via miniDVI (early 2009 mac mini, 2Ghz), so I don't think it's a problem with the sort of connector you're using

That's weird. Would you mind running Xbench and see what kind of results you get, especially in the graphics tests?

I have no idea what else could be causing this, nothing is running in the background, and this is a clean install of Snow Leopard. I bought this mac mini to be a mediacenter, so unless I figure this out this has been a proper waste of money.

 

[Mini Me]

You can browse other Mac Mini users Xbench results here

http://db.xbench.com/csi.xhtml?machineTypeID=33

(apologies if you already knew that)

 

[iPhazer]

You can browse other Mac Mini users Xbench results here

http://db.xbench.com/csi.xhtml?machineTypeID=33

(apologies if you already knew that)

Thanks, from what I can see my Xbench scores are under half of what seems to be the average graphics score. Could there be something wrong with my 9400m chip?

 

[stix666]

It's connected to my LED cinema display at the moment, not the plasma TV

Xbench overall 112, OpenGL 71 (90.52 frames/ sec)

 

[ThunderRobot]

plex is not the best player, get xmbc

Poor answer to his question.

I'm using a Mac Mini (early 2009, stock model, can't remember the spec off hand) to play back 1080p movies without any problem via Plex. Plex, clearly, isn't the issue, but rather something wrongly setup on the Mac itself.