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2011 Mini Dual Display
- Thread starter englishman
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How? You need a MD port to drive a thunderbolt display. There's no adapter that I know of to convert HDMI to MD, not to mention the resolution is too high for one display much less two.
The mini will be able to run a single display from the HDMI port, and either one additional display via Mini-DP(converted or not), or multiple thunderbolt displays. With thunderbolt, you simply daisy chain them, just like FireWire. You'd plug your first TB display into the Mac Mini, and the second TB display plugs into the first TB display.
An external GPU with two outputs that can support that res (either dual link DVI or Mini/regular DisplayPort).
You can't daisy chain them because those don't support it, and even if they did we don't know if the mini supports it.
Basically, you are screwed, unless you spend some serious cash on an external graphics card.
I like the mini, but I am not spending 2k to get dual screens from the mini directly.
You don't need to spend $2K to get dual displays out of the mini. You can use HDMI>nearly whatever you need, and the TB port>nearly whatever you need.
As long as you're not needing dual dual-link DVI, you'll be fine. You can convert HDMI to DVI, thr mini comes with that adapter, and the TB port fully supports Mini-DP so you can convert that as well if you need it.
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I am now working on running my to-be-purchased Mac Mini with Apple 27" Cinema Display. I already ordered an Apple 27" Cinema Display which will be also used with my 2010 Air (That was why I did not wait for the Apple Thunderbolt Display). When the Mac Mini is available in my part of the world, I will grab one (The 2.5 GHz base model is currently on my mind).
There's no indication that it'll even work, it depends on how the Radeon is set up. The chip itself supports five outputs, but that won't matter if it's only connected to two (HDMI and TB).
Okay, what about this--new mini to thunderbolt display, to 27" apple cinema display? Any idear if that will work?
Also, I really don't want to have to sell my ACD, take a huge hit, and buy two thunderbolt displays. I'm wondering if dual thunderbolt display is even possible.
Also, I really don't want to have to sell my ACD, take a huge hit, and buy two thunderbolt displays. I'm wondering if dual thunderbolt display is even possible.
I'm going on an assumption here, but since dual thunderbolt ACD displays only work on Macbooks with discreet GPU's, one would assume the same holds true for the $799 mini with the AMD 6630M. Can anyone confirm that 2 thunderbolt ACD's would work with this mini? We may not know for sure until they are released.
-skoosht
-skoosht
Up to 1920x1200 actually, and maybe 2048x1152 but those displays aren't too common (they do work on single link DVI though).
For $239 you could get this Matrox breakout box. It will run two 1920x1080 monitors from a MiniDisplay Port (TB).
Or, for $329, one that can power three 1920x1080 monitors (albeit @ 50hz refresh).
Both Matrox units work the same way: the software "fools" the OS into thinking that the device is one HUGE monitor (3840x1080 for the dual, 5760x1080 for the triple) and then the box divides it all out for you nicely when you plug in two or three 1080p monitors to it. The unit also requires a USB connection, mostly to power it.
It's not a perfect solution, but it's relatively cheap. I've been using an older DVI-based Dual2Go with my 2006 MBP for over two years now. I can run my native display on the MBP + two Samsung 1080p monitors from my puny 256MB GPU. I wouldn't game with it, but for basic tasks it's great having a huge desktop.
Or, for $329, one that can power three 1920x1080 monitors (albeit @ 50hz refresh).
Both Matrox units work the same way: the software "fools" the OS into thinking that the device is one HUGE monitor (3840x1080 for the dual, 5760x1080 for the triple) and then the box divides it all out for you nicely when you plug in two or three 1080p monitors to it. The unit also requires a USB connection, mostly to power it.
It's not a perfect solution, but it's relatively cheap. I've been using an older DVI-based Dual2Go with my 2006 MBP for over two years now. I can run my native display on the MBP + two Samsung 1080p monitors from my puny 256MB GPU. I wouldn't game with it, but for basic tasks it's great having a huge desktop.
Not necessarily...the wording is kind of weird there. Like the two monitor displays sentence could be referring only to HDMI+TB, and the Cinema Display daisy chaining thing could just be saying you can connect it to a chain, which doesn't necessarily mean connecting it to a chain including the Thunderbolt Display.
But again it can be read the other way too, so who knows.