MB supports 2048x1536

[orangemacapple]

specs for apple macbook says it has: Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950

intel says the GMA950 supports Up to 2048x1536 resolution for both analog and digital displays:
http://www.intel.com/products/chipsets/gma950/

donkey-poo! i bought a dell 24" because it supports 1920x1200 (the smallest monitor with the max resolution [without the 23" apple price tag]

why does apple only say 1920x1200 is supported?

 

[livingfortoday]

Well, I know the MB is limited to using only 64MB of the RAM, while on other Intel boards you can assign up to 224MB to the video card. That might have something to do with the max resolution it can push.

 

[daneoni]

I guess it depends on how much VRAM the GMA950 gets to have. In Apple's case its 64MB which may only be strong enough for 1920 x ....

Maybe if it had say 128/256 then maybe you would get 2000+ pixels

 

[4np]

why does apple only say 1920x1200 is supported?

because the lcd does not support higher resolutions?

 

[orangemacapple]

I thought it may be a firmware limitation like the 802.11n has or something.
if it's a physical ram limitation....
can i put more cockroaches on my video card?

 

[flopticalcube]

No. It uses the main RAM in a shared configuration with your CPU.

 

[orangemacapple]

I guess I'm just stuck with a beautiful display. It's just when i see something that i might already have and can't use yet, i get all greedy and hyper -- like the airport "n".

I'd pay $1.99 for a firmware upgrade for ability to have the extra resolution. Sometimes usefulness has no bearing on what I think I want.

 

[pip11]

are you saying that the MB can't do 1920x1200? I have done 1680x1050 on mine...it works fine over DVI (though looks pretty bad over VGA). Desktop effects tend to be sluggish though, like the dashboard zoom-in, and frontrow effects. If I used the external monitor a lot, I'd probably get an MBP next time

EDIT: after re-reading this thread for the 5th time, I just realized what you mean...the disparity between apple and intel's max resolution is depressing or something. 2048x1536 is an uncommon res, and Apple doesn't sell displays with it, so they left the MB specs at the 23" ACD res.

 

[Chundles]

are you saying that the MB can't do 1920x1200? I have done 1680x1050 on mine...it works fine over DVI (though looks pretty bad over VGA). Desktop effects tend to be sluggish though, like the dashboard zoom-in, and frontrow effects. If I used the external monitor a lot, I'd probably get an MBP next time

Where'd he say that?

The highest resolution supported by the MacBook on an external display is 1920x1200. It'll be sluggish if you start using all the eye candy because it's splitting that 64MB between the two displays.

If you run it with the MacBook closed it'll be fine as all the VRAM is dedicated to the large external display.

 

[robbieduncan]

The GMA Adaptor may well be willing to support more than 1900x1200 but a single-link DVI port cannot. If the MacBook had an old-school analogue VGA port it would be able to support the max resolution but even with the DVI->VGA adaptor you are stuck with the maximum resolution of a single-link DVI port.