[magicbbird]

Hello all,
I have used a Rev. B 12" hooking up to an external display briefly before. I was not impressed because sometimes the screen refresh is a bit sluggish. I was not playing games, just usual web/writing/email stuff.

Now with the Rev. D 12" plus 64mg video ram (I think Rev. B 12" only has 32mg ram?) is it powerful enough to drive the external display instantly? Even with spanning mode on?

Thanks for your advise.

[ibook_steve]

It's the exact same graphics chip as before. Can you define "sluggish" graphics refresh? I'd try a different refresh rate or monitor before blaming the computer.

Steve

[magicbbird]

Thanks for your reply.
For example about the sluggishness is that when I do not hook up any external mon, programs respond to mouse-click instantly. When viewing the same thing on an external screen, the same program takes a slight delay before responding.
Since I don't have my Rev. B 12" for a long while now, I cannot recall all the incidences about this slight delay. Sorry. It may not be entirely about screen refresh. But it seems to me the video card is working so hard to drive both screens.

[McFarmer]

I've got my 12" Rev C PB hooked up to a 23" Apple Cinema display when I'm on my desk. Mostly because the internal 1024x768 just sucks for OS X - I wish there would have been a BTO option for a higher res internal screen. Anyway I digress...

I find that with 64MB VRAM the 12" holds itself quite nicely driving an external 23" monitor. I don't find it sluggish at all.

But then LCDs use a refresh rate of 60Hz. If you use a VGA monitor with a high refresh rate (85+Hz) then perhaps this does tax the GPU more and turn the whole thing sluggish.
Try an LCD monitor. This might reduce the sluggishness.

The only thing that's a bit frustrating with external monitors is the 64MB VRAM limit. Maya constantly runs out of VRAM on me and then suddenly refuses to open windows. It just wouldn't. Reboot the only option.

It would have been great if Rev D would have offered 128MB VRAM on the 12" PB too. For certain apps you need it.

[ibook_steve]

Why in the world are you trying to run a heavy duty program like Maya on a 12" Powerbook? You really should be using a 15", 17", or desktop machine for work like that. As for magicbbird's sluggishness, what you refer to is not graphics related. That's software related and doing it on an internal or external display shouldn't make any difference.

Steve

[McFarmer]

Originally posted by ibook_steve:
Why in the world are you trying to run a heavy duty program like Maya on a 12" Powerbook? You really should be using a 15", 17", or desktop machine for work like that.

I know that even a maxed out 12" PowerBook is the 'wrong' machine to run Maya on. Yet for my current situation it is by far the best choice.

I'm doing a masters degree and spend about 80% of my days at the uni. Weekends included. Hence a PowerBook is the way to go for me as any desktop PowerMac at home would hardly get used. And there is no way I can put my own PowerMac someplace save at the uni.

As there is no way to securely store any equipment over night, I have to carry the PowerBook between home and uni every day, which is a 30 minutes walk each way. Or a 15 minute bike ride, but it rains a lot so cycling is not always on. Cars are too expensive (apart from the fact that there is no parking for students at the uni) and public transport is appalling. In a nutshell: size and weight of my bag is _very_ important. Years ago I used to have a 15" Wallstreet and after that a 15" Titanium and both hurt my back very badly when carrying them to work. My new 12" PowerBook is _a_lot_ easier to carry than even a 15" Titanium. Thanks, I'm not going back to a 15" PB. Too big. Too heavy.

I'm one of those who would spend even more money than a new 17" costs if I could get the 17"s power in a package the size of a 12" PowerBook.
And yes, I would love one of those ultra-hires 1920x1200 LCDs as well, like some of my co-students have on their Dell or IBM laptops. I know text on them is tiny - but I don't care, I have good eyes.

[jamil5454]

I've been wondering about this for a long time.

Let's say I just bought a new 12" PB. I also just bought a new 23" Cinema Display. If I hook up my display to my PowerBook and close the lid, is all of the VRAM allocated to the external display? In other words, does the internal LCD "turn off" once you close the lid and plug in another display? Will all 64mb go to the external display?

[McFarmer]

Yes, it does. All 64MB go to the main display.

And once started up you can safely open the PowerBook and its screen would remain black (and its VRAM fully assigned to the external monitor) - yet you can type on its keyboard.

This is what I sometimes do if I'm strapped for VRAM. (I wish there would be a 128MB VRAM option for the 12" PB too...)

As a tip:
Another easy way (without an external keyboard) to force the PB to use only the external monitor is by putting it to sleep, connecting the external monitor and with the PB lid still closed plug any USB device in, like a scanner e.g. or graphic tablet, mouse, etc. If the PB is merely asleep (and not shut down) plugging in a USB device will wake it. With the lid closed the internal screen will be shut off and its VRAM assigned to the external monitor.

If at a later point you want the internal monitor to come back to life, open up System Preferences -> Displays and click the 'Detect Displays' button.

[jamil5454]

Does anyone know if this works on the iBook with the display hack (enabling clamshell mode)? I'd much rather use my 19" CRT instead of the LCD and if all 32mb of my VRAM is allocated to the CRT I could finally play my games with more comfort.


I guess I could just try it.