Using External Monitors

[tje25]

Hi there guys, wondering if anyone can help me with a query:

Just a curiosity i cannot seem to have answered by anyone. I am currently planning to acquire 2 external screens for my iMac (Late 2012, 3.4GHz, 16Gb Ram, 3TB Fusion Drive and GTX 680MX 2GB Vram): The screens i am probably gonna go with are the Asus MX239H which have a resolution of 1920 X 1080.

First of all both of these would be running via mini display to hdmi, will the iMac be able to handle this, running extending not mirroring with 2 external monitors and still be able to run reasonably complex applications such as AutoCAD, Parallels, etc.

Secondly because the screen resolutions of the external screens is lower than that of the iMac, will the 27 still run at full resolution considering it won't be mirroring but extending on both sides. Of course i wouldn't want to have to cut the resolution of the main screen!

So in theory i would be looking to run the iMac screen at its native resolution of 2560 X 1440 and the two external screens both at their full 1920 X 1080.

I thank you for any responses / help with my query!

 

[Abazigal]

A quick google search (imac with 2 screens) turns up tons of results on people hooking up 2 external displays to their imac, so it certainly seems possible.

I don't know of how it might affect performance though.

 

[MacGizmo]

You can hook up 2 external displays, and the native resolution of the iMac's display will not be affected at all. In theory, screen redraw performance will likely be bordering on unacceptable in applications that rely on the GPU. In your case, I would suspect you may see slow-downs. I don't KNOW that, but I highly suspect it.

That being said, I run a 2012 stock 27" iMac with a Dell Ultrasharp 30" display (2560x1600 resolution) connected to it with no noticeable issues. I'm not sure how things would work out if I added a third display.

It's certainly worth trying, as long as you can return one of the extra displays if it doesn't work out to your liking.