cbretteville Posted February 15, 2009 Share #1 Posted February 15, 2009 Advertisement (gone after registration) Anyone know if you can run a second 24" (1920x1299) screen on an iMac that 'only' has a 256MB graphics card? It would be one of the 'current' aluminium iMacs. I know you can connect it through the mini dvi plug, but what I don't know is whether the display can me properly run in it's native resolution of 1920x1200. I tried running two 1600x1200 screens on a PC that had a 256mb card and while it sort of worked there was so much flickering on the second monitor that I had to upgrade the card to one with 512mb. I appreciate any insight. Cheers, - Carl Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted February 15, 2009 Posted February 15, 2009 Hi cbretteville, Take a look here iMac second 24" screen on a 256mb graphics card?. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
lesh Posted February 15, 2009 Share #2 Posted February 15, 2009 Anyone know if you can run a second 24" (1920x1299) screen on an iMac that 'only' has a 256MB graphics card? It would be one of the 'current' aluminium iMacs. I know you can connect it through the mini dvi plug, but what I don't know is whether the display can me properly run in it's native resolution of 1920x1200. I tried running two 1600x1200 screens on a PC that had a 256mb card and while it sort of worked there was so much flickering on the second monitor that I had to upgrade the card to one with 512mb. I appreciate any insight. Cheers, - Carl I believe IMac's have had this ability for some time, but have never had the opportunity to try it. As an aside if you were thinking about a graphics card upgrade I don't believe that's possible with the iMac. Unfortunately old and new IMac's seem to be pretty much closed systems as far as 'upgradeability' goes. Maybe you could borrow a monitor to check it out before splashing the cash? You might also want to check out the tool described here ; About SwitchResX... which might be an improvement on the standard monitor resolution controls within OS X. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
schwarz und weiss Posted February 15, 2009 Share #3 Posted February 15, 2009 Yes you can. I do this on my white 20" iMac, which is now 3 years old. Richard Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
stunsworth Posted February 15, 2009 Share #4 Posted February 15, 2009 Carl, I have a 24" iMac with that amount of memory. I also run a 19" LG monitor at 1280 x 1024 without a problem. Apple don't seem to make a 24" monitor at the moment that can be used with the iMacs - I wouldn't want to drop down from that to 20" if I was upgrading the LG. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Venkman Posted February 15, 2009 Share #5 Posted February 15, 2009 IIRC, there's no advantage larger memory over the system's processor speed, because the memory is mainly used for texture preloading in games? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jfgilbert Posted February 15, 2009 Share #6 Posted February 15, 2009 I have an older 24" iMac that runs very well with a second 23" display at full resolution, this is no problem at all. The only thing t watch for is that the new Apple 24" LED display is NOT compatible with iMacs. Cheers, Jacques Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbretteville Posted February 15, 2009 Author Share #7 Posted February 15, 2009 Advertisement (gone after registration) Thaks guys, I really appreciate the feedback. I've used PC since the mid 80s and am moving to an IMac. I have a 24" HP monitor I bought a few months ago and want to make sure I can use it as a second screen. It is currently the primary display in my AMD X2/XP box. The 2.8ghz 24" iMacs can be found at very reasonable prices here now, but they all have the 256mb ATI card and as you can't upgrade them (at least not very easily) I'm trying to cover as many bases as I can before taking the leap. I can add more ram and disk, that should be easy. I had my sights set on the 3.05ghz with the spiffiest nvidia graphics card, but I'm not sure the top model is worth the extra money. Best, - Carl Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jfgilbert Posted February 15, 2009 Share #8 Posted February 15, 2009 Carl, I am not sure how the ordering works in Norway, but on the US Apple Store site, you can order your iMac configured with the options you want. You could, for example, get the 2.8gHz model and upgrade to the Nvidia video card for an extra $150. I agree with you that the extra CPU speed of the 3.06gHz is probably not worth it. On the other hand, the extra GPU speed of the Nvidia card may help if you plan to use something like Aperture, which, I understand, is rather demanding. Best, Jacques Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbretteville Posted February 15, 2009 Author Share #9 Posted February 15, 2009 Jacques, The Apple store works the same way here, but I'm looking at a deal from an Apple seller that is preconfigured-. 24" 2.8GHz, 2GB ram and 320GB disk. Thats the std combo for the 24"/2.8GHz, but the price is a bit below the same machine bought from the Apple store. Rumor has it that new models are coming out so now might be a good time to make a decent deal. - Carl Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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