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kilmanjaro · Apr 23, 2006, 11:21 PM

I've got a question for anyone that has tried this. I'm about to buy an Intel iMac and I'll be hooking up a second LCD flat panel to span my desktop. I know the iMac supports spanning (from what I understand) but can I rotate my second display 90 degrees and have OS X adjust? Just trying to answer a few questions before I finish my order.

iREZ · Apr 24, 2006, 01:14 AM

yep...rotation works with my dell fp2005 and 1.83 intel imac.

stefanicotine · Apr 24, 2006, 01:23 AM

yeah it works great. I was gonna set up my external widescreen as a portrait monitor so I could have more room for MSN and coding, etc. But the resolution leaves something to be desired when I rotate mine. But yeah, there's actually alot of multi-monitor features built into OS X

Andy8 · Apr 24, 2006, 01:37 AM

Does the rotation work on the fly or you have to boot up with the external display already rotated?

Andy8 · Apr 29, 2006, 08:53 AM

I tried turning the display to 90 degrees, nothing happens to the desktop - is there something im missing with the Dell 2405 display?

P · Apr 30, 2006, 08:43 AM

You can flip the Desktop direction in the Display Preferences if the graphics board supports it.

Andy8 · Apr 30, 2006, 08:47 AM

Originally Posted by P

You can flip the Desktop direction in the Display Preferences if the graphics board supports it.

I am using a Rev A - 17" Powerbook connected to a Dell 2405. I guess the graphic card does not support the rotation

tooki · Apr 30, 2006, 10:45 AM

What OS are you using?

tooki

stefanicotine · Apr 30, 2006, 07:41 PM

It's on the fly. If you have an intel mac then it's on the fly in Windows too. Very cool

Andy8 · Apr 30, 2006, 08:40 PM

Originally Posted by tooki

What OS are you using?

tooki

OSX 10.4.6

graphics card in my 17" PB:

NVIDIA GeForce4 MX:

Chipset Model: GeForce4 MX
Type: Display
Bus: AGP
VRAM (Total): 64 MB
Vendor: nVIDIA (0x10de)
Device ID: 0x0179
Revision ID: 0x00a5
ROM Revision: 2033.3

mduell · Apr 30, 2006, 09:24 PM

As far as I know, the OSX driver for ATi cards supports rotation, while the OSX driver for nVidia cards does not. On Windows both drivers support rotation, so it's an issue with the OSX drivers (which I've heard are written by Apple instead of ATi/nVidia), not the hardware.

P · May 2, 2006, 11:22 AM

Yes, it's a driver issue. nVidia didn't bother to add the feature, apparently.

Apple has written the OS X drivers for certain older ATi chipsets (pre Rage 128), but generally nVidia and ATi write their own drivers and license them to Apple, who distribute them with the OS. It's part of the package deal when Apple buys the chips (actually it's the same when Sapphire or Connect3D or whomever buys the chips - you get the chip and the right to distribute the driver).

tooki · May 2, 2006, 01:31 PM

Actually Apple and the GPU makers develop the drivers together.

tooki