External LCD Question

[ZoomZoomZoom]

I have no clue how external monitors work. However, I am planning to hook up an external LCD monitor to my 12'' Rev D powerbook.

My question is, can I hook up a 24'' Dell 2407WFP? Am I going to notice a decrease in performance by using an external monitor? I know you need a bigger graphics card to power something like the 30'' cinema display, but I don't know how that really works. If I run something graphics intensive, like a game, is it going to run slower with an external monitor hooked up as opposed to on the smaller screen, because the graphics card is being used to run the external monitor?

Again, I really have no idea how this works, or even if the 12'' powerbook can work with the 2407WFP, so any help would be appreciated.

 

[Chundles]

I have no clue how external monitors work. However, I am planning to hook up an external LCD monitor to my 12'' Rev D powerbook.

My question is, can I hook up a 24'' Dell 2407WFP? Am I going to notice a decrease in performance by using an external monitor? I know you need a bigger graphics card to power something like the 30'' cinema display, but I don't know how that really works. If I run something graphics intensive, like a game, is it going to run slower with an external monitor hooked up as opposed to on the smaller screen, because the graphics card is being used to run the external monitor?

Again, I really have no idea how this works, or even if the 12'' powerbook can work with the 2407WFP, so any help would be appreciated.

You'll need a miniDVI -> DVI adapter which came with the PowerBook so that's not a problem.

After that it's just a case of plugging it in and turning it on. The 12" PowerBook supports an external resolution of 1920x1200 so there's no problem there. When you plug in an external monitor it splits the VRAM between the two screens so you'd have 32MB for each screen - fine in normal use but if you want to run a game I'd suggest using the PowerBook in "closed lid" mode.

Plug in the screen, a keyboard and mouse and when it's all set and ready to go, close the PowerBook's lid. The computer will go to sleep but than you can just hit the spacebar and it will be running only the external screen with the full 64MB dedicated to it. You'd get better gaming performance with this method.

 

[kaboutertje]

Forget about running any game in its native 1920 res though