1440p on 2011 Mac mini?

[dbanderson1]

I have a 2011 mac mini with 8gb ram, the i7, and AMD Radeon HD 6630M graphics with 256 MB of dedicated GDDR5 memory. Max resolution is listed as 2560x1600... so I am thinking about picking up a 27" 2560x1440p IPS monitor. I casually game and was wondering if anyone has experience gaming on this setup and if the frame rate drops substantially @ 1440p. I'm playing mostly games from the app store (GOF 2 HD) and steam (DOTA 2, Borderlands 2).

 

[Chancha]

While I don't have experience 1st hand with this specific Mini, I would venture to guess it won't give a decent FPS for 1440p, despite having discrete GPU, as you know this wasn't a shinny gaming rig even when it was new, let alone now.

Also you may have to be careful about the response time of IPS panels, depending on the brand and specific model it may vary, but in general IPS is a tech that tackles color depth and accuracy, in expense of slower response. This is opposite of what you want in gaming.

I think most 27" 2560x1440 monitors that you can buy are catered around graphics pros, or high consumers who want big resolution for home photos. Gaming performance needs gaming monitors.

 

[crsh1976]

You'd likely need to run those games in windowed mode to keep acceptable frame rates at such a resolution, that little GPU in there is going to choke in full screen and games are likely unplayable.

 

[blanka]

Just switch off AA and AI. With that much detail these two filters don't offer much benefit in display quality, yet they do put a big tax on the GPU.
Don't bother about response time with IPS.
First the response time of IPS is reasonable, around 15ms on average. We tested many displays for arcade cabs, and IPS turned out the best option, albeit horrible contrast (TN sucks equally in this regard).
Second the lag is almost non existance, where many TN panels combine 1ms response with plenty of lag. This is caused by the fact many TN panels are 6 bit, and the extra colours are simulated with PWM. This makes the calculation take 2-3 frames. This is never advertised, off course, yet it will show in better reviews.

 

[shaunp]

I've got a 2012 mini attached to a Dell U2711 and running games at 1440p isn't something I would recommend. However the screen is perfectly fine for games @ 1440p. I keep a separate PC for games and use the same monitor and I've not noticed any issues with ghosting or lag. I'm sure if I looked for it really closely I might notice a tiny bit of lag compared to a 'gaming monitor', but I'm certainly happy with the gaming performance of the monitor and it's good for photo work too.