Best Mac Mini Graphics ??

[Lew Zealand]

OK, in case anyone is curious, my 2.0 Quad Mini can play 2 simultaneous 1080p streams in windows at the same time with the "lame" Intel 3000 integrated graphics.

The only reason not to get the Intel integrated graphics is for playing 3D games, and even then you should think about an iMac, not the paltry 256MB ATI 6630 in the 2.5 and 2.7 Mac Minis.

[bazookaman]

clay wrote:
[quote=bazookaman]
But it's only got a thunderbolt and hdmi out.

Both of which can be adapted to other connections (DVI, VGA, etc). The HDMI can only output up to 1080, FWIW. The thunderbolt port can handle higher resolutions, like the Apple display that you mentioned.
Correct. Although i did not know about the hdmi limitation. But it makes sense. Why would it go higher than that? On that same note, where can you get hdmi to dvi or hdmi to vga adapters? My usual search at monoprice turned up nada. And Apple wants 30 or 40 bucks for the ones on their site.

[GeneL]

Okay, so the Mini's have an HDMI out. Is this going to supply both picture and sound to my tv?

If so, this would mean that I wouldn't need to have a separate cable for the audio out., which would be even better, I think?

What do I do about my DVI monitor? It might have other inputs, but I've never needed to check.

Bottom line, how would I connect both my monitor and the tv to a current Mini?

Thanks for your answers!

[clay]

bazookaman wrote:
[quote=clay]
[quote=bazookaman]
But it's only got a thunderbolt and hdmi out.

Both of which can be adapted to other connections (DVI, VGA, etc). The HDMI can only output up to 1080, FWIW. The thunderbolt port can handle higher resolutions, like the Apple display that you mentioned.
Correct. Although i did not know about the hdmi limitation. But it makes sense. Why would it go higher than that? On that same note, where can you get hdmi to dvi or hdmi to vga adapters? My usual search at monoprice turned up nada. And Apple wants 30 or 40 bucks for the ones on their site.
Actually, the HDMI does slightly better than 1080 res, but only on the vertical resolution: 1920-by-1200 max.

And as far as adapters go, this is the one I currently use on my mini to drive a DVI monitor:
http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10231&cs_id=1023102&p_id=2218&seq=1&format=2

It's a cable rather than just an adapter, but I'd be surprised if a hdmi to DVI adapter didn't exist (I could be wrong, though).

[GeneL]

clay wrote:

… but I'd be surprised if a hdmi to DVI adapter didn't exist (I could be wrong, though).

I'm using a DVI to HDMI cable from my MacPro to my Panasonic tv. No adapter.

[Mr645]

The Mini comes with an HDMI to DVI converter in the box, and runs a 1080P TV just fine. The limitation is some Photoshop and video editing software that uses Open CL features that the Mini won't do, and hard drive speed. At work I have an early Mac Pro, Quad 2.66 machine and we just got a new i5 Mini, latest model. General Photoshop performance is about the same in the two machines.

At home I bought the latest i7 Mini and that is significantly faster then the I5 or my Mac Pro, or the Dual CPU 2.5 G5 Power Mac it replaced.

[bazookaman]

GeneL wrote:
Okay, so the Mini's have an HDMI out. Is this going to supply both picture and sound to my tv?

If so, this would mean that I wouldn't need to have a separate cable for the audio out., which would be even better, I think?

What do I do about my DVI monitor? It might have other inputs, but I've never needed to check.

Bottom line, how would I connect both my monitor and the tv to a current Mini?

Thanks for your answers!

I'd imagine since it's an hdmi connector that it would carry audio and video. As far as the DVI monitor, you could always use an adapter for that.