Mac Mini stuttering with dual monitor setup ATD and 27" ACD

[Aboo]

Hi Guys,

I recently got my Lacie LBD and using the second thunderbolt port on this device, I was able to daisy chain my 27" ACD to my 27" ATD which is hooked up to the Mac Mini (mid 2011, i5, 8GB RAM, AMD graphics model, upgraded to 160GB intel 320 SSD). I noticed however that when I am running this setup, the mini tends to hiccup and stutter every now and then, especially when moving stuff around between monitors, etc. I wanted to know if this is normal owing to the fact that the mini is being taxed by the dual monitors. If not, what could be wrong. I notice these stutters (with occasional beach balls) even when I am not doing much, a couple of safari tabs open (no flash) a few PDFs and a couple of word documents running.

Any thoughts?

 

[Aboo]

Wow, more than 500 views and no one has an idea?

Just to update, the Mac Mini is running a clean install of Lion.

 

[BBman]

I have the same mini with similar upgrades hooked up to an ACD 27"-
Occasionally I too experience graphical tearing and lag either when expanding windows using lions fullscreen function or executing mission control.

I am pretty sure you are more prone to seeing this anomalies since your running not one but two high resolution monitors on the little 256mb video ram the mini has to offer. This monitors need higher video ram if you want smoother performance(1GB-512MB). I wouldn't worry about it though, the mini is a little champ and this particular model can support this two monitors well if you don't mind the occasional hiccups that are to be expected.

If it bothers you a lot you might want to upgrade to a more pricey macbook pro with 1gb video ram. I recently borrowed a friend's macbook pro early 2011 equipped with a 6750 1GB of video ram and this problem was non existent using my ACD. In the end I decided to stick with the mini and adapt to this issues simply because I can't rationalize spending much more money on performance I won't need just to get rid of this little issue.

Hope this helped you.

 

[pooleman]

I have an older mac mini and want to run it on my 60 Aquos. I do not need to be able to run the large screen and the 19" desktop at the same time. I was going to build a switching box to switch between the screens. WIll my mini look decent on the 60"? I am basically just looking to save $100 and not buy an Apple TV. But I do not want to do all the work of building the cables, the box, running the cables across the room, etc, if it will look crummy anyway. And all I really want to do is be able to watch movies and netflix on the big screen. I have hooked up my iphone to the 60" with the AV composite cable but it doesn't look all that great, reduced quality.

So, can the mini handle the large tv or should I just get the apple tv? It's a mid 2007 model.

 

[philipma1957]

Wow, more than 500 views and no one has an idea?

Just to update, the Mac Mini is running a clean install of Lion.

my guess it is the lacie daisy chain. Some one else had this problem. very hard to determine if the small gpu in the mini is your problem .

the atd is not really t-bolt it is doing some kind of conversion. the acd is t-bolt.

what is the pixel setup on both displays?

if 2500 by 1400 I don't remember the right numbers.

try setting both to 1920 by 1080