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Monitor Resolution for 2012 Mini (HD4000)

Q

qcmacmini

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 26, 2014
299
4
The Netherlands
I've currently got a single 1920x1080 Dell U2414H hooked up to my 2012 Mac Mini 2.3 i7.

I'm looking at getting a second monitor, and curious what everyone recommends in terms of a suitable resolution.

I'm hearing that one 2560x1440 monitor runs quite well, but two (thunderbolt) monitors at that resolution starts to lag.

Would I be pushing it to get good performance with a 2560x1440 + 1920x1080?

I like to have the second monitor there for added real estate plus native 1080p is good for movies/tv and xbox.

Should I go for a 1920x1200 for the main monitor or even just stick to a matching 1920x1080?

Thanks in advance.
 
I am currently hooked up to a single 2560x1440 monitor and it's working absolutely perfectly. I've had an old 2011 Mac mini drive a 30inch Apple Cinema Display + a 24inch Dell Ultrasharp U2410 without any problems so I'm sure it won't be a big deal.

Granted I only watch movies for anything that is graphics intensive because most of my work is coding... No games or such to provide feedback.

However, with these high res monitors you'll need to most likely force RGB mode. I'm not sure why but it apparently plagues Acer, Dell, and HP QHD IPS displays.
 
Is there a list of Displayport enabled mac friendly monitors with 2560x1440 resolution somewhere? I'm in the market for one as well.
 
You can push 4k with boot camp or switchresx, but don't expect games to work or higher then 30 hz....
 
Cheers, I guess I want a setup that is smooth and nice to work on, rather than pushing the boundaries of what HD4000 can do.

I don't play games on my Mac so really it's just what the operating system dishes out and some videos.
 
qcmacmini said:
Cheers, I guess I want a setup that is smooth and nice to work on, rather than pushing the boundaries of what HD4000 can do.

I don't play games on my Mac so really it's just what the operating system dishes out and some videos.
Click to expand...

Dell, ViewSonic, Asus, AOC - all offer good displays.
How much do you want to spend?
 
MRrainer said:
Dell, ViewSonic, Asus, AOC - all offer good displays.
How much do you want to spend?
Click to expand...

Well ideally as least as possible, but I guess I'm more concerned with the resolution issue - do I save money and get the 1920x1200, which gives me more room for application windows over the 1920x1080, which I'll then use for watching video.

However, I would really like a 2560x1440 as the main display, but some people are saying it might lag a tiny bit here and there, especially with two displays running.

I'm liking the current Dell monitors, they seem to have fixed the quality problems of some earlier models, and backlight bleed seems to be non existent.

I tried my current monitor in vertical configuration, it sucks. 1080p is not wide enough to use vertically, it became annoying quickly. So I've ruled out adding another one of my current monitor.
 
I have tried a thunderbolt hub today

as i wanted to see if i could plug 2 dell displays in a near future

so instead of daisy chaining the 2 screens as the 2012 mac mini does not have and support DP 1.2

the TB hub works well with 2 screens

i have tried with a friend who owns an Apple TB display

we were able to connect these 2 combinations:

- Apple TB display + dell U2414H
- Apple TB display + dell U2514
- Dell U2414H + U2514

all displays used native resolutions


the 2012 Mac Mini is definitely a nice little machine :)

but the hub itself is costly

no lag using this, but once the screens connected, using other ports may bring some lag (maybe because of port bandwith saturation: ethernet, usb3)

so the hub may be used only to connected 2 screens by duplicating the TB port
 
macaron95 said:
I have tried a thunderbolt hub today

as i wanted to see if i could plug 2 dell displays in a near future

so instead of daisy chaining the 2 screens as the 2012 mac mini does not have and support DP 1.2

the TB hub works well with 2 screens

i have tried with a friend who owns an Apple TB display

we were able to connect these 2 combinations:

- Apple TB display + dell U2414H
- Apple TB display + dell U2514
- Dell U2414H + U2514

all displays used native resolutions


the 2012 Mac Mini is definitely a nice little machine :)

but the hub itself is costly

no lag using this, but once the screens connected, using other ports may bring some lag (maybe because of port bandwith saturation: ethernet, usb3)

so the hub may be used only to connected 2 screens by duplicating the TB port
Click to expand...

Nice, these are some of the combinations I am considering.

Did you use mission control and drag windows around between monitors at all to check how smooth it was?

Also, I'm guessing with two monitors you had to always use HDMI on the Mac Mini for one?
 
we never used HDMI

we only tried the hub with 2 TB ports, simply because we didn't have any HDMI cable available
 
Last edited:
macaron95 said:
we never used HDMI

we only tried the hub with 2 TB ports, simply because we didn't have any HDMI cable available, also because resolution seems limited with HDMI port and finally because we wanted to make sure that we could plug 2 screens with high resolutions using both TB ports
Click to expand...

So how did you plug in the two Dell monitors without using the HDMI port? If one TB port on the dock is connected to the Mac, you're only left with one port.
 
let me ask my friend for more details he has the dock right now
 
Last edited:
qcmacmini said:
Well ideally as least as possible
Click to expand...


Well, then I'd continue to use your current display ;-)
That way, you don't need to spend any money at all.
IMO, "as little as possible" is not a valid answer.
Either you have a budget - or you don't.

I'm still on a nine or ten year old Dell 2405FPW, which I bought 2nd hand via eBay over eight years ago (thanks, Spotlight) - for a price that would buy me a TBD today, or even a Dell U3014 ;-)
I didn't use it much, admittedly, in the time between buying the 24" iMac in Summer 2008 and this 2012 i7 Mini, this spring.
At work, we have Dual HP zr 24" displays - they are nice.

The Z24i seems to be its successor.
If I wanted to replicate my work-setup, I could probably get it at a discount through work, but then I'd really have to buy two - and be right in 27" territory again, price-wise.
And like you, I'm rather looking for a single, large display.

Maybe I can get a big discount on the Z30i, too ;-)
 
macaron95 said:
let me ask my friend for more details he has the dock right now
Click to expand...

Cheers, curious how you had it all hooked up.

MRrainer said:
Well, then I'd continue to use your current display ;-)
That way, you don't need to spend any money at all.
IMO, "as little as possible" is not a valid answer.
Either you have a budget - or you don't.
Click to expand...

Fair point, but I guess I'm doing exactly just that, using this Dell until the price of the U2415 and/or U2715H come down, which should be within 2-3 months :) Ideally less than 300EUR if it's the U2415. It's currently around 350EUR shipped.

At this stage I'm leaning towards the U2415 to add to my setup, as I get more pixels with the two monitors than a single 27" 2560x1440, plus with the 1080 it's really optimised for watching videos, and gives me more inputs to play with.

I guess I just wanted to know if I go the 2560x1440 + 1920x1080 route, the HD4000 isn't going to struggle too much.
 
My 2012 2.6 i7 is currently hooked up to a Dell U3014 (2560x1600) and runs smooth and fast. I'll try to hook it up concurrently to my HDTV in my computer room and see if it can drive both well.
 
magbarn said:
My 2012 2.6 i7 is currently hooked up to a Dell U3014 (2560x1600) and runs smooth and fast. I'll try to hook it up concurrently to my HDTV in my computer room and see if it can drive both well.
Click to expand...

That would be interesting - thank you.
The U3014 or the Z30i is the display I really dream of buying ;-)
 
magbarn said:
My 2012 2.6 i7 is currently hooked up to a Dell U3014 (2560x1600) and runs smooth and fast. I'll try to hook it up concurrently to my HDTV in my computer room and see if it can drive both well.
Click to expand...

Awesome! Looking forward to hearing the result. Try dragging windows around and using mission control to check how smooth the animations are.
 
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WQHD (via Thunderbolt) and FullHD (via HDMI) work just fine together on a 2012 mini (i7 2.3, Mavericks, 16GB Ram = 1GB VRAM). No noticeable lag, no wake-from-sleep issues, no problems of any kind.
 
qcmacmini said:
Also, I'm guessing with two monitors you had to always use HDMI on the Mac Mini for one?
Click to expand...
DisplayPort 1.2 spec describes multi-monitoring off a single port. The only mini to offer that is the 2014 model, though.

However, according to Anandtech, you may drive additional monitors via TB1 if there is an additional TB device with the "right" TB controller in the chain between two monitors. Of course limited by the max. number of displays the GPU supports.
 
Neodym said:
DisplayPort 1.2 spec describes multi-monitoring off a single port. The only mini to offer that is the 2014 model, though.

However, according to Anandtech, you may drive additional monitors via TB1 if there is an additional TB device with the "right" TB controller in the chain between two monitors. Of course limited by the max. number of displays the GPU supports.
Click to expand...

Yup, so I think the options are one thunderbolt monitor, plus a thunderbolt dock and one Dell. That negates the need for the HDMI port.

Can't see two Dells coming off the TB 1 port working.
 
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