I have a Mac Mini mid 2011 2.5 GHz Core i5, AMD Radeon 6630 running dual display Dell

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I have a Mac Mini mid 2011 2.5 GHz Core i5, AMD Radeon 6630 running dual display Dell

My text looks somewhat pixelated and its some what slow in response time during scrolling and even shows a bit of refresh rate flashes. Is this a problem with my dual displays on the integrated video card or is it that I have lower end monitors? I can upgrade to higher end monitors if need be, just need to know the best for this application? Thanks for the help.

Mac mini (Mid 2011), Mac OS X (10.7.4), 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5, Radeon 6600

Posted on May 19, 2012 9:46 AM

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Answer 1

BDAqua

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May 19, 2012 10:26 AM in response to yachtcarlos

What brand/model monitors? that may be why the pixelated text, but shouldn't affect sped at all.

Open Activity Monitor in Applications>Utilities, select All Processes & sort on CPU%, any indications there?

How much RAM & free space do you have also, click on the Memory & Disk Usage Tabs.

In the Memory tab, are there a lot of Pageouts?

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Answer 2

yachtcarlos Author

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May 19, 2012 10:40 AM in response to BDAqua

Thank you BDAqua! I appreciate you replying. I was hoping it would be you since I've read other threads about Mac Minis you've responded to. Ok back to your questions:

Dell 21.5-inch Wide S2230MX Flat Panel Monitors one is hooked directly to HDMI on the Mini the other is mini-port/thunderbolt to the DVI.

My Page outs are 0%. I have 16GB Ram and shows 12.32GB free. I did the calibration on the Mac utility.

Disk Usage is very low, I just bought all this not even 3 days ago.

I'm really looking to swap out displays to the LG Flatron E2290, since they go a good review. I dont' want to spend more than a couple hundred bucks for each display though or I would have Cinemas!

Your thoughts from here and if you have an opinion on the LG that woudl be great. Thanks again.

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Answer 3

BDAqua

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May 19, 2012 11:00 AM in response to yachtcarlos

Thanks, your the 3rd person that was hoping I'd respond, but there've been 5 that asked/demanded I never reply to one of their posts again! 🙂

So, the Mac isn't slow other than scrolling? I may have misread/misinterpreted that.

No messages going by in Console App?

Does this scrolling problem change at all with just one Monitor connected?

What refresh rate... nevermind, as I recall in 10.7.x you can't see that anymore. 😟

Sorry, I have no knowledge on the Monitors you speak of.

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Answer 4

yachtcarlos Author

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May 19, 2012 11:33 AM in response to BDAqua

I removed one of the monitor and yes, suddenly there is a difference in the quality of the text smoothness....could this mean I have no hope for a dual display set up with this mac mini? Scrolling has improved as well.

I don't know what you mean by messages in the Console App? Please explain or if not.

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Answer 5

BDAqua

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May 19, 2012 12:05 PM in response to yachtcarlos

OOPs, somehow part of my post didn't get posted...

Open Console in Utilities & see if there are any clues or repeating messages when this happens.

Do both Monitors work OK singularly?

At the Apple Icon at top left>About this Mac.

Then click on More Info>Hardware>Graphics/Displays and report like this...

NVIDIA GeForce 7800GT:

Chipset Model: GeForce 7800GT

Type: Display

Bus: PCI

Slot: SLOT-1

VRAM (Total): 256 MB

Vendor: nVIDIA (0x10de)

Device ID: 0x0092

Revision ID: 0x00a1

ROM Revision: 2152.2

Displays:

VGA Display:

Resolution: 1920 x 1080 @ 60 Hz

Depth: 32-bit Color

Core Image: Supported

Main Display: Yes

Mirror: Off

Online: Yes

Quartz Extreme: Supported

Display:

Status: No display connected

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Answer 6

yachtcarlos Author

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May 19, 2012 12:29 PM in response to BDAqua

I see my two monitors showing in the Display section of the About this Mac. Here's what comes up:

AMD Radeon HD 6630M:

Chipset Model: AMD Radeon HD 6630M

Type: GPU

Bus: PCIe

PCIe Lane Width: x8

VRAM (Total): 256 MB

Vendor: ATI (0x1002)

Device ID: 0x6741

Revision ID: 0x0000

ROM Revision: 113-C0171H-561

EFI Driver Version: 01.00.561

Displays:

DELL S2230MX:

Resolution: 1920 x 1080 @ 60 Hz

Pixel Depth: 32-Bit Color (ARGB8888)

Display Serial Number: 5GX1Y22H59GM

Main Display: Yes

Mirror: Off

Online: Yes

Rotation: Supported

DELL S2230MX:

Resolution: 1920 x 1080 @ 60 Hz

Pixel Depth: 32-Bit Color (ARGB8888)

Display Serial Number: 5GX1Y22H5CDM

Mirror: Off

Online: Yes

Rotation: Supported

Message was edited by: yachtcarlos

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Answer 7

BDAqua

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May 19, 2012 2:16 PM in response to yachtcarlos

Thanks, I'd think 8x PCIe could support these 2 monitors @ 60Hz.

Does Console show any messages?

But I wonder if with only one monitor if it might report PCIe x16???

http://www.amd.com/us/products/notebook/graphics/amd-radeon-6000m/amd-radeon-670 0m-6600m/pages/amd-radeon-6700m-6600m.aspx#2

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