External Monitors w. MacBook Air 2010

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Level 1

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External Monitors w. MacBook Air 2010

I bought my new MacBook Air to use often with external monitors up to my 30 inch Dell.

Problem is: The combination does not return the maximum 2560x1600 pixel resolution of the monitor.
I was assured by multiple people at the Apple Store that all Mac products have top end graphics cards and that any Mac would power the large external monitors. My Air is the 2gb model with 256k ram. I have tried two different Mac accessory adaptors for my SVGA monitor.

Any solutions??

MBA, Bootcamp w. Windows 7

Posted on Nov 24, 2010 7:03 PM

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Answer 1

Niel

Level 10

732,425 points

Nov 24, 2010 7:07 PM in response to -gd

If you're using a Mini DisplayPort to DVI adapter, that's not powerful enough. You need to use the dual-link one.

(55067)

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Answer 2

captfred

Level 7

26,446 points

Nov 26, 2010 8:07 AM in response to -gd

The graphics card installed in the air is a Geforce 320M. It supports the following:

Supported resolutions: 1440 by 900 (native), 1280 by 800, 1152 by 720, 1024 by 640, and 800 by 500 pixels at 16:10 aspect ratio; 1024 by 768, 800 by 600, and 640 by 480 pixels at 4:3 aspect ratio; 720 by 480 pixels at 3:2 aspect ratio.

The above is for the 13" model.

Regards

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Answer 3

mmike70

Level 2

324 points

Nov 26, 2010 8:54 AM in response to -gd

The other quoted specs are for the internal display. To get your desired resolution, you'll need the dual-dvi adapter that was already mentioned.

Your resolution is supported per the apple macbook air spec page: "Dual display and video mirroring: Simultaneously supports full native resolution on the built-in display and up to 2560 by 1600 pixels on an external display, both at millions of colors"

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