Just picked up an 11" Ultimate, now how does it perform w/ 3rd party display?

[Whorehay]

Just picked up an 11" MBA. Thinking of using the 11" Ultimate as my only computer and giving the 15" MBP to my dad. I do need a bigger screen though, and thought it would be a good time to invest in a decent display for future computers as well.

Instead of splurging for the super glossy 27", I'm thinking of picking up a 24" HP ZR24w screen to match up with the computer when I'm at home. I believe the ZR24w has the displayport, so I would just need a mini-displayport to displayport to connect them correct?

In your opinion, how would the little bugger handle stuff like Flash videos connected with a pretty beefy external display? Does it get noticeably hotter or slower with it connected?

 

[PsyD4Me]

wow, Ultimate? what does that make my loaded 13"?

 

[deedas]

Where is this Ultimate term coming from? Must be a ton of windows converts. As far as the actual question goes, it's all standards. As long as you get reliable hardware that sticks to them it should work.

As far as performance goes, this is something I've been trying to test out. Gonna get to it once this tv show is done.

 

[hcho3]

Ultimate... hmmm

I have Macbook air 13 inch with 4GB and that beats ur ultimate!

 

[zodqyv]

wow, Ultimate? what does that make my loaded 13"?

Ultimate Grand Supreme

See Toddlers in Tiaras on TLC.

 

[Psilocybin]

Lol we are probably not going to get a legitimate answer for this thread

 

[deedas]

Ultimate... hmmm

I have Macbook air 13 inch with 4GB and that beats ur ultimate!

Not in I/O intensive tasks.... I think.

 

[altecXP]

I don't get why you are specifying that its a 3rd party display. How does that effect anything?

 

[richard.mac]

i wouldnt give away the Pro if it has dedicated graphics. when you connect a second display it shares the graphics memory with each display so the graphics performance would be halved on each display for things like animations and games.

 

[deedas]

Edit: ^^ Now that is first informative thing I've read about gfx performance in a while. Thank you.

 

[Tomple]

I believe by "Ultimate" he means fully maxed out specs for the 11" modal

lets please stay on topic and try to help this user

My experience with the MBA 11" and an external display has been good. I haven't played any games on it, just used it for daily tasks and word processing. Graphics run smoothly and overall the experience has been good. The MBA is not my main computer so I do not use it connected to a display very often, but from what I have seen it performs well.

 

[Whorehay]

wow, Ultimate? what does that make my loaded 13"?

Are you compensating for your lack of size or something? You sound insecure.

 

[BENJMNS]

What's the highest external resolution that the 13/11 can comfortably display?

 

[tkermit]

Just picked up an 11" MBA[...]how would the little bugger handle stuff like Flash videos connected with a pretty beefy external display? Does it get noticeably hotter or slower with it connected?

Possibly a little hotter. I don't see why it would get noticeably slower though. It's got the same integrated graphics as the 13" Pro (even the 11" Starter Edition ), so I don't think there will be much of a difference in that regard, as long as the processor can handle the flash video at all.

 

[Whorehay]

i wouldnt give away the Pro if it has dedicated graphics. when you connect a second display it shares the graphics memory with each display so the graphics performance would be halved on each display for things like animations and games.

Yeah, I don't want to give away the Pro, but I'll have to live without it for a couple of months until I'm able to pick up one of the new Pros with Sandy Bridge.

But while it has the dedicated graphics, my Santa Rosa MBP only has 2GB of RAM and 128MB of graphics memory. Seems like my Air should be better off with the 4GB of RAM and shared graphics, at least for general usage.

I've seen an Air hooked up to the 27" Cinema and it ran pretty well from what I could tell, but Apple generally works well with Apple stuff, so just wondering if anyone actually runs their Air with a third-party display. I may just pick it up the display and adapters and try it out.

 

[tkermit]

hooked up to the 27" Cinema and it ran pretty wel[...]just wondering if anyone actually runs their Air with a third-party display.

It simply makes no difference performance wise whether it's a third-party display or not.

 

[Whorehay]

What's the highest external resolution that the 13/11 can comfortably display?

The max seems to be the resolution of the 27" Cinema, which is 2560x1440.

By the way, man, you guys are rough. I asked the Apple guy if I could pick up the 1.6, 4GB, 128GB MacBook Air and he was like, "Oh, you mean the 11" Ultimate?" and referred to the Air as such the rest of the time we were chatting. Figured it would be easier to say Ultimate in the title than 1.6GHz, 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD 11" MacBook Air 3,1. Jeez.

 

[karatekidk]

It simply makes no difference performance wise whether it's a third-party display or not.

I have been very much interested in replacing my mac mini with a 11" air... but after finding this thread I am not so sure. I have a dell 2209wa.


Topic : MacBook Air 11" Screen "Flicker" and Freeze
http://discussions.info.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2629780&tstart=0&start=45

 

[Psilocybin]

Yeah, I don't want to give away the Pro, but I'll have to live without it for a couple of months until I'm able to pick up one of the new Pros with Sandy Bridge.

But while it has the dedicated graphics, my Santa Rosa MBP only has 2GB of RAM and 128MB of graphics memory. Seems like my Air should be better off with the 4GB of RAM and shared graphics, at least for general usage.

I've seen an Air hooked up to the 27" Cinema and it ran pretty well from what I could tell, but Apple generally works well with Apple stuff, so just wondering if anyone actually runs their Air with a third-party display. I may just pick it up the display and adapters and try it out.

I am not sure that it's a fact yet the sandy bridge I mean being in the mbp

 

[weckart]

Yeah, I don't want to give away the Pro, but I'll have to live without it for a couple of months until I'm able to pick up one of the new Pros with Sandy Bridge.

But while it has the dedicated graphics, my Santa Rosa MBP only has 2GB of RAM and 128MB of graphics memory. Seems like my Air should be better off with the 4GB of RAM and shared graphics, at least for general usage.

Your MBA can offload Flash (at least if encoded with H264) to the gpu. Performance on my MBA Home Edition is up to about 20% of cpu on 1080p when connected via DVI to a 24" screen. That is something your and my SR MBP cannot do, even with a beefier discrete gpu inside.

For cpu laden tasks, your MBP will run rings around your MBA. It is up to you if that is important to you. I am hanging onto mine because of the Expresscard slot. USB3 and eSATA are viable options for me.

 

[Acronyc]

I hooked my 11” near-ultimate (don’t have the 1.6 CPU) to my 24” Samsung monitor and it works beautifully for everyday tasks. I’ve found no degradation in graphics or performance. I haven’t tried any gaming on it yet (that’s what my Envy is for), but this little guy works perfect with an external display – Apple or not – and lately I find myself using it more than any other computer in my house. It really is a fantastic little computer.

 

[BlackMax]

I have been very much interested in replacing my mac mini with a 11" air... but after finding this thread I am not so sure. I have a dell 2209wa.


Topic : MacBook Air 11" Screen "Flicker" and Freeze
http://discussions.info.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2629780&tstart=0&start=45

Just read that entire thread on the Apple support forums. This is very disheartening as I just pulled the trigger on a refurbished 11.6" MBA yesterday morning. Did a lot of research beforehand, but somehow I missed this issue. Now all I can think of is that I'm getting someone else's 11.6" MBA with external graphics issues.

I suppose I have 14 days to test it thoroughly, which I will do. I'll set it up on an external monitor 24/7 for the first week and throw everything at it I can.

I wonder if this is just a sporadic issue or if it exists on all 11.6 MBAs? I might throw up a poll to ask how many of our current 11.6 MBA owners have experienced this issue.

 

[rhinosrcool]

Just read that entire thread on the Apple support forums. This is very disheartening as I just pulled the trigger on a refurbished 11.6" MBA yesterday morning. Did a lot of research beforehand, but somehow I missed this issue. Now all I can think of is that I'm getting someone else's 11.6" MBA with external graphics issues.

I suppose I have 14 days to test it thoroughly, which I will do. I'll set it up on an external monitor 24/7 for the first week and throw everything at it I can.

I wonder if this is just a sporadic issue or if it exists on all 11.6 MBAs? I might throw up a poll to ask how many of our current 11.6 MBA owners have experienced this issue.

Wow, this is disconcerting. Even though I use an external monitor with my 15" mbp, I still would like to, on occasion, use the air this way. Like you, once received, I will put the air through the same testing.

 

[dmelgar]

Seems like much ado about nothing.

The GPU on the MBA is excellent. One of its strongest points. The last thing you should be worried about.

I routinely use a 28" 1920x1200 monitor hooked up via HDMI. Works great. No performance degradation. No issues.

 

[GT-R]

i have an 11" air and i hook it up to my 25" HP hd mon with no problems. I do so via dvi since i only have one hdmi slot and i use it for my xbox/ps3

now, i notice that the images on my external mon arent as sharp as it looks on my air... is it because i am using a no name brand adapter to hook it up to my monitor?

i have a sony vaio laptop that's older, and via vga connection, it looks way sharper than my macbook air on the same external monitor

i know theres nothing wrong with the monitor... is there an app that i should dl for the air, or an optimal resolution that i should set the air to?